Setlist:
Hup-Springs, Ya Ho, Not There, Scarecrow, Fire So Close, Mosquito, Stripmining, Fairground, Charlie Dance, Hymn From A Village, Medieval, Johnny Yen, What For, Whoops, Riders, Why So Close.
Review
Jonh Wilde, NME
The madness of James is much less bluff. Their return to London was never short of triumphant. Tim’s epileptic dance punctuates this loaded noise, grating away at itself, tied up in a sack and dropped down a deep deep well to fend for itself. ‘Hymn From A Village’ twitches impatiently, ‘Johnny Yen’ rustles to a rousing climax, ‘Skullduggery’ falls apart magnificently. James don’t get any more assured; they’re just a needle pricking the skin.
While Tim freaks out, positively the most hapless dancer ever invented, three other Jameses follow some private maze of their own choosing. This is no longer one tinny, snoring noise, inverted and anti-climatic. ‘Stutter’ has already demonstrated their scope. And live, they now shimmer like uncooked liver, all slippery and slovenly but damned dandy.
James seemed to have renounced those earlier illusions of order and normality, letting all the crankiness float to the surface and scream. Booth keeps toppling and falling and rolling. Manic admirers wrestle in the dust with him. All are now part of the mad spectacle,
James at last sound completely frightening, totally involved. I unbuttoned my blouse and threw myself forward. Gig of the year so far, strange as it may seem.
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