Chemical Brothers/Secret Machines : Dublin Point Depot









St Patrick?s Day is starting early. Mashed-up bastards with green wigs and glo-sticks are streaming along the River Liffey towards The Point. The Chemical Brothers can?t fail here. The 8,000 people packed into what used to be Dublin?s main train depot are ready to ecstatically applaud a man beating a stone with a stick.



However, they?re not ready for a starkly backlit Krautrock-influenced three-piece who play psychedelic covers of Bob Dylan country tunes. And that?s a shame because Secret Machines are pretty awesome. The New York-based trio are all studied, intense drive. The relentless Can-like rhythm with Spacemen 3 drone is topped with Brandon Curtis? cracked and worn voice ? a strange instrument with echoes of Wayne Coyne. The band don?t speak, don?t engage the crowd, but have a dark, compelling tractor beam that pulls you in and doesn?t let up. Their cover of Dylan?s ?Girl From The North County? is meaty but spectral ? a fine, strange choice. It?s the ten-minute reworking of ?First Wave Intact? that seals their ascent. It starts with a simple incessant riff and closes with masses of clanging white noise that leaves you tired and breathless. ?Listen close, they?re watching us?, repeats Curtis throughout the track. No they?re not, Brandon. It?s impossible to see the stage through a wall of leprechaun hats.



There are no such problems for The Chemicals. The hordes are panting, arms aloft like a benign Nuremberg rally. It?s straight into ?Hey Boy, Hey Girl? and the mood of the night is set. It?s going to be big hits all the way, with a few from the recent ill-received (but big selling) ?Push The Button?. The pace is relentless. They surge through ?Block Rockin? Beats?, ?Music:Response? and ?Out Of Control? with a verve that says the dance collapse never happened. ?Galvanize? is a return to form if there ever was one. A bowel-shuddering thump recalls the spirit and volume of Leftfield from a time when it looked like synthesizers could bring down the establishment.



But a problem remains. The Chemical Brothers still look like mortgage experts ? albeit wearing T-shirts on their night off. So despite their fierce lasers and expensive visuals, there is still a lack of charged excitement. A couple of times, Ed Simmons wanders from behind the monitors and LEDs and encourages the crowd to give it large. Within seconds he gets self-conscious and toodles off.



None of this matters to The Chemical Brothers? massive, of course. The duo have proved that though dance music is finished as a creative force, they have a body of work that stands up by itself. And in new tunes like the Kele Bloc Party-fronted ?Believe?, they have enough to keep on keeping on. It would be good, though, if just once they came onstage dressed like Elvis and set off some fireworks. That would be a SHOW.

So it's all good but Tom and Ed don't look or act like rockstars.



What a fucking shame.





God, I've really grown to hate NME.

wow...... what bands do they actually like?

once again nme proves that its garbage.

nme S***S big time!

Note to NME: TOM AND ED ARE NOT YOUR DANCING MONKEYS! MAYBE OTHER BANDS, SHIT BANDS, NEED THAT CRAP, BUT NOT FUCKING TOM AND ED!





jesssus titty fucking christ, with reviews like that you'd think that NME thinks that GWAR is the greatest band of all time.

Yeah man for real , don't ya'll think Tom and Ed should dress like John Galliano ?! Give me a fucking break. Since when do people care about that shit. Obvisouly NME does. Nah , i like them just the way they are. EVen if they would wear big furry heards and leather pants hahaha.

toomuch'stash Escribi�:

jesssus titty fucking christ, with reviews like that you'd think that NME thinks that GWAR is the greatest band of all time.

You mean they're not? :-? (!)

nme pish Escribi�:

though dance music is finished as a creative force

the NME really are a bunch of fad following, trend copying, hype machine brewing dickhead cunts.



i can remember when nme were falling overthemselves to promote dance music.



its statements like 'finished as a creative force' that really make me laugh. its like proclaiming rock is dead or something. which they never did, but if they thought they could have got away with it, i bet they would have done.



tbh im glad that the nme has lost interest in dance music - it can only be a positive thing. its going back to the underground, to the people that truly love it and its there that creativity will flourish!!



mips

Isn't NME finished anyway??

I hate music critics, there just jealous as there failed musicians themselves.

Yea- fuck the nme. I stopped reading it when they heralded the Strokes as the saviours of rock and roll. What a joke. They have far too much power and no competition...



Anyone from Ireland read the Hot Press tho? What a fuckin rag. Apparently they'll write a good review for any band that'll pay em...

I remember when Hot Press was the shizzy... back in the 80's. Of course that was when they had U2 featured in every other issue...

if you pay hotpress enough they will post a good review there review of the chems in the point was horrible.

nme takes some band like bloc party and tell everyone theyre the next strokes or franz fer then 6 months later they slate them or recycle them. its a magazine for ppl who want to pretend theyr hip and cool and are the first to know about the Next Big Thing. Pathetic really...

DELETED

DELETED

Oh you're not referring to that one time Ed called you an eejit, are you? He was just ruffling your hair!

(deletia) Escribi�:

nme takes some band like bloc party and tell everyone theyre the next strokes or franz fer then 6 months later they slate them or recycle them. its a magazine for ppl who want to pretend theyr hip and cool and are the first to know about the Next Big Thing. Pathetic really...

Yeah, I read a blurb in nme not too long ago that basically said Bloc Party will be "cool" til about 2006.



Nice to know these people put a time limit on coolness...

anType Escribi�:

i have very unpleasant memories associated with that word by the way :(

hahahaha. eversince i read that that is my favorite word haha.