Gig Review: Wire @ The Scala, 2nd Feb

On asking a Wire veteran what Wire were like as a live band, he answered with one word: "Awkward". This was my first live experience of the evergreen post-punkers, but I knew enough to appreciate how accurate that summation was; Wire gained a reputation of always being one step ahead of their audience, shunning older or even current material in favour of songs they hadn't even recorded. My hopes of hearing I Am The Fly, which were already slender at best, now hung by the weakest of threads.

But the Wire of 2011 seem a little more willing to please. Last month's concise and pretty damn catchy Red Barked Tree is as ideal an entry point as you're likely to find into the Wire canon, and tonight they were willing to mix up a host of tracks from their new LP with material from across the ages. It took six or seven songs for things to really ignite - in the early going, the band both looked and sounded their age (with the exception of touring guitarist Matt Sims, who had a very unfair monopoly on hair) - but after those tentative early songs, the band roared into life, those chugging chords roaring through the venue. The new songs sat very well alongside the likes of Two Men In A Room, Spent and Pink Flag, Moreover rocking particularly hard during the ferocious mid-section of the set. There were moments of dry humour too, with bassist Graham Lewis apologising for the "excessive soloing" after unleashing a chunky bass riff all over set highlight Boiling Boy. And whilst that performance of I Am The Fly never did materialise, the band did at least admit to being "accused of copying themselves" before playing Clay which, it has been noted, sounds just a bit like I Am The Fly.

Credit too must also go to the outstanding Belgian support-act Madensuyu who seriously threatened to steal Wire's thunder on the night (and may continue to do so, as Wire's support act for the remainder of the tour). Comprising just of guitarist and drummer (with some eerie vocal harmonising between the two), their tense set combined Fugazi intensity with clanging Sonic Youth chords and post-rock progressions to magnificent effect. One power duo may have called it a day this week, but here is another one well worth cherishing.