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.

Review: Wire - Red Barked Tree

In their earler days, Wire were famed, notorious even, for their restless creativity and for never looking back; live performances routinely comprised yet-to-be released material, often to the frustration of attendees. It was this insatiable thirst that led to that initial run of Pink Flag-Chairs Missing-154, one of the greatest and most influential hot-streaks of all time. Their sporadic reunions were always based on the admirable criteria that the band had something new to offer, from their more electronic offerings of the 80s to the agressive, thrashy sound of their Read & Burn material of the early-00's. But having become a more on-going concern in recent years (and with Bruce Gilbert no longer in their ranks) has seen age finally catch up with the band, and a more reminiscing side of Wire emerge.

Which is not to say that Red Barked Tree, their twelfth LP, sounds tired. Far from it in fact; Red Barked Tree is one of the most compact  and immediately accessible albums in the band's catalogue, touching in particular on that aforementioned holy trinity of records from 1977-79, but given just a little bit more studio polish. The up-front approach of Red Barked Tree comes through immediately on opener Please Take, wherein bassist Graham Lewis intones, with perhaps just a little bit too much deliberation, "f*ck off out of my face, you take up too much space", and on the crisp Two Minutes, a buzzing 120 seconds-worth of raw riffage and Colin Newman's scathing remarks on the end of western civilization and  "religious vomit". Moreover reprises the riff from A Question Of Degree (formerly a bonus track on an earlier edition of Chairs Missing) and beefs it up significantly as it scythes through Newman's warped vocals, and the nagging rhythm of Clay recalls the classic I Am The Fly.

These songs and much of the remaining material succeed because, and not despite of, their familiarity but when Red Barked Tree wanders down other avenues that things unfortunately go a bit awry. Adapt is a pleasant enough diversion of gauzy shoegaze guitars, but an otherwise concise album is marred slightly by its final two cuts, Down To This and the title track. Both songs touch upon the five-minute mark despite being bereft of ideas, content to trudge along aimlessly for what seems an eternity.

These abberations however, are not enough to derail a solid outing, delivered  for the most part with conviction, and a significant improvement on 2008's largely disappointing Object 47. If nothing else, Red Barked Tree show that Wire still have a firm grasp of past glories and that drawing from them doesn't have to mean going through the motions.

73/100

Listen to the new Wire album now!

Post-punk stalwarts Wire are back this month with a new album Red Barked Tree, out on the 11th on their own Pink Flag label. It's possibly their most accessible set of songs to date, an amalgamation of much of their previous styles, with nudges in new directions too. Expect to see a review here soon, but in the meantime you can stream the album in full on the Guardian's website:

Wire - Red Barked Tree

The band will be on tour during the early part of February, with an additional date in London to mark the album's release.

Jan 11th: London, Rough Trade (East)

Feb 1st: Brighton, Komedia
Feb 2nd: London, Scala
Feb 3rd: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
Feb 4th: Manchester, Roadhouse
Feb 5th: Dublin, Academy 2
Feb 8th: Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire
Feb 9th: Glasgow, King Tuts
Feb 10th: Bristol, The Fleece