The Fierce and the Dead

My first The Fierce & The Dead gig in 5 years was for the launch of their new album ‘The Euphoric’. Euphoric it was too, for the 200 or so people crammed into a dark sweaty venue in the back streets of Camden Town.
Think of one of your favourite rock albums. Pick out every really great instrumental moment on the album: that lovely riff, the staggering solo, the blazing outro. Edit them together into a four-minute chunk, and that’s what a The Fierce & The Dead track sounds like. There’s bits that sound like Black Sabbath, bits that sound like American punk, bits of Steve Reich/Philip Glass minimalism and bits that sound like no-one else. Matt Stevens is a phenomenal guitarist, using pedals and loops to build sonic sculptures and then reminding you that he can also shred like a good’un. Steve Clarke introduced the band to me a few year back and has earned my eternal gratitude as a result.
Steve and I met up in Camden once more and after a few preparatory beers found the venue. The gig itself was upstairs in a club near Camden Town tube. Didn’t like the venue at all – so self-consciously hip that they’d made it too dark to read the bar taps – I used the torch on my phone to decide on a very average ‘craft’ beer offering.
But, upstairs we were first entertained by comic artist Mark Buckingham in his first attempt at live performance. He’s making an album in a slightly camp theatrical style – not really my thing but it reminded of going to little poetry & music soirees in Soho, many, many years ago, for reasons I can’t recall. Buckingham was there because he is now the band’s cover artist, and I think he did the shirt as well, and a damn fine artist he is too. Another Neil Gaiman connection, as he’s worked on ‘The Sandman’
Then the band came on. They’re all big lads and barely fit on the tiny stage. The sound was incredibly loud but beautifully clear. You could hear everything that was going on, and in the small room you felt it as well. The new tunes are rockier than before, with more of a stop-start thing going on than before. They played the old favourites – ‘Ark’ being a personal highlight. There was one song early on where the guitar tone alone was worth the price of admission. The band were having fun – bringing out new songs and apparently making a mess of a couple, but you only knew ‘cos they said so. Alongside Matt Stevens, Kevin Feazey played bass with the complete set of heavy metal poses, while beside him, 2nd guitarist Steve Cleaton pulled riffs out of his guitar with quiet concentration and a smile. Stuart Marshall is an excellent drummer – keeping the irregular and changing beats together.
The final track was ‘666…6’, and absolute barnstormer of a song and one of their oldest. The pacing of the song is slightly odd and there’s a pause towards the end where Marshall held back just a tiny bit later than usual, surprising the rest of the band who turned as he exploded across the kit, seeming to hit everything at once. There was no encore – apparently it had been the longest set they’d ever done and they had nothing left.
They’re back in London in November and I already have my ticket.