Live fan show review by "Miss Eva" - found in the digital archive. [-AArtVark]
November 23, 1996 - Impala Cafe, Los Angeles, CA
The evening of
the last Babyland show for 1996 started for your humble narrator by watching LA
based band THC. The stage setting was very appropriate for the mind-blasting
(mind-numbing?) beats they assaulted to crowd with... all smoke machines and
strobe lights, and a little equipment on an otherwise barren stage. The music definitely
had its techno-oriented drums, loops, and samples drawing attention, but with
the lack of activity on stage, it didn't manage to keep me focused. A few songs
into the set, it felt more like a party with good music as a background to
conversation, not in the foreground as they, and I, might have hoped.
One might say
Babyland got a start on the wrong foot this night... before their set one of
their speakers went out and Dan's vocals had to be piped through monitors,
meaning he had to scream the vocals for them to be heard all the way around the
cafe. Also, Dan was feeling a bit under the weather, and the combination was
just enough to keep an energetic set from lasting too long.
After a good
twenty minutes of setting up, Babyland jolted us with 'Stomach', working the
audience into a spastic frenzy. Dan and Smith followed up with 'Plain Talk', a
great song to get older fans of the band riled up into a punk-minded riotous
dance. Added as a twist was the sound of Dan screaming at the end of the song "I
will never give in, I never did". New songs 'Omaha' and 'Five Fingers'
were on the list as well, dancy, groove-oriented songs that fit in well with
the rest of the set, including 'A Slow News Day' and 'Begin Again'.
The definite
high-point of the night was 'Arthur Jermyn', before which Smith chanted 'HPL
HPL HPL'(the initials of author Howard Philip Lovecraft, who wrote the story
'Arthur Jermyn') after introducing as 'a song no one ever requests'. It was a
rare moment where no one was thrashing around and all attention was diverted
straight to a writhing Dan and a manic Smith.
With a noticeably
short set, it was a pull in two directions: satisfaction at seeing an
incredible set and disappointment that it was so fleeting. But all good things
come to an end... Good luck to the boys in 1997.
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