Post-Punk Monk

[…continued from last post]

Numan had a four piece backup band as they walked onto the stage after a very brief breakdown between Tremours and the headliner. Gary’s band has been pretty stable in the last few years with the following members:

• Guitar – Steve Harris
• Bass – Tim Slade
• Drums – Jimmy Lucido
• David Brooks – Synths

They opened with one of the newer songs I didn’t recognize but later discovered was “Halo” from “Jagged;” his 2006 album. It was a typically dark and aggressive piece that didn’t do too much for me. To be honest, much of his new material tends to blur together for me. The first 10 years of his career had evinced far more change and disruption than the “mature” era had. Al least to my ears. Had I made a tactical error in coming to this show after all?

Fortunately, as the cinematic synths from “Halo” had wound down, the groans of more synths segued smoothly into it for the next song. And if I needed a bone tossed to me at that point, I got the whole steer since I recognized the melody spreading throughout the room as that of “The Pleasure Principal’s” should-have-been-massive-hit-single “Metal” as being next in the chute! This was really cooking as the lurch-beat similar to that of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” got to walloping the crowd.

The tougher sound of the modern band actually managed to improve the song even more in my esteem. And I consider it the high point of “The Pleasure Principal!” As a matter of comparison, I played the “Living Ornaments ’79” live version [from “Asylum 3“] a day after the show and it was relatively pallid. I had to ultimately admit that the uptick in aggression sometimes did Numan favors. And therein lay the greatest promise of this endeavor. I enthusiastically howled with approval as I prepared for the next big move.

Next up was “Haunted” another “Jagged” track. It was a slow metallic track rife with crunch chords of the sort that sort of blend together for my ear. It’s the closest to my memories of Nine Inch Nails, so it’s the sort of song that disengaged me from the show. As I would find happening at various times throughout the show this evening. But that was not always the case!

I didn’t recognize the next song, “Everything Comes Down To This” from “Splinter [Songs From A Broken Mind],” but it was miles better than the dreary “Jack the Ripper” cover art to that opus. It was a glitchy, slow grinding, chittering insect opus of the kind that I can sometimes like [see: “Inside The Termite Mound” by Killing Joke] if it hits me the right way. And this one did. At this point I discovered that it’s possible I could derive entertainment from Modern Numan. The question being, would it ultimately be enough to tip the scales this evening?

I next thrilled to a very muscular take on “Films.” The second song from “The Pleasure Principal” this evening. I enjoyed how Tim Slade’s bass was right up in the mix; anchoring the song vividly. Here was another vintage track never sounding better. This sounded so good maybe I should revisit “The Pleasure Principle?” It’s always the weak sister to my ears in the “Machine” trilogy of ’79-’80.

“The Gift” from “Intruder” was another slow-tempo modern song from Numan that failed to excite. Fortunately, it was followed by two vintage Numan tracks. First came the early classic “Down In The Park” which wasn’t quite restyled with Aggro here; perhaps that accounted for the surprising lack of reaction from the audience when it began! It’s hard to imagine a world where the stately grandeur of “Down In The Park” didn’t land with a knockout, but that’s how it seemed that night. I thought it was great; never mind the philistines!

Next we got a “Pleasure Principle” deep cut in “M.E.” that gave keyboardist Brooks room to play a simu-viola solo on that one. I had to admit that this band playing the “Pleasure Principle” material put it across in a more robust fashion to the original recordings. Perhaps owing to the presence of guitar here to give the modern version the nod.

Next came the only part of the evening thus far where Numan actually spoke to the audience. He’s famously reticent, but I’d heard about him playing a song with his daughter, Raven. So the young lady came onstage in sensible gear while dad set up her song, which Numan said was a way to get a new song into the set as he normally takes five years between albums these days. As evidenced by “Nothing’s What It Seems” daughter Raven has absorbed a lot of Numan vibe in her twenty odd years on Planet Earth. Where she differed the most was in her lyric and vocal delivery.

This was one of the songs this evening where Numan picked up a guitar to play lead so that was a good thing. Like when Andy McCluskey picks up a bass in concert, it’s sort of a harbinger of commitment by the artiste. And if a dad can’t be proud of his daughter onstage then we’re in a bigger mess than I thought. When she was done Gary got a hug and The Next Generation portion of the show was done.

Next we got another decent new song delivered in “Is This World Not Enough” from “Intruder.” I loved the descending drum fill pattern that moved this one more swiftly than normal, courtesy of Mr. Lucido. In a show with most of the new material [and by “new” I mean written in the last 30 years…] Then the pace got as fast as it did on newer material with the relative spring of “Love Hurt Bleed.” The title was like a parody of Trent Reznor, but the hooks were there in the arrangement and delivery. It was another bright spot I found in the modern material.

It was impressive that Numan thought to insert “Cars” near the beginning of “act three” of his set. The crowd was bopping along to the deathless classic as keyboardist Brooks was rocking a very credible Polymoog simulation I’m sure. But on this one he was joined by Numan as well on the synthtastic coda at a second keyboard rig. An artist’s calling card can be a double-edged sword. OMD and Simple Minds have crosses to bear on their biggest US hits for my ears. Gary Numan has no such issues where “Cars” is concerned. Though Numan thought it was a middling song and nothing too special, it is a walloper of a “middling song” and is evergreen for a better reason than it was number nine [number nine] in the US of A at a time where it was more typically Journey occupying that esteemed slot.

A couple of recent songs followed with “Here In The Black” getting a big rise from the audience but not necessarily me. It’s another of his slow grinding songs which were plentiful to my ears. It was followed by another slow, grinding tune that a friend of mine had vouched strongly for in “My Name Is Ruin.” I liked the hint of Arabic scales in the tune and of the two it was definitely preferred. “A Prayer For The Unborn” was comparatively, a change of pace as the dark ballad was at least not slow and grinding.

They we reached the point of the show I had been waiting for. Numan’s first UK number one hit began with groaning synths before kickstarting into life with an enhanced drum rhythm than it had on record. Yes, “Are ‘Friends’ Electric” was still all of that and more, even if the board had problems cutting out with Numan’s voice at the start of the second verse. The playing of Brooks for the first time as we entered the first middle eight made me think of The Beach Boys before Numan went to the heart of the emotion of the song in his spoken word portion of the song that had never sounded so heartbreakingly intimate.

Elsewhere bassist Slade added plenty of sinew to the durable classic while Brooks’ synths swept overhead like beams from a lighthouse. When the second middle eight arrived, the crowd were more than primed for the stillness in the heart of this juggernaut. Listening now to this song which I’ve heard nine hundred times since 1979 still sends frissons up my spine.

Then it was a quick goodnight before the two song encore happened. “The Chosen” and “Ghost Nation” were underwhelming choices but no one asked me. What I wouldn’t have given for just one “Me! I Disconnect From You,” or “You Are In My Vision,” but with that it was over and I started filing out of the filled venue into the cool night.

I will admit that the “Pleasure Principle” material he played sounded better than ever. I’d never really warmed to the ’79 album all that much, but following this show they took up residence in my skull for days at a time. Possibly impeding sleep as I would wake up early in the morning with them coursing through my brain. Needless to say, I’d begun the week listening to “Asylum 1” and I worked my way though all nine discs; including the rarely played third volume of “Living Ornaments ’79/’80” to find that, boy howdy, the current band was playing the old material even better than it had been initially recorded. So that will color my opinion of Numan today more than I expected.

Gary was given to lots of posing at the show with his arms outstretched or over his head and there was not even the first occurrence of “Bowie Leg Dancing” so those days are long behind him I guess. Several songs into the set I noticed something queer with the vocals. Most of the time there was strict correspondence between Numan’s vocal and the P.A. His location in the mike pickup zone was reflected by how the voice sounded on the P.A. but I noted that his guitarists were singing backing vocals on some songs and they came across on the P.A. as sounding just like Numan.

And in these times with BVs Numan might be further away from the mic than the sound of his vocal couldght account for. So I wonder if the BVs were on playback with them sounding like multitracked Numan rather than Numan and two different people singing along live. But as I watched the show carefully, it was clear that Numan was singing live for 95% of the show. With just slight anomalies where BVs were concerned. It was noticed but not a dealbreaker for the show by any means. Maybe some seasoned live sound engineer can shed a little light on this thought.

In the end I was glad that I made the effort and if Numan makes another sweep through Asheville, maybe I’ll go one more time. By my reckoning, I really enjoyed about half of the 18 song set list. Including a handful of recent numbers I’d not heard yet. But I think that it’s a given that vast chunks of his career have probably disappeared down the memory hole with all of the hugely fertile middle period albums that I’d take to a desert island [“The Fury,” “Strange Charm”] thrown down out whole cloth along side worthy candidates for incineration such as the execrable “Outland.” To say nothing of triumphs like “Dance” which was regrettably, an outlier to places I daresay Numan will never venture again. Not now that he has an audience once more. But we can hope.

-30-

I WAS A TEENAGE NUMANOID

I hadn’t been planning to see Gary Numan when he played in Asheville on March 12th. Sure, sure. I’m an old fan from the days of ’79 and the US release of “Replicas,” but my travel on the Gary Numan bus had been conditional and intermittent over the last 46 years. Brother, we were all in at first! “Replicas” had the incredible hook of “Are ‘Friends’ Electric;” the first song I heard on the FM Rock of the day that turned all of my friends’ heads. We were Numanoids at nearly point zero. Well, point zero for America, anyway.

The blazingly fast follow up, it felt like only five months later, was “The Pleasure Principle.” Here Numan dispensed with the guitars entirely and scored a shocking number 9 US hit with the ubiquitous “Cars.” I found the album a little more samey than “Replicas” and the loss of guitars I felt was a misstep, but you can’t argue with success. The album has remained Numan’s US calling card to this day.

I much preferred the follow up from 1980, “Telekon.” The guitars were back and Numan’s songwriting reached new peaks of achievement. His lyrics were never clichéd, but his melodic skills really served him well here, with piano eking out a space with the synths to great effect. My friends and I played that album very hard all year long. One of my friends played it on a loop at his house! Every time I was there, which was daily after school, it was playing on a tape deck with auto reverse, so it literally looped during all of 1980.

1980 also brought shiny new things like Ultravox into the picture. The first time I’d heard of them was when Numan cited their influence in an press interview, but until I saw the viddy for “Passing Strangers,” I didn’t have a clue. Then I realized that Numan was making Synth Rock, yes, but certainly not to the incredible standard that Ultravox were working at. I still had time for Numan, but with Ultravox and John Foxx vying for my attention, he was now the odd man out.

Fortunately, 1981 brought what must be my favorite of his albums, the radical shift to Ambient Jazz that was side one of “Dance.” That got him a reprieve since on my 18th birthday I memorably went to Record Mart Warehouse and and bought the new albums by Numan [“Dance”], Ultravox [“Rage In Eden”], and John Foxx [“The Garden” on import]…all at once! Yes, titans once walked the earth! To this day I treasure “Dance” though the way to really hear the album was on CD as the LP lasted nearly an hour! The ambient side one was 28 minutes long! PPM luminaries like Nash The Slash [violin], Rob Dean [guitar], and Mick Karn [fretless bass] also added to the album’s luster, but really it was down to Numan’s songs, which for my money were never better.

After this high water mark, the next album was a little facile and followed by one that never got released in America [“Warriors”] and for good reason! I ignored Numan from ’83-’86 but when John Foxx went underground and Ultravox went belly up with “U-Vox,” I then investigated where Numan was at in the perilous Mid-80s and found it to be a very strong period for him as he’s started his own label, Numa Records. I next kept up with everything he put out through the 1997 period with “Exile.” The work in ’86-’97 varied widely in quality but I held on as I felt I was getting enough return on investment. I happened to see him the one previous time I was able on the “Exile” tour. And this had led to a feeling of unfinished business regarding Numan. Here’s why.

The US “Exile” tour in 1998 was scheduled for a large club in Orlando, but the night of the show, I walked to The Club At Firestone, where I was really looking forward to seeing the gig. We normally saw most downtown shows at the smaller, Sapphire Supper Club, which was run by the concert’s promoter, Figurehead Promotions. Shows there always ran late in order to squeeze a bigger drink tab from the patrons. I was peeved when I saw a notice on the Firestone doors saying that the show had been moved to the Sapphire Supper Club. But that was nothing on Numan himself who found himself playing on a small stage to under 400 people. Lucky me… I got to watch him seethe up close! I walked out of there with a box ticked but not too much else. The show was heavy in “Replicas,” yay. But also heavy on the current “Exile” album coupled with Numan’s bad mood.

I should mention that by the mid 90s, Numan had been commercially adrift for years and in thrall to Trent Reznor, who was the biggest rockstar of the time who had nice things to say about him. So on “Exile” he leaned into the NIN-isms. I never heard the albums after that because Numan had gone all in on the Industrial Metal sound that I had already walked away from by then. As a Cabaret Voltaire fan, I initially liked the flow of similar Industrial Music a lot but at a certain point it went in a Metal direction and there it lost me. Little bits of Numan I’d be exposed to such as on the “Machine Music” DVDs suggested that his current music was not for me.

When I see a show out of town it will add up to hundreds of dollars in travel expenses. Maybe it was churlish of me to pass on Numan, though I had in 2013 when he and Nine Inch Nails headlined a very short lived electronic music festival trying to compete with the soon-to-be-absent Moogfest which abandoned its hometown for Durham dollars and a quick fade to irrelevancy. But that was when I was a frisky 50 years of age. I can see the finish line now and passing up on possible regrets is no fun at all. Especially with Numan fave “We Are Glass” in his cruise ship sets of a few weeks ago! I’d never forgive myself if I missed that one live.

So at first, I balked on the notion of Numan in my own city, playing a local club. I’d written off Numan for nearly 30 years! Or almost twice the time I was a dyed-in-the-wool fan. But as the date of the show approached, the thoughts of “Are ‘Friend’s’ Electric” began to collect in my forebrain to weaken my resolve. A few weeks ago I watched a viddy on Numan’s site from 2022 where they put out a still awesome rendition and at that point I knew my fate was sealed.

THE NIGHT OF THE SHOW | TREMOURS

I parked downtown in the free, after hours municipal lot. One of Asheville’s only perks in a town that’s tight and costly for parking. I walked to The Orange Peel maybe a quarter mile away and found it to be a packed house; nearly full by my reckoning. House capacity for the large club is 1100 and I’d say at least 900 were there this evening as we were packed, but not to sardine levels of discomfort. I entered and searched for the merch areas. I hadn’t been to The Orange Peel in seven years, so who knew how things were run these days. The usual spot was now a small premium seating area. I looked long and hard until I saw an odd corner where merch was tucked away.

I have too many tour shirts, but I do like to have all my favorites represented sartorially, so I kept my options open. They had a long sleeved tee with sleeve printing; normally catnip for me! But the dreary octopus design in grey on black coupled with the $60 price tag was not happening for me. There was a short sleeved tee with Numan’s photo and that was nothing outstanding either. The one shirt I was attracted to had the classic early “Numan Face” art with vertical text spelling “NUMAN” with the “N” letters in red on the back. Stylish! And only $40, but the sign told us “small only.” So no shorts for me this evening. I approved of the “Gary Numan Is Here In My Car” bumper stickers and air fresheners, but I choose my battles carefully. I moved on to find a spot on the crowded floor.

I eventually sound sufficient space to settle in slightly at stage left when what to my wand’ring eye should appear but an actual young man in New Romantic makeup and styling! He had a shirt with a crucifix print and a smattering of red highlights in his gelled out hair. The safety pin in his ear was a nice call out to Punk but what really sold the look was the [excellent] New Romantic face makeup! With artful clown white and nicely done shading and eye makeup! As a Visage fan since early 1981 I had never seen this look outside of British media for all of my entire life. I tried to take a few unobtrusive snaps of this guy to immediately share with friends in my threads and you, dear readers. Just because in my 62 years on Planet Earth, this had never before happened. The rest of the audience ran the gamut from complete normality to the [expected] Goth/Fetish crowd, and all of it could have been predicted, but I took this actual New Romantic as a great omen for my decision to attend.

I’d not been there long when the witching hour of eight arrived and the opening act, Tremours, walked onstage and began playing. I’d checked out the Los Angeles duo on Bandcamp store and found them to be exemplary Dreampop with only guitar, vocals, and drums. Lauren Andino sang and played guitar and Moog while Glenn Fryatt was the drummer. Quite frankly, had they been headlining in a smaller club, I’d definitely still would have been there, but their history with Numan has continued for more than one US tour. So Numan’s got good ears. Their plaintive, melancholy was a delight to this listener.

I enjoyed how Ms. Andino seemed to be triggering the occasionall wash of synth with her guitar. And between the subtle drumming of Fryatt and the instrumental and vocal prowess of Andino, I was thoroughly enjoying the spell the two wove. The mix was doing them lots of favors as well. Not too loud or distorted and I appreciated understanding the lyrics as she sang. And her style and phrasing was enjoyable with no dips into affectation to distance my ears. There was enough tonal variation in their set to engage me while maintaining continuity. Their enjoyable set flew by in what was probably at least a half hour before they left the appreciative audience. It wouldn’t be long now until Numan was ready for the main event.

Next: …Nine Inch Numan Or Bust?