Fluke and Yuki live at The Tabernacle
Gig report by Martin Eve [martin@2bitpie.net] and jUSTIN cREDIBLE
OK, I take it back, it WAS Fluke in all their rave glory!
Last night was an absolutely incredible experience - not only for the part that we'd all been waiting for, but just from the overall quality of the evening.
All the films were fantastic and there were outstanding musical efforts from Mike Wilson, Sounds of the Larch, Jem Cooke, The Woo!Worths, The (beatboxing) Reptiles and, last, but not least, Yuki and the mighty Fluke!
Yuki played two tracks from her forthcoming 2-Bit-penned album, Dark Like Snow. The first, No Angel, was set against a backdrop of colour-inverted graveyard morbidity with rhythm guitar played by Noemi and an unknown (to us) guitarist - possibly Neil Davenport of 2 Pie Island?
Her set swiftly moved on to Key Lime Heart, which was performed in front of the same backing video as at the Latitude festival which featured scrolling lyrics of the track's "I never should have listened to a word you said". Great stuff! The mix here was a little bass heavy, but Yuki still managed to make a powerful impression - a fact suitably illustrated by the rapturous applause she received at the end of the night.
However, much of the show seemed as though it had been in preparation for the culmination when a certain trio took the stage. We had, upon arrival, been greatly shocked to see the programme for the evening which read: Absurd, Groovy Feeling, Sympathy for the Devil. We had been led to believe that Fluke would be playing two cover tracks - the first of Feeling Groovy by Simon and Garfunkel and the second, a re-working of Laibach's re-working of The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil (Who Killed the Kennedys?). This was, evidently, not the whole picture. The excitement mounted.
A countdown timer from 5 to 1 appeared atop the darkened stage before the opening vocal chords of Absurd bellowed out across the auditorium. This was swiftly followed by the familiar guitar riff emanating from the console of Mike B. and T. who had positioned themselves at down-stage-right. Jon Fugler didn't let this introduction go on for long before he was right in the thick of things with "King Kong, in Cannes, on a date with Spiderman". Indeed!
After a brief adjustment to the feedback monitor by Mike Bryant, Jon Fugler clearly signalled to the sound booth that he wanted the master volume far higher. They complied and things really got going. The track went on to feature the extended instrumental sweeping passage from the Whitewash Edit, at which we exchanged small smiles.
Once the applause had died down, Jon Fugler apologised for them being late (although they weren't) - "we were just tuning" he quipped - a reference to the same vocal line which appeared on the Xmas Demos CD in 1999/2000.
Next, a strange fusion was employed. mixing a vocal overlay from Simon and Garfunkel's piece over the snare hit introdcution from Groovy Feeling. This was quickly replaced by a pounding bassline and Jon Fugler's relentless happiness shining through from their feelgood hit! "May I dedicate a little song to you" - it certainly wasn't to us, but it seemed that somebody at the side of the room was smiling! By this stage, most of the room was on their feet, standing on chairs, dancing, hands in the air bopping along to Fluke's badass beat.
The video installation was interesting throughout. While it was clearly new, the video for Absurd was a reworking of the official music video in the same Victorian flaneur/vaudeville style, while for Groovy Feeling there were fast moving psychadelic effects intertwined with close up shots of the band in action. This seemed to accomplish the best of both worlds as Jon has stated in interviews that he prefers a live experience to be about the people performing, but also bringing a breathtaking visual backdrop to equally breathtaking music.
There was no pause between the seamless mix into their Laibach/Stones cover, where the band were clearly riffing on the theme of the night - Sin and Virtue. This track descended into a reptition of the backing vocals where the band were joined by the entire cast of the evening on stage for the grand finale - it was a totally uplifting experience and I didn't meet a single person who didn't have a fantastic time; indeed - apologies for shaky videos - I was dancing (a bit!)
Also excellent was the kindness the band showed us when we were presented with two exceptionally rare pieces of Fluke memorabilia - T-Shirts promoting the Atom Bomb single and, with gold writing on a dark navy colour, the band in general. Photographs to follow.
However, perhaps the line that best sums up the evening was given by Jon Fugler. "Jon", I said, "that was bloody amazing - you had the entire floor jumping."
"Yeah," he replied, "well that's our job, isn't it?"
Gig Info
Date: Saturday, 2009-10-10
Location: London, Notting Hill, The Tabernacle
Set type: Live
Set variety: Yuki and Fluke
Yuki Set List
- No Angel
- Key Lime Heart
Fluke Set List
- Absurd (Fusion of Landslide and Whitewash Edits)
- Groovy Feeling (with samples from Simon and Garfunkel's Feeling Groovy)
- Sympathy for the Devil (Who Killed the Kennedys?) (Laibach/The Rolling Stones cover)
Media
Photographs
These photographs, except for the scans of the programme covers (which it is believed are fair use to document a one time event) are © Martin Eve 2009. I hereby grant an irrevocable permanent licence to anyone who wishes to use these images for non-commercial use under condition that 1.) this original copyright is acknowledged and prominently displayed alongside a link to this website (http://www.2bitpie.net) and 2.) these exact licence terms are applied to any derivative works.
Videos
The content within these videos is © Yuki/2 Bit and Fluke respectively. It is believed that their inclusion here qualifies as fair use to document a one-time event for which no free substitute will ever be available. The clips are of insufficient resolution and/or length to ever be of detrimental commercial impact to the subjects depicted therein or the holders of the copyright and it is hoped that such exposure may actually be of positive benefit to such persons.
Yuki - No Angel:
Yuki - Key Lime Heart:
Fluke - Absurd:
Fluke - Groovy Feeling:
Fluke - Sympathy for the Devil:
All Yuki Videos
All Yuki Videos from The Tabernacle [279MiB]
All Fluke Videos
All Fluke Videos from The Tabernacle [462MiB]
Audio
The content within these audio files is © Yuki/2 Bit and Fluke respectively and it is extracted from the above videos. It is believed that their inclusion here qualifies as fair use to document a one-time event for which no free substitute will ever be available. The clips are of insufficient resolution and/or length to ever be of detrimental commercial impact to the subjects depicted therein or the holders of the copyright and it is hoped that such exposure may actually be of positive benefit to such persons.
Yuki - Live at The Tabernacle, 10th of October 2009
Fluke - Live at The Tabernacle, 10th of October 2009