Review: Primal Scream at Fremantle Prison
Primal Scream at Fremantle Prison
w/ Wolves and Chocolate Bullets
Thursday, January 16, 2024
Mix. Remix. Reconstruct. Deconstruct. Self-Destruct.
Ever since 1991’s Screamadelica, Primal Scream have been finding ways to redefine what rock and roll means to them. That timeless record fused gospel pop with acid house originals and actual remixes to create a studio album that’s part compilation, part revolution.
It did as much or more for dance music’s crossover to the mainstream as any of New Order, Daft Punk, or the Prodigy (and probably just as much for recreational drugs), winning the first-ever Mercury Prize in 1992.
On Thursday they were joined by the local band with perhaps the worst name since Chocolate Starfish, Wolves and Chocolate Bullets. Nothing against choccies, but I never liked Chocolate Cake by Crowded House either… perhaps this is on me (nothing wrong with Hot Chocolate, though).
A bunch of hairy daddies who’ve been kicking around the local music scene in various guises for years, they were slick and amusing on Rockstar and leant into something a little more epic for Rushing In. With an album and new single, Mars and Back, already doing the rounds, they made the most of an awesome new Freo Prison setup that allows both the Premium and GA ticket holders to get a good look up close.
New album Come Ahead just about comes full circle on the gospel-dance sound Primal Scream originally pioneered, with some added disco flourishes and worldly politicising, but the whole show leaning in this direction meant the harsher electronic and industrial sounds of XTRMNTR, Evil Heat, and even Vanishing Point missed the cut.
The glaring exception was opener Swastika Eyes, barely recognisable but entirely welcome in its new deconstructed format. Starting with singer Bobby Gillespie pulling an a cappella verse and building into a rocking format featuring sax and two gospel singers, Primal Scream were at it again, reconstructing the past into a beautiful future.
The flute funk of Love Insurrection followed, while Jailbird got the jail-yard well and truly rocking, as we considered just what Gillespie meant by “Gimme more of that jailbird pie.” Maybe it was a prison thing.
What was clear from the outset was this would be a full-throttle rock’n’soul show, and if you were disappointed missing out on Kowalski or Kill All Hippies, bad luck. In their place we got the Stonesy rawk of Medication (incl. full sax freak out), Loaded’s unmixed companion piece I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have, complete with an epic “Stay with me!” crescendo, and a whole lot of the rather good new record.
Of these, Innocent Money and a raucous Love Ain’t Enough worked best, while the single Ready to Go Home even got a little singalong early on. Could they have played less than eight songs from Come Ahead? Probably. Would another track or two from Screamadelica or Vanishing Point have gone down better? Maybe. Did it matter in the end? Not really.
Because Primal Scream have learned from their electronic music contemporaries and know how to build a set. By the time Loaded dropped 12 tracks in (with a few Sympathy for the Devil “woo woo’s” thrown in for good measure), the crowd was absolutely humming, and as they continued the gospel-house vibes into all-time banger Movin’ on Up, the energy down front was frantic to say the least; by now it was basically a cardio workout.
Never mind that it’d been a 40-degree day, and when Country Girl‘s electric twang ended the main set, it was as much a chance to have a breather as to cheer for more (credit to the band for keeping their dapper jackets on as long as they did).
Billed as a 90-minute show, no one was complaining about this full two-hour trip to the church of the Scream. And it was a final nod to their past in playing the original 1990 single version of Come Together before segueing into the seminal 10-minute Andrew Weatherall mix from the album, that reminded us these Glaswegians still have a firm grasp on the past.
As if to rub it in, they incorporated a snippet of Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds, before their ultimate tribute to rock and roll’s tradition of borrowing from the past to create something new, 1994’s blistering Rocks, got us shaking our hips and bits for one more sweaty finale.
It may be January, but we’ll still be talking about this one when the end of year lists drop in December.
HARVEY RAE
Photos by Stu McKay
