British Days: Echo & The Bunnymen

The thing I love the most about London is everything I like is easily accesible. There's a coffee shop and bookstore almost everywhere you go and almost every week a band I was interested in came to London to perform. Unlike my life in Danville life in London is hardly boring. So on a Sunday night I went to see Echo & The Bunnymen at the KoKo club in Camden Town since I didn't have anything to do. It was the best gig I have ever been to.

I got to the club early so I could see the two opening acts, and because I wanted to make sure I could get as close as possible to the stage. I was able to get a spot in the second row. But when I entered the club there were a lot of people on the first and second balcony. I wondered why those people weren't on the first floor trying to get as close as possible to the band. There was still plenty of space on the first floor. The first band to go on that night were already playing, and when I got as close as I possibly could to the stage I understood why those people remained on the balcony-- it was loud down there. The Koko club is a big venue with two balconies. So that means the band has to be loud enough for everybody to hear, including the people on the two balconies. At times the voice of the singer was a muffle lost in the blare of the music from where I was at and I couldn't hear the harmonies that well.The two opening acts worked hard on stage. They poured alot of passion and energy into their songs. The second act, a band called Freemaker, reminded me of The Stooges alot. They played straight ahead primitive working class hard rock that was catchy. They even dressed in black t-shirts and jeans which made them look like they were from Detroit or New York. The singer even seemed like he had learned a thing or two from Iggy Pop. He strutted up and down the stage and did various rock poses in an effort to work the crowd. But when he spoke with a Scottish accent I knew this band was from some place far away from Detroit and New York. I was impressed, but the singer was having a hard time working the crowd. They were there to see the legendary Echo & The Bunnymen and Freemaker couldn't fight against that.

"You're a hard crowd," the singer told us.

After Freemaker left the stage the floor got crowded. People were making their way to the first floor so they could get as close as possible to The Bunnymen. Like many gigs it got so crowded I couldn't move to my right or left or forward or backward without bumping into someone. It got so bad I had to take off my backpack to make more room for myself and other people. I laid my pack on the floor in front of my feet so I wouldn't get seperated from it. After awhile the legendary Echo & The Bunnymen came on stage. The first member of the band I saw was Ian Mculloch. He wore a black coat, a t-shirt, jeans and shades. He walked up to the mic, flicked his cigarette and started to sing non-chalantly. Ian looked like the Terminator up there on the stage; and the amazing lightshow made him look like he had just emerged from the time warp itself. His movements were concise for maximum effect. All he did was stand there and sing, and the section I was in went crazy because of it. When the Bunnymen played "Stormy Weather," the third song that night, the entire section broke out in a massive orgy of pogoing. Echo & The Bunnymen had unleased a fury of middle-age male aggression, and there was no letting up to it; it just grew, and I was caught in it. Now I really realized why those people on the two balconies were there. They didn't want to get pogoed on. Things were getting aggressive and I had only two options: pogo with them or be pogoed on. Since I was far away from the non-pogo section I had no other choice but to get aggressive with them, and it was rough going. I couldn't enjoy the music because I was getting pogoed on and I didn't feel like pogoing for the entire gig. That would have been too much of a workout. I had already gotten seperated from my backpack, and I couldn't go back for it. So I made my way to the non-pogo section where I could see The Bunnymen's amazing gig without somebody bumping into me. I also continued to observe the Bunnymen's middle-age male fans go berserk. These people treated the gig like they were at a celebration. While they pogoed some of them had their arms around each other, happy to be in the presence of the Bunnymen as the band played on. After the Bunnymen left the stage I was able to retrieve my backpack. It was still in the place where I left it, and the contents (which included Joy Division's first LP on vinyl) weren't damaged.

The Bunnymen gig put me in a state of awe. I didn't know live music could be like that, and the definition of music has taken on a new meaning for me. Compared to the two previous bands that night Echo and the Bunnymen made rock 'n' roll look easy. They played classic after classic, and those songs sounded better live than the studio versions. "Do It Clean" and "All That Jazz" put the recorded versions to shame, and they made the crowd go into a frenzy. Also, Will Sergeant's guitar work put me in another world. It was like he showed up from another dimension just to show us what could be done with a guitar and some effects pedals. Simply put-- The Bunnymen were spellbounding. The records just do not capture what that band is capable of doing live. They had the right mix of passion and great songs to play that night and they made the place go crazy just from showing up. And as Keith Richards would say on any given night any band that has the right mix of passion and songs is the greatest band in the world, and on June 4th, 2006 Echo and the Bunnymen were that band.