I guess it would be both lazy and contrite to review tonight’s Primal Scream show at Fremantle Prison with just the two words “Fucking epic” but in all honesty that was what was going through my head on the way back to the car. On a beautiful hot and balmy night in Western Australia everything seemed perfect for the last date of Primal scream’s Australian Tour, and that’s pretty much how it ended up – a perfect end to the tour, a band in rare form and a setlist to kill for.
Primal Scream are probably my favourite Scottish band, and have managed to navigate the last 42 years in a cutthroat business in their own unique way, producing a body of work that has a depth and a diversity that is as rare as it is special. Musically they are an itchy-footed enigma and continue to produce great music on their latest ‘Come Ahead’ from last year.
With a style that defies description they take a melting pot of styles from psychedelic and garage rock, to blues, dance, trip hop and even industrial rock and distil it all into sonic tapestries that are pure genius.
Tonight’s support comes from Rock act ‘Wolves and Chocolate Bullets’ who do a great job of warming up the crowd with their own brand of hearty rock and roll.
Primal Scream take to the stage at a school night early 8.00pm and immediately pull out the big guns. The power of opener ‘Swastika Eyes’ gets the crowd immediately energised. That is followed by the fighting talk of new number ‘Love Insurrection’ which has a cutting lyric of the looming instability we’re about to have thrust upon us: “Manichean times, have you heard the rumors of war? The blind lead the blind and the truth ain’t truth anymore. The poets warned about the coming storm. No one reads books these days, conspiracy and illiteracy have taken their place.”
It’s one of the many reasons to love Primal Scream, and Gillespie’s lyrics are as prescient as ever as he wails: “Sisters and brothers estranged from each other, Divided and ruled, taken for fools. Love and democracy versus plutocracy. This could be heaven, it’s hell where we’re heading.” It’s a killer song and dripping i achingly political in these ‘interesting times.
It’s a start to a show that has it all, and the crowd are pushed right up the front to witness it all. ‘Jailbird’ comes as the wonderful antithesis – pure rock and roll, all Stonesy and built on a huge groove. The player on the stage hit their groove and the band are loving it as Gillespie in his splendid white suit leads the charge. It’s music you can dance to, inescapable and with that wonderful refrain that everyone here in the prison is spitting back at the bend. This really is some show!
It’s the strength of the new songs though that grab you, and ‘Ready to Go Home’ shows they’ve not lost anything musically or lyrically. So after that great opening salvo the second new song of the night is greeted with just as much fervor, With a sharp lyric contemplating the acceptance of death it’s another reason (if you haven’t already) to go out and get the new record.
And if that wasn’t enough then ‘Deep Dark Waters’ another new song which deals with a clash of ideology, hatred and the mess our leaders are making of the world, just might be. There’s a wonderful balance of fight, bitterness and despair aimed squarely at Europe and the mess it’s made for itself.
Gillespie introduces ‘Medication’ from 1997’s Vanishing Point as ‘an old one’ but to most of the crowd it’s just another classic. Then there’s the burst of electronica and loose rap verse that introduces ‘Innocent Money’. This is a band at the top of their game and tonight they have it all and always have and pull it off with a wonderful swagger. I love the contemplation on the decline of Britain and the wonder lyric “The fox guards, the chickens, the chickens don’t mind” that captures perfectly the broken system that is simply accepted rather than rejected. Like most of the songs tonight when they end Gillespie offers a simple thank you to the crowd.
The deep and soulful ‘Heal Yourself’ with its downcast lyrics and contemplation of the power of love is the final proof you need that you need ‘Come Ahead’ in your life. Gillespie introduces ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ as “An oldie but a Goldie” and adds “as we’re at Fremantle prison, it’s a slow ballad” adding “You can clap along if you like”. It’s a song that showcases the timelessness of Primal Scream – on one level it’s classic rock of the type that The Stones and The Black Crowes might throw down. In Primal Scream’s hands the dynamic and build is wonderful. And man that guitar! As it bursts above the heads of the crowd as the song climaxes and the crowd clap along. Those horns and the refrain just stay with you!
“You having a good time?” Gillespie asks and receives a roar back from the crowd. ‘Love Ain’t enough’ is introduced as “Not a hippie song” and that’s underlined by the galloping riff that opens it and the crashing lyric that floods over that riff. The band is clearly having fun and Simone Butler is laying down some killer grooves resplendent in her long dress and a wonderful counterpoint for teh incredible guitar of Andrew Innes who looks perfectly dressed for a vacation by the beach. Gillespie offers a couple of introductions to the Intros backing singers and guitarist but there’s no full intro as yet.
“This one’s called ‘Circus of life’ he tells us as the drums shuffle us in courtesy of the lynchpin and groove setter Darrin Mooney (who worked with Gary Moore). It’s funky and comes with a wonderfully shuffled street rap. With a setlist that’s almost 50/50 new record and classics it’s one of those incredible shows where you don’t feel short-changed in the lightest. The new record sound seven better live that it does in the cans!
How can you then simply drop into two of the best stoned anthems of a generation? It’s chameleonic… It’s unique and it’s about the peak the party atmosphere in Fremantle. As a teenager to me the next two songs underlined forever that my tastes in music were, and as it turns out, remain rather broad. Dedicated to Andrew Wetherall, who produced ‘Screamadelica’, we’re eased into the groove of ‘Loaded’ and as I started the review off with the words ‘fucking epic’ I’ll use them again here. If I close my eyes for a second I’m back in 1990.
‘Loaded’ is one of those songs that shows how unique Prima Scream is. With an intro sampled from the movie ‘Wild Angels’ it’s actually a wonderful construction taking parts from ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’, that Wetherall was originally tasked to remix before completely deconstructing it! There’s bits from the Emotions’ ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love’, a drum loop from Edie Brickell’s ‘What I Am’ and a snatch from Robert Johnson‘s ‘Terraplane Blues’.
It’s always been a mesmerising and heady mix and tonight Loaded is fucking epic: the backing vocals, the horns, the bass the drum groove as hypnotic! I mean it has it all and tonight it’s perfectly executed and contains an adlibbed line “I want to get out of Fremantle prion, Break down those walls” before the beat sees the guitar cuts in. It’s effortless glory and swells to the “I don’t want to lose your love” refrain before keys and guitar drive it to the crashing end.
Next to it ‘Moving on up’ is sublime. Gillespie press gangs us all into ‘The Church of rock and roll’ and gives us our part as ‘the choir’. Guitar and Gospel is a heady mix as we all make the noise especially when it comes to the “My love shines on” mantra as the song cuts into a crescendo of keys and backing vocals. The main set closes with the rock and roll of ‘Country girl’ as Gillespie urges us to keep the party going.
Encores come in the form of ‘Melancholy Man’ from the new album before the night explodes with ‘Come Together’ and of course “Rocks’. 40 years since their formation Primal Scream is as strong as ever, with a new album taking up almost half of the set, it just goes to underline that in 2024 they released their best music in years. If you were here tonight you witnessed a band that it’s impossible not to love and a band that is up there with the greats. ‘Fucking epic’…
