Stiff Little Fingers, Powerstation, 27 February 2020: Concert Review

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Stiff Little Fingers, played Auckland’s Powerstation last night, proving they’re still a great rock’n’roll band – sounding as good today as at the height of their powers in 1979. Rev Orange Peel reviews the show.

Stiff Little Fingers were one of the three great punk/new wave acts that came out of Ireland in the wake of the Sex Pistols. The other two being the Undertones and the Boomtown Rats.

The Fingers were the “Belfast Clash”, and they were forged in the belly of the beast, in the middle of the Troubles and the occupation of Northern Ireland by the British military. Politics, social disorder and the angry reaction to it drove the band, and if the Clash debut is the best rock’n’roll album ever made because it never stops exploding, the Fingers debut ‘Inflammable Material’ is its equal.

Singer and guitarist Jake Burns and bass guitarist Ali McMordie have been there from the start, although McMordie has had long periods away, where the Jam’s Bruce Foxton played in his place.  Ian McCallum on guitar and Steve Grantley on drums complete the band.

They had been touring the United States last year for the forty-year anniversary of Inflammable Material. Burn informs us it almost never got made as every record label at the time turned them down. They somehow managed to get to a recording studio to then put together the songs they had been playing for eighteen months, just for something the band could have for themselves.

Forty-one years later in Auckland, they are celebrating it.

Opening the evening is an Auckland duo, Murder Chord. It is Dave on electric piano and Sims on drums. Immediately they open with explosive drumming and percussive piano, voice-box shredding speedy rap very much like Black Flag of the Damaged era.

Dave is actually a very good singer. Some of the piano intros sound like the Velvet Undergound, specifically their live material from 1968 to 1969.

There’s a song about Dave’s flatmate (he must be challenging). Another one about the stars and the cosmos.

Dave picks out Chris Knox in the audience.

I liked this duo quite a bit and would like to see more of them. Although Dave informs us that Sims has recently moved out of Auckland, like a dickhead.

Close to Stiff Little Fingers starting, and the Powerstation looks packed. Predominantly middle-aged male, maybe a quarter at most female. A very good-natured atmosphere, many would have been here two years ago.

They appear to a very warm reception and straight into Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae.

The sound is vintage 1979, tight, propulsive and explosive. Burn always sang in a high register on the original recordings, and as the set proceeds, he really starts to wind into it after the next two to three songs. They play the Go For It EP.

Then a new song is introduced, yet to be recorded. Sixteen Shots tells the story of a seventeen year-old boy who had converted a car and was apprehended by police in the United States. Except instead of getting arrested and spending a night in jail, he was met by eight armed officers and shot sixteen times, eight in the back. The ethnicity of the boy was not mentioned.  A slightly different pace to the song, more like Springsteen on Glory Days. That’s entirely appropriate, the Boss has played London Calling live many times. The social politics and sentiments come from the same place.

Suspect Device, the debut single, revs up the band again. Tight, fast and rhythmic, like coiled springs firing off in all directions.

Barbed Wire Love is the band’s one love song, a homage to Barbara Ann by the Regents, and a spot for McMordie to do a doo-wop chorus.

White Noise has some challenging vocals, including “wog, nigger” and is a snarling anti-racist song, a fact that Burn says he feels compelled to explain every time they play it. We are told that the group was banned in Newcastle-upon-Tyne after playing that song many years ago.

Law and Order was written about police harassment and brutality in Belfast. No More of That was lyrically inspired by Burn’s Dad as he was growing up.

Johnny Was is an early Bob Marley and the Wailers song, entirely reworked rhythmically and given an adrenaline-rush of energy. Tonight, we get an extended workout which is one of the standout songs.

As is Alternative Ulster, another anthem which closes the set.

Back for two encores, Tin Soldier and Gotta Getaway.

That was ‘Inflammable Material’. That was Stiff Little Fingers, a great rock’n’roll band who still sound at the height of their powers as they were in 1979.

Rev Orange Peel

SET LIST

  1. Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae
  2. Nobody’s Heroes
  3. Just Fade Away
  4. At the Edge
  5. Safe as Houses
  6. Sixteen Shots
  7. Suspect Device
  8. State of Emergency
  9. Here We Are Nowhere
  10. Wasted Life
  11. No More of That
  12. Barbed Wire Love
  13. White Noise
  14. Breakout
  15. Law and Order
  16. Rough Trade
  17. Johnny Was
  18. Alternative Ulster

ENCORE

  1. Tin Soldier
  2. Gotta Getaway

 

 

Rev Orange Peel
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