What a Fool Believes

The Fall: “Wings”

One of the most awesome experiences I’ve ever had was just over five years ago when my cousin and I got to see The Fall play two shows in one day.  The first show was a brief evening set at the now-defunct Virgin Megastore in Union Square and the second at Northsix - now the Music Hall of Williamsburg - in Brooklyn.

The Virgin Megastore was easily the last venue I’d ever expect Mark E. Smith and his crew to play at, but they did - and for free no less.  In what was normally the cafe area of the Megastore, we all waited for Mark E. to slither in.  Even the band.  They had all tuned up and were ready to go but there was no Smith.  As we watched the rain pour down through the window behind the stage, a cab suddenly pulled up in front of the entrance and out came Mark E. Smith.  With a pint in his hand.  (Just kidding.  I think.  Sometimes I dream up scenarios involving Mark E. Smith and his daily activities and I confuse them with reality.)  As soon as he got to the mic the band kicked in and performed a thundering set which included the juggernaut that is “Blindness”.

Later that night the band played a show at Northsix.  This show required tickets and we did not have any.  However, when we knew the show to be going on, we decided to go over there.  When we arrived we walked right into the venue and watched the show.  Literally.  There was no one around the ticketing area.  No guards in front of the door.  Nothing.  We just walked in and watched roughly half of their set, which included, again, “Blindness”.  It was incredible.

Now the only thing that could have made the night even better is if we could have hung out with the band afterwards at a pub much like the one featured in this video for “Wings”.  We’d drink pints and listen to Mark E. Smith go on venomous tirades about politics, football and the music scene, charmed by his curmudgeonly ways.  Thinking we were a decent lot, he’d then ask us to join the band and we would try and play it cool despite clutching our skulls in an attempt to keep them from exploding.  We’d finish the rest of the tour, grinning as he fiddled with the levels on our amps every night during the shows, and then be fired.  It would be sad but how sad can one be who was a one-time member of The Fall?

Flipper: “Sex Bomb”

The best parts of this video for Flipper’s “Sex Bomb”, from 1982’s Album - Generic Flipper, are not the footage of the explosions at the Trinity Test Site, Bikini Atoll or Hollywood(?), but the footage of the mundane preparations for these explosions.  Yes, of course Will Shatter’s caterwaul and the sludgy, perpetually-on-the-cusp-of-complete-shambles noise punk groove are well-suited to the shots of nuclear explosions.  But the song also goes well with the footage of men on docks loading the bombs or guiding bombers on the runway, and with the footage of the old Naval officers hanging out on the bench casually watching the proceedings.  These men work with nuclear weaponry after all.  They cannot listen to James Taylor while handling metropolis-leveling ammunition.  They need music that’s just as incendiary and powerful as those bombs.  They need Flipper.

Heart: “Never”

You know what can make a Friday even better than it already is?
Getting something you didn’t even know you needed.