Manic Street Preachers At Webster Hall, Monday, April 23rd, 2015, Reviewed

I was having an argument with my English friend Mark Pringle of Rock’s Back Pages the other day, he claimed UK laughs at the USA’s predilection for EDM, I replied that Americans feel the same way about UK rock. Harsh, but not entirely untrue. From the Charlatans to the Cribs, Paul Weller to Arctic Monkeys to Noel Gallagher to Johnny Marrs, UK rock is a 21st century struggle of relentlessly mediocre bands to gain a foothole in the States.

At least when it comes to mediocrity, Manic Street Preachers (and Primal Scream, though not in the 2010s) are the exceptions that prove the rule. I saw the Welsh agitrockers  in 1996 between Screaming Trees and Oasis at Jones Beach, the Manics were pushing (debatably) greatest achievement Everything Must Go, the follow up their (less debatably) greatest album The Holy Bible.

To say the Manic Street Preachers blew two titanic rock bands off the stage is to damn them with faint praise; a HUGE performance of epic riffs and a stolid sensory deprived rhythm section, plus a great singer. The only problem was, they were missing something in the middle, not unlike Muse: the lead singer James Dean Bradfield, while a good singer and a good to great guitarist, isn’t a natural born leader.

It isn’t Bradfield’s fault, Richey Edwards rhythm guitarist, and manic depressive, lefty, headcase, poster boy for extreme fragility (bassist Nicky Wire to the New York Post last week: “We told Richey he could do whatever he wanted; just write, or just come to the studio, just tour, whatever he needed to feel better. But he still wanted to be in the band 100 percent.”) was long gone and he was a central presence.

Missing for 20 years, 2 months and 23 days, Richey co-wrote (he did the lyrics) The Holy Bible, went on tour, went for a walk and never came back. The Manics soldiered on, following The Holy Bible with the absolutely immaculate Everything Must Go, and followed that with the almost the equal This Is My Truth Tell me Yours. The obvious comparison is Ian Curtis, except New Order was a break from Joy Division, and Manic Street Preachers remained Manic Street Preachers with Richey missing. And Manic Street Preachers have been the best UK rock band for 20 plus year

In a celebration of their missing lead singer, the Manics performed the entire 13 song The Holy Bible in sequence and completed the evening with seven greatest hits and there is no way round it: I can’t believe we will see a better rock performance than this one in 2015. By the time I started listening to them, Richey was already dead, so all the baggage the audience, a mish mash of ex-pats and middle age rock folks (a lot of chicks as well: go figure) , brought to The Holy Bible, I didn’t have. My problem with the album is it isn’t catchy enough, the riffs were well rocking, anthemic without being obvious , listen to “Revol” or “Faster”, bands spend lifetimes trying to write such manic pressure cooker rock songs, the lyric contact was… unspeakable greatness. If everybody has to write about something, Richey wrote about everything: drugs, self-hatred, suicide, eating disorders, the imperialistic US and Fredodom of the UK, and more… the album was like an explosion of ideas. And Richey wrote the words, Bradfield last night: “These are his ideas, he didn’t need any help”. The actual credits go “All lyrics written by Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire, all music composed by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore.” The words are ragged and flowing, it stops off at every reason not to continue living from personal anguish to the holocaust to this, written to music in three quarter time:

“Zapruder the first to masturbate

The world’s first taste of crucified grace

And we say: there’s not enough black in the union jack

And we say: there’s too much white in the stars and stripes

Fuck the Brady bill

Fuck the Brady bill

If God made man they say

Sam Colt made him equal”

On record, 20 years ago, it was all about personal revolution, political resolution, a signpost the actual Bible always has been.

On stage last night, it wasn’t that, but it wasn’t nostalgia either, it wasn’t an interpretation, the other three members are way too close to the material for that, but it was like testifying to a shared past that was made a shared truth. Bradfield is solid and middle age but he has a terrific falsetto and he uses it well and he lets the music take him over when the moment needs it; and the band as a whole give way to the audience, who demand and maintain their presence throughout the show: as if it was theirs as well, at the end of the evening Bradfield said “my dark dark dark Welsh soul thanks you” and really, this was a very shared experience. The Manics had opened for Guns N Roses in this very room (when it was called the Ritz) and they remember that, and Nicky remembers playing the Peppermint Lounge, trashed out of their minds at 3am in the morning. We have a history with the band and with the sound.

The sheer glory of the sound needs nothing but a tip of the hat, the uniqueness of hearing some of these songs on stage again just compound it all. Sure “Faster” and “Yes” are rolled out all the time, but “The Intense Humming of Evil”? How wonderful is that. Bradfield might not be charismatic but he is lively and he give the songs everything, Nicky Wire is a solid bassist, and does have a rock star quality he keeps a little dimmed,  and Sean Moore, who I can’t see at all from my position to the left at the very front of the stage, glues it all together fine, a Ringo Starr quality, hammering hard between the samples. Speaking of which: from the opening “you can buy here,  this one here, this one here, and this one here… everything’s for sale…” to “Next Thursday you’re invited to watch Rising Tide’s live coverage of a gala tribute in salute to Ronald Reagan “ and beyond, the samples have an edge of complete disbelief to them, they sound like they can’t be real.

When placed with Manic Street Preachers simple wrath, straight ahead powerhouse performance, and Bradfield’s protean, lovely singing (though a little lacking in character), they do to The Holy Bible what you would want them to, play it as if it was recorded yesterday –a terrific, inspiring performance.

And I preferred the encore. Remember, I came in late, Everything Must Go is my The Holy Bible, and when I first heard about the show, I thought they’d chosen the wrong album (simply as far as US popularity is concerned , they had). The seven songs toend the evening  are all excellent and they close with “A Design For Life”. But “If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will be Next” one of the great antiwar songs,  is even better than “Design”. It is worth quoting:

 

“The future teaches you to be alone

The present to be afraid and cold

“So if I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists”

 

Bullets for your brain today

But we’ll forget it all again

Monuments put from pen to paper

Turns me into a gutless wonder

Gravity keeps my head down

Or is it maybe shame

At being so young and being so vain

 

Holes in your head today

But I’m a pacifist

I’ve walked La Ramblas but not with real intent

 

And on the street tonight

An old man plays with newspaper cuttings of his glory days

 

And if you tolerate this then your children will be next

And if you tolerate this then your children will be next

Will be next, will be next, will be next”

 

Amen, right? Plus it sounds great. Did I mention everything here sounds great? Did I mention a straight up love song “You Stole the Sun from My Heart” was received ecstatically? Everything was, the 90 minute set was perfect from the beginning to the end.

Thinking back to great UK rock bands, following in the footsteps of the Stones, Led Zep, the Clash, through Supergrass and Pulp, but today there are so few – the 21st century hasn’t been good to UK rock. Alright, the Libertines and then what? And how good were they? They sure weren’t, say, the Stone Roses. I don’t think it is me, UK rock isn’t a force any more, the special relationship is over.

But Manic Street Preachers? Even if they are playing Webster Hall when they should be at Madison Square Garden, even so, they are a powerful, articulate, smart band of brothers where one brother left too early. It was wonderful to see them, they are such close good friends with such strong and true political convictions. They remind you why you laugh at UK rock at your own risk.

Grade: A