Clinic should
treat music with more care
Clinic/Sons And Daughters/Midnight Movies
Paradise, Boston, Massachusetts
November 9, 2004
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in The Boston Globe, November 12, 2004
Three albums and countless EPs into its career,
Clinic still
performs in surgical scrubs. The British band, who played the
Like countless other British groups of its generation, Clinic owes a debt to Radiohead, but instead of the swoopy dramatics of The Bends, albums like Walking With Thee and the new Winchester Cathedral are informed more by Kid A and its prog-rock forebears. That’s an invitation to half-formed material, and the spaces between applause on Tuesday sometimes seemed less like fully-realized songs than like excuses to experiment with different sonic ideas and cool noises. Clinic kept things moving at a brisk pace, though, and the visceral impact of live performance made songs such as “W.D.Y.Y.B,” “Pet Eunuch” and “Welcome” sound warmer and more organic than on disc.
At times, the gimmick wasn’t simply a distraction but threw a wall between Clinic and its fans. The band’s faces were obscured by the masks and headgear, and there was little attempt to connect to the audience beyond the announcement of song titles. Even still, nothing in the musicians’ demeanor or stage presence suggested that they felt hampered by their costumes; rather than go the Devo route and present themselves as interchangeable blank slates, guitarist and keyboardist Ade Blackburn sang with an energy evident to those close enough to the stage and Brian Campbell did a constant, joyful neck bob as he played his bass. Those were signs of love of performance, and Clinic would do well not to hide it behind schtick.
Sons And Daughters used their own faces as masks of imperturbability, but by showcasing excellent material without obstruction, the Glaswegian band outshined the headliners. Their terrific 40-minute set twitched with a nervous energy that fed into numbers from Love The Cup (Domino) like “Johnny Cash,” with its simple but sinister bassline, and the closing “Blood,” which saw a staring match between singer Adele Bethel and guitarist Scott Paterson, who held their tambourine and guitar, respectively, motionless by their sides as the rhythm section spun the song feverishly to its finish.
Openers Midnight Movies began the evening with an intriguing set of dark, unsettling drones that sounded like a young Stereolab playing the early catalog of