Garbage re-conquer town with new look, neu-sound and nouvelle-attitude

About one third into the show the band’s frontperson and focus of the outfit, Shirley Manson delivers a little thank you speech about finishing another world tour in this Brixton place (although they’d appear at the Ocean for the first of MTV’s ‘Five Night Stand’ the following night). She mentions all the fans, road-crew and (even) caterers… If this were someone else you’d think she’d gone mainstream, adopted rock-clichés but not, Shirl sounded very sincere. If affected by anything, it wasn’t the result of her bleach.

Aside looking markedly different – more tomboyish than the rock-chick-chic of her ging-days – Manson has also altered her stagecraft. She is less of an aggressive, in-your-face, confrontational ‘bitch’ but that is mostly influenced by the material from the current album, ‘beautifulgarbage’, that is more melodic, intricately arranged and more complex. There isn’t immediacy of the first two albums where songs were direct and so catchy you couldn’t but observe your taste collapse in adulation-sans-reservation.

Thus, the reaction sways from an attentive listening to the songs that are mid-paced plus a number of ballads, and the mass-participation bit when old faves and some newies, such as ‘Shut Your Mouth’, get the crowd to totally lose it. Dressed in a white top and the matching cropped designer-punk trooz, Shirley is not given it in to playing it safe and at one mo she is asking the audience to name a title for them to play, to see “How clued in my band is.”

‘The World Is Never Enough’ (the James Bond’s theme tune from the 1999’s flick) is screamed at her but she rejects it as several other titles until someone suggests ‘Submissive Me’ by her previous group, Angelfish; the fact that the band actually knew it surprised her to the point that she forgot lyrics!? ‘Subhuman’ was attempted but abandoned after one verse with the obscure b-side, ‘Busy With The Lizzy’, played later. She’d occasionally kickbox and, at one moment, forced Steve Marker to give up playing keyboards and give her a piggyback. The band members don’t call her ‘the Queen’ for a laugh.

Taking such risks is what makes this Scottish-lass a serious contender for the crown of the world’s ‘senior’ rock-chick, held for many years by her heroine, Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders). Shirl commands that stage to the point that one doesn’t even notice the other four players, in front of a simple but utterly functional décor that uses drapes and spotlights, a raw of neon-lights and some 20 naked-bulbs suspended from the ceiling to create incredible visuals.

Despite some stage discipline this still is one of the most exhilarating treats you can encounter. (The only stain on the magical evening came courtesy of a drunk-overweight-oaf who shouted all the time, ‘You are the babe!’ and ‘Marry me!’… I went over and told him that, if he were really a fan, he’d know that the lady’s been ‘shackled’ for a number of years and he should open his gob only to swallow beer, before retreating near a security guard bigger than Michelangelo’s statue of Moses.)