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Live Review
by SashaS
20-1-2002
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| Incubus come on top |
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Live: Incubus
Wembley Arena, London
Friday, January 19, 2001
Incubus confirm their place among the Gods of contemporary rock Parthenon
It’s good to be back to Wembley Arena for a rock concert, after so many of pop bands cramming in kids! It seemed that rock lost some of its arena-pull for a while or it was that the American stars were too ‘yellah’ to fly over? Anyhow, it is even better tonight because Incubus have earned their headlining spot in this 12,000 capacity concrete cavern purely on he quality of music that was promoted by – the world of mouth!
Incubus progressed from playing toilet-sized venues like Underworld without not only a commercial hit and MTV support but – radio-hits! The band has managed to get here, which singer Brandon Boyd acknowledges during the show, without much hoopla, hype, even media support. And it is easy to see why: they play no-nonsense rock based around a hip-hop beat with heavy guitar and funky bass but poppy enough in its sonic arrangements to keep these tweenagers happy.
That is another encouraging sign, the auditorium is young (so young that parents line-up cars to pick up the rocking offspring!), with a lot of nubiles present, and all-knowing of songs! From the long loved faves, such as ‘Nice To Know You’, ‘Drive’, ‘Hilikus’, ‘Favourite Things’, ‘Clean’ to the selection from the ‘Morning View’, headed by the current single ‘Wish You Were Here’. Well, let’s hope that nu-metal is the new pop!
Boyd is an archetypal rocker: lean-framed, tall (for a change) and with a shaggy hairdo; he is not the greatest of stage movers and perhaps lacks a bit of the communication skill with their audience, but his vocal gift is full on. It was also low of a show-side, few impressive lights is the most we got, but music has always been the uppermost on their minds rather than individual stardom and that’s respectable. They churn out tunes tonight, from in-your-ear pillar-shaking rockers to acoustic-guitar backed ballad, to confirm the arrival of new mega-stars.
Bopped me the night out, truly.
SashaS
20-1-2002
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