I struggle to think of anyone I’ve seen make songs which are almost 20 years old seem so fresh and timeless.
To see Spectrum recently you seem to have to venture to obscure backrooms of pubs across the country. Tonight this has taken me to the Hare & Hounds in the Kings Heath area of Birmingham – a lively traditional pub which despite it’s slightly out of town location and one that seems to have a number of impressive acts on over the coming weeks.
The small upstairs venue is completely packed out by the time Kember and his band make the stage. This is at the usual late hour of 11PM, after taking an age setting up. Anyone who has seen Spectrum before will forgive them for this, as their songs demand a good sound and tonight they really deliver. The band play the same hour and a half set as when I last saw them in December, which in fairness was a warm up show for this tour so it’s what I pretty much expected. Its one hell of a set too, made up of some of the best Spaceman 3 material with some brilliant new tracks thrown in from his forthcoming album On the Wings of Mercury.
I struggle to think of anyone I’ve seen make songs which are almost 20 years old seem so fresh and timeless. Transparent Radiation is as cool as anything I’ve ever heard, Mudhoney cover When Tomorrow Hits is as intense and explosive as ever and closing encore Suicide leaves me in a dreamy daze, and questioning how Kember manages to orchestrate such a perfect yet energetic sound consistently for an hour and a half. In December I thought they were something special, but I remember Kember seeming quite intense and unsure about the sound. Tonight they have somehow made it even better, and it’s reflected in Kember’s far more relaxed stage manner. He still makes demands to the sound desk, and fiddles with levels throughout the set, but he seems far more relaxed and happy. So he should be.
I’m too young to have experienced the legendary Spaceman 3 as a live act, but if they were anything better than Kember now in 2009, then they must have been one of the greatest live acts of all time. Tonight Kember proves that he has the very rare talent of being a completely timeless performer. If like me you missed out on Spaceman 3, simply go and see Spectrum – it’s more than good enough.
Words: Martin Perceval