Future of the Left - Water Rats
Poor Reverend and the Maker, not only have they decided to go their separate ways recently and there was no shortage of sympathy shown at this very enjoyable gig at London’s Water Rats. Firstly the impressive support band, Fighting With Wire, “commiserated” at the demise of the band including dedicating one of their songs 'Everyone Needs A Nemesis' to them. Not to be out done Future of the Left joined in the fun too including saying that John McClure “Could chin me by flicking his fringe”.
With Future of the Left you do not only get a great music show you also get a comedy routine better than most stand up comedians performing at any comedy clubs up and down the country. Tonight very few people were safe from Andy Falkous’s wrath and this included the successful British Olympic team where they were congratulated in doing well in the middle class events, this was before the boxers had won medals though. Even Roger Black, ex 400m runner, got lambasted.
It would be very easy to write a review just on the comedy side but what about the music? Well, coming from the ashes of McClusky, you can probably tell Future of the Left will play fast and hard with some interesting lyrics too as the opening track, Wrigley Scott, a song about a wizard and an elf eating sausages, on a stick, proved, well once they got to play it due to some technical problems with Kelson Mathias’s bass right at the very start. The crowd was even treated to some new tracks too like Drink Nike which was introduced “This song’s a new one, no one on this stage cares if you like it or not”!
The encore started with the band sharing out Jaffa Cakes to the audience, which is always worth an extra mark here at Room Thirteen before playing their last song 'Last Song Name'. The traditional dismantling of drummers (name of drummers) kit during the song while he is still playing was stopped by an impromptu stage invasion, which included the bassist asking one member of the invaders “who the f*** are you”? The crowd were enjoying the gig all the way with the possibility of one poor chap in a Tool top who decided to heckle during the comedy and was shot down with the accuracy that any stand up comedian would have been proud of.
With most of the debut album, Curses, got an airing with the previously mentioned new songs for good measure. These guys really do put on a great show and are about to take the show across the Atlantic for a tour, would love to hear how the jokes go down over there!
Set List:
Wrigley Scott
Plague of Onces
Fingers Become Thumbs
Drink Nike
Distant Jabs
Mancasm
VDFA
Fuck the Countryside Alliance
Small Bones Small Bodies
Lord Hates A Coward
Intro
The Hope That House Built
My Gymnastics Past
adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood