Review: The Other Smiths, September 26th 2006, Cardiff Barfly
All folk of sane mind approach tribute bands with either extreme scepticism or full on disdain, depending on whether you are a fan of the act they are attempting to necromance. Who exactly is being entertained here, after all? I fully understand the paper-thin fakery of today’s music industry, that there is no originality left, that burping into the microphone at an awards ceremony is no longer a finger up to the establishment but a sign of the establishment copying the erect fingers of yesterday and shoving them up the rectum of today’s largely talent-free identikit bands. But I am not sitting here in order to declare that rock n roll is dead. Because it is dead, but only as much as Shakespeare is dead. And I don’t need to prove that to you.
And here we see, on a surprisingly welcoming September night in Cardiff, a bunch of musically astute former-lads re-enact their Hamlet, their Puck, Falstaff, and maybe even a little bit of the sneering Aaron. What could possibly be wrong with that? The fact that only the lead singer has taken any trouble to look anything like an original member (and he is Morrissey’s double), adds to the early impression that I may as well be watching an over-accomplished pub band. But I feel here we have many issues about the state of music today. What am I watching? Fans playing the music of their idols to other fans. Of course, sometimes, even for someone like me who never saw the Smiths live, after such a long time since the break up of the band, the records are just not quite enough, and this is better than nothing. And, Christ, they are good. They are passionate, accurate and relaxed; they are not imitating the Smiths, they really are paying tribute to them.
My accomplice on this night is a Smiths fan who did see the real band on many occasions and he sings the praises of the Others. And other bequiffed audience members seem to sway in as much adoration as they would had Morrissey himself been on the small low stage. So what am I watching here? Is this some kind of religious experience – kind of like seeing Paul preach the words of Jesus? Perhaps not. That was more like seeing Boz at the Coal exchange a few years back. Although he played no Morrissey numbers that night. Maybe it is religious, then. St Paul dressed as Jesus doing a soft voice and trying to seem, for a couple of hours, like the man himself. Nobody seems to care that it is not Morrissey. I certainly don’t. What could possibly be wrong with this? What could possibly be wrong with tribute bands? How Soon Is Now is a vast improvement on the last time I saw Morrissey do it live. I Know It’s Over is so moving it proves the power of the song is in the sentiment, not the maudlin sound of the recording. Still Ill is so full of venom that you wonder why Johnny Rotten has never covered it. The songs bound across the tops of the quiffs and fall amongst us like stardust.
Is this group of talented Smiths lovers any less worthy of my approval than when I see the ‘hot new bands’ of today performing their slanderous renditions of Talking Heads, Josef K, Teardrop Explodes or Buzzcocks? In a way, everyone in this audience wants to keep hold of that sound of yesterday by holding on to the bands of yesterday in whichever way they can. I see now that everyone else is just fooling themselves into thinking they are not doing the same thing with new bands.