Music > Live Reviews

808 State

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

10/12/18

Friday night at the Waterfront felt like THE place to be. Not only was downstairs absolutely rammed for dance legends 808 State, but upstairs the Studio was also buzzing with an expectant crowd of ageing punks for the visit of UK Subs & The Members, a gig that under different circumstances I’d have been at. Arriving early enough to catch 15 minutes of the Members helped to reassure me that I’d made the right decision, so downstairs I went to see some of support act Lone.
Lone is Matt Cutler and he had come highly recommended, but actually it’s tough to review Lone’s set simply because there wasn’t too much that was tangible to hold on to. As I mentioned the Waterfront was packed, and Norwich being what it is there was no shortage of familiar faces, meaning that for much of Matt’s set the ambient, relatively gentle beats of his music merely provided the soundtrack to the chitter chatter. There were people dancing a little down the front, but fair to say I never really had the sense that I’d ‘seen’ Lone.
Between acts the music played up the ante somewhat, serving to get the crowd even more hyped, and at the still stupidly early time of 8.30 (club night, so an early finish) 808 State appeared on stage. For those of us of a certain age 808 State emerged at a time in music when everything was changing. I personally had spent my teenage years listening exclusively to rock music, then as the 90s dawned suddenly a whole new world of music opened up to me, and 808 State were very much part of my awakening, or at least the track Cubik was. If I’m honest as the show began it all felt a bit indistinct, usually the sound for electronic music is crisp and sharp, maybe the live instrumentation they were using was muddying things? Wait, is that Cubik being played second song in the set? It was, and if I’d have imagined how that song was going to go down in a live setting it wouldn’t have been like this. Sure everyone at the front were throwing shapes, but a bit further back it was more shuffling than dancing. I think it boils down to what was I hoping to get from the live 808 Sate experience? Well, strip away the drum kit, guitar and clarinet (yep), I’d have been just as happy if a couple of anonymous dudes had stood behind laptops playing hard beats. The atmosphere was incredible I must stress, but there was also a lot of talking and socialising going on, nowhere near the whole audience were fully absorbed by the music.
If I’m honest after a while the urge to go for a wander took hold and I went and grabbed a drink and headed upstairs to see how the Subs were getting on, but sadly I only caught the final couple of minutes of their set. Returning downstairs it seemed like in my brief absence everything had changed – the music was FULL ON; the more ambient tones has been dispensed with and personally speaking this was exactly what I had come for. I wormed my way back into the throng and finally fully let myself go as did everyone around me. I have no idea what songs they were playing, it didn’t matter – just three anonymous dudes playing the hard dance music I’d come for.
Sadly at 10pm it was over, when it felt like we were just starting. Shame. Still, this being Norwich night was far from over and I headed off for my first visit to Bermuda Bob’s. The Owl is dead, long live Bermuda Bob! What an amazing transformation the place has undergone, I already can’t wait to head back to Norwich’s hottest new nightspot. Seeing 808 State in concert didn’t feel like it did when I saw acts like Leftfield or Underworld and didn’t have the visual impact of someone like Ulrich Schnauss. Definitely one to tick off the list then, and if the whole set had been as brilliant as the final 30 minutes it would have been potentially one of the gigs of the year, but it wasn’t, so it wasn’t.