live @ 930 Club 5.14.2000
Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” was one of the most popular records of 1977, but for people who preferred their music a little more cerebral, the recording from that year that would truly light up their lives was Wire’s “Pink Flag”-- punk rock’s most melodically scabrous moment. Wire is revisiting songs from that landmark record on an eight-date U.S. tour, whose penultimate engagement brought the quartet to the 930 Club Saturday night.
This tour marks the second time Wire has reunited-- they originally disbanded in 1980, resumed in 1986, then halted again in 1990-- but the first time in twenty years they are appearing without the keyboards and electronic gizmos of their late ‘80s period.
The guitars of Bruce Gilbert and Colin Newman roared magnificently all evening, but the opening version “Pink Flag” was uneven, and despite the jaw-droppingly metronomic drumming of Robert Gotobed, selections from Wire’ second phase, “Silk Skin Paws” and “Boiling Boy”, never caught fire. The first incendiary moments came when bassist Graham Lewis and Newman got together on the chorus of “Lowdown” and further sparks flew during “Advantage In Height”. The band was in full flame by the time Lewis’ bass chords signaled the climax of “40 Versions”, and a hyper-speed “Another the Letter” and a blistering reading of “Mercy” followed.
That momentum was never quite regained during a caterwauling encore of the immortal “12XU” (performed at a speed that rivaled Minor Threat’s classic version) and a feedback-drenched “Drill”, but overall, the hour-long set never dragged and was occasionally riveting. Perhaps the truest indication that the show succeeded was that it inspired the urge to rush home, blast Wire on the stereo and awaken the neighborhood---a touch of the good old days.
Washington Post, May 2000
