A Real Live Wire

Lee's Palace

Toronto, ON

on Oct 7 2008

Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

10/08/2008 4:04pm

Toronto's The Two Koreas have drawn a lot of comparisons to The Fall, so it was personally fortuitous that they were chosen to open for British veterans Wire at Lee's. I've only seen The Fall once — on the same bill as Wire as part of a festival staged for 10,000 people at London, England's Finsbury Park in 1987 — so I thought it was appropriate that I'd see The Fall wannabes and the real-deal Wire on the same night. Unfortunately, another commitment kept me later than expected and I missed the openers' set. Sorry, Stuart.

Lee's was full, though not sold-out, and there was a somewhat surprising mix of ages and genders in the crowd when Wire hit the stage at 10:15 p.m. The original lineup of lead singer/guitarist Colin Newman, bassist/vocalist Graham Lewis and drummer Robert Gotobed (real name Robert Grey) were augmented by Laika and Moonshake's Margaret Fiedler McGinnis, who replaced founding member Bruce Gilbert on guitar for this tour.

While Wire formed in 1976 and were contemporaries of the Sex Pistols and The Clash, their art and fashion school educations and musical approach helped set them apart and made them the poster boys for what would eventually become labelled post-punk. I believe they were also one of the first bands to have their guitar sound described by journalists as "angular." And yes, as well as The Two Koreas' members, there were a handful of other music writers in the club — more evidence that Wire have always appealed more to critics than average music fans.

While their hair is definitely thinning, the spirit and sharp musicianship that have carried Wire's members through four productive periods broken up by lengthy stretches apart from each other are still intact.

Wire's 85-minute set, which included three two-song encores, touched on a pretty broad spectrum of their career. Things kicked off with the bottom-heavy "Our Time" from last year's Read & Burn 03, and then moved into a couple of numbers from 2003's Send. Newman jumped around the stage during the quick-chugging "Mr. Marx's Table," which was the most animated he got until showing off some amateurish dance moves in the second encore.

Lewis took over lead vocals on "Mekon Headman" (which isn't about Jon Langford) and "The Agfers Of Kodack," and soon after put his foot in his mouth by saying that the audience was a lot louder in Ottawa — which he first called Quebec. He tried to make up for the slight to the locals when Wire returned for their first encore to rousing cheers and stated, "Toronto first, Ottawa second."

Chiming guitars highlighted "Silk Skin Paws" from 1988's A Bell Is A Cup... Until It Is Struck, which was also represented by the insistently paced "Boiling Boy." That album's "Kidney Bingos" wasn't performed, but it probably would have been too poppy to comfortably fit in with the rest of the set anyway.

Other personal favourites that didn't make the cut included "I Am The Fly" from 1978's Chairs Missing (and it was obvious I wasn't the only one in the crowd who hoped to hear that one), and "Over Theirs," "Drill" and "Ahead" from 1987's The Ideal Copy.

But the biggest kudos Wire received probably still go to their groundbreaking 1977 debut, Pink Flag, which has since become the name of their website and label. The album's title track, replete with a wall of guitar buzz, ended the second encore. Pink Flag also spawned what arguably remains the group's signature song (and the T-shirts for sale at the merch table seemed to be a reliable indicator), "12XU," which ended the show once and for all.