New Model Army at KB, Malmö. Photo by Maria Björk & reproduced here with her kind permission


last night new model army played in malmö at kb, no one here calls it by its full name, kulturbolaget. it was 20 years since i last saw them play (in 2006 i was out of the country). when they took the stage with “here comes the war” i knew it had been worth the wait. the last time i saw them was in some small basement venue in hultsfred in february or march of 1988. now they, of course, have 20 years worth of new material, not all of it top notch to be sure, to choose from. & they chose a fairly well balanced mix of the very new - “no mirror, no shadow”, “high” - & the very old - “no rest”, “51st state” (i was surprised we couldn't outsing justin on the latter). the official set-list, by the way, is posted to the notice board at the band website, by someone or other in the audience who nicked it after the show. & when they ended with “i love the world” i was too wired to do the things i was supposed to when i got home

i have a deeply personal relationship to a great deal of the songs of nma, or really mostly the lyrics, me being a text person, dating back to 1984 or 85 when someone i knew back then introduced them to me by playing “smalltown england” & “a liberal education” from a really poorly recorded cassette tape & justin (sullivan, for those of you who didn't know that) is maybe the single person who shall take the greatest blame for me getting into poetry. now that's some cross to carry

if you want there is a really fine, & haunting, live version of “the hunt” to listen to at the website

& i hope they return to these shores soon

update:
found another audience view, this one from mia

second update:
found a flickr set by jerry backlund including video snippets of "no mirror, no shadow", "the hunt", "green & grey" & "no rest"

also, on youtube, from CinnamonWeaver, "green & grey" & "vagabonds" both missing only the first few seconds