Live in London, England, 11.08.1997
Text written by Alan Braunton
Photos taken by Evelien Eenhoorn
I saw the articles on live reviews and, although I know very little about Tribe After Tribe, I thought that I would give my impressions on the show which I saw them at. I read that they were playing in the bottom corner of an advertisement in Kerrang! magazine. I'd just bought the Pearls Before Swine CD a few weeks earlier for no particular reason at all. I hadn't been to such a small gig in a while.
The support act were called FingerFood. They were fronted by a female vocalist and featured a female bassist, male drummer and played to a backing tape. Although not really impressed by the music, I was amazed by the vocal range of the singer. This band were definitely NOT your average guitar-based outfit which I was expecting. Their music reminded me of many people, including the likes of Bjork and some famous female vocalists such as Shirley Bassey - at least in the power which the singer's voice had.
The place was relatively empty, as popular British band, 'Skin' were playing downstairs - there may have been less than 50 in the room. We were sat at a table not 10 yards from the stage which was about the size of Lars Ulrich's drum platform which i saw at Reading the previous week.
Anyway, on come the tribe opening with the sublime drumming which precedes 'Fire Dancers' (I think). From this point
onwards, they may as well have been playing in a stadium as the atmosphere of the gig was incredible. Robbi appeared
not to be happy with the sound that they were creating and was continually making the sound engineer adjust the system
they were using. This didn't really show in the music they played. The stage was so small that Robbi ended up playing
on the dancefloor at the front of the stage, while the band stood back and played and a priviledged few amazed people
stared on. From what I could gather, most of the people there were Pearl Jam fans turned onto the Tribe by Robbi Robb's
inclusion in the Three Fish project of Jeff Ament. Some of these obviously were not familiar with the music which they
heard.
The songs which followed were music indeed: Robbi played like a man possessed: He laboured over every note played on his guitar and soloed mercilessly, sometimes for extended periods of time. He danced around the area in front of the stage with much vigour and energy enticing the crowd to do the same - which they did. The highlights of the show had to be either 'Boy' or 'Senor' - some of the most instant offerings on the last album, but it would be hard to pick out any one moment which summed up the show. From the way they played, it could be seen that Robbi's music is very personal and comes right from the heart delivered with all of the emotion and intent therein.
It was refreshing to see this after a trip to Reading, where I saw some bands droning out songs like clockwork with no feeling at all - very impersonal and highly polished. Fortunately, Tribe After Tribe were nothing like this. They provided an extra dimension to the music through the campfire atmosphere that they created simply because they wanted to be there, they wanted to play and they loved every minute of it. And so did I. I would not doubt that every person at that show left with similar feelings that I had: they had just witnessed something which was more than just your average rock show. They had seen, in the flesh, one of the most spiritual and profound bands that will ever grace the music circuit. Truly outstanding.
