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FEAR - Live At The Gramercy Theater, New York City, September 21st, 2018.

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    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • FEAR - Live At The Gramercy Theater, New York City, September 21st, 2018.



    FEAR, celebrating their 40th anniversary with a tour that is, if not the original lineup, at least partially what is regarded as the 'classic lineup,' made a stop in New York City on September 21st, 2018. One of those bands that used to be able to blast through seventeen songs in fifty-minutes proved that, yes, forty years later, they should still blast through seventeen songs in fifty-minutes. Apparently time means nothing to Lee Ving, now pushing seventy but showing no signs what-so-fucking-ever of slowing down or mellowing out. He's kept the band going, off and on, since 1977 and while their discography might not be huge for a band that has been around four decades (compare them to The Damned, for instance), there's something to be said for just how Goddamn raw and ruthless those first three full length LPs are, political correctness be damned.

    The show was opened by Cuiado and then L.E.S. Stitches. We completely missed Cuiado's set, which is a shame as their album is great, and only caught the last two songs that NYC's own L.E.S. Stitches played - which were completely solid - blame the day job and the need to eat (and drink - MORE BEER!) before the show, combined with a reasonably early set time for that. But we did arrive in time to get some seats (yes, seats - bands celebrating their 40th anniversary don't always draw a young crowd) behind the sound booth and take in the entirety of FEAR's set.

    So how was it? Well, the sold out show lasted less than an hour but that hour was bliss. Check out this set list…

    Fuck You Let's Rodeo / Honor And Obey / Let's Have A War / Beef Baloney / Camarillo / I Don't Care About You / New York's Alright (If You Like Saxophones) / Gimme Some Action / Foreign Policy / We Destory The Family / I Love Livin' In The City / Disconnected / We Gotta Get Out Of This Place / Fresh Flesh / Getting The Brush / No More Nothing / More Beer

    So yeah, there's the entire debut album played start to finish with Rodeo thrown in just to kick an extra amount of ass. And was there an encore? Damn right there was - even if it was only one song, that song was I Believe I'll Have Another Beer, probably the band's most anthemic song and a battle cry to rowdy drunken goons across this great land of ours.

    Front man Lee Ving, the band's only constant member, was in very fine form. Somehow, his voice has not weakened at all in the forty years that he's being doing this. He was clearly in great spirits last night, taking the piss out of the crowd and having a good time doing so. He dodged flying beer cans and called out a 'cute blonde chick' for being tough enough to hold her on in the pit with 'the rest of you meatheads' and was seemingly having a blast up in front. The rest of the band followed suit, keeping time with Ving, clearly the ringmaster to the circus playing out in front of him, and not missing a beat and opening each track with a patented “1,2,3,4”, as he should.

    FEAR was tight, ferocious and, yeah, funny. One of the things that set them apart from their peers was that they could play and play well. This was obvious at this show, the band never once sounded sloppy but instead came across as a well-oiled bulldozer, even bringing out, of course, a saxophone player for New York's Alright. Before the band walked off stage for good Ving did say that they'd see us again in April - which I guess means that this 40th anniversary tour is just that, and not a farewell tour. Which would be completely boss, because 40 years later, FEAR is still a band very much worth seeing live.

    A few camera phones pictures…






















    And a couple of videos!



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