Gig Review: Shihad 'The General Electric' live

Shihad 'The General Electric' live

San Fran Bathhouse August 5, 2010

The Shihad mantra 'play loud', often noted on their album sleeves, is a fan call to arms that the band have made their gospel throughout their career.  As I sit here the morning after witnessing ‘The General Electric’ in all of its live splendor, the buzz in my ears serves as a tribute to that catch cry.  Maybe it's time to give up that stubborn resistance to earplugs!  

The pop flirtations that took place on the ‘Fish’ album (as many of us call it – or the self titled album for those sticklers for the rules) gave rise to the melodic rock breakthrough ‘The General Electric’ in 1999.  This landmark album, containing many tracks now regarded as career highlights, also saw Shihad playing with a groove not witnessed before.  Typified by tracks like Wait And See (which had the crowd bouncing like everyone was on one of those miniature trampolines) and Sport And Religion (similar response), this melodic, even disco like groove has been a further tool in their artillery ever since.  

If pop melody and groove were two big players on ‘The GE’, Shihad still packed plenty of high octane menace.  So to the opening stains of the intro to the album, the boys hit the stage.  And we all know whats coming next.  My Mind's Sedate explodes and if there's a bigger statement of intent than this track, I'm yet to hear it.  To an already delirious audience, Shihad deliver The General Electric.  A monumental song any time, and widely considered one of the band's career highlights, it sees a clearly fired up Jon Toogood in for a spot of crowd surfing – the first of several forays into the masses for Toogood during the evening.  Wait And See and the epic Pacifier are played out and we've had four straight greatest hits.  There aren't too many bands with the strength of songs to follow four straight classics, especially when the set list is by default.  These are the songs you want to close sets with!  But this is Shihad, and they have Thin White Line and Just Like Everybody Else up their sleeves.  Aggressive, moody and emotive, they serve as further examples of Shihad's ability to combine crashing brute rock with pop tilting melody.  A beautifully expressed, solo Brightest Star closes the album and the show, and we await an encore.  

Toogood, whose banter with the crowd is always spot on, says they're once again taking a step back, and pulled up from the deepest waters of the 'Fish' album is a heaving La La Land.  It fights a mean fight, it's agression played out by a Phil Knight solo as he steps right up to a thrashy, seething ocean to land it.  But if I just said 'aggression', hold on.  Having warned us that “this is gonna be shit.  No really, but we're gonna give it a try”, Shihad then proceed to pull of a blistering, ripping It off Devolve.  Toogood and Kippenberger play on smiling and nodding as Knight shows his wares, and Larkin is Larkin – a machine.                  

So there we have it – ‘Killjoy’ and ‘The General Electric’ – such contrasting albums, arguably their finest, and proof of Shihad's constant ability to move on while invoking the essence of Shihad past as it shapes its future.  Four Wellington lads, unchanged in their day (and for that matter night) jobs since 1991.  And grateful for every moment, as Toogood alludes to when he comments that he's been able to play loud guitar for a living and how cool is that.  Typical of the personality that grips this band is Toogood's delight and pride that his parents are in attendance tonight.  Jonny, Kipp, Phil and Tom have always been genuine – the good guys, the heroes, and certainly the band of the people.  And how cool is that Jon?  Pretty fucking cool if you ask me.