October 2, 2001

Super Furry Animals : Southampton Guildhall

Continued proof that SFA have ideas like most people have lunch...

It's been a strange old year for Super Furry Animals. Major label indulgence allowed them to make 'Rings Around The World' into the world's first DVD album, but for all the hype accompanying it, the band still haven't quite managed to take themselves onto the next ladder of the commercial rung.

They're still playing roughly the same-sized venues they seem to have been playing for ages, and the truth is that they seem relatively comfortable at this level. For an act who've talked in the past of waging war on the pop mainstream, SFA , seem more suited to floating in the outer margins, a cult act free of commercial imperatives. It's worth remembering that even if they are on the verge of having their 14th consecutive Top 40 hit, they've yet to hit the Top Ten.

Still, there's no doubt that their music remains fantastic. Tonight the likes of 'Juxtaposed With U' and the steel drum meteorological madness of 'Northern Lites' emphasise their ability to mesh disparate musical elements into satisfyingly catchy bite-sized chunks. The band's chartbusters are also unravelled in delirious pop rush toward the end of the set, but it's in between, when we're treated to some of the more esoteric highlights of 'Rings'..., that things really start to get interesting.

The brain-frazzling country-goes-techno of 'No Sympathy' and the Bacharach balladry of 'Presidential Suite' seem like old friends already, while the Beach Boys-aping 'It's Not The End Of The World?' seems eerily prescient in light of recent events ("Turn all the hate in the world/Into a mockingbird/make it fly away"). By the time they get to a barmy 'Receptacle For The Respectable', they're joined by a friend in a huge John Lennon face-mask chewing celery.

It's continued proof that SFA have ideas like most people have lunch, but the nagging feeling still persists that their real masterpiece is still to come. They might be continuing to scale new heights (musically at least), but they haven't quite reached the peak yet.

Alan Woodhouse