As curtain calls go Acoustic Ladyland’s final four nights at the Vortex had been cause for both reflection and revelation. One of those being that tenor sax terroriser Pete Wareham (right) had found negotiating the twists and turns of their first album Camouflage tricky, his playing now a sparser, harsher incarnation of its former self, likewise bassist Tom Herbert had flown in from touring with his own Mercury-nominated trio The Invisible, admitting he hadn’t played double bass for weeks. These salient details mark the progress made by both former band members and the group’s inexorable forward-looking embrace of pastures new. Things got off to a sticky start with an added half hour of mic problems that only served to heightened tensions. Yet with their roaring Living With A Tiger LP as their template any residual tensions were smashed with thrashy opener ‘Have Another Go’.

If there was a sub-plot running through this farewell drama it was the dropping of hints in which direction the band would be heading next. One being Wareham’s love of adding Augustus Pablo-style delays to his sound. These were initially absent thanks to his mic woes creating a raw, ripping viciously febrile garage band sound. The sax FX returned just in time for Wareham’s gloriously cathartic tribute to his young son Quincy, ‘The Mighty Q’, held taught on a muted funk bass figure, then released by Chris Sharkey’s deep waves of power chords. The latter axeman is the perfect foil for the leader’s staccato attack, colouring in the gaps with rich harmonic rushes, morphing notes via subtle effects and bringing some genuine Hendrix riffing to the party. Bassist Ruth Goller’s coiled, metallic bass lines are at the band’s core while drum deity Seb Rochford dug into the Napalm Death side of his thrash beat repertoire with jaw dropping results.

The latter half of the set was Acoustic Ladyland at their free flowing imperious best, shredding boundaries between punk riffage and free improv, fuelled by some brutally deconstructed funk grooves. Whatever the future may hold for Acoustic Ladyland, their restless creativity remains undimmed, their attitude and energy rarely matched.             

– Mike Flynn