Live Review: Faith No More, Sheffield Octagon, 27th January, 1990

What can you say about a band whose guitarist falls over during the first song? Drunk? Crazy? Maybe. But that's exactly what he did as he ripped out the chords during the opening song Out Of Nowhere.

Big Jim Martin laid on the stage undeterred. Mike Patton never stands still very long, leaping about the stage like a demented fool. Goose stepping everywhere, spitting out the vocals over the blur of driving beats. Rapping like a black man one minute and screaming rage metal vocals the next, his style is unique.

Roddy Bottum provided the humming keyboards beneath the driving rhythms. He was the only evidence of melody in most of the songs.

The strange and weird Underwater Love saw Patton's vocals twist and turn in the music. His stage presence is something most singers lack, an excellent frontman indeed. Leaping about, shaking his head and demanding crowd response, joking, and generally being manic.

Epic

Bordering between thrash and rap, the songs had their own identity, though some songs are just plain vicious, like Epic. This proved only to be an aural attack, as Bill Gould and drummer Mike Bordin hammered out the furious beat. Patton tended to be inaudible as far as lyrics were concerned. The music escalated into a mix of metal and fusion, with Jim Martin's solo cutting through clearly.

Zombie Eaters began with Mike serenading the audience as he sat on the monitors. Then screaming into the song's midsection; falling over backwards at the same time. Brilliant!

The familiar strains of We Care a Lot got the crowd cheering throughout. This was a song which Patton didn't own but nevertheless he gave it his personal touch and added a Tiffany-style body pop to it. He really could do nothing wrong as far as the audience were concerned.

Finishing their encores with a blazing version of Sabbath's War Pigs, Faith No More succeeded in doing justice to a classic song. Tonight was their night as the full house proved. This fact can only help propel them to the mega-stardom, which no doubt awaits them.


Julie Wilby
Riff Raff
April, 1990

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