The Fall – Dublin Fringe Fest

Mark E Smith stumbles around the stage. He’s acting like an aged alcoholic at a family gathering, lashing out at everything within reach, knocking over microphone stands, turning up or off the amps. He can’t sing, either. Not at all.

But the music is fantastic, the songs compelling studies in power, menace and threat, Smiths deadpan anti-singing aside, to the point where by you can accept it, forgive him. The band are reputedly one of the tightest units touring and don’t disappoint. Only Smith remains from the original line up and the young heads are technically brilliant.

The Fall, well Smith and support, purvey wonderfully vibrant, even now, post punk. Its a weird genre anyway, defined and shaped by its reaction to another. Its jarring now to hear how ripped of he’s been, where all those bands got it from.

The Spiegeltent has a great set up, using the setting by the waterfall in the Iveagh Gardens wonderfuly, with stalls and bars, and the ever present pie stall. If any of the acts in coming days tickle you, go for it- its great.