When they play Richie-era stuff without him, it can sound like something is missing, but only in songs like this. Still brilliant enough that if it were the first time I had ever heard them, I'd still love them instantly!
Saw them the same year as this is recorded, 2003. They played this song also then. I was amazed, one of my favorite songs ever. If my memory serves me right, they played few more THB songs too, at least This is Yesterday...and P.C.P.
@lapetitepaumee I don't think he's saying Richey's guitar is missing, more that the essence is not there. That aside, Richey was plugged in for virtually all of The Holy Bible tour - in fact james made a point of feigning a problem with his guitar during certain songs, so that he had to quickly switch guitars, during which time the guitar sound (played by Richey) continued.
This is absolutely fucking amazing. It pains me to watch this as I missed it to see Sigur Ros on the Other Stage (no regrets though!). Glastonbury is sometimes a cruel mistress that way
@pandahoax Might have been signaling to the sound engineer or something. I noticed that a few times during this set - James would appear to indicate to someone off-stage like he wanted his voice turned up more.
+William Lucas I think it's a very engaging song played poorly. Maybe they were exhausted at the time or maybe it's just hard to play it at the same intensity as they used to. Both are legitimate reasons.
It's a hard song to play - you should try playing it yourself. Under most conditions - that is, the mindset of the band, the atmosphere of the audience and the general context of the performance - the song is just inappropriate. In fact I don't know why they bothered playing it at a music festival. 1994 was really the only year when any of the songs actually fit in with the mindset and aesthetic of the band. Nicky said in an interview with Noisey (2013) that you 'literally have to hate your audience' to play songs live from the Holy Bible.
I have played the song. I read the exact same interview in which Nicky said that. Everything else you said is so obvious that there was no point in writing it.
