It’s a shame that Primal Scream’s first official DVD comes on the back of their return to the Stoneslite rock they bowed before in 1994. Accelerator threatens to run away with them as soon as they hit the Hammersmith Apollo stage. Riot City Blues’ Dolls and Nitty Gritty follow, however, reining the show in under a mock-rock banner that it struggles to come out from under. Jailbird stands next to these re-re-hashes, proving they did this sort of thing better before.
Shoot Speed/Kill Light takes things somewhere near the stratosphere, but Suicide Sally drags it right back. After Gillespie does his Jim Morrison-rambling-ad libs-through-Gloria bit on Burning Wheel, he never seems to shake the character off. They may have always traded in pastiche, but they’ve also done it so much better elsewhere. When their current fascination leaves a sticky mark on the best bits, it’s like an hour and 20 minutes of mild let-downs.
All the promo videos will cheer you up. The Scream through the ages is a fascinating beast. As if to hammer the point home, however, Dolls is just a 2006 rip off of Rocks. If they won’t start taking speed and writing roof-raising records again, what will they do?
