808 State, New Century. 13th December 2025

Choices have been made this evening. The Slow Readers Club are playing their Cavalcade album in full across town. As great as they and that album are, I’ve opted instead to get totally destroyed by 808 State with their seminal album Ex:El in New Century. “Are you ready for ex:el in full?” asks Massey, before adding “not necessarily in the right order”. The lasers probe the room and ‘San Fransisco’ rips out. Despite the techno bass there’s a rawness to it and this is what makes 808 State live so good. The chilled ‘Spanish Heart’ calms things as Sumner’s original vocal is covered by someone whose name I don’t catch, but who sings it beautifully. The bass on ‘Leo Leo’ kicks and fucking hard. The geezers in the room bloody love it. There are a lot of blokes who all look the same. It’s a bit disturbing, but they’re a friendly bouncing mass. As ‘Qmart’ glides off the stage, its rave central, the mood is blissful and glorious. It takes a brave person to take on a Bjork vocal, but the voice is versatile and hits all the soaring power, primal screams and breathy inflections. They don’t often do ‘Nephatti’ live so to hear it like this and so loud is pure magic. It always stood out for me, but probably gets overshadowed by some of the bangers to come. What an album though, ‘Lift’ picks up and plinks along. The live drums give it some extra bite and the string samples sound euphoric. ‘Ooops’ marks the half way of this first set. Brooding house bass, the acoustic cutting guitar riff and those violent stabs of brass, it’s heady stuff. The pace kicks up with ‘Empire’, which makes way for a souped up ‘Olympic’. My god I’d forgot how great this is. They’re on a roll now as ‘Techno Bell’ slides into a furious ‘Lambrusco Cowboy’. Arms are in the air and friends are being made. Rarely do you get peace and love like this at gigs these days, but this monster fuses the room and takes my breath away. It’s absolutely deadly. It nearly steals the show, but for the following twin assault. ‘In Yer Face’, Fuck…ing…HELL! I’ve heard this live before but tonight in context, it’s utterly filthy. We round out part one with the equally brutal ‘Cubik’, that gets supercharged to a pace that’s exhausting. Massey shredding his guitar as the room explodes. We’ve got a second set of hits to go yet, but everyone looks stunned. 20 minutes later, we’ve regrouped. Drank a lot of water and go again with ‘Nimbus’. The energy levels have dropped a little, but not much and as ‘Pacific’ takes flight, so does the room. Massey holds his clarinet aloft and the phones come out. Fair enough, this is iconic stuff as 30 plus years melt away. I’m thrown slightly by ‘Ski Family’ that I’m not sure I’ve heard before, but it’s excellent. A motorik beat, chaotic piano stabs, lots of digital nastiness and seriously, whoever mic’d up the drum kit, bravo, it sounds stunning. ‘Cobra Bora’ puts us back into more familiar territory, with its fat squelchy bass and frankly terrifyingly violent piano clout. The lasers bounce and so does the room. We’re in 90 era as ‘Donkey Doctor’ detonates. It’s a stunning set, the best I’ve seen them. Not only to have so many amazing tunes to pull from, but to do them this well live. I can’t think of another largely electronic band that could pull this off like 808 State. The bludgeoning ‘Colony’ pounds our minds once more, before the only slight misstep of the evening with ‘Azura’. It’s dark Balearic come down vibe just isn’t as fun as everything else we’ve been served. It sets up an odd finale as they cover Bjork’s ‘Army of Me’. It’s certainly powerful, but feels unnecessary. I’m not going to complain though after nearly 2 hours of the very best filthy techno fused industrial rave mayhem. I’m informed that Readers were amazing too.