Imagine this for a gig - you're playing at a festival, run by the Levellers, attended by ??000-odd people, who by and large, quite like the Levellers, and the best bit of all is, you're the band that's on ... directly before the Levellers! Quite a tall order don't you think, so the big question then is, could Asian Dub Foundation rise to the challenge?
Personally, I had my doubts. Whilst Community Music remains a truly sublime moment in musical history, ADF's last two outings; Enemy of the Enemy and Tank have felt a bit lacking, and overall they do seem to have struggled to maintain that streak of originality since losing founder member MC Deedar.
ADF take to the stage at 6.45, to a big crowd, that feels like a jury that's still out. They open with a blistering version of tank from the new album which makes oh so much more sense than it does on record. We're suddenly confronted by 8 guys moving like their lives depend on it - punching out a song that's so loud and tight that the crowd's transformed from apathy to insanity in seconds.
What follows is among the most incredible and best sets i've ever seen. ADF were so tight, so loud, and so good it literally beggared belief. Suddenly this band are original again, they seem to have regained the confidence, passion and belief that made them such a devastaing act a few years ago. When they play Taa Deem, the tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan from Community Music the whole crowd seems to explode.
When we finally get to the end of the set after equally devastating versions of Naxalite, and Enemy of the Enemy, the questions seems to have changed from "Can ADF really be anything other than a time filler before the Levellers?" to, "How the hell are the Levellers going to follow that!"
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