By James Casey
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 9, 1997

America Has Blurred Vision

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Ninety-five percent of the crowd seemed to be there only for the "WooHoo" song ("Song 2")

Many of you know Blur as the English band who did that "WooHoo" song on MTV. What many of you might not know is that Blur has been a pioneer in the British indie scene for almost seven years now, since the release of its first album in 1991.

Blur's self-titled LP released earlier this year is the band's fifth album and the reason behind a current string of U.S. tour dates, which included one in Phoenix's Electric Ballroom on Monday evening.

The show was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., with Smash Mouth, of recent MTV fame, starting the show. Luckily, I missed the Smash Mouth set, as it was rumored to have sounded like a thrash-ska band, the greatest evil there is, as opposed to the hipster band its single "Walking On The Sun" would make it seem.

Blur hit the stage at around 10 and instantly started the set with a near-perfect rendition of "Beetlebum," followed by the timeless "There's No Other Way," taken from the 1991 Leisure album. In fact, more songs were played from the old albums (Leisure, Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, Great Escape) than from the new one, which was definitely a good thing.

Ninety-five percent of the crowd seemed to be there only for the "WooHoo" song ("Song 2"), apparently ignorant of any other Blur tunes. I guess this is due to the fact that most kids here in America gather their musical tastes from MTV.

"Girls and Boys," the first single off the Parklife album, was churned out with such flair and skill that it proved to be a crowd favorite, although most people only knew the words to the chorus. Many other classic songs were played that night including "This is a Low," "Badhead" and "Popscene," all taken from the earlier works.

The big problem was the band's tendency to play the heavy stuff in order to please the raging hormonal youths, who then proceeded to mosh, in true 1980s fashion. To be honest, moshing is a pretty stupid activity; what's the point of going to a concert if you have to worry about getting squashed? The string of three of the heavier songs ("Bank Holiday," "Chinese Bombs" and "Popscene") which on their own are decent, proved to be a little too much for several of the real Blur fans present. And the contrast of typical hard-core following a brilliant pop-rock song can be strange, if not downright discouraging.

On the bright side, the performance of "Chemical World" was one of the greatest moments of the evening, and the addition of a line from John Lennon's "Mind Games" was a nice, if unexpected, tribute. Usually, it's Blur's rival Oasis who is tossing Beatles-connected references into its songs. Maybe there are some things we can all agree on after all.

Throughout the remainder of their set, Blur proceeded to enforce the belief that Britain is truly and once again the quality center for music and that if America wants to catch up, it will have to start taking notes.