You'd probably be pushing your luck to describe Mission Of Burma as "legendary", but the Boston art-punks carved themselves an idiosyncractic niche in the early 80s, largely through their one and only full-length studio album Vs (Pearl Jam borrowed the title for their second album). Its mixture of brutal textures and artistic cunning made the band eminently name-droppable, and their music would be cited as an inspiration by the likes of Husker Du, REM and Nirvana. Their unusual configuration - a deafening guitar-trio abetted by an unseen operative deploying tape loops and sonic trickery - amplified their mystique.
After a 20-year hiatus, while the members pursued other projects or, in the case of Martin Swope, retired to Hawaii, the Mission are back playing shows, and have a new album ready for release next month. According to a tape loop booming round the room, it's all "a wonderful experience for a man reaching middle age".
Although guitarist Roger Miller now suffers from tinnitus and has to wear protective headphones, the band hurled themselves into their rigorous two-part show with the punkish vigour of musicians who weren't even born during the Mission's first coming. Large swathes of their material resemble the kind of three-chord, skull-bludgeoning racket reminiscent of the nihilistic incompetence of Punk's 70s heyday, and a tiny amount goes a very long way. Most of the audience looked more like PhD students writing theses on Seminal American Bands 1980-1984 rather than lagered-up slam-dancers, and stood fingering their goatee beards while waiting for the trickier, cleverer bits.
The combo never venture too far from trusty 4-4 rhythms, though they offered a glimpse of greater possibilities with a version of Syd Barrett's Astronomy Domine, a psychedelic joy-ride through caverns measureless to man and tackled with considerable panache. The best of their own songs were the terse and explosive This Is Not A Photograph (nor, for that matter, a phonograph) and the scalding blast of That's When I Reach For My Revolver.
Starsky & Hutch are back. Why not Mission of Burma?
