The lights of the Concorde dim and the hallelujah chorus of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ announces the arrival of Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI). Frontman Jimmy Urine (born James Euringer) sports an impressive bleached Mohican, white t-shirt and jeans accompanied by fishnet arm sleeves, a tie and big white sunglasses with painted lenses. Jimmy is like a living cartoon character. His elaborate style reflects the gimmick, the self indulgence. But it doesn’t take long to realise it’s not particularly mindless. The band name is a direct reflection of the music and the show they put on; their mindlessness is very intentional.
MSI formed in New York in 1997. They have developed a unique style of music that fuses alternative rock with electro and techno, as well as elements of hip hop. It reminds us of the Bloodhound Gang who share the ability to mix contrasting genres whilst maintaining their place in the Rock and Alternative section of your local CD store. MSI also sound like Adam & The Ants in the way they experiment with sounds, use unconventional song structures and always make the beat a prominent feature.
MSI make songs about self obsession. Their lyrics cover subject matter such as getting high, having a good time and having lots of sex. They have five studio albums. Each album explores new ideas, but the themes are the same. In the end it’s all me, me, me with Jimmy Urine. The tone is set perfectly with opener, ‘Witness’, which is also the first track from their latest album: ‘How I Learned To Stop Giving A Shit And Love Mindless Self Indulgence’. The words of the song epitomise MSI: “Son of a bitch – God likes me – I am the best – Fuck everybody else”.
The set includes a lot of material from the new album, including ‘Fuck Machine’, ‘It Gets Worse’, ‘Ala Mode‘ and ‘Ass Backwards‘. Jimmy’s lyrics are more about enhancing the music with the sound of words than sending a message. The subject matter is so simple and straight forward they’re incapable of touching us emotionally. Clearly this is not what MSI are about.
This point is made even clearer by a ten minute, mid-set rant from Jimmy during which he makes silly noises, says random remarks and gets us to repeat stuff that doesn’t make sense. We’re encouraged to forget the seriousness of life, to dance and just have a good time.
MSI play songs from throughout their career. We hear ‘Tornado’ from ‘Tight’ (1999) and a few select favourites from the later albums, like ‘Shut Me Up’, from ‘You’ll Rebel To Anything’ (2005). The best material played tonight comes from their second album ‘Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy’ (2000). When they play ‘Dicks Are For My Friends‘, ‘Planet Of The Apes‘ and ‘Bitches’ it feels like the crowd notches up a level. Perhaps this album was where most of us got to know MSI.
The show comes to an end and MSI gladly oblige us with an encore. Finally, Jimmy sees us off with a charismatic lip-synch of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’. MSI have created something very simple but clever. They’re truly original and there is no other band like them. Unfortunately ‘Thoughtful Self Indulgence’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Concorde2, Thursday 28th November 2013
Words by John Mclean
Photos by Charles Shepherd
