Set List

1. Anarcadia: All Horned Animals
2. Amethyst Deceivers (Version 2)
3. Slur
4. A Cold Cell
5. Broccoli (Version 1)
6. Paranoid Inlay
7. A.Y.O.R.
8. Backwards

Feeling: Reflective

“Anarcadia” tour, “Backwards / The Remote Viewer” phase.

John announced the title of every song and proffered some revelatory descriptions of their subject matters.

The sound engineer prominently mixed Cliff’s hurdy-gurdy in the live sound, overshadowing Mike’s Border bagpipes.

Anarcadia: All Horned Animals

Peter throws cymbals at the metal sheet. John growls, howls, and screams into the mic towards the end of the song.

John (after the song): “That was queer, that was ‘Queer Wolf’ for all the people, the people/animals whose eyebrows join in the middle.” They later changed the name of the song.

Amethyst Deceivers

John: “This is ‘Amethyst Deceivers.’ This is about, this is about the birds who control time and space.”

Peter screws up the Ableton backing tracks near the beginning of the song.

Slur

John: “This next song is ‘Slur,’ and it’s about being sodomized in the ruins outside of Marrakesh. The ruined cities of Marrakesh. It’s a time-travel thing.”

Roman lands of Roman sands and Roman sons
Roman lands of Roman sands and Roman sons

As I watch the sun sink down on the blood red edge of the blood red town
There are shadows for sale
On the edge of town
On the edge of the night
Is a darkness seen
From the side of the light

And the winds blow ’round this sleeping town, this sleeping town
This Roman land of Roman sun and Roman sons

Roman lands of Roman sons and Roman suns

And it seems to me that when I close my eyes
All the lights in the world
Go out
And I worse [?] passes by, and you whisper to me a thousand lies
I stare in surprise
Towards the desert’s warm black
And the desert stirs
And the desert stares back
With a thousand eyes, piercing eyes, ancient eyes

And I ask my lovers, “Do you know where the desert roses bloom and grow?”
I ask my lovers, “Do you know where the desert roses bloom and grow?”

John flubs “And the night passes by” and doesn’t sing “And I ask my lovers” until the final drumroll at the end of the song.

John (after the song): “Thank you, thank you.”

A Cold Cell

John: “’A Cold Cell.’ Not so appropriate for tonight, ’cause it’s pretty warm in here.”

From this performance onward, John would improvise a closing monologue, usually imagining himself as one of the imprisoned boys. He’d also sometimes rapidly make shivering and clicking noises, mimicking the vocal collage as heard on the studio version.

[Shivering]
And then in the dreams…
…I remember when I was eleven…
…And the angels on the bus…
…Somebody is standing there…
And it was only dreams…
…People understand
And then the book was passed between one, two, three people
And when it came back, and there was blood all over the book
And they’re being cut in slices by the razor blades
And the razor blades have been hidden
In the back of the boys’ trousers of the boys who came in last time
And these are the boys who have been destroyed
By the last people who came to…
And it’s a really strange place to be because
You look at iron, you look at iron pools
And you see frozen water
And it’s the same thing as here
Because it’s entirely continental

My, my dreams become cold, and I can’t write anything
Because we don’t have any pens
And so we don’t have any pens
And there’s angels coming in the windows
And they’re destroyed and
The angels have set themselves on fire
And they left me because the angels don’t circumcise
And I’m now totally burning for the people and it’s all because

It’s luxury to exist in a one place
Even if it’s in your head
And if you live in a place
Where there’s no luxury at all
And it’s a strange place where
No one who lives there wants to go there again…
It’s, it’s a cold cell
A cold cell

And we dream of dirty water
And we dream of dirty water
And it’s tempting to get ill
So we’ll, we’ll get taken to the hospital
We’ll be lucky if we get taken to the hospital
We may have some time away from the people who give orders
And the people who…will destroy our minds
And our hearts and our eyes that people destroy
And we’ll be injecting ourselves with paraffin in the legs
Because that way, we get ulcers and sores
And we get away, we get away from the cold
We get away from the cold…

I just wish a train would come and take me away
I just wish I could lie under the train that came to take me away
And take me away, and take me away
And tonight, into the night, into the night, into the night…
[Shivers]

Please let me sleep
A lovely night’s sleep
Please let me sleep [repeated]
In a cold cell

Paraffin is “a flammable, whitish, translucent, waxy solid consisting of a mixture of saturated hydrocarbons, obtained by distillation from petroleum or shale and used in candles, cosmetics, polishes, and sealing and waterproofing compounds.” -Google

Broccoli

John: “This, uh, next song is ‘Broccoli, Broccoli.’ It’s from Musick to Play in the Dark, uh, 1 or 2; I can’t remember. It’s about ancestor worship and about taking some time every day to just remember your ancestors and sort of draw on their strength and remember that they were there so you can be here now, basically.” John pronounces “dark” like “tark” and the song was the fourth track on the first volume.

Wise words from the departing
The death of the mother and the death of the father
Is something you prepare for
For all their lives
Something you prepare for
For all your life
For all your life

Wise words from the departing
Eat your greens, especially broccoli
And always wear sensible shoes
Wise words from the departing
By working the soil, we cultivate the sky
And enter the vegetable kingdom of our own making
By working the soil, we cultivate good manners
Is to say “please” and “thank you”
Especially for the things you’ve never had

Wise words from the departing
Eat your greens, especially broccoli
Way before the thing (?)
To cultivate the soil
Is to generate a vegetable kingdom of our own making

By working the soil, we cultivate good manners
Which is to say “please” and “thank you”
Especially for the things you never had
These words, words from the departing
Eat your greens, especially broccoli
And always say “thank you”
Especially for the things you never had
And always say “thank you”
And always say “thank you”
Especially for broccoli

What’s that sensation inside of my head?
It’s the fragrance from the flowers in the funerals of the dead

John (after the song): “Thank you, thank you all.”

Paranoid Inlay

John: “This next song is ‘Paranoid Inlay.’ It’s about the malice of in-in-inanimate objects.”

Serenity is a problem when you’ve been this close to heaven
What you really wanted to see is the wonders of the underworld
I caught St. Peter’s disease as he rattled his keys
Now, serenity is a problem, serenity is a problem

Such a paranoid inlay
Pain by numbers, just join the dots

Now, serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem, serenity is a problem

Bloody British bulldozers
These vegetables are suicidal
It seems concussion suits you
It seems concussion suits you
When these bloody British bulldozer
Serenity is a problem

Dear Diary, I must take risks
These are the things I need to give up
I must not be afraid of failure
Crystalline ladders, television
Being afraid of people I haven’t met yet
Shiny things, mirrorballs
I used to believe in mirrorballs

Now, serenity is a problem, serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem, serenity is a problem

On a clear day, I can see forever
That the underworld is my oyster
On a clear day, I can see forever
I can see forever that the underworld
The underworld is my oyster
That the underworld is my oyster
But now, serenity is a problem

Audience member (after the song): “Woah! Yeah!”
John (referring to the audience member): “We’ve got a wild animal over there, yes?”
Audience member: “Is too!”
John: “Yes, indeed. Is that the end of my microphone, put there? Is it going longer? Thanks.”

A.Y.O.R.

John: “Hm, ahem. Sometimes you have to go there at your own risk. ‘At your own risk’ means ‘A.Y.O.R.’”

A.Y.O.R. [repeated]
A…Y.O.R.

It’s in my blood [repeated]
In my blood
It’s at your own risk [repeated]

It’s in my blood, it’s in your blood, it’s in my blood
My blood is your blood, my blood is your blood
Your blood is my blood, your blood is my blood
Our blood is your blood, our blood is my blood

Effing queers/I feel weird [?]
It’s in our blood

Backwards

John: “God, it’s hot, here.”
(Audience cheers and screams)
John: “We decided we can’t go forward anymore, so we decided to go backwards.”

John’s closing words: “Thank you. That’s it, tonight. Thank you very much for coming. We’ll be back when we can, do different things again.”

John Balance – vocals, sleigh bells on “Anarcadia: All Horned Animals”
Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson – Ableton sequence, video projections, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer, cymbals and metal sheet percussion on “Anarcadia: All Horned Animals”
Simon Norris (Ossian Brown) – Clavia Nord Modular Lead Synthesizer, sleigh bells on “Anarcadia: All Horned Animals”
Cliff Stapleton – hurdy-gurdy
Mike York – Border bagpipes, bombarde on “Anarcadia: All Horned Animals,” balalaika on “Broccoli” and “Paranoid Inlay”

Andy Reynolds – live engineer

Vooruit Kunstencentrum / Balzaal
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23
9000 Gent
Belgium