On April 20th, the Liverpudlian psychedelic post-punk quartet Clinic played their second of two shows in New York City. The show took place at Le Poisson Rouge.

Clinic hadn’t played in New York in several years, but there was quite a strong turnout of people of all ages at the show that night. The band was on tour in support of their ninth album, Free Reign II, an album released months after Free Reign. Free Reign II reinstates the mixes found on Free Reign, tacks on new ones for a few songs (“You” and “Miss You”), adds a “II” to each song, and puts the songs in reverse chronological order. Incidentally, the addition of this album has brought as much artistic recognition to the previous one as Walking with Thee earned in 2002.
And so that night, in the dimly-lit room at LPR, the band made their germ-free entrance, in their signature hospital masks and scrubs. Slits in those masks really helped get those lyrics out there and bring the serious-looking band ever so slightly closer to their audience. I didn’t remember those slits existing in 2002, when I took home a surgical mask from the show.

It was really cool to see the diverse audience respond to different songs the band played that night. The clarinet added some nice richness to their songs, as well. Smooth transitions between songs were flawless. What was missing from the show was the same thing I noticed in 2002: no real singalongs, as no one really seems to know the lyrics except them.
It was both refreshing and nostalgic to see such an original band rocking onward with their own style.

Set List
1. I Ching
2. Children of Kellogg
3. Miss You
4. Tusk
5. Seeds (a.k.a. King Kong)
6. I.P.C. Subeditors Dictate Our Youth
7. Lion Tamer
8. Porno
9. Boney M (a.k.a. Seamless Boogie Woogie BBC 10pm (RPT))
10. Orangutan (Swing)
11. See Saw
12. You
13. The Return of Evil Bill
14. 2/4

Encore
15. Walking with Thee
16. T.K.
17. Cement Mixer