Having a top pop guest on your album can be a mixed blessing: more people might buy the record, but they also might expect you to pull said guest star out of the hat at every gig. Iggy Pop, whose menacing growl graces the Top Ten single, Aisha, was definitely not in the building when Death In Vegas played the Music Centre on Friday night, but the band still delivered a killer instrumental version of the tune, using only a few sparing samples from Pop's vocals. It worked beautifully. The stars may have been absent from the gig, but the vibe was there, from the spaced-out jam of Dirge and Flying to the psychedelic garage-dance workout of Neptune City.
Leaders Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes skulked at the rear of the stage, concentrating on the technical stuff, while the band cranked up the guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, looking like a strange conglomeration of Oasis and The Chemical Brothers, but they sounded like souped-up Sixties rockers hot-wired to the darker forces of techno.
