The Scottish Play : 2004
Honed to a fine performance edge from their live European forays early in 2004, Wire present their fierce, high-velocity set based around their successful album Send, their first album in over a decade, which marked a return to their trademark gimlet, shivved, short sharp shocked writing style. Filmed by visual artist Tom Gidley in forensic detail, this document shows the band s complete visceral set at The Triptych Festival in Glasgow, April 30, 2004. The footage deliberately excludes the usual rock music celebration of place and time and instead concentrates on contact with a band often misrepresented as enigmatic, cold and distant. Also included only on the DVD is a bonus selection of four pieces (captured by Observation Camera #1) of the second half of Wire s April 2003 Flag:Burning performance/installation at the Only Connect Festival at The Barbican, London. The set by avant stage designer Es Devlin was specifically commissioned by WIRE for this one-off performance. Based on the same body of work as the performance at Triptych, this is Wire seen from the other end of the telescope, willingly surrendering their personal performance to the service of the machinery of a unique, complex theatrical spectacle in a manner rarely allowed in the rock world.