★ Punks, goths, psychobillies, belly-dancers (!) and sharp-suited rockers mingle and swelter in this apt Art Deco space, soon shaking a tailfeather to a Jazz Age warm-up of bikini’d Charlestoning dancers with a sassy brass band. Then darkness descends for Night Shift, a four-note gothic strut that’s the perfect opener for Siouxsie, her voice holding steady and stronger than at the beginning of this tour.
There’ll be more from 1981’s Juju (and Kaleidoscope, Mantary and Tinderbox) albums, and Chris Turtell’s abrasive guitar lines, Joe Short’s pulsing bass and Robert Brian’s minimal, pounding drums have clarity and oomph the further back you go in the venue. With Mantaray producer and keyboard player/guitarist Steve Evans as MD, song choices are diverse and sonically wide-ranging, pushing Siouxsie’s vocals further, including the ambient(ish) Carousel and the tribal Creatures song But Not Them (percussionists Brian and Evans, we salute you). Here Comes That Day is a Shirley Bassey banger, and Kiss Them For Me a gauzy, baggy groove. Dear Prudence is one highlight, Siouxsie whirling in her shiny playsuit in front of elegant, trippy back projections, and Into A Swan another, Bowie and NINmeets-bhangra beat.