CONCERT REVIEW: The Charlatans (UK) at The Loft, Berlin - Tim Mohr

Few bands on the current British circuit have four albums and years of touring under their belts. An extensive repertoire and understanding of professional live performance make for a rewarding concert experience, as the Charlatans prove on their latest tour.

Though their last two records have shown continual growth and maturation, in concert the Charlatans still harken back to the heyday of Manchester's rave scene of the late 80s, back when rave meant bands with live instruments whose music was danceable - Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, and the Charlatans. The band emerges amidst a haze of dry-ice fog, singer Tim Burgess already possessed by the beat that has yet to kick in.

The newest material takes on an intensified, wobbly infectiousness as the band digs in, and audience dancing peaks for the latest single, "Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over" as much as for classics like "The Only One I Know" and "Weirdo."

Burgess sings confidently and writhes with a beat that bodily animates him throughout the show, a rhythmic parasite that contorts his arms and his elastic Mick Jagger lips. The band sounds muscular and thick, like on the last two records, but has not relinquished the ability to groove and to knead bass and organ into a potent loaf of dance-inspiring noise.

And happily, the band touches every period of their career, playing "The Only One," "Then," and "Sproston Green" from their debut as well as "Weirdo" from the second lp, revitalizing the underappreciated "Can't Get Out of Bed," "Jesus Hairdo" and "I Never Want an Easy Life" from Up to Our Hips, and solidifying their vision with most of the songs from the new album.

The Charlatans continue to make a good case for themselves, and continue to comfound the doubters who still claim for the Stone Roses a position of artificial prominence above other contemporaries. Unfortunately for these people, the Charlatans have produced a far superior album this year and continue to put on better concerts.