It’s funny how you remember experiencing some live bands. Sometimes you were so intoxicated all you can recall is a happy blur of music and lights. At times it’s the unusual situation or location such as a corporate do or a rooftop. For this writer and Asian Dub Foundation both elements once combined furiously in the form of a fairground ride.

It was New Year’s Eve at the Alexandra Palace and in the same room where Asian Dub Foundation were pounding out a head-swirling mix of rock and dance, I whirled around in some nausea-inducing clap-trap contraption. That their politically charged music provided an exhilarating soundtrack to a (not so) cheap thrill, probably wouldn’t sit well with ADF. They have more serious aims than simple entertainment.

ADF have always spoken out about political and racial issues such as asylum seekers and social justice, but they are also fiercely active outside music. They help set up community projects in poor areas and were one of the forces behind the campaign that forced the eventual release of Satpal Ram, who had been wrongly convicted of murder. Thus an ADF gig is more than just a live music show, it’s like a protest.

All the main songs are here on their new live album, ‘Keep Banging On The Walls’, such as the tumultuous assault of ‘Fortress Europe’ and the righteous determination of ‘Free Satpal Ram’. However it on the tracks with a heavier Asian influence, such as ‘Cyberabad’ and ‘Dhol Rinse’ where their music really obtains an intensity, such that lyrics are unnecessary. But there’s also reveal a more abandoned side with reggae rhythms on ‘New Way New Life’ and the happy hardcore jungle of ‘Riddim I Like’.

What is important about ADF is simply that it’s necessary to have music that can maintain an ideology in this day of flash and fluffy-headed pop stars. What is good about them live is they can connect with their audience in a very real and immediate sense. Even those spinning foolishly in the clouds.

words: Colm Larkin