Wire Just A Bit Too Wired

In blue: Lewis, Newman and Spigel, in black and white: Robert Gray (formerly Gotobed) at Irving Plaza
Some of you may like the crunching pulsing Wire of the late Eighties, I prefer the first three albums. Of course, I respect a band's right to move on and not look back, developing its own brand. But why, when you have hits like "Outdoor Miner", "Marooned" or "I am the Fly" at hand, not show us who actually the heroes of New Wave are, just here and there? Okay, I'm a nostalgic sucker and yeah, Wire gave us "The 15th" (famous here because of the Fischerspooner cover version), "Lowdown" and "12XU" in a one minute hi-speed version, but where are the glorious harmonies and choruses of the early compositions? Their new record "Object 47" has some interesting new material, but with an indistinct booming bass and harsh guitars, a lot of it was lost on the audience. Colin Newman and Graham Lewis, formerly famous for not giving a toss, at times seemed to try just a little too hard, instead of facing the music with a wink and a smile. I'll go again, of course. I should have known better?
And with a nod to Enkel 154: Made it to Wire, as you can see, but missed one of these rare Residents shows. From what I heard it must have been great. Are you reporting about the Bunny Boy, too?