Hawkwind's tour-by-tour progress in raising themselves out of their 2007 depths seems to be continuing. Last Saturday's show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, was a 2-hour one, and had some patches of good cosmic energy: notably a menacingly heavy and long Angels of Death. The customary complaint about Dave Brock being too low in the mix applied again tonight, but overall the band were the loudest I'd heard them since probably the 1990s.

The venue was very crowded. Any trek to the bar or the toilet was a major undertaking, unless one's prepared to barge a way through. Which some people were, incidently.

There were several new numbers in the set, which is all very well: a creative band shouldn't just live on past glories. Trouble is, most of the newer stuff is fairly nondescript compared to the more muscular numbers of the 1970s.

On youtube, there's an unusually good video (with good audio as well) of the encore number Assassins of Allah, otherwise known as Hassan i Sahba... Hashish, hashish, hashish, hashish.... if you'd like an idea of where Hawkwind are, in 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvPEx_kLVkY" rel="nofollow - this isn't a bad starting point .