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Longwave / The Vines – Melkweg Amsterdam 10/10
Support band Longwave played a short hard rocking set, starting off with some Sonic Youth-like noise, and the rest of the set sounded not unlike the Strokes with a real singer (which means it sounded like Television, the Ramones, the young U2 to name but a few…… <img> ), all in all, a very enjoyable band.
Some classic MC5 (including the famous "and now, kick out the jams, motherfuckers…." announcement) blasted through the PA to announce the arrival of the Vines, last month’s ‘this month’s big thing’, they started great with the title track from their album "Highly evolved", two minutes of pure adrenalin…. What followed was a not all too consistent gig, the faster songs were fine, but the slower stuff (with the singer using his falsetto voice a lot) was dangerously close to a very dodgy Oasis <img> They did a very fine and surprising cover of Outkast’s "Ms. Jackson" as well <img> , and the gig ended with a hard rocking encore, and at the end of the encore a guitar was smashed into the drumkit <img> , and that was it…. <img>Afterward Hansione and den Buck went for a drink in a small pub specializing in Belgian beers, where we met the guys from Longwave, nice band, nice people!
Sleater-Kinney–9:30 Club Washington DC
Show began with V is for something or other. Kind of the math White Stripes in reverse. Wasn’t really digging it as the were the replacements for the illing Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Next were the Quails who were pretty good, kind of a punkabilly thing. SK was just badass, played almost all of One Beat, You’re No Rock ‘n Roll Fun, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Little Mouth and several other favs. Played for about an hour and half, very energetic, lots of joking with the crowd. Great show.Cool you got to see them LDD,yeah Malc I heard Janet tells jokes when Carrie and Corin are having tech problems.
Also Janet was telling people to smile more, some intense faces in the crowd, I guess. Joke was something about the pope in a taxi…
Yeah,indie rock fans need to lighten up a bit,I guess that`s why SK wrote-"you go downtown,put on your best frown".
Anton Walgrave / Dead Man Ray – de Brakke Grond Amsterdam – October 28
De Brakke Grond is one of the most intimate venues in Amsterdam, a small hall in the Flemish Belgian Cultural Centre, it has a capacity of about 150 people seated on a kind of terraces in front of the floor that serves as the stage. Yesterday evening it was nearly completely full as singer-songwriter (that was the way he was billed) Anton Walgrave opened, singer-songwriter wasn’t exactly the right label for this sympathetic guy with his hard rocking band. They had some very fine songs in the best Belgian (dEUS, Zita Swoon, Novastar) tradition, a very pleasant surprise, and another big talent coming from Belgium, why doesn’t Holland have anything like it?
The break was spent drinking a couple of friendly priced Belgian beers in the bar of de Brakke Grond (another advantage of this venue, the 30 different Belgian beers they serve at the bar… <img> )
After the break it was time for Dead Man Ray, whose latest (and great) album ‘Cago’ was produced by Steve Albini. The sound was great from the start on, opening with ‘Centrifugitives’ and ‘Landslides’ from the new album, with their three very distinctive three (lead-)guitars, but in the beginning the band was obviously having some problems with the (lack of) response from the seated audience, but luckily that changed quickly, and the band was obviously having a great time (with a lot of in-between the songs jokes), as well as the audience…. They played for about one and an half hour, playing stuff from all of their three albums. They ended with a well deserved encore, a live version of the ‘Colin Newman single-remix’ of ‘Landlides’ <img> <img> , with Rudy Trouvé doing an unintended ‘salto mortale’ as he jumped on a chair that slipped away and fell over, luckily he survived it……
Somewhat later, at the bar, den Buck had a beer with and got his setlist signed by Daan Stuyven and keyboard-player Wouter van Belle <img>
Los Straitjackest-The Magic Stick in Detroit
If you actually like insrumental music, go see the Straitjackets. All 4 guys in the band are monster musicians. The only other drummer I’ve ever seen that made that much of an impression on me was J himself. They were the best 4 piece band I think I’ve ever seen. Oddly enough, the crowd was the most enthusiastic crowd I’ve seen in Detroit in years. 5-10 years ago, it seemed like the crowd at every Detroit show rocked. Lately, the Detroit shows have featured a pretty quiet crowd.
The band played a great mix of new and old. They even threw in a few great covers: Celine Dions love theme from Titanic, Sleepwalking, and the themes from Batman and The Munsters.
LIke a lot of surf bands, the Straitjackets do have their "thing". They wear wrestling masks, and have go-go dancers on stage while they play. Some people like that sort of thing, I really don’t. That aside, the musicianship was phenomenal. A great show.
TomThe Coral – Melkweg (old hall) Amsterdam – 11/6
The announced support act ‘Vega 4’ had disappeared without a trace and was replaced by Dutch latin-lounge combo ‘Herbs Spectacle’, the least said about them, the better, so den Buck says: <img>
The six (very) young guys that are ‘the Coral’ played for about an hour, and it was a quite amusing gig, they started with a song that sounded like a cross between the Doors and MC5, and after that it was ‘guess where we stole this from’ for every song: Doors, MC5, Stooges, Echo & the Bunnymen, Beatles, Oasis, Jefferson Airplane, Supergrass to name but a few ‘influences’…..
All in all, a quite enjoyable gig, that just ended a little disappointing: last song played, lights on, no encores, please leave…. <img>Crossing Border Festival – Melkweg Amsterdam 11/8
The Crossing Border Festival tries to combine all kinds of music and literature, and is held anually in a couple of venues in Amsterdam. Due to the atrocious weather (and the programme) den Buck decided to spend the whole evening at the Melkweg.
The first music den Buck heard and saw were Utah Carol from Chicago, they did a session for VPRO radio in the restaurant of the Melkweg, a cool mix of the Handsome Family and the B-52’s….
Start of the regular program was Kristofer Aström & Hidden Truck, a Swedish band playing what they called ‘Northern Blues’, fine songs with hints of country, Neil Young and Nick Drake, den Buck liked them a lot!
Next up was Belgian stand-up comedian Kamagurka, gross, obscene, absurd and very, very funny!
Saw and heard a couple of songs of the Jeevas, the new band of that Kula Shaker guy, sounded like the Kinks meet late Velvet Underground, nothing shocking, nothing new, but OK….
Read all about the J. Mascis gig here
In the small cinema upstairs Luc de Vos (frontman of Belgian band Gorki) was reading some stories from his new book, funny as hell (especially his adventures with Posh Spice in a Black Jag… <img> ), he did some Gorki songs as well, solo with acoustic guitar, great <img>
Last act in the old hall were the Mekons, this folk-country-punk-rock-big-band got the audience dancing and smiling, not the greatest gig of the night but certainly the most amusing…. <img> <img>
All in all, a great night!
Great review Buck. It’s a pitty (for me) that I couldn’t make it. Things a more calm now.
Must have been nice shaking hands with J. You lucky thing!!!!
See Ya
Just saw Clark and Small Brown Bike last night at the Senior Bar on the campus of the Universitiy of Notre Dame. Showed up late, missed two other bands, Choir Invisible and Completing the Square, two badns, like SBB I never heard.
Came in whilst Clark played. They are the alpha dogs of the South Bend scene, a loose network of bands that play punk, punk-techno, "emo" if you must, and some even rock out for God. None of the bands worry at all about the others’ delivery of beliefs, they are all just happy doing what they love, which gives the fans a big plus over others who might be more concerned with image dynamics. It’s all just love here.
Clark is mostly hardcore, but with a slower singing style, lots of attention to harmony, some metally riffage and clever changes in tempo. Ryan their drummer is just a huge huge hitter. Normally, they do not need to mike him, but last night… oh jeezis, that place was just shaking. Mike the guitarist, decided to add some funk to his old school metal grinding. For his trouble, he got crowd surfed while playing. Pat, the singer/bassist is the most fun to watch, as he should have run the high hurdles in school with his leaps. Occasionally he sweats so much that he shorts our his mike and shocks
himself really good. It is kinda funny to watch him getting surfed while the shock things is going on.SBB, is to say the least, world class. It is no doubt why Sparta and Cave In asked them to tour earlier this year. If you guys get a chance to see them, do it! They are all about the screamo things, but their sound is just…. tight, large and textured. I can’t say too much about it other than the crowd was totally into it and my hearing was fucked afterwards as was the band’s, the venue’s dynamics were excellent.
http://www.smallbrownbike.com
http://www.clarkclarkclark.com (message board <img>Still have three Clark Cd’s on hand for who ever wants one, and Jaron, yours went out late, sorry but in the mail. Sending these out to folks free, or in trade for something from your local scene or a band I like or have not heard. Clark gives permission to burn copies for friends if you like also.
Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade (opening: Deadweight) – The NorVa, Norfolk, VA – 11.10.2002
Awesome show. My friend Ricky (the world’s biggest Les fan) and I showed up about 30 minutes early, which I’m sure to you all doesn’t seem early at all, but in Virginia time, that’s comparable to showing up 8 years before the concert starts. The only other people in line were two 40 year olds in Grateful Dead shirts who were shocked SHOCKED to learn that you can’t carry a DAT with stand into a music venue anymore.
So, anyway, doors opened at 7 and we plant ourselves literally front center on the rail. We talked up a security guard for about 45 minutes who told us stories about some of the bands he’d met in the last two years worknig there: Stone Temple Pilots, System of a Down, Clutch, Garbage, GWAR, megadeth, Staind, etc. He also told us what a giant weird dick Maynard was when APC played last year, but that’s a story for another night.
The opneing band was definitely inspired by Primus. They played some funky electric bluegrass-esque stuff and were really good. They played for about 45 minutes.
Around 9:15, the frog brigade made their way on stage, first Brain who set up back and right of center on drums, then the new secondary precussinoist who was left of center and back. Then the saxophonist came out in full devil regallia, then treefrog (aka enoid) came out and man, that sucker was 7′ at least. Finally, Les Claypool came out and he was wearing his usual long nose mask that he always begins with. The cool thing was, his mike stnad had two mikes, one at about 6′ and one around 4.5′, for when he would put his foot up on his monitor and duck down. I thought that was cool.
The setlist went as follows:
Cosmic Highway
Theia
Kylie
Di’s Diner
Holy Mackerel
Space Oddity [Bowie]
Lights
David Makalaster I
David Makalaster II
Whamola => Southbound Packiderm (tease) => Whamola
—
Taxman [The Beatles]Claypool’s new stuff is much better live, although no amount of energy could save Lights or Kylie, they’re just too Phish-esque. Di’s Diner was a definite highlight with everyone singing along to the chorus. Fans were pretty intelligent, picking up perfectly the switch into Holy Mackerel and singing the entire thing. Claypool left after HM and came back on stage wearing his army helmet with flashlights bulit into the eye sockets. He played Bowie’s Space Oddity to perfection and kept leaning into the crowd and holding his hand just above where people could reach (just being an asshole, I guess). The two versions of David Makalaster were awesome and lots sang along to the choruses for them as well, and people even started jumping around.
The biggest crowd buzz of the evening came during Whamola when Les played about 10 seconds of Southbound Packiderm which caused the whole place to erupt, which I thought suprising since most people wouldn’t recognize 10 seconds of a riff of a song on Primus’ worst album, or so I’d think. Anyway, he came out for an encore, which wasn’t on the setlist, and played a 10 minute funk version of Taxman by the Beatles, ending around 11:30. That’s 2:15 for a concert with only a 2 minute break – pretty good! After the show, some fucked kid jumped on stage, grabbed a setlist and leaped into the crowd. Most clubs, no biggie, but at NorVa, you’re getting your ass kicked by security, who put him in a chokehold. One of the roadies gave my friend Ricky a setlist eventually, which is cool because Les hand draws pictures on all the setlists and signs them knowing people will get them. I think Ricky was going to frame it along with the first ticket sold to the show. Anyway, as we were waiting to by stickers in the merchandise counter, that same dumb kid tried to rip a Claypool poster off the club wall and run out the doors. In the process, he smashed into the ticket taker’s stand thing which – being made of wood – shattered into little pieces. As we left, police were hauling that kid away.
All in all, if anyone has a chance to see Claypool, do so. He’s not playing any Primus, but man, he’s still the most talented bass player I’ve seen.
Tom (not half-man),
I think it’s great that you saw Los Straitjackets! <img> They’re one of the best bands I’ve ever seen live. My mom came with me to a Reverend Horton Heat show a couple of years ago and LS were one of the opening bands. We were both blown away by their performance- one of the most entertaining and musically tight bands I’ve ever seen. All amazingly talented, like you said <img>
Conan also has them on every once in a while, so keep your eyes open!
Take care,
Rosa
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