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Friday night saw Graham Coxon (ex Blurghhhhh) and Malkmus and the Jicks at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London.
Graham sings about as well as Damon. that is not a complement. played guitar well enough, but overall twaddle. i would say a let down, but i was not expecting much.
malkmus and cohorts were a different kettle of fish however. never seen him so happy and animated, regularly sharing jokes with us and fellow musicians. only track i didn’t like was 1% of 1 – don’t get it. Highlights were the much requested Church on White, and Jennie and the Esss Dog, with do not feed the oyster being the best track off Pig Lib. really showed how good a guitarist he is, seems far more noticeable now without spiral playing with him.
anyways, good gig. really looking forward to Evan next month though.
"wireland" wrote:hey LDD, the lips are going to be here in the ‘burgh next sunday (4/27)….i’m psyched. and as a funny coincidence, both sonic youth and wilco (not to mention a bunch of other good acts) are playing for free this year at the arts festival, best lineup they’ve had at the arts fest. in years……i leave, and they get cool stuff
. seriously, i will be up in da burgh for at least one of those shows. have fun at the lips. 
Turin Brakes / Melkweg Amsterdam / 21 april 2003
I was walking along with a group of Rasta men towards the Melkweg last Monday. I know that Turin Brakes do have all kind of fans but guy with dreads?? That is new for me.
Arriving at Melkweg I found out that there was another concert that night. So separated by bars, just like the days of apartheid, we continued. Blacks in line and Whites in line…odd!
Turin Brakes is a nice small English band.
Take some Radiohead (pre Kid A), ad some Jeff Buckley, Muse, put some coldplay too, and you are getting close to their sound. Some drops of Beatles and Crowded House and there they are.
It was a cool gig, they played most songs of their latest cd “Ether Songâ€that’s right Hans – blame us for the rain.
I really don’t get turin breaks. blame them for the summer rain. understand why people got bored, in my opinion ether song sounds like just one long song. whilst on ether.
I’ve seen the the Go-Betweens yesterday and yes, they’re still amazingly wonderful
They still have their very own kind of joyful, happy, melodic melancholy.
The new songs fit perfectly with the old repertoire, it’s all like their 10 years of absence during the nineties was just a bad dream.I’ve been a teenager and easily to impress, when I stumbled in their show back in the eighties, without knowing a single song … they convinced me forever
I bought their albums, seen another show and then I had to wait ten years, always believing they’ll come back. And when they finally came back in 2000 I stood in front of a sold out club without a ticket
… I’ll never go to a show without a ticket. And I bought it in advance this time 
There was a happy, devoted, enthusiastic crowd of about 500 people, forcing them to come out 4 times for an encore… and hey, the Go-B’s are still weird, that’s what I immediately loved in the first gig, incredibly weird.
The Go-Betweens are Robert Forster an Grant MacLennan, backed by bass & drums. Two talented guys, two characters, when they play & sing together it’s so much more than their solo efforts (although their solo records weren’t bad). They’re blending folk, C&W, pop and rock influencess in their special way – the music appears almost harmless on the surface, but it’s full of magic :aliensmile:
hey, I’m just so happy that I’ve seen them again after all these years, and all the folks in the crowd seemed to feel the same
la Kidda / the Raveonettes – Melkweg (old hall) 5/14
Support act la Kidda was one of the worst bands den Buck has ever seen and heard, imagine a cross between Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos and Level 42, sounds bad? Yes it does….
The Raveonettes were back in Amsterdam nearly three months after their great debut in the small hall of the Paradiso. This time they platyed in the cosy and packed old hall of the Melkweg, and did just about the same as three months ago, 45 minutes (and about 16 songs…) of pure rock in the best Jesus & Mary Chain, Pixies, Blondie, Cramps, Velvet Underground tradition, one encore and away they were…..
Zero points for orginality, but 10 out of 10 points for fun
….and zero points for the soundman, who needed five minutes to turn the volume up to the level that a band like this needs: LLLLLOOOOOUUUUDDDD!!!!!!
waz up scene?
Just saw the mighty Mike Watt last night and I swear to god of he farted while jammin’ a bolt of lightning would shoot right out of his ass!!!
Opening band was "the Bomb"…nothing special (think PENNYWISE), real fast, real loud, 90-120 second songs, lots of energy, my ears hurt…
then Watt came out w/ a dude on the kit and another on the keys. The drummer was tight and intense as could be, the dude on keys was all right, and Mr. Watt himself can lay down some licks that would make most bassists (and guitarists
) go running to their mamas.They were having a little bit of trouble getting into grooves because Watt and the dude on keys haven’t been jammin’ together that long, so some of it was real jerky as they would feel each other out until getting into a good swing. However, the drums were teeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttttt, and Watt and that dude could jam like no tomorrow. And a lot of it sounded garbled as if Watt was talking through a tin can. Still sweet none the less.
At one point, while they were trying to find their groove, Mike looks over at the dude on drums, points to the dude on keys and raises his hands slightly, in the classic "What the Fuck?" look. Watt also has a lot of really cool facial expressions and mannerisms when he sings. He also has this kinda slackjawed, off to one side, skewed mouth when he’s really singing w/ emphasis…very interesting to watch, indeed.
And if any of you remember my review of Watt and J during the More Light tour two years ago, you’ll remember how I talked about Watt breaking a string in the middle of a song while J just kept jammin’, busting out a new one and some pliers, re-stringing the base, and jumping back into the groove, with out ever missing a beat, all in the course of about 30 seconds….
…well it happened again last, only this time they had to stop, but not b4 finishing the song they were playing. So he’s standind there talking to the crowd, while the drummer grabs an extra set of strings, about his infamous piss bottles and how they spilled one in the van that morning, and then he starts throwing a new string on his bass while continuing to talk, snips off the excess, tightens that bad boy up, real quick fine tuning, and then right back into the jam. I swear the whole thing took no more than 45 seconds and if you weren’t there to see it, you would have never even realized anything happened. AMAZING!!!
Some dude was there recording on a DAT, so last night’s show is probably out there somewhere if ya care to look around.
My dream lineup…Watt’s drummer, Watt, and Les Claypool, in an all out bass throwdown!!! :aliensmile:
Currently unemployed…again (65-70 hour weeks of physical labor were killing me, don’t mind busting ass, but breaking back is for the birds)…so will probably be around a bit for the time being
Chris Brokaw / Sukilove / Evan Dando – Melkweg Amsterdam 5/18
Chris Brokaw kicked off the evening, sitting on his chair with just his acoustic guitar (and a tambourine strapped to his foot
) and some fine songs and instrumentals, mostly from his new album that is due out later this month (as Chris told me after the gig). A fine, quiet short set…..After the chair was removed there was the next man with an acoustic guitar, Pascal Deweeze, doing one solo song. After that he was joined by his band Sukilove, and they played a fine set, mostly from their great self-titled album. Fine songs, somewehere between the Beatles, Big Star, Squeeze and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (and den Buck loves the sound of a real accordeon…). Nice band, nice gig!
After that the stage was cleared, and only one Marshall amp and one microphone (and lots of monitors) remained. Evan Dando came on stage (carrying a bottle of water and a can of malt beer), and it became a great (and fun) gig. It lasted about two hours, and was great because of the enormous amount of great songs, from old Lemonheads songs ("Into your arms", "My drug buddy" etc. etc.) to most of his new and great album "Baby I’m bored", also some fine covers (4 Gram Parsons songs, Neil Young’s "Trasher", Victoria Williams’ "Frying Pan"). The fun part was the continuous interaction with the crowd, there was a short episode of "Question Time", where we could ask everything we ever wanted to know from Evan Dando, there was an amusing scene of ED wrestling with a mouth harp and a NASA-astronaut-helmet (although that ruined Gram Parsons’ "$1000 wedding",but who cared….). The crowd was singing along with most of the songs, and ED enjoyed that a lot. After two hours, the gig ended with the crowd doing the band part (and most of ED’s parts as well…) in "In the grass all wine-colored", great! After an encore (including some sort of medley from "Hey Jude" and John Lennon’s "Mother"), everyone left, smiling, and highly satisfied…. GREAT GIG!
At the merchandise stand den Buck ran into a very friendly Evan Dando, talking to everybody who wanted, and signing a lot of stuff (amongst which the very fine red vinyl single of "Stop my head" that den Buck bought), and after a short talk with Chris Brokaw (a very nice guy as well….), den Buck left, and went home, a very nice walk past the beautiful Amsterdam canals, a great way to end the evening….
Totaly agree… A fun gig with a very friendly ED. Greaeaeaeat to talk to him afterwards. I asked him why he played "burned my creditcard for fuel" twice in "trasher". He smiled and just said: "it’s my favorite line!!
Got my ticket signed by him. Fun evening!Whirlwind Heat / the White Stripes – Paradiso 5/21
Support act Whirlwind Heat (drums,bass, and a singer who also made some strange noises on a real vintage miniMOOG) made a fine (and very loud) punk/funk/noise kind of rock (the Gang of Four/the Fall and Wire were clear influences), while the bassplayer and the singer bounced across the stage like …mmmm….. whirlwinds
, cool band, no wonder Jack White has signed them for his label.The Paradiso was more than packed when the White Stripes came on stage and started a steamroller of a gig, more than an hour of full-blast loud energetic garage-rock, Led Zep-blues, with Jack playing his guitar as loud as he could, and Meg never missing a beat
There were only a couple of quieter moments (their cover of ‘Jolene’, ‘We’re going to be friends’ and a nice and a quiet song sung by Meg). The massive crowd enjoyed every minute of it and there was a three song encore including a great cover of Link Wray’s ‘Jack the Ripper’. Great show, and a great LOUD and very clear sound!
Just some minor points of criticism: The new level of "sold-outness" reached at this gig, it just was too was crowded and too hot, there were some girls fainting and it took really long to get them out of the crowd
. Making things worse is the fact that the Paradiso at the moment is just a major construction site, with improvised stairs, holes in the ground at unexpected places, if anything should happen, or if there should be some kind of panic, den Buck wouldn’t want to be there…… 
"dB stands for den Buck" wrote:Chris Brokaw / Sukilove / Evan Dando – Melkweg Amsterdam 5/18
….See http://www.evandando.tk/”>http://www.evandando.tk/ for nice pics of the concert.
Betty Serveert / 22 mei 2003 / Paradiso
Paradiso sold out, again but Hansione had a valid ticket. BS played most of their latest cd (Logg 22) that is as good as their famous debut-album Palmoline (1992!) Carole van Dijk had the perfect combination in her hands, a nice salmon coloured Rickenbacker led through a Vox AC30 amp. Peter Visser had various guitars and maybe more effect pedals and created noise like Sonic Youth. Bas and drums made sure that the basic sound stayed in tact and keyboard provided all kind of fill ins.
After six or seven songs, two members of Sukilove ( see review of Evand Dando) came on stage to help BS to rock even more. (Double drums and three guitars) The roof came off!
For a very young fan, it was all too much; he puked almost over my boots 
. Make a choice boy, beer or a joint, not both! The good side of it was that it created a little space in the crowd !
One of the encores was a lovely version of “Legâ€I just saw the greatest unknown punk/glam/metal joke band. They are called "Cold Slither", named after the CObra band from Gi Joe. They kicked off their first world tour at the Brick House Cafe in historic downtown Warren, PA. Their Lead singer was getting his game face on at my resturant beforehand and we serve a pretty strong drink so after a few gin and tonics he was ready to go. The opening band was "Charlie Brown gets a Valentine", I think they are from DC, they are punk and good at what they do, but the crowd wanted cold slither. THey opened with the COld Slither Theme song, which mezmorized and hypnotized legions of Slither heads in the cartoon days. Joe, lead singer, was double fisting Yingling Lagers thoughout the first set, which turned out to be the only set. He kept lying down on stage and after a thrilling rendition of "Terrible night of the Gorilla" he stood up and walked off stage proceeding to pass out in the coridour leading to DJ booth area. Several die-hard fans woke him up a bit later and got him to mumble through VYI and Maneater, yes a Hall and Oates cover. The highlight was probably boy with a hook in his head, or Masters of the Universe, their tribute to He-Man. THe next and only stops on the world tour are Columbus and Cleveland, so if you are an Ohio native I’d get to this show. Also pick up either or both of their fine albums, Major Blood and Mount Rockmore.
A band of Vipers playing their tunes…
:aliensmile:Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express – Q-Bus Leiden 6/4
This was the kick-off of the European tour (and the only gig in Holland). Very fine show, lasted nearly two hours, of course a lot of songs from his latest two albums, but a lot of old stuff as well, some very fine long Neil Young-like electric guitar solos, the band was in fine form (Chuck called them "the best Mission Express ever" ). Nice venue as well, although it was quite hot and sweaty because of the heatwave over here the last couple of days, luckily there was enough slightly alcoholic cooling liquid available. The crowd loved it, and the band had to give three encores….. , Great gig!
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