So Andy Taylor (guitarist) quit Duran Duran right in the middle of their tour. I don't know about you guys - but Duran Duran without Andy Taylor just isn't the same band. I'm serious. They might as well have a CBS game show to determine his replacement.
In other radically different music news - I'm going to see Ennio Morricone at Radio City Music Hall in February! One of my all time favorite movie score composers in a rare stateside performance - I am very, very excited!
I can't wait to go to this. Ennio's music has always had an otherworldly quality to it that baffles my imagination in that 'humans can't make this, it must be made by angels' -way. Nobody mixes chorus and orchestra like Morricone!
Originally posted on October 26, 2006 on Myspace.
Showing posts with label Concerts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Concerts. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2012
“Hey! Sweden!” – “They’re Norwegian, Mac.”
Remember that movie John Carpenter’s The Thing? I used those quotes from it for my headline because it’s my favorite exchange in that movie and writing a review of the Norwegian band Serena-Maneesh has given me an excuse to.
A comparison to The Thing is fitting in regards to Serena-Maneesh in another way too though. In The Thing the alien was an ever-expanding, all-encompassing creature that wrapped up and absorbed any organisim it could get its tentacles on. You could say that the experience of seeing Serena-Maneesh live is exactly like that.
Their music envelopes you, crushes you, devours your soul. The main difference between being eaten by The Thing and seeing a Serena-Maneesh show is that while the first experience is awful, the second is nothing but pure bliss.
I have these old My Bloody Valentine bootlegs that might just be my favorite music posession of all time. There are about six of them and when I listen to them I think to myself, “this is how a live show is supposed to be!” On these bootlegs MBV destroy all preconception of what a live show should be. They destroy the audience with a wall of beautiful and powerful sound, they hammer so hard and long on their instruments that they go in and out of tune within the course of a song, and each song is EPIC. In short they shred like no one ever has before.
For years I’ve worshipped my MBV bootlegs and they left me with an impression of what the ‘classic’ heydey of live shoegazer was like that I never thought I would experience for myself.
That is until last night at the State Theater when I caught Serena-Maneesh (from Norway not Sweden).
Their show last night was one of the best sets of music I have ever experienced. Somehow these frail looking guys from Norway have recreated the MBV live feeling better than any other shoegazer band I have seen (and I’ve seen a bunch). But Serena-Maneesh went one better on me by playing an amazing set, that captured the spirit of my sacred MBV bootlegs, and still managed to be entirely original and true to their own identity as a band. An identity that I can see only getting bigger and better as word about their live performances spreads.
Sadly there were only about 40 (yes 40!) people there to enjoy the mind-blowing show last night. But if each one of us tells 10 people about Serena-Maneesh then maybe the next time the band flies all the way over from f-ing Norway there might be a few more of us in the crowd.
Last night was the best shoegazer show to come through DC that I have attended, probably ever. Serena-Maneesh sounded great in the State Theater’s giant, high-ceilinged room and they played for the few of us who cared enough to show up like they were playing Madison Square Garden. It was fucking awesome and I feel privileged to have been there. I can only hope they come back through the area so more folks can get a taste.
Originally published on October 5, 2006.
A comparison to The Thing is fitting in regards to Serena-Maneesh in another way too though. In The Thing the alien was an ever-expanding, all-encompassing creature that wrapped up and absorbed any organisim it could get its tentacles on. You could say that the experience of seeing Serena-Maneesh live is exactly like that.
Their music envelopes you, crushes you, devours your soul. The main difference between being eaten by The Thing and seeing a Serena-Maneesh show is that while the first experience is awful, the second is nothing but pure bliss.
I have these old My Bloody Valentine bootlegs that might just be my favorite music posession of all time. There are about six of them and when I listen to them I think to myself, “this is how a live show is supposed to be!” On these bootlegs MBV destroy all preconception of what a live show should be. They destroy the audience with a wall of beautiful and powerful sound, they hammer so hard and long on their instruments that they go in and out of tune within the course of a song, and each song is EPIC. In short they shred like no one ever has before.
For years I’ve worshipped my MBV bootlegs and they left me with an impression of what the ‘classic’ heydey of live shoegazer was like that I never thought I would experience for myself.
That is until last night at the State Theater when I caught Serena-Maneesh (from Norway not Sweden).
Their show last night was one of the best sets of music I have ever experienced. Somehow these frail looking guys from Norway have recreated the MBV live feeling better than any other shoegazer band I have seen (and I’ve seen a bunch). But Serena-Maneesh went one better on me by playing an amazing set, that captured the spirit of my sacred MBV bootlegs, and still managed to be entirely original and true to their own identity as a band. An identity that I can see only getting bigger and better as word about their live performances spreads.
Sadly there were only about 40 (yes 40!) people there to enjoy the mind-blowing show last night. But if each one of us tells 10 people about Serena-Maneesh then maybe the next time the band flies all the way over from f-ing Norway there might be a few more of us in the crowd.
Last night was the best shoegazer show to come through DC that I have attended, probably ever. Serena-Maneesh sounded great in the State Theater’s giant, high-ceilinged room and they played for the few of us who cared enough to show up like they were playing Madison Square Garden. It was fucking awesome and I feel privileged to have been there. I can only hope they come back through the area so more folks can get a taste.
Originally published on October 5, 2006.
Selina’s Melodie Fountain
Serena-Maneesh, the brilliant up-start shoegazer band from Norway, are playing The State Theater in Falls Church tonight! If you are a fan of swirling, psychedelic, guitar freak-outs this is the band for you.
Think the relentless repetition of Spacemen 3 infused with a hot-shot of The Stooges’ energy wrapped around the sonic experiments and dreamy vocals of Medicine and Serena-Maneesh is pretty much what you get!
Advance press from other cities on this tour is that Serena-Maneesh are the real, deal, super-heavy, wall-of-sound that music geeks from Peoria to Poughkeepsie have all been waiting for since a certain ‘Loveless’ band wrecked eardrums across the US back in ’93.
Don’t miss this -
Serena-Maneesh w/
The Evangelicals and Woven Hand
@ The State Theater
$12 – Doors at 7
Originally published on October 4, 2006.
Think the relentless repetition of Spacemen 3 infused with a hot-shot of The Stooges’ energy wrapped around the sonic experiments and dreamy vocals of Medicine and Serena-Maneesh is pretty much what you get!
Advance press from other cities on this tour is that Serena-Maneesh are the real, deal, super-heavy, wall-of-sound that music geeks from Peoria to Poughkeepsie have all been waiting for since a certain ‘Loveless’ band wrecked eardrums across the US back in ’93.
Don’t miss this -
Serena-Maneesh w/
The Evangelicals and Woven Hand
@ The State Theater
$12 – Doors at 7
Originally published on October 4, 2006.
The King of Hate
The first thing I noticed when I walked into The Rock And Roll Hotel for the first time on sunday is that the space reminded me a lot of the old 9:30 Club – which is a plus. I had heard that the idea behind the place was to be like the 9:30 Club. When I heard that I had assumed the owners were talking about the new 9:30 – much to my surprise they meant the original. The main difference between the original sacred music den and this new club is that the auxilliary drinking space is upstairs instead of down and decorated a little nicer.
The Rock And Roll Hotel stage room is a cool space and I hope they can keep it filled with good bands. Good bands like the one I went to see play on sunday – Snog from the land down under.
Snog‘s touring set-up is spare – two keyboards, a guitar, and lead-singer/ mastermind David Thrussell. Based on Thrussell’s persona through lyrics I have always assumed the guy lives in a hand-made bunker somewhere underneath the Australian outback writing vitrolic diatribes against the “mainstream” world that exists outside his eutopic hippy-in-a-bombshelter compund.
Seeing Thrussell perform live for the first time I realized that my impression wasn’t that far off the mark. Thrussell looks like anything but the stereotype of an EBM musician. No Matrix outfits, no sunglasses, no patent-leather – Thrussell took the stage looking like a middle-aged roadie for White Snake – only instead of wearing a ‘Jersey Devil’ t-shirt he was wearing one that declared ‘I love Robots’.
Thrussell started off by leading his trio through half of their latest album, Snog vs the Faecal Juggernaut of Mass Culture. The new songs featured a range of bizarre vocal stunts by Thrussel backed by ultra-heavy electronic beats that were so in-your-face it was comical. But with Snog that’s the point – at least now-a-days. Thrussell is the Jello Biafra of Industrial – he’s got a message but he’s going to have a lot of fun delivering it.
The new songs seemed to be hit or miss for the crowd, it wasn’t until Thrussell stopped the music to address the crowd directly in a rant about the virtue of ‘true friendship’ that people started to loosen up. Thrussell went on to say that true friends help you when the chips are down – which led into the song ‘Al Qaeda is Your Best Friend’ – which was the most direct attack on Bush and Cheney of an evening filled with many.
Thrussell cut such a bizarre figure that it is hard to describe him to full effect. Between songs he often went off on mumbled rants to introduce songs. However Snog’s music has such biting satire in the lyrics already that the drugged exposition by Thrussell eventually got a little long in the tooth for my taste.
Thankfully Thrussell kept the intro to Snog’s older material short and sweet by saying ‘And now for a walking tour through the museum of EBM’ – which then immediately went into the opening blasts of ‘Corporate Slave’ followed by a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted classic Snog which got the joint jumping.
As much as I dig the newer Snog material it really was the chance to hear these older songs played that got me out to this concert and Snog did not disappoint. Highlights for me were ‘Corporate Slave’, ‘Cliche’, ‘Human Germ’ and the encore performance of ‘The Prole Song’.
‘The Prole Song’ was actually the best song of the show, so good in fact that I wish they had played more off of Buy Me I’ll Change Your Life. Instead Snog ended the show with an awful and totally out-of-place duet with some guy I’ve never heard of doing some lame-ass hippy-dippy song. Which resulted in the odd sight of a crowd of drunk industrial-types linking arms and singing along and of course holding up lighters.
In the end not the way I would choose to end your typical industrial concert, but then there isn’t very much about Snog that one could describe as typical, and that’s probably why I like them so much.
Originally published on October 3, 2006.
The Rock And Roll Hotel stage room is a cool space and I hope they can keep it filled with good bands. Good bands like the one I went to see play on sunday – Snog from the land down under.
Snog‘s touring set-up is spare – two keyboards, a guitar, and lead-singer/ mastermind David Thrussell. Based on Thrussell’s persona through lyrics I have always assumed the guy lives in a hand-made bunker somewhere underneath the Australian outback writing vitrolic diatribes against the “mainstream” world that exists outside his eutopic hippy-in-a-bombshelter compund.
Seeing Thrussell perform live for the first time I realized that my impression wasn’t that far off the mark. Thrussell looks like anything but the stereotype of an EBM musician. No Matrix outfits, no sunglasses, no patent-leather – Thrussell took the stage looking like a middle-aged roadie for White Snake – only instead of wearing a ‘Jersey Devil’ t-shirt he was wearing one that declared ‘I love Robots’.
Thrussell started off by leading his trio through half of their latest album, Snog vs the Faecal Juggernaut of Mass Culture. The new songs featured a range of bizarre vocal stunts by Thrussel backed by ultra-heavy electronic beats that were so in-your-face it was comical. But with Snog that’s the point – at least now-a-days. Thrussell is the Jello Biafra of Industrial – he’s got a message but he’s going to have a lot of fun delivering it.
The new songs seemed to be hit or miss for the crowd, it wasn’t until Thrussell stopped the music to address the crowd directly in a rant about the virtue of ‘true friendship’ that people started to loosen up. Thrussell went on to say that true friends help you when the chips are down – which led into the song ‘Al Qaeda is Your Best Friend’ – which was the most direct attack on Bush and Cheney of an evening filled with many.
Thrussell cut such a bizarre figure that it is hard to describe him to full effect. Between songs he often went off on mumbled rants to introduce songs. However Snog’s music has such biting satire in the lyrics already that the drugged exposition by Thrussell eventually got a little long in the tooth for my taste.
Thankfully Thrussell kept the intro to Snog’s older material short and sweet by saying ‘And now for a walking tour through the museum of EBM’ – which then immediately went into the opening blasts of ‘Corporate Slave’ followed by a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted classic Snog which got the joint jumping.
As much as I dig the newer Snog material it really was the chance to hear these older songs played that got me out to this concert and Snog did not disappoint. Highlights for me were ‘Corporate Slave’, ‘Cliche’, ‘Human Germ’ and the encore performance of ‘The Prole Song’.
‘The Prole Song’ was actually the best song of the show, so good in fact that I wish they had played more off of Buy Me I’ll Change Your Life. Instead Snog ended the show with an awful and totally out-of-place duet with some guy I’ve never heard of doing some lame-ass hippy-dippy song. Which resulted in the odd sight of a crowd of drunk industrial-types linking arms and singing along and of course holding up lighters.
In the end not the way I would choose to end your typical industrial concert, but then there isn’t very much about Snog that one could describe as typical, and that’s probably why I like them so much.
Originally published on October 3, 2006.
Bucketheadland
If the acidic social commentary of David Thrussell’s Snog isn’t your cup of tea but you still feel like having a rocking Sunday night, you could shoot over to the State Theater in Falls Church to catch the return of the enigmatic Buckethead.
No politics in his music, no lyrics at all – in fact Buckethead’s only platform position is to create a mind-blowingly awesome night of guitar goodness. This guy is the Bruce Lee of guitarists and should be seen at least once in every music fan’s lifetime. I saw him in 2004 and it is killing me that there are two great shows on Sunday night.
Decisions, decisions.
Originally published on September 29, 2006.
I decided to see Snog because of the rarity.
No politics in his music, no lyrics at all – in fact Buckethead’s only platform position is to create a mind-blowingly awesome night of guitar goodness. This guy is the Bruce Lee of guitarists and should be seen at least once in every music fan’s lifetime. I saw him in 2004 and it is killing me that there are two great shows on Sunday night.
Decisions, decisions.
Originally published on September 29, 2006.
I decided to see Snog because of the rarity.
The People of Straight Land
Wake up…eat…work out…commute…work…happy hour…commute…eat…watch tv…pay some bills…sleep…repeat 5 times…weekend…yardwork…Home Depot…watch the latest Movie…social obligation…sleeping pill Sunday night…reset…wake up…eat…work out…commute…work…happy hour…commute…eat…watch tv…pay some bills…sleep…repeat for 40-50 years…die…”He/She lead a full and productive life”…burden children with funeral bills…and death tax…and inherited debts…and unresolved emotional issues…wake up in Hell…eat shit…commute for eternity…
Break the cycle and go catch David Thrussell’s anti-mediocrity, anti-corporate diatribe disguised as a band, Snog, this Sunday at the Rock And Roll Hotel . It’s going to be a real treat.
Originally published on September 29, 2006.
Break the cycle and go catch David Thrussell’s anti-mediocrity, anti-corporate diatribe disguised as a band, Snog, this Sunday at the Rock And Roll Hotel . It’s going to be a real treat.
Originally published on September 29, 2006.
Deafening Silence
Last year I left the Wall of Sound Festival with my ears a-ringing from all the shoegazer glory. This year I found myself making the hour drive back from Fredricksburg at 3am with less of a lingering ringing and more of a seething rage.
What a cluster-fuck.
What was potentially the best day of American indie-shoegaze all year fizzled out thanks to a mismanaged time schedule resulting in the two headlining bands being asked not to play. I’m serious – Alcian Blue and Ceremony weren’t allowed to play!
The festival ran over its time-limit and at 1:15 the club pulled the plug – right after Alcian Blue and The Antiques did an incredible dual-band cover of Slowdive’s “Primal” to transition from one band’s set to the other. Their band team-up was definitely the energy high-light of the event and got everyone in the crowd extremely pumped for the Alcian Blue set to end all sets. But it wasn’t meant to be. After that song Jake had to make the announcement that the gig was done.
I know a lot of folk travelled to see this fest and to miss two of the headliners is a huge disappointment.
Looking for an explanation for the time overage I recieved some reports that another DC band (who I’m sorely tempted to name but won’t) pulled a lot of rock star shenanigans which derailed the day by a good hour or so. Of course that’s hearsay but it isn’t going to make me any any less pissed at them.
As anti-climactic and generally sucky it was to have the fest end that way there were a few bright shining moments earlier in the day. A Place to Bury Strangers destroyed as they always do when they blow through the area, Chicago’s Star played a great set of off-kilter muted wash that resulted in a spontaneous dance party, and Soundpool from New York just owned – they are a top-notch outfit to keep an eye on.
Originally published on September 25, 2006.
What a cluster-fuck.
What was potentially the best day of American indie-shoegaze all year fizzled out thanks to a mismanaged time schedule resulting in the two headlining bands being asked not to play. I’m serious – Alcian Blue and Ceremony weren’t allowed to play!
The festival ran over its time-limit and at 1:15 the club pulled the plug – right after Alcian Blue and The Antiques did an incredible dual-band cover of Slowdive’s “Primal” to transition from one band’s set to the other. Their band team-up was definitely the energy high-light of the event and got everyone in the crowd extremely pumped for the Alcian Blue set to end all sets. But it wasn’t meant to be. After that song Jake had to make the announcement that the gig was done.
I know a lot of folk travelled to see this fest and to miss two of the headliners is a huge disappointment.
Looking for an explanation for the time overage I recieved some reports that another DC band (who I’m sorely tempted to name but won’t) pulled a lot of rock star shenanigans which derailed the day by a good hour or so. Of course that’s hearsay but it isn’t going to make me any any less pissed at them.
As anti-climactic and generally sucky it was to have the fest end that way there were a few bright shining moments earlier in the day. A Place to Bury Strangers destroyed as they always do when they blow through the area, Chicago’s Star played a great set of off-kilter muted wash that resulted in a spontaneous dance party, and Soundpool from New York just owned – they are a top-notch outfit to keep an eye on.
Originally published on September 25, 2006.
Confluence of Events
On this day, 1 year ago, I noted here that there was an unholy amount of good things to do in the DC area over this very weekend.
Here I am one year later about to write the same thing. What is it about this weekend that makes everyone schedule their awesome events during it? Could it be the last hurrah of summer?
This weekend we’ve got 3 album release parties and two festivals lined-up.
1. Tonight @ the Black Cat - the Soft Complex & Cedars album release concert – $10
2. Saturday night @ DC9 - the Two If By Sea album release concert – $10
Both of the above concerts featuring my adorable sister-in-law on Cello.
Then we’ve got -
3. Saturday night @ the Market 5 Gallery – the Curly & Rocket “Electricshow” release party that our boy Wayan pointed out – $20
Plus -
4. All day Saturday in B’More – The Virgin Festival featuring all kinds of festival circuit standards like the Chili Peppers, The Who, and Gnarls Barkley – $97.50! (outrageous!)
And then my pick for the winner of the weekend -
5. All day Saturday in Fredricksburg – The second annual Wall of Sound Festival featuring the best in underground American shoegazer – 23 bands for $10!
Read my brief review of the first Wall Of Sound Festival here!
Originally published on September 22. 2006.
Here I am one year later about to write the same thing. What is it about this weekend that makes everyone schedule their awesome events during it? Could it be the last hurrah of summer?
This weekend we’ve got 3 album release parties and two festivals lined-up.
1. Tonight @ the Black Cat - the Soft Complex & Cedars album release concert – $10
2. Saturday night @ DC9 - the Two If By Sea album release concert – $10
Both of the above concerts featuring my adorable sister-in-law on Cello.
Then we’ve got -
3. Saturday night @ the Market 5 Gallery – the Curly & Rocket “Electricshow” release party that our boy Wayan pointed out – $20
Plus -
4. All day Saturday in B’More – The Virgin Festival featuring all kinds of festival circuit standards like the Chili Peppers, The Who, and Gnarls Barkley – $97.50! (outrageous!)
And then my pick for the winner of the weekend -
5. All day Saturday in Fredricksburg – The second annual Wall of Sound Festival featuring the best in underground American shoegazer – 23 bands for $10!
Read my brief review of the first Wall Of Sound Festival here!
Originally published on September 22. 2006.
KFC – Kinney Fried Club
The 930 Club lost power last night, right before Sleater-Kinney’s farewell appearance there, when an electrical transformer over-heated forcing the fire marshall to pull the plug!
A make-up show is scheduled at the club for Thursday night barring any more heat related set-backs.
Originally published on August 2, 2006.
A make-up show is scheduled at the club for Thursday night barring any more heat related set-backs.
Originally published on August 2, 2006.
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