Concertreports, December
Arh, man, I've been busy lately. I have a paper on danish poet Soeren Ulrik Thomsen and Velvet Underground due to the 6th of January so I'm working hard on that one. This month I haven't experienced all the concerts I would like to. I dropped Non Phixion because it was kind of expensive and I wasn't up for it, and Medications...well, money again. Not that it was expensive, but I had to work and didn't bother to go through the trouble finding someone to fill in. Plus everybody needs the extra money in this time of year.
Anyhow I did experience the marathon-show of Broken Social Scene. First of The Most Serene Republic gave a good show and made me wanna buy their cd. I didn't though. Then the expected main event went on, and Christ, they were expected. Loppen, which is quite small, was so packed that it was hard even to breathe. All air was soaked in the smell of sweat. It's hard for me to say how many members Broken Social Scene brought on stage, because with so many people cramped together and a low ceiling, it was hard to see anything unless you stood up front. That didn't matter though because the music was the most important, and from where I stood it sounded great. Normally Loppen have a bit of a problem with the sound because it is so small and peticular with so many instruments on stage it was expected to fail. But it didn't really. And the new songs blended nicely with the new ones. Actually it was hard to tell the difference between them if you didn't know, which shows that the main difference between the new album and the later is the production. Actually they started out with a bit slow version of "Lover's Spit", but from then on they seemed engaged in the show and full of commentary about being Canadian, how they sucked and doubt whether they actually were American. It wasn't a very good joke, but it set a relaxed mood. Even though the new songs worked brilliant, it was still the big hits from You forgot it in People that blew the crowd. They dedicated "Almost Crimes" to bikers and it surely rocked like a Harley-Davidson accelerating. The biggest moment was of course "Anthems for a seventeen-year old Girl". The audience really got carried away there. Towards the end the band got a bit too drunk and started fooling around with AC/DC-covers and mimics of Interpol. It was quite tiresome after a two hours show, and as I had to walk home because my bike went flat along the way to the show, and also had to work early next morning, my girlfriend and I chose to let them spoon up in their own intoxication. They should have unplugged the show after 1 1/2 hour.
Later that week I saw the Kill Me Tomorrow/Locust-concert on Stengade30. Mostly I came for Kill Me Tomorrow, but was also excited to see what Locust was up to. Their Plague Soundscapes is rather furious and interesting. Kill Me Tomorrow did a good show all though I didn't recognise that many songs from The Garbageman and the Prostitute. Singer and drummer Zack Wentz looked kind of freaky with a big moustache and a long fringe as if he was some kind of Russian futurist.His wife K8 on the other hand looked like D'Arcy of Smashing Pumpkins, but with less attitude. Their noiserock with electronic drums and sounds really worked live. Not as powerful as Liars, but had the same notions towards avantgarde punkfunk. Anyway, they were a lot better than Locust. Not that they were bad, but their hardcore noisepunk and hooded bugcostumes just didn't do the trick for me. It especially seemed silly when they did soundcheck wearing the costumes (how professional to not do it before the show) and started screaming into the microphones. They shifted between fullblown hardcore and ambient croaking noise that actually did work, once you realised the ambience was as much a part of the music and not just breaks between songs. I guess the slamdancers welcomed the breaks as well. But Kill Me Tomorrow was the better of the two.
The day after, same place, I saw Gogol Bordello. I came kind of late because I was at my girlfriends party so I didn't see the two first bands but came about ten minutes before Gogol Bordello went on. Talk about timing. I was a bit surprised to see that all the bandmembers were in their late 30's/mid 40's, except for their gypsy dancer. But that didn't keep them from giving one hell of a show. Goddamn it, with that ongoing bass drum they started a party out of control for a crowd that I seldome have seen that unrestrained in Copenhagen. People was jumping around, throwing their clothes above their heads and the temperature was rising resulting in an extremely high humidity. I wouldn't dare to think how it felt in the boiling room up front. One thing is that they played a good set of hits, mostly from their new album, at first, but then they came back for an encore and let it all out. Amazing energy such a bunch of old punkers can maintain. Most of the crowd, who were younger than them, had to give up. The most brilliant moment was at the end when leadsinger Eugene Hutz let the ecstatic audience carry ham around on a bass drum up close to the ceiling while singing and drumming at the same time. They may be a bit exhausting listen at records, but live they surely showed some balls. One of the highlights of the year. I walked back to my girlfriends party intoxicated by the concert and some beers with a ringing to my ear.
Anyhow I did experience the marathon-show of Broken Social Scene. First of The Most Serene Republic gave a good show and made me wanna buy their cd. I didn't though. Then the expected main event went on, and Christ, they were expected. Loppen, which is quite small, was so packed that it was hard even to breathe. All air was soaked in the smell of sweat. It's hard for me to say how many members Broken Social Scene brought on stage, because with so many people cramped together and a low ceiling, it was hard to see anything unless you stood up front. That didn't matter though because the music was the most important, and from where I stood it sounded great. Normally Loppen have a bit of a problem with the sound because it is so small and peticular with so many instruments on stage it was expected to fail. But it didn't really. And the new songs blended nicely with the new ones. Actually it was hard to tell the difference between them if you didn't know, which shows that the main difference between the new album and the later is the production. Actually they started out with a bit slow version of "Lover's Spit", but from then on they seemed engaged in the show and full of commentary about being Canadian, how they sucked and doubt whether they actually were American. It wasn't a very good joke, but it set a relaxed mood. Even though the new songs worked brilliant, it was still the big hits from You forgot it in People that blew the crowd. They dedicated "Almost Crimes" to bikers and it surely rocked like a Harley-Davidson accelerating. The biggest moment was of course "Anthems for a seventeen-year old Girl". The audience really got carried away there. Towards the end the band got a bit too drunk and started fooling around with AC/DC-covers and mimics of Interpol. It was quite tiresome after a two hours show, and as I had to walk home because my bike went flat along the way to the show, and also had to work early next morning, my girlfriend and I chose to let them spoon up in their own intoxication. They should have unplugged the show after 1 1/2 hour.
Later that week I saw the Kill Me Tomorrow/Locust-concert on Stengade30. Mostly I came for Kill Me Tomorrow, but was also excited to see what Locust was up to. Their Plague Soundscapes is rather furious and interesting. Kill Me Tomorrow did a good show all though I didn't recognise that many songs from The Garbageman and the Prostitute. Singer and drummer Zack Wentz looked kind of freaky with a big moustache and a long fringe as if he was some kind of Russian futurist.His wife K8 on the other hand looked like D'Arcy of Smashing Pumpkins, but with less attitude. Their noiserock with electronic drums and sounds really worked live. Not as powerful as Liars, but had the same notions towards avantgarde punkfunk. Anyway, they were a lot better than Locust. Not that they were bad, but their hardcore noisepunk and hooded bugcostumes just didn't do the trick for me. It especially seemed silly when they did soundcheck wearing the costumes (how professional to not do it before the show) and started screaming into the microphones. They shifted between fullblown hardcore and ambient croaking noise that actually did work, once you realised the ambience was as much a part of the music and not just breaks between songs. I guess the slamdancers welcomed the breaks as well. But Kill Me Tomorrow was the better of the two.
The day after, same place, I saw Gogol Bordello. I came kind of late because I was at my girlfriends party so I didn't see the two first bands but came about ten minutes before Gogol Bordello went on. Talk about timing. I was a bit surprised to see that all the bandmembers were in their late 30's/mid 40's, except for their gypsy dancer. But that didn't keep them from giving one hell of a show. Goddamn it, with that ongoing bass drum they started a party out of control for a crowd that I seldome have seen that unrestrained in Copenhagen. People was jumping around, throwing their clothes above their heads and the temperature was rising resulting in an extremely high humidity. I wouldn't dare to think how it felt in the boiling room up front. One thing is that they played a good set of hits, mostly from their new album, at first, but then they came back for an encore and let it all out. Amazing energy such a bunch of old punkers can maintain. Most of the crowd, who were younger than them, had to give up. The most brilliant moment was at the end when leadsinger Eugene Hutz let the ecstatic audience carry ham around on a bass drum up close to the ceiling while singing and drumming at the same time. They may be a bit exhausting listen at records, but live they surely showed some balls. One of the highlights of the year. I walked back to my girlfriends party intoxicated by the concert and some beers with a ringing to my ear.
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