Friday 27 April 2007
Bjorn From Finland
Here is a short video I made at Schiphol Airport with a passing traveler that I bumped into. He says he is from Finland... but maybe he is really from Sweden??
Monday 23 April 2007
Roadburn 2007 - Tilburg, Holland
Happy St George's Day to everyone, even you none English types. After all St George himself is said to have been from Turkey (or the area that we now call Turkey anyway), so it's no problem for people who aren't English remembering him on his saint's day. Did you know that, as well as the English, St George is also the patron saint of the Palestinian people? Well, now you do.
Another adventure in the continuing chronicles of Thee Claw On Tour:
We got back from Holland this morning after an interesting 24 hours in Amsterdam and Tilburg. The concert that we went there to see was great, very loud and pretty psychedelic is probably the best way of describing it. I've seen SunnO))) a few times now and they always seem to be adding things to their live sound and making then performances a bit longer, more theatrical and forever unpredictable. Attila Csihar was performing vocals for them once again (like in Norway last month) and he came on stage alone for about 10 minutes, whispering and groaning into the microphone while he crouched on the spot. Then Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley and Tos came onto the stage and the drone began... and, as ever, they were all dressed in robes. After about 20 minutes Attila decided to lay on the floor and fall asleep for about an hour before getting back up and carrying on doing the vocals. They whole set was about 90 minutes long, one long droning piece as always. And even better, a few times during the set they all stopped for a moment, threw their hands up in the shape of claws, then carried on playing the sonic doom. Clawsome.
After the show we hung out with Attila for about half an hour after the gig, Patchie shared a spliff with him and I gave him the shirt off my back. True story. Last night we went around the red light district and took in the sights of late night Amsterdam before going back to the airport to sleep on the floor until our early hours flight this morning.
Tilburg, by the way, is a great place. I noticed that everyone there was really chilled and because it was a really sunny day while we were there (pun intended) the streets were lined with hundreds of people outside bars having a beer and soaking up the rays. A great place to visit. We will be back to Holland for the 2008 Roadburn festival, no doubt.
Next up on the claw tour, a big group outing to go and see Trouble in Leeds.
Another adventure in the continuing chronicles of Thee Claw On Tour:
We got back from Holland this morning after an interesting 24 hours in Amsterdam and Tilburg. The concert that we went there to see was great, very loud and pretty psychedelic is probably the best way of describing it. I've seen SunnO))) a few times now and they always seem to be adding things to their live sound and making then performances a bit longer, more theatrical and forever unpredictable. Attila Csihar was performing vocals for them once again (like in Norway last month) and he came on stage alone for about 10 minutes, whispering and groaning into the microphone while he crouched on the spot. Then Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley and Tos came onto the stage and the drone began... and, as ever, they were all dressed in robes. After about 20 minutes Attila decided to lay on the floor and fall asleep for about an hour before getting back up and carrying on doing the vocals. They whole set was about 90 minutes long, one long droning piece as always. And even better, a few times during the set they all stopped for a moment, threw their hands up in the shape of claws, then carried on playing the sonic doom. Clawsome.
After the show we hung out with Attila for about half an hour after the gig, Patchie shared a spliff with him and I gave him the shirt off my back. True story. Last night we went around the red light district and took in the sights of late night Amsterdam before going back to the airport to sleep on the floor until our early hours flight this morning.
Tilburg, by the way, is a great place. I noticed that everyone there was really chilled and because it was a really sunny day while we were there (pun intended) the streets were lined with hundreds of people outside bars having a beer and soaking up the rays. A great place to visit. We will be back to Holland for the 2008 Roadburn festival, no doubt.
Next up on the claw tour, a big group outing to go and see Trouble in Leeds.
Red Light Fever
Another adventure in the continuing chronicles of Thee Claw On Tour:
Got back from Holland this morning after an interesting 24 hours in Amsterdam and Tilburg. The concert that we went there to see was great, very loud and pretty psychedelic is probably the best way of describing it. I've seen SunnO))) a few times now and they always seem to be adding things to their live sound and making then performances a bit longer, more theatrical and forever unpredictable. They had Attila Csihar doing the vocals for them again (like in Norway last month) and he came on stage alone for about 10 minutes, whispering and groaning into the microphone while he crouched on the spot. Then Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley and Tos came onto the stage and the drone began... and as ever they were all dressed in the usual medieval style robes. After about 20 minutes Attila decided to lay on the floor and fall asleep for about an hour before getting back up and carrying on doing the vocals. They whole set was about 90 minutes long, one long droning piece as always. And even better, a few times during the set they all stopped for a moment, threw their hands up in the shape of claws, then carried on playing the sonic doom. Clawsome.
After the show we hung out with Attila for about half an hour after the gig, Patchie shared a spliff with him and I gave him the shirt off my back. True story. Last night we went around the red light district and took in the sights of late night Amsterdam before going back to the airport to sleep on the floor until our early hours flight this morning.
Tilburg, by the way, is a great place. I noticed that everyone there was really chilled and because it was a really sunny day while we were there (pun intended) the streets were lined with hundreds of people outside bars having a beer and soaking up rays. A great place to visit.
Next up on the claw tour, a big group outing to go and see Trouble in Leeds.
Got back from Holland this morning after an interesting 24 hours in Amsterdam and Tilburg. The concert that we went there to see was great, very loud and pretty psychedelic is probably the best way of describing it. I've seen SunnO))) a few times now and they always seem to be adding things to their live sound and making then performances a bit longer, more theatrical and forever unpredictable. They had Attila Csihar doing the vocals for them again (like in Norway last month) and he came on stage alone for about 10 minutes, whispering and groaning into the microphone while he crouched on the spot. Then Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley and Tos came onto the stage and the drone began... and as ever they were all dressed in the usual medieval style robes. After about 20 minutes Attila decided to lay on the floor and fall asleep for about an hour before getting back up and carrying on doing the vocals. They whole set was about 90 minutes long, one long droning piece as always. And even better, a few times during the set they all stopped for a moment, threw their hands up in the shape of claws, then carried on playing the sonic doom. Clawsome.
After the show we hung out with Attila for about half an hour after the gig, Patchie shared a spliff with him and I gave him the shirt off my back. True story. Last night we went around the red light district and took in the sights of late night Amsterdam before going back to the airport to sleep on the floor until our early hours flight this morning.
Tilburg, by the way, is a great place. I noticed that everyone there was really chilled and because it was a really sunny day while we were there (pun intended) the streets were lined with hundreds of people outside bars having a beer and soaking up rays. A great place to visit.
Next up on the claw tour, a big group outing to go and see Trouble in Leeds.
Monday 16 April 2007
Annihilator in Liverpool
Went to see Annihilator when they played in my home town tonight. I never had a ticket and then got a call from a friend who offered me a spare, how can a guy refuse an offer like that? Glad I went along, Gojira also played and they were really good, real loud and they headbanged all the way through their set. You can tell a good band from how well they play whilst headbanging! Gojira passed that particular test with flying colours.
Jeff Waters and the boys were awesome though, I got right up as close to the front of the stage as I could when they played. After the gig we bumped into the bass player outside the venue and one of my mates (H) decided we all needed to get our photo taken with him, and he was really happy to stand and get pics taken while we posed with claws on show. Well, you've got to haven't you.
Oh and some other band played on the same bill... I never took much notice of them though. I think they were called Trivium or something.
Jeff Waters and the boys were awesome though, I got right up as close to the front of the stage as I could when they played. After the gig we bumped into the bass player outside the venue and one of my mates (H) decided we all needed to get our photo taken with him, and he was really happy to stand and get pics taken while we posed with claws on show. Well, you've got to haven't you.
Oh and some other band played on the same bill... I never took much notice of them though. I think they were called Trivium or something.
Thursday 12 April 2007
Step Away From The Merchandise!
WASP played Liverpool last night, the first date of their 2007 world tour, according to Blackie Lawless.
It was a bit of a problem at the start of the night because LFC were playing in the Champions League at the same time as the gig, so basically something had to give. Me and our Ed went and met up with the troops in Ma Egerton's (a pub off London Road in Liverpool) and we sat there for the first half drinking and talking right up next to the big screen that they've got in that boozer when the footy's on. In fact, Patchie and Northy sat under the screen, facing the rest of the pub. Drinking bitter. Liverpool, in the end, didn't bother putting together a big effort to score more goals. Well, it was already 3 nil on aggregate after all, why run themselves ragged when they were already 3 goals to the good? So at the half time whistle it was clear that it was time to go and watch some heavy metal.
When we got into the Academy (where the gig was held), straight away we went to see the magnificent merch tables that had been set up. And indeed there was a lot of stuff there to look at, lots of different designs showing guitars and skulls and hey, even flames! Only thing was, most of the t-shirts were from the last time WASP did a tour, in fact Eddy was wearing one of the shirts that was on the wall and he'd bought it when we saw them in Manchester a few years ago. Then someone said "look at those *boss* caps!"... boss as in really shite. They were a proper state, a load of mad headwear with orange and red flames all over them that I am sure will go down well in Germany or something. Those kerrazy Krauts love their cheesy rawk merch (at least I like to believe they do). But still, I wanted to know the important thing about these caps, and that was whether they were Flexfit or not. So, me being me, I waded over to have a look at them all, pinned onto the wall. And I wasn't there for more than 5 seconds when the prick who was looking at the merch came running at me shouting in a yank accent. The exchange went something like this:
Merch Prick: Hey! Step away from the merchandise!
Me: Calm down lad, I just want to know if they're flexfit or not
Merch Prick: Step behind the barrier and I will come and show the caps
Me (walking away and tutting): Fuck off you beaut, they're all crap anyway. I'd rather spend my money on drinks. Keep your fucking hats.
Where's the need for the robocop "step away from the vehicle" attitude anyway? Like I was going to rob his shitty flame caps or something. It wasn't like I would have been hard to find I that was the case, I mean, I was walking *into* the concert and I would have been the only soft twat in there with those ugly hats on. Anyway, they weren't flexfit caps, they were those ones with the poppers across the back so you can change the size of the headband that way. So not only did they look bad but they were poorly made too. I imagine we'll see them on the merch counter at the next tour in 2009 cos no one's going to want to buy them.
So, we piled on up to the concert hall to take a look at the wimps and posers. The gig was full of people's dads acting like loons and weirdos dressed in normal clothes. Weirdos, that is, when it comes to metal concerts - I suppose that anywhere else they would be the ones you would consider to be normal. Honest though, there was some gormless looking sod, right in the middle of the pit and just standing there for the entire WASP show. It was like he'd just wandered in by accident and decided to get up close to stage and have a look what this heavy metal thing is all about. He also had a friend with him who looked like a cross between King Buzzo and Shane Embury. Except he was dressed like a tramp. So really it probably was Shane Embury, haha!
The actual gig was okay. Blackie was hidden for most of the night by a massive skull and cross bones microphone stand, which doubled up as a static pogo stick for a few songs too. Then about 3 songs into the set Blackie sort of climbed up onto the microphone thing, about 10 feet up from the stage, and then proceeded to wobble around for a few minutes and play a guitar solo at the same time. I don't know how to explain it any better; he climbed up onto the stand and wobbled about for a bit. Then he carefully dismounted it and carried on singing. The first time he did it I bet that everybody was expecting him to fall off it, he is a big fucker after all.
They didn't play Animal, Scream Until You Like It or Forever Free though. Bah.
Also Blackie Lawless didn't look very happy for a lot of the show, like he would rather have been somewhere else. Maybe that's his thing on stage for this tour, if it is he is confusing looking menacing and broody with just looking at the crowd and thinking "Damn, it's full of people's mams and dads. Where's the chicks sat up on people's shoulders with their titties out?". Actually, maybe he was pissed off because some idiot tried to rob a load of his cool flame hats off the merchandise tables.
All in all, I enjoyed the Thumper gig on Easter Sunday more than the WASP gig last night. But then, WASP haven't played a gig in Liverpool since 1989.
It was a bit of a problem at the start of the night because LFC were playing in the Champions League at the same time as the gig, so basically something had to give. Me and our Ed went and met up with the troops in Ma Egerton's (a pub off London Road in Liverpool) and we sat there for the first half drinking and talking right up next to the big screen that they've got in that boozer when the footy's on. In fact, Patchie and Northy sat under the screen, facing the rest of the pub. Drinking bitter. Liverpool, in the end, didn't bother putting together a big effort to score more goals. Well, it was already 3 nil on aggregate after all, why run themselves ragged when they were already 3 goals to the good? So at the half time whistle it was clear that it was time to go and watch some heavy metal.
When we got into the Academy (where the gig was held), straight away we went to see the magnificent merch tables that had been set up. And indeed there was a lot of stuff there to look at, lots of different designs showing guitars and skulls and hey, even flames! Only thing was, most of the t-shirts were from the last time WASP did a tour, in fact Eddy was wearing one of the shirts that was on the wall and he'd bought it when we saw them in Manchester a few years ago. Then someone said "look at those *boss* caps!"... boss as in really shite. They were a proper state, a load of mad headwear with orange and red flames all over them that I am sure will go down well in Germany or something. Those kerrazy Krauts love their cheesy rawk merch (at least I like to believe they do). But still, I wanted to know the important thing about these caps, and that was whether they were Flexfit or not. So, me being me, I waded over to have a look at them all, pinned onto the wall. And I wasn't there for more than 5 seconds when the prick who was looking at the merch came running at me shouting in a yank accent. The exchange went something like this:
Where's the need for the robocop "step away from the vehicle" attitude anyway? Like I was going to rob his shitty flame caps or something. It wasn't like I would have been hard to find I that was the case, I mean, I was walking *into* the concert and I would have been the only soft twat in there with those ugly hats on. Anyway, they weren't flexfit caps, they were those ones with the poppers across the back so you can change the size of the headband that way. So not only did they look bad but they were poorly made too. I imagine we'll see them on the merch counter at the next tour in 2009 cos no one's going to want to buy them.
So, we piled on up to the concert hall to take a look at the wimps and posers. The gig was full of people's dads acting like loons and weirdos dressed in normal clothes. Weirdos, that is, when it comes to metal concerts - I suppose that anywhere else they would be the ones you would consider to be normal. Honest though, there was some gormless looking sod, right in the middle of the pit and just standing there for the entire WASP show. It was like he'd just wandered in by accident and decided to get up close to stage and have a look what this heavy metal thing is all about. He also had a friend with him who looked like a cross between King Buzzo and Shane Embury. Except he was dressed like a tramp. So really it probably was Shane Embury, haha!
The actual gig was okay. Blackie was hidden for most of the night by a massive skull and cross bones microphone stand, which doubled up as a static pogo stick for a few songs too. Then about 3 songs into the set Blackie sort of climbed up onto the microphone thing, about 10 feet up from the stage, and then proceeded to wobble around for a few minutes and play a guitar solo at the same time. I don't know how to explain it any better; he climbed up onto the stand and wobbled about for a bit. Then he carefully dismounted it and carried on singing. The first time he did it I bet that everybody was expecting him to fall off it, he is a big fucker after all.
They didn't play Animal, Scream Until You Like It or Forever Free though. Bah.
Also Blackie Lawless didn't look very happy for a lot of the show, like he would rather have been somewhere else. Maybe that's his thing on stage for this tour, if it is he is confusing looking menacing and broody with just looking at the crowd and thinking "Damn, it's full of people's mams and dads. Where's the chicks sat up on people's shoulders with their titties out?". Actually, maybe he was pissed off because some idiot tried to rob a load of his cool flame hats off the merchandise tables.
All in all, I enjoyed the Thumper gig on Easter Sunday more than the WASP gig last night. But then, WASP haven't played a gig in Liverpool since 1989.
Thursday 5 April 2007
Sunn & Boris - Altar (Japanese Import Vinyl X3)
What kind of sad sad person would buy a limited edition record all the way from Japan comprising of 3 pieces of vinyl and a whole load of other stuff included with it and then go to the trouble of taking photos while unpacking it and then post them all onto the internet?
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