Already at the end of last year, our kid LIAM announced a handful
of UK arena shows for this month, to celebrate the 30th birthday
of Oasis‘s masterpiece debut LP Definitely, Maybe.
All concerts sold out in no time. And I got lucky to get one for
tomorrow night, June 6, in London at the 20.000 cap O2 arena.
Since Australian punk barnstormers AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS released their second
album Comfort To Me back in 2021 they’re on an endless tour around the globe. And nobody can stop them. After several summer festivals they’ll go bananas in Europe/UK next Fall.
Amidst all live chaos they found some time to record this new sassy stunner.
Band: WARMDUSCHER Who: Post-punk disco gang from London, born to turn you upside down.
Works: 4 albums (so far) with 2022 LP Hot Spot as their most recent and most
smoking one.
Sound: Hip-and-legs shaking elation.
Concert: Le Botanique, Brussels – 24 May 2024
Holy Moses! What a blast! What a fucktastic blast it was! London‘s 24-hour party motherrockers hit Belgium again, and we were there again too. Last night they
were the orchestrators, of a mini-festival in Brussels with some glorious indie
bands such as The Neves, The Belair Lips, and Special Interest.
Warmduscher threw an ecstatic funk-punk disco party that all out-of-their-dance-mind attendees, jumping around like kangaroos on speed, will remember for a long time. They turned the place into a nightclub gathering for 60 steamed-up minutes with a Sly and the Family Stone vitality. There Was A Riot Goin’ On.
No breaks, no brakes, no mistakes. With a set of riff-roaring groove rippers and jiving jackhammers the temperature got hotter and hotter until the orgiastic finale blew the
roof off the venue.
The manic maestro in the middle, going by the alias of Clams Baker Jr is a reincarnated punk version of James Brown and he led the troops from start to finish. He’s a natural-born showman springing from left to right and back and screaming his heart-and-soul
out, while spreading love on and offstage, hugging and jitterbugging. A terrific ear-and-eye catching entertainer.
Clams rules, Warmduscher rule, love rules!
Here’s an idea of their live vibe.
Now get up, get on up,
and stay on the scene
at the Hotspot club.
Band: HOT GARBAGE Who: A turbulent noise unit from Canada formed in 2015.
They melt heavily volatile yet undeniably palatable amalgamation
of sonic elements. Calling on the driving rhythms of dark post-punk
and motorik krautrock.
One of the best albums of the year to TUTV’s ears. A torrid trash,
slash and crash experience, a demonic mindfucker for demonic
minds.
PRECIOUS TIME
. LIVE at BOTANIQUE in BRUSSELS – 14 May 2024
Le Botanique is an eye-catching historic building in Brussels with different music venues, including one in the basement where Hot Garbage played on a small podium that was recently transferred from the (usual) front to the middle of the place.
It fitted the band perfectly, who played under small hyperkinetically flashing spots,
which created a tenebrous effect (obviously not dark enough for the keyboardist and the guitarist who wore black shades) that matched their wall-of-dark-psychedelia sound that went on without breaks nor brakes.
Yes, live they embedded their songs in a cacophonous, deafening pool
of raucous frenzy, sonically even more spellbinding than on record.
Imagine: Black Sabbath on acid producing a distorted chaos à la The Jesus And Mary Chain
in their early manic days and diving, at times, into a kind of prog-punk-rock turbo with the drummer as the loudest force on the podium. Pretty cool, right? You betcha. Catch them if they play in a basement near you and don’t forget to put on your dark sunglasses.
Although I was sitting on the first row in the middle, just in front of Hersh‘s sheeny eyes shining in the dark, I closed my eyes for at least half of the set. It felt then as if Kristin was actually playing/singing inside my head, really. Her singular, slightly hoarse voice and her elegant and exquisite acoustic guitar play were even closer than they already were.
Solo, without any visual or electrically charged distractions on the podium, the audience was totally focused on Hersh. I’ve been to countless concerts, big and small, in my life but
I never experienced such a trance-like silence.
Hersh‘s setlist was a mix of Throwing Muses songs and solo ones, including a couple
of last year’s arresting Clear Pond Road album. Except for that magic pearl Your Ghost (feat. REM’s Michael Stipe) from her 1994 solo debut LP Hips And Makers the setlist wasn’t a ‘best of’ whatsoever. I guess her heart and soul picked the songs.
In between magnific musical moments, Hersh showed her talent for being a deadpan sit-down comedian. Her stories about a goldfish with a mustache named Freddie Mercury, about getting crazy over flies and mice in the house instead of searching for a home in nature, and about the rude songs her parents sung to her as a kid were actually hilarious and fitted in perfectly in the whole performance.
A special artist, a special night in a special town.
38-year-old Britpop rocker MILES KANE delivered his best ever solo album,
to my ears, with last year’s 5th one, named ONE MAN BAND. Following the
release he took the road to promote the record, and he’s still traveling around
Europe.
Last Wednesday he hit my hometown Ghent (Belgium) as a one man band. Yes, he and
his guitar and all other music on tape. It felt awkward at the beginning, as if he cheated on us by turning up alone, but that feeling disappeared very quickly, as Kane got the whole venue on his hands after just a couple of riff-loaded killers.
And the euphoric ambiance got hotter and more sweaty along the way. His set was
a clever, yet short one (just one hour), meaning that he played all the firecrackers we wanted to hear (except forBaggio, the album’s exhilarated single. Damn Miles, why?
You played it on all of your previous concerts).
Kane is a vintage rock ‘n’ roll star who knows all the tricks to score a 5-star gig. He took
the stage to The Who‘s My Generation (with fans from three generations in the building)
left with Rocky’s anthemic movie theme on the speakers, and he interacted with the elated audience as if we were all one big happy family with one and the same goal, having a blast of a night out, which happened flawlessly (except for missing Baggio of course. Oops, I said it again).
The one man band ruled.
PICTURE THIS
SETLIST
Troubled Son
Better Than That
The Wonder
Cry on My Guitar
Rearrange
Coup de Grace
One Man Band
Heal
Dealer
Standing Next to Me
Colour of the Trap
Never Taking Me Alive
Come Closer
Don’t Forget Who You Are
