Last Friday, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS shot a lot of bullets with butterfly wings
at Lokerse Feesten. Their guru, Billy Corgan, was, what else, the attention grabber.
He and guitarist James Iha are the two remaining members from the original line-up.
From zero(s) to hero(s).
SETLIST
Where Boys Fear to Tread
Pentagrams
Today
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
1979
Edin
Mayonaise
Take My Breath Away
(Berlin cover)
999
Disarm
Tonight, Tonight
Cherub Rock
Jellybelly
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Ava Adore
Stand Inside Your Love
Zero
The Everlasting Gaze
Last Monday was retro punk day at Lokerse Feesten – Belgium with Irish heroes The Undertones, the fantabulous and, imperishable Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols featuring rattlesnake Frank Carter and British punk trailblazers THE DAMNED.
The latter were the first UK punk band to release a single, and album and touring the US.
Their 1977 debut LP Damned Damned Damned still is one of the best punk longplayers ever, in my book. It featured several blitzkrieg bullets such as New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, Stab Your Back and Born To Kill.
They’re still smashing things up with 3 of the 4 original members: singer Dave Vanian, guitarist Captain Sensible and drummer Rat Scabies. Although they played on automatic pilot, the hits went down a storm. Hail hail!
Last Monday, at Lokerse Feesten in Belgium, the 78-year-old IGGY POP
was sandwiched between Irish adult kicks The Undertones, old punk roses The Damned and the legendary bollocks named Sex Pistols fronted, not by Johnny Forgotten, as you all should know by now, but by podium animal and
rattlesnake Frank Carter.
A though just popped up: if you add up the age of all those guys
individually, what would be the outcome, one or two centuries?
Age is just a number, that’s what all those old-timers (mind you, Pop had some young(er) musicians to back him up) showed us. Over the years, age results in craftsmanship, stage presence and live experience.
Close your eyes, imagine that only 18-year-olds were there on that podium, you certainly would tell your mates, who weren’t interested in so-called has-beens, that you witnessed some of the best new sharp-cutting punk bands in ages. Yes, perception is a weird, misleading mindfucker. Of course, they would laugh their tits off. Fuck ’em.
They didn’t see Iggy Pop. I did, along with 10.000 jacked-up people (a colorful mix of
3 generations). He was just PHENOMENAL, backed by a PHENOMENAL band (that
always helps, of course) featuring two fabulous guitarists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Nick Zinner
and Las Nubes‘ Ale Campos, badass bassist Matt Sweeney , bulletproof drummer Urian Hackney (The Armed, Rough Francis), a trumpet and trombone player and a keyboardist.
The loudest artillery I ever saw him perform with.
The earthshaking wall-of-raw-power sound Iggy‘s troops developed for the full 65 minutes (long live short in-your-face festival sets) was no less than jaw-dropping. Of course, when
I tell you that half of the set were acid-doped Stooges classics it explains a lot about the huge amount of decibels that shook the whole site. Add blockbusters The Passenger, Lust For Life and Nightclubbing and you should know by now that we all got a mind-blowing night.
The unquestionable star was that skinny man in the middle who, despite a severely
limp left leg, moves like a hungry hyena, leaves the stage to meet and greet his adoring fans, and most of all, whose iconic spit and sneer voice still has the immense capability to dominate the whole rock jamboree.
Age is a number when you are the Godfather of Punk. He left everything, just
everything on the floor, to entertain the crazy crowd. Respect! Respect! Respect!
Below here, some fan footage of ‘I wanna Be Your Dog’
Not great quality but I guess you got the idea of the
slam-bang moment.
SETLIST
T.V. Eye (The Stooges)
Raw Power (The Stooges)
I Got a Right (The Stooges)
Gimme Danger (The Stooges)
The Passenger
Lust for Life
Death Trip (The Stooges)
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
Search and Destroy (The Stooges)
Down on the Street (The Stooges)
1970 (The Stooges)
Some Weird Sin
Frenzy
Nightclubbing
Modern Day Rip Off
Punkrocker
All live photos shot and edited by Turn Up The Volume.
STRAY CATS had several runs in their careers (1979–1984, 1986–1993, 2004–2009,
2018–present) with the first one as their most notorious. Overall they scored 9 LPs,
the last one in 2019 with 40.
And their 2nd home is a stage, where they still rock ‘n’ billy with eager gusto.
Harmonic pop-rock indies REAL ESTATE released their third LP ATLAS
11 years ago, on 14 March and will celebrate its eleven and seven months’
birthday (LOL) with a string of shows in North America.
“Atlas was a pretty big record for us, and chances are if you’re reading this, it’s a pretty big record for you too. Nobody ever said, ‘I love Real Estate, but I hate their third LP, Atlas.’ And if they did say that, they never said it anywhere around us—and we read everything you guys write on the internet; some of it can get pretty weird. And so, on this momentous occasion, we will be bringing A CELEBRATION OF ATLAS to a city near you, to honor its 11 year and 7 month anniversary.
We’ll be playing almost the entire album in its entirety (basically) and other lesser known tunes from the Atlas era. We’ll also be playing a selection of our greatest hits, because we know you love those too. Please come and celebrate with us—we can’t wait to see you.”
A year later he went on a worldwide tour to promote the LP.
Now, 4 years later, Dylan is still flying/playing around. This fall
he’ll land in the UK and Ireland.
New York City‘s alt-dance-rock combo THE RAPTURE fronted by vocalist/guitarist Luke Jenner made a talked about run from 1998 to 2014 with 3 albums, took a
hiatus, restarted the motors from 2019 to 2021, then silence again until now.
They just announced a tour, doing US/UK/Euro shows.
