Post by FeedbackLourde on Aug 17, 2007 21:58:35 GMT -5
This review comes courtesy of Isis....
Saw some pretty great Seattle gigs last year: in quick succession, we got NoMeansNo, Radio Birdman and Blue Cheer. All were killer shows. NoMeansNo are longtime favorites of mine, and did not disappoint. Birdman, a legendary late-70s Australian pre-punk band fronted by guitarist Deniz Tek, had never done a US tour before. They played their first reunion shows back in 1996 at the Big Day Out festival in Australia... I was there recording Bluebottle Kiss at the time, and saw a show. Recently they reconvened to record their first album of new material since 1980, the new 'Zeno Beach'... and if you ever liked Radio Birdman, you'll love this record. If you are expecting some kind of hardcore punk thing, or never heard Birdman before, you might not get it... because they're a 70s ROCK band, like the MC5 or the Dictators or the Stooges. Like I said, PRE-punk. They had the drummer from You Am I sitting in, Rusty, who is a powerhouse like Donny from Zeke, so they totally killed it here in Seattle. And... Blue Cheer played their first club show in Seattle since 1980 (I was at that one too, 27 years ago). This was the same lineup that I recorded at Foel Studio in Wales in 1990, original members Dickie Peterson (bass) and Paul Whaley (drums) with guitarist Andrew "Duck" McDonald, the longest-serving BC guitarist ever. They slayed it, to my great pleasure, finishing up with a 10-minute version of "Doctor Please" from Vincebus Eruptum (1967!) that stunned people. The next day I went out to a barbecue in the Seattle 'burbs where they were staying with a friend before heading to their next show, and we caught up on the 16 years since I last saw them! If you ever get a chance to see 'em, do it. It may be old songs but this is no nostalgia act, and they refuse to do the nostalgia tour circuit. Blue Cheer was and is the first ever heavy metal band as we understand the term today; at the time they were called "acid rock". Watching these 60-year olds killing it filled me with hope.
Saw some pretty great Seattle gigs last year: in quick succession, we got NoMeansNo, Radio Birdman and Blue Cheer. All were killer shows. NoMeansNo are longtime favorites of mine, and did not disappoint. Birdman, a legendary late-70s Australian pre-punk band fronted by guitarist Deniz Tek, had never done a US tour before. They played their first reunion shows back in 1996 at the Big Day Out festival in Australia... I was there recording Bluebottle Kiss at the time, and saw a show. Recently they reconvened to record their first album of new material since 1980, the new 'Zeno Beach'... and if you ever liked Radio Birdman, you'll love this record. If you are expecting some kind of hardcore punk thing, or never heard Birdman before, you might not get it... because they're a 70s ROCK band, like the MC5 or the Dictators or the Stooges. Like I said, PRE-punk. They had the drummer from You Am I sitting in, Rusty, who is a powerhouse like Donny from Zeke, so they totally killed it here in Seattle. And... Blue Cheer played their first club show in Seattle since 1980 (I was at that one too, 27 years ago). This was the same lineup that I recorded at Foel Studio in Wales in 1990, original members Dickie Peterson (bass) and Paul Whaley (drums) with guitarist Andrew "Duck" McDonald, the longest-serving BC guitarist ever. They slayed it, to my great pleasure, finishing up with a 10-minute version of "Doctor Please" from Vincebus Eruptum (1967!) that stunned people. The next day I went out to a barbecue in the Seattle 'burbs where they were staying with a friend before heading to their next show, and we caught up on the 16 years since I last saw them! If you ever get a chance to see 'em, do it. It may be old songs but this is no nostalgia act, and they refuse to do the nostalgia tour circuit. Blue Cheer was and is the first ever heavy metal band as we understand the term today; at the time they were called "acid rock". Watching these 60-year olds killing it filled me with hope.