Reports from the GIGS??!!

[Will Matson]

No, no new tunes.
Now, if they were to do such classics as "Cum On Feel The Noize" or "18 And Life" or "Round And Round" or........Damn it!! I just dropped my hash oil......Looks like I'll have to get back to y'all.......

[riffraff]

Heading out to the Intonation Mach II Festival here in Chicago where Blue Cheer will play at 5:30pm. This won't be the same as a regular gig as they are alotted a half hour or so. But I am still greatly looking forward to it!
The Sun Times ran a picture of Dickie, Paul and Duck and wrote" The first and best of the power trios and true godfathers of grunge, these San Francisco legends join Erickson on the bill to prove that, "No, kids, uncompromising, underground music wasn't invented yeaterday."
The Chicago Tribunes's music critic , Greg Kot, included them in his top ten Intonation picks.
Bob Gendron interviewed Dickie, but that is several paragraphs. Maybe I will transcribe a bit later.

[Mak 10]

it's great hearing all these reports, and glad to know some of the shows are packed out.

riffraff, if you could be soooo kind as to transcribe the interview, i would be ever grateful. gonna check to see if it is on line.

keep them stories coming I was sitting on the boardwalk in Venus and I was pretty sure I heard Dickie's big ole bass grumbling ... some said it was a minor earthquake but i don't think so ...

[Mak 10]

checked it out myself ... here's the link

www.chicagotribune.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=blue+cheer&target=article

[Crankin It Up]

taking the hint from Mak 10, did a search ... the fellas are getting some press, it seems ...

In Hartford:


Blue Cheer Thunders On
June 23, 2006
By KENNETH PARTRIDGE, Special to the Courant Astronomically speaking, the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, bringing maximum sunshine, minimum night.

Light's triumph over darkness Wednesday did nothing to detract from a double bill of hard rock at BAR in New Haven, though, where Crooked Hook and Blue Cheer cranked up the distortion and summoned heavy black clouds with their earth-quaking bass and thunderous guitars.

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Opening the show, New Haven's Crooked Hook turned in a half-dozen sludgy rockers, most built around pummeling blues riffs repeated over and over again. It was a hypnotic sound occasionally capable of delivering knockout blows.

More effective was Blue Cheer, the late-'60s-born San Francisco power trio many credit with laying the groundwork for modern heavy metal. Resembling a pack of grizzled old bikers, Blue Cheer took a buzz-saw approach to the blues Wednesday night, thoroughly rocking a diverse crowd that included no-neck dudes in Slayer T-shirts and indie rockers in tight jean jackets.

Fittingly, the band started its set with "Babylon," which features the line, "Relax your mind/Lord, let it take an electric explosion." Singer and bassist Dickie Peterson, in shades and cowboy boots, laid a rock-solid foundation, giving guitarist Andrew "Duck" McDonald ample room to shriek and wail (and make faces to match).

McDonald's fierce playing continued on "Second Time Around" and a rave-up cover of Mose Allison's "Parchment Farm." The fret-board shredding soon proved too much for McDonald's amplifier, which gave way as the band prepared to launch into "Hoochie Coochie Man."

The technical malfunction turned out to be a good thing, though, as it gave Peterson a chance to tell road stories about getting high at the Alamo and nearly falling to his death from an elevated stage at a drive-in theater in Florida.

When the roadies finally fixed the amp, the group picked up exactly where it left off, drummer Paul Whaley leading the charge through a swaggering version of Albert King's "The Hunter." Whaley continued to shine on "Just a Little Bit," playing fills every few measures.

After a brutal run-through of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," the band offered an epic "Doctor Please," which Peterson admitted was about drugs. As the minutes ticked by, it seemed the group would continue jamming until 1 a.m., New Haven's bar-time curfew, or until McDonald's speaker again cried uncle - whichever came first.

This time, the amp held out.


www.montrealmirror.com/2006/062206/music2.html

lousy photo of Dickie, cool article

Leaders in loudness

>> San Francisco’s Blue Cheer keep it cranked to the max after almost four decades



by JOHNSON CUMMINS

In 1968, when San Francisco’s hippie-dippy craze was still in full bloom, it was a badass Bay Area band called Blue Cheer who let the world know that not everybody was looking through the same rose-coloured lenses. Preceding the nihilism and decibel levels which would mark the sounds of the MC5 and the Stooges, already bubbling up in Detroit, the sheer kerrang and ballast of Blue Cheer’s cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” quickly struck a chord with the unwashed masses of the era, and helped put the danger back into rock ’n’ roll.

Almost 40 years since its release, “Summertime Blues” has stood the test of time and continues to be one of the most sonically dangerous songs to sneak onto mainstream airwaves. After two incredible records, Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside (both from 1968), Blue Cheer lost their original guitarist Leigh Stevens and became steeped in drug problems and label mismanagement, while their later records were somewhat rudderless, reducing their once ferocious roar to a whimper.

After a few “heavy metal” misfires in the ’90s, the band is back (although still without Stevens) and a new legion of fans are just now discovering the sheer power of the first two records. The Mirror talked with bassist and singer Dickie Peterson through a bad cell-phone connection while he was on tour.

Mirror: You have been called the seminal proto-punk band and the forefathers of stoner rock. How does that make you feel?

Dickie Peterson: It means so much to us. When you’re young, you don’t say you are going to create a typical sound. At that point, you’re just functioning. We knew we wanted our music to be physical, but that was about the only plan, and I guess it translated well over time. When we hear new bands like Dead Meadow, Nebula and others talking about us, it just feels really good.

M: When you started out, you guys were really the black sheep of the tie-dyed San Francisco scene of the late ’60s. Are you still comfortable about being outcasts?

DP: I could be accused of never really growing up, because I still identify with the renegade and rebellion. The current state of my country reminds me every day that I took the right side.

M: Why has volume always been a big part of the Blue Cheer sound?

DP: It’s the only way you can get those overtones, which is a big part of our music.

The inside dope

M: You were named after a batch of [’60s LSD kingpin Augustus Owsley Stanley III]’s acid, but ironically it was drugs that became the band’s undoing.

DP: Well, I’ll speak for myself and tell you I became a heroin addict for a while. At the beginning we took a hell of a lot of acid, but I think LSD has some psychological benefits for some people. When I was young, they said if you took acid, you would kill yourself. I don’t know anybody who ever killed him or herself, loaded on acid. See, I was lied to as a youth as far as drugs went. I was told if you smoked marijuana, your life was destroyed. Didn’t happen. I smoked pot and thought it was great. They were telling us that war was great and good and acid was bad—all lies. So I just thought the dangers of heroin were also part of the lie. Drugs really became a problem when we started messing around with powders. If you have kids, you can’t lie to them. It’s the worst thing you can do, and from my experience, heroin will turn into a real problem.

M: You played with legends like Cream and Hendrix, back in the ’60s. What were some of your favourite shows from those days?

DP: When Hendrix was on, it was just beautiful. Having said that, some of the worst shows I have ever seen were Hendrix when he was out of tune and fucked up on drugs. I saw some nights, though, where you would swear Hendrix’s feet just left the ground.

M: What would you say to the people that say Blue Cheer’s heyday ended in the ’60s?

DP: We still provide a service and prove that life doesn’t end at 30. I’ve been doing this most of my life, and you give me any kid, any kid, and I will rock him right to the floor. Everybody in Blue Cheer feels the same way. We’ve been walking onstage for a long time, and when we walk out there, we really know what we’re doing—and we own that stage.

With Witch and the Mongrels at la Sala
Rossa on Thursday, June 29, 9 p.m., $18

[Mak 10]

;D
They made the NY Times

www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/arts/music/23pop.html

Rock/Pop Listings
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By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 23, 2006
Pop

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Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Popular Music
Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music.

AFI (Tonight) AFI gives its slithery, death-and-gloom-obsessed songs a jolt of fierce energy by reaching back to the anthemic hard-core punk of 1980's groups like Agnostic Front (as well as to 90's pop-punkers like Green Day). The recipe works: last week, on the strength of its catchy single "Miss Murder," the band's new album, "Decemberunderground" (Interscope), went to No. 1. Also on the bill are Dillinger Escape Plan, which plays an impossibly complex kind of punk-jazz, and Nightmare of You. At 6:45, Roseland, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, [phone]; $25.

(Ben Sisario)

ALLMAN BROTHERS, DEREK TRUCKS BAND (Tuesday) Derek Trucks, who is starting to take on a role similar to the young Eric Clapton's — that of a phenomenally gifted, graceful blues-rock guitarist whose presence makes anything better — does double duty here, playing with the Southern-rock granddaddies the Allman Brothers and also opening the show with his own group. At 7 p.m., Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, N.Y., [phone]; $20 to $65. (Sisario)

ATMOSPHERE (Monday) Atmosphere is a Minneapolis-based hip-hop group led by Slug, whose keenly written rhymes convey a gloomy sensibility more commonly associated with underground rock. With Brother Ali and Los Nativos. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, [phone]; $20.

(Kelefa Sanneh)

BLUE CHEER (Tonight) On a few gloriously untidy albums in the late 1960's and early 70's, Blue Cheer followed the blunter edges of Jimi Hendrix's sound into a bludgeoning kind of primordial heavy metal, and played it with an un-self-conscious glee that made the band sound like cavemen discovering fire. With Soldiers of Fortune and Titan. At 9, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, [phone]; $15. (Sisario)





QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT’S THE MOST MEMORABLE THING YOU’VE SEEN AT A CONCERT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN ON STAGE?

Janis Joplin



The question was about concert experiences that didn’t involve something on stage…

Judy: This happened back in the ’60s. I was at a Janis Joplin concert in Denver at the Family Dog. There were no seats, just a big dance floor and standing area. After the first set Blue Cheer came on, and Janis and one of the band members were standing about 12 feet away from me watching. The guy with Janis reached over and pinched or patted her behind. She saw me see it happen, and she grinned and winked at me.

We didn’t get many printable ones, so here are three from my old concert reviewing days:

• The Grateful Dead show at Verizon where, right in the middle of the dancing on the lawn, there appeared to be a very slow and deliberate breast exam in progress.

• Extreme at Verizon. Not them, but the drumstick tossed in my direction, which the guy on my left wanted just as much as they guy behind me. They got in a tug of war over it right over my neck.

•The Monsters of Rock show at Arrowhead. Most of this we watched from the air-conditioned press box on what was an oppressively hot day, but Robert Trussell, a pop culture columnist back then, took a walk on the concourse to see the effects of the heat on that rock crowd. His declaration upon returning, “that must be what hell looks like” is still among my all-time favorite lines.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ward Triplett, The Star
`88`8`8`8

www2.townonline.com/lynnfield/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=524825


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Tiger on the loose
By J.C. Lockwood
Sunday, June 25, 2006

The sound is rough, to put it bluntly. You can’t hear the vocals at all. The performance is practically a brawl, musically and physically: fast, furious. Chaotic, cathartic. The punk ideal. There’s no separation between the musicians and the fans, and the pit threatens to spill over and swallow up the band. The microphone has been knocked over, or moved aside. The vocalist is screaming, but you can’t really hear him over the din. The subtitles help. A little. But the lyrics are as abstract and free form as the music.



This is Daniel Striped Tiger, one of the new bands to emerge from the frenetic North Shore music underground, in a performance documented in Salem filmmaker Mike Boudo’s film "If You Want You Can: DIY Sparks Shards & Splinters from North Shore." The name of the film actually comes from a DST song.

The footage comes from a 2004 concert, and a lot has happened since then. The band, which grew out of the close-knit indie music scene and high school friendships, has recorded a mountain of music, including two splits this year alone, and is about to embark on the biggest tour of its career - one that has the band criss-crossing the United States and Canada for the rest of the summer.

They’re usually at a loss to describe the DST sound, especially to someone who doesn’t know the sonic touchstones. Reference points include The Nation of Ulysses, a difficult-to-classify mix of garage rock, mutant jazz and agit-prop that brings to mind MC5; Comets on Fire, utter musical insanity that itself references Blue Cheer, the Stooges and Cramps; and old-school post punk Fugazi, with its furious, intelligent, artful, and entirely musical vibe. But the references are loose - you hear what you want to hear. King Crimson, for example. And the sound is their own.

"I usually just say it’s a loud, fast, punk rock band," says guitarist Jason St.Claire. "Saying ’hardcore’ can sometimes throw people off, because there are many different interpretations and styles of that. I think we take a lot from classic rock and punk too, with something a little jazzy about it."

Sounds like...

Describing the sound is doubly difficult because it doesn’t sit still long enough to characterize. The early songs, from 2004’s debut "S/T" demo, for example, were based on guitar riffs and a back-to-the-basics ethic, the kind of raw energy that comes from banging on stuff and shouting. Easy enough.

But the aesthetic became increasingly adventurous, especially after the band teamed up with Will Killingsworth, who runs Clean Plate Records and Dead Air Studios - and also is a guitarist in Ampere, a band DST released a split with earlier this year. And by the time the band released "Condition," its first full-length CD on Alone Records, Daniel Striped Tiger was in a completely different place.

"Condition" is an ambitious, fractured collection of 11 interconnected songs that describe, lyrically and musically, a dismantled, scattered, frantic state of mind. It opens with "First Kite," an 18-second jolt of feedback that slides into "Slalom," what starts as a screaming rocker and suddenly is transformed into a spastic free-jazz piece, complete with sloppy trumpets, before returning to the initial figure.



© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems, Inc.

[Mak 10]

Somebody is on they job ...

the Washington Post ...

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061401541.html

Allow David to go all music geek on you for a second, if you please. "Blue Cheer, dude! Blue (expletive) Cheer!" OK, thanks for letting him get that out of his system. Considering the fact that the legendary psych-blues power trio that laid the groundwork for the whole "stoner rock" thing was more or less defunct before his parents even met, it goes without saying that David never thought he'd be able to see the band perform live. But tonight, the reformed group, featuring original vocalist/bassist/general group leader Dickie Peterson and original drummer Paul Whaley, storms into the Black Cat much to the delight old rock dudes, young rock dudes and other various types of dudes. Expect lots of dudes, is what we're saying, and expect plenty of rock. You know what -- scratch that. For one time only, expect plenty of rawk.

[Mak 10]

www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/wkp-news-live23.html


Blue Cheer, 5:30 p.m. The first and best of the power trios and the true godfathers of grunge, these San Francisco legends join Erickson on the bill to prove that, "No, kids, uncompromising underground music wasn't invented yesterday."


I'd say the guys are on their way ...

[riffraff]

Back from Intonation. Weather held up and about 35 fans hung around to talk with the band and get autographs. Which was fantastic and much appreciated! Thanks BC!

The set was compressed and efficient. They played tight.

Duck, Paul and Dickie were very easy to talk to and they were very gracious with the fans.

They have another date in about 2 weeks here in Chicago.

This is a quick blurb. I will write more tomorrow night.

[Al in Cleveland]

Fantastic show in Cleveland, Ohio July 5th. Took my teenage kids and their friends. We were all blown away by Blue Cheer. It's obvious when listening to Blue Cheer than many rock bands that came after them were heavy influenced by their style. The kids are turning their friends on to the band.

I'm glad to have re-discoverd this awesome band!

Al

[govner]

Al said:

Fantastic show in Cleveland, Ohio July 5th. Took my teenage kids and their friends. We were all blown away by Blue Cheer. It's obvious when listening to Blue Cheer than many rock bands that came after them were heavy influenced by their style. The kids are turning their friends on to the band.

I'm glad to have re-discoverd this awesome band!

Al

Too bad the Cleveland shows wasn't on the 3rd.......I love visiting Cleveland and would have no reservations about making the trip but the Toledo show was the only show that I had the opportunity to go to. I remember seeing many Nebula shows @ The Euclid Tavern before it shut down. I have never been to the Beachland Ballroom but want to some day.

[govner]

Sorry about the "Wannabee BC Band" plug but if it wasn't for those bands then Blue Cheer may be a distant memory to some people. And many of the younger BC fans may have found out about Dickie & the boys from them so it is all good!

[riffraff]

Back from the July 7th gig at The Note in Chicago. While walking up to the venue , the band members were hanging outside on the sidewalk. I said hi and started chatting with them. I am still amazed how cordial and friendly Paul, Duck and Dickie are.

I asked Paul about the Toledo gig and the cancellation. He said the club called them and said they had only sold 12 tickets and wanted to cancel. Logically the band agreed. So it is unfortunate that govner drove all those miles to a gig that didn't happen. But a club whose telephone calls transfer to a fax so that no one can get a hold of is a club that should be avoided then, now and in the future. To echo another poster don"t blame the band >>>>blame the venue. The band was apologetic that you had to go thru all that effort for naught.

The gig was alot better than Intonation. Duck said well for one they didn't even use their own equipment at the Intonation Festival. Plus the short time handicapped them.

Paul played great, Dickie a consumate showman and Duck a very strong presence. Duck was using a lot of feed back and all of his instrumental breaks added new interpretation to the songs. I won't spoil anyone's surprises, but Duck mixed it up a bit with his passages. I mentioned to him after the set, that he is really good on the slow blues segments and should include more of them. I said I really loved the way he used feedback and he said that he really likes to use feed back too (with a large grin)!

Dickie mentioned that he plans to work a couple of other songs into the set. The one he mentioned was a great choice. But I won't spoil the surprise for anyone going to a future gig.

Their oncore lacked the knock out punch that I hoped for, but it still was a great time. There is an aura about this band that even Duck is a part of. I believe that Paul being in this band is a great part of it. Dickie is very happy that he is back playing. But again the sum of these three is greater than their parts (or roles). I hope to hear this band again, again, again.....and again, again, again...

It was an honor and a pleasure hearing and talking with the band. A new tour starts up in November.


p.s. I talked a bit with Dickie on how the critics in Chicago killed them. Dickie said it was funny because the critics loved the band every where else. I said the critics in Chicago are clueless and they don't seem to mind ?!~!

[eio]

I just woke up from having my atoms rearanged in Minneapolis last night. Fucking awesome! I just couldn't believe Whaley, best drumming I've seen. Dickie was beyond compare. Duck was killer. The music blew through me like the wind. We were right up front for half the show, then stood back for the remainder.

Cheers...EIO

[govner]

riffraff said:

I asked Paul about the Toledo gig and the cancellation. He said the club called them and said they had only sold 12 tickets and wanted to cancel. Logically the band agreed. So it is unfortunate that govner drove all those miles to a gig that didn't happen. But a club whose telephone calls transfer to a fax so that no one can get a hold of is a club that should be avoided then, now and in the future. To echo another poster don"t blame the band >>>>blame the venue. The band was apologetic that you had to go thru all that effort for naught.

Thanks for the explanation! Rarely do I leave for a road trip without tickets in hand or a confirmation number for tickets @ will call but the Toledo show was road trip for bonding with my high school buddy who I have had a stormy relationship because of substance abuse issues in the past so even if I didn't get to see Blue Cheer it was a much needed quality time with an old friend! I don't hold the band responsable for the venue's dirty tricks and you can bet your ass that I will warn anybody about any future shows at this dump! That being said now that Blue Cheer is linked to Pollstar I won't have any second thoughts about planning a future show that is listed there. However I would hope that BC would have a trusted fan or friend to make a announcement in an event of a last minute change of plans......and maybe consider doing a "Southern" leg of the current tour!

BTW.....just got back from seeing Alice Cooper last night in Columbus and he kicked my ass and affirmed the postive aspects of making a long road trip to see a rock show!