Seb's weblog

I’m two weeks late telling about it, but I went to a metal concert recently. Once again, I felt that I’m getting old — not that I was tired or anything like this, but seeing how young those guys on stage look, it was a bit disturbing to me. The first band on stage was Amoral, which played good hard rock stuff with plenty of guitar licks. They were soon followed by Before The Dawn which played darker (and lower-tuned) metal. I was a bit afraid at first, because, as I often say, I’m not a great fan of grunt voices, but since they used a mix of voices between the guitar player and the bass player, it worked ok for me in the end.

Later on, Amorphis came on stage and I was a bit unimpressed. The way their music is, regarding the set, it is a bit more dull and soft following some heavier band like Before The Dawn. Furthermore, I was a bit non-plussed at times by the chord changes and the oriental-sounding guitar melodies that were used now and then.

Well, at least the first part was a good experience.

Coming to the place wasn’t a problem, but once there with Guillaume, we were that close to catastrophe, since the weather entered the place and it started raining. Hopefully, we were already at the external gates and covered. I don’t know how it happened, but those gates were already opened. I thought that the time on the ticket was the gate opening time, but apparently today it was the concert start. Anyway, we were on time, and we only had to run for 50m before reaching the Zénith main gates. Funny thing, once we were inside, one of the songs played before was from Amanda Palmer’s solo album, who I discovered with her bandmate of the Dresden Dolls, 4 years ago, opening for Nine Inch Nails, at the same place.

Speaking of opening, soon entered on stage Mew. And almost as usual, I guess, the first part was due to fail and when Trent Reznor says that they sound good live, I call the bullshit police, because the sound engineer butchered the whole thing (or so I hope). The voice was drowned by the synth and the drums were badly mic-ed. And what about those bongos triggering symbals? And I won’t even talk about the bass player and his wireless cowbell. But anyway, I’m not convinced, just by the voice of the singer. Does he use effects to sing higher? At least, that’s how it sounded (and it reminded of feared viking whatever metal). And they play Fender, which is almost as bad. But at times, I couldn’t figure out if the guitar player was changing his guitar in between songs of if it was one and only song. I tried to like it, but I wasn’t convinced there. They played a short set but they came back (unexpected and unwanted by some) for an encore with a long, nice and slow song.

And then… (more…)

Tracy Bonham’s Mother, Mother on voice and distorted cello only.

I usually only make mild comments on the various concerts I attend, but for this one, I’ll add a start-up conclusion: If you have the opportunity to see Danko Jones in a concert near you and if you have nothing against rock n’ roll, then you must go and see how good music looks like, and I mean it.

First and foremost, I also have to admit, that those guys have good taste in music. I mean, it all started with waiting music including Gn’R‘s It’s so Easy, so the night started in a very nice way. First part was assumed by Backyard Babies. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, in fact, but this is an experienced swedish rock band that does its job well: rocking. They look like rock, they sound like rock, so this is a good rock experience.

And then, Danko Jones. Not only the lyrics are often on some kind of good humored tone, but in fact, Danko Jones (the singing guitar player, not just the band) is quite an entertainer, and even though they often chain 2-3 songs one after the other, the guy talks a lot and plays with the crowd (and for the record, I did raise my hand, just not fast and high enough) and the crew. And as this was apparently the last night with the Backyard Babies, there were some pranks going (including air horns for 1-2 songs).

I thought maybe the music (at least the guitars) wasn’t loud enough for my taste, but it rocked all night long and it really was fun and enjoyable to be there.

First part by Candy Clash, a french 70/80’s sounding electro-rock band. Don’t turn away at the myspace sound, it felt much better live, groovy and all. Weird little thing I noted: seems like the bass player played his instrument like one would play the guitar (mostly the way he used and positioned his right hand, but I’m sure I saw him play chords with his left hand).

Next were Fujiya & Miyagi (which is an simple progressive electro-pop english band, as its name implies). Very nice sound, well played even though I wondered for the first songs why they had a drum set on stage while they were using simple drum machine patterns. It turns out that there was a drummer behind the set! But it sounded a bit dull. They played a short set (a bit more than 1 hour, methinks), about half of the songs from the late Lightbulbs album.

Candy Clash, Fujiya & Miyagi: good!
Public: between so-so and just plain bad (not that many people moving around!)

(and it was cold out there afterwards!)

To introduce the place, this was my first time at the Jardin Moderne, which is a venue colocated with music related associative structures (studio…). It can be found on the remote outskirts of Rennes, in the middle of an industrial zone.

First part was managed by l’Oeil du Sourd, a Magma-type band with keyboards (handling also most of the bass duties), drums (most of the time, I thought it was a bit dull, but the drummer is almost the best part of the show, even when not playing), guitar (unimpressive with no tone or presence), violin (like it), sax (duh) and vocals (the closest element to magma, since I couldn’t make any sense of what was sung, and hopefully this was intentional). There were a few good spots, but most of the time it lacked something (more groove or rhythm?). They played for about one hour.

And then, it took 45 mins to shuffle everything on stage to set it up for One shot, because the stage itself is small and it just requires work. But it meant that the main band would start at 23h, and I think it’s a bit late for just one first part band, but c’est la vie.

So, here comes One Shot. As usual, the groove and atmosphere is occupied by the bass, while the rhodes and the guitar go around. I still love Daniel Jeand’heur on Drums.

And then, it ended, and it was all rain outside. Great.

Duh, haven’t posted in a while, and still hard to check what I have discovered since last time. I know: I talked about the red fragrance of albums.

• Chinese Democracy, Guns n’ Roses: obviously, the best, the greatest (ahem);
• Performing this week, Jeff Beck: nice take of classical titles from the Master;
• Universo Inverso, No Gravity, Kiko Loureiro: nice guitar work, close to his Angra work for the latter, totally different for the former;
• A cruel world, Bloodsimple: well, it was their first (or earlier) album, so I guess I could have expected something a bit below their current standard. Some songs/sounds feel a bit out of place;
• Bone machine, Tom Waits: a different sound (yeah I know, I’m probably too much influenced by movies);
• A Piano, Tori Amos: love her;
• Seven moons, Jack Bruce & co: great (and I mean Great) blues sound;
• Three legs of trouble, Stonerider: hard to find any information about this band since they seem to have changed their name at some point for this one. Really cool rock band; Listening to one song, I thought they had been influenced a bit too much by Nazareth (although in the same song, they almost use the same riff as Hendrix’s Stone Free), but in fact, later on the album, they cover Hair of the dog (also covered by GnR);
• The ruiner, Made out of babies: weird. Not bad, but just weird modern rock;
• Monochrome, Helmet: no what I expected (and regarding the guitar solos, this is in a bad way);
• A lullaby for the devil, Deadsoul Tribe: wind instrument, ‘nuff said. Well, that and the weird mix with the guitars (which wouldn’t sound that bad at first) drowned;
• Who killed Amanda Palmer?, Amanda Palmer: Way more interesting than the two latest Virginia Dresden Dolls albums, to me. And I need to check what’s the story with Neil Gaiman, since he’s one of my favorites authors;
• It’s not how far you fall, it’s the way you land, Soulsavers: not fully digested, but Mark Lanegan’s in;
• Lighbulbs, Fujiya & Miyagi: soft but interesting;
• Entertainment!, Gang of four: I’m not that much into 80’s, but this albums makes me change my mind somehow because it rocks, impressive;
• Zozobra, Bird of Prey: not fully digested. Heavy stuff, but?

• Hold on now, youngster, Los Campesinos!: funny stuff, really. This would be the one I could most recommend to my irish readership (yeah, you). I’m just afraid of the “you’re listening to what?!” look I may get next time we meet up.

Some people who know me have probably expected that I would do such a review, but it is very hard to summarize and write about such an album that I have been waiting for years like many other fans. And it is also hard to judge songs as new when I have been listening to some since 2001 (with bootlegs from the Vegas shows, not to mention the 2006 Paris concert that I attended where 5 songs from the album only released last week were played).

Is this the best album ever made? I wouldn’t say so. Is it a good album? Yes, sure! Would it please a Appetite for Destruction-era fan? I wouldn’t bet on it. It somehow sounds like Guns n’ Roses, but with less a stone-esque, punkish sound. This is overall a really good rock album, but it is overproduced at times and contains last-minute glitches and dubious choices (most that can only be really heard by those who have been following the various leaks). (more…)

People, if Chinese Democracy was already reported to have cost $13M in 2001, maybe giving such a number now would be misleading since most of the tracks were recorded a few more times since then.

If the world is gorgeous. Not that much of a rocker, but mind-blowing in its kind.