Thursday, October 24, 2019

Black Moon Circle- Bismut Oct Tour 2019



 Oct 16th

I got the bus at 1530 from my home town to Porto. My friend Paulo picked me up in the pouring rain and we headed to the great beer bar, Catraia in the walking streets of Porto. We always go there. We had an amazing IPA from the Drunken Bros brewery from Bilbao Spain. Yum.. 6.5€ for a pint.  I would have liked another beer but needed some food. We went to a place almost across the street as it was pouring down rain and had some Taiwanese chicken rice bowl. It was ok. The Taiwanese beer was a standard Asian lager and tasted of nothing after that amazing beer.   We just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Oct 17th

We were up early and out the door at 730 to take me to the airport and then Paulo was off to work.  I had no hassles at the airport all was smooth. Bought a sandwich and drink for the Ryannair flight (9.25€).  On the plane and looks sunny out but cloudy below. We left more or less on time so all good so far. I am really excited to see the guys and to play again.  Glad we have one gig before the big one at Desertfest. We got lucky to get the best slot as the last band in the small room on Friday night. I will see my friends Anders, Ann Karin, Sara, Benny, Lone, Paula, Desierre, and probably others as well.

12:25 I arrived at Eindhoven more or less on time. 4€ for a ticket to the Eindhoven station and then it should have been like 45mins to Oss on the train not many trains were running and all the people heading in the direction I was going had to take a bus to Boxtel for 25mins and then the train from there to Den Bosch and then to Oss. I did not arrive in Oss until 15 and it was almost 1530 by the time I got to the club.


There was supposed to be someone there from 15 but no one was around luckily I started talking to Leo, a very cool guy who lives above the club. He invited me in and I had some tea, and a bit of a rest and I could leave all my things there. He called Amber, who owns the club and lives across the street and she said they would be there at 18.

I spent the next couple of hours going around the town. Had some Vietnam potato shrimp rolls that were great, stopped at 17, beer O’clock at the local theatre café and had a really bad local non-alcoholic IPA.  Nice aroma, look and smell but a metallic aftertaste that was nasty. Could not even finish the beer. 4€ down the tube. Got the label.

Went to Speakerland and had a great chat with the man who runs this custom hi fi shop where they have been making their own brand of loudspeakers for 35 years!! Impressive. He was very nice and we heard some Black Moon circle on his speakers and it sounded great. He said he might come (and he did!)..

I hung out with Amber and her husband at their apartment. The guys were not going to arrive until 19:30 now as their equipment was delayed and one box of merch did not make it so they will send it to the club later tonight, etc.. They had to go to Nijmegen to pick up the guys in Bismut and the gear, so everything was way off from the proposed schedule that we got. See below..

Oct 17th-  Cafe Lollipop, Oss, NL
Address:  Kerkstraat 5, 5341 BK Oss, Netherlands
15.00 get-in crew Lollipop
16.00 get-in, set-up & soundcheck Black Moon Circle
18:00 get-in Bismut
18.00 diner
19:00 set-up & soundcheck Bismut
20.00 Showime Bismut
21.00 change-over
21.15 - end Showime Black Moon Circle (75mins + encore)

Anyway, we had a nice meal, set up the gear and Bismut hit the stage a bit after 21. It was so great to see the BMC guys again. Last time was in June.  Øyvin was a bit sick, as seems to be the case everytime we tour. I think it is a lot of stress with work, rehearsing, getting everything together for the tours and he gets sick.

I guess there were about 25 people. It is a super small bar. Sound guy was very nice but he had little to work with since only the guitar was mic’d up. Bismut they don’t have any vocals. They played two new songs and were a really good band. Intense bass and drums and a lot of space for the guitar to riff and space out. Cool instrumental heavy metal with some prog and psychedelic inspirations. I think they played 5 songs total about 50mins. They had never played here and it went down well.
 
BMC were on about 2230 and we played an hour. I was supposed to try out my new sequencer but the band just started before I could do it and I had no monitor and had to stand in front of the PA. Not good. When Øyvin sang, he blasted you and I had to stand to the side away from my synth. Anyway, I missed the first notes on the recorder and I did not expect them to start so fast.   We started with the new one, The Ghost. We played it nearly every gig on the last tour, so it is not really that new but it is not on any of the records.  Next up was American Eagle and this was great.  Then we tried two really new ones, first time ever played live, Landslide and Monster Serpent. The later worked really well. Both sounded heavy…  We ended with Stone Cold Killer. Set was about an hour on the recorder.  I don’t think it will sound good.  Some people were standing right next to the recorder and talking as well.  NO good place to record in this tiny bar.
 
BMC in the Cafe Lollipop after the gig!
Set List: The Ghost, American Eagle, Landslide, Monster Serpent, Stone Cold Killer

You can hear the complete show here: 
https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-10-17.FLAC

We had a great time and people loved it and gave us great praise. The bar is a true R&R bar with all cool people. Great music on the stereo, they even make their own Carolina Reaper vodka. It was strong but I thought it would be stronger actually.. Phew.. I was first off to bed about 0015…

Amber, the owner of the bar and her husband were some of the coolest people I have ever had put us up. They provided an amazingly experience for us, providing food, drinks, place to sleep, weed, you name it… everything we asked for. Just so kind.  Rare people in this world. Lovely.. 

Oct 18th

I was the first up about 8. Had a shower, a sandwich, my fiber… feel a bit tired but doing well. Partly sunny day outside. IT is very loud around there though. Drilling, massive church bells. Rang 100 times.. Insane around 815 this morning.

I am supposed to get the guys up at 11 so we can get to the train by 1324… We will see.  We talked about the set for tonight—Space In, Ghost, Monster Serpent, Machine on the Hill, Warp Speed.  Something like that.

2hr 10min for the train from Oss to Antwerpen, about....


Oct 18th- Desertfest, Antwerpt, BE

We managed to get the train from Oss at 13:15 and only had to change once. 25€ for a train ticket. It was pouring rain in Antwerp but they sent some one to pick us up. Our gear got a bit wet but not too bad. IT had stopped when we got to the venue. Personal was all super professional with wristbands, food ticket, drinks, backstage… they assign a person who gives you a full tour of the venue and where everything is. We did notl have our own backstage room but a chilled place where we could chat with other bands. We mostly talked with the Temple Fang guys. Super super people..

Everything went super smooth. We did some promo fotos with a really nice Portuguese lady. The band loved it when she said “Ricardo!”..  We got a few laughs out of that. The guy we were staying with Bram, was the stage manager for the stage we played on, so that was great. We had everything we needed. I spoke to the sound man about doing a soundboard recording and it was possible but some how we only got the last 14mins.. so he did not do right.. Pity..

I got to see Monomyth, 30mins of Nebula (new drummer??), Temple Fang, a bit of Truckfighters, 30000 Monkies.. Monomyth was excellent but only played 35mins. They had one new song where both the keyboard players also played guitar so there were 3 guitars! I will have a separate review of this on the blog. 

Audience just before we started.
The band before us finished early so we had a lot of time to set up and soundcheck was smooth and it sounded great.  I started the show with my new sequencer into the modular and did a 3 min space in, we called March of the Antwerpians!  We opened with Ghost, as we did the night before. The place was totally packed. Next up was a monster 20min version of Enigmatic Superbandit. This went down well with the audience. We tried out the new song, Monster Serpent and also extended this to at least 15 mins. We had almost used up our time but I had spoken to Bram if it was ok if we went a little over and he said it was so we did Warp Speed. We only had 50mins but I think we played about 60! 


Set List: Space Intro, The Ghost, Enigmatic Sueprbandit, Monster Serpent, Warp Speed

Enjoy the complete show here::: https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-10-18.FLAC

Audience loved it. One girl told me it was the best show of the day. We hung out with lots of cool folks and went to the night disco until 0230. Peter was playing tons of cool stuff. It was a great night but I was very tired when we crashed at after 3. The other guys stayed up partying until 5 in the morning!!  We sold 170€ in merch.. shirts..

Oct 19th

         We managed to work out a deal to leave our gear and merch in the venue since we were traveling with Bismut and they were the first band on today.  We arrive a bit before 15. I had to meet a guy named Jo to pick up some records I bought from him. He was super nice as I was 30mins late.  I saw Bismut for a couple of songs. It was really packed and they had a great sound. I think they played 4 songs, including the two new ones. People seem to dig it. Two gigs for Bismut in 7 hrs!  We talked a bit about me playing on one song with them. We will see..

I also saw a bit of Admiral Sir Cloudsly Shovell, and Fireball Ministry. A bit of RRaigs as well.  Then we had to head off to Tilburg for the gig tonight. 




We arrived t the Little Devil just about 18. Perfect timing for a relaxed set up and soundcheck. Turned out we could do a soundboard here to night and I set that up and recorded the soundcheck through the soundboard of one some of me playing with Bismut. Sounded good and worked..  Bismut has been filming most of the shows as well.

There are two festivals, Into the Void and Desertfest this weekend in this part of the world so it was not a big surprise we only got 25 paid people. The response was great. There were more people watching Bismut though (I counted 19) and only 12 for BMC.
 
Bismut is a great band and very powerful and cool dynamic, riffs, sounds, etc.. and super super nice people…  Hard to meet nicer men…. Anyway, I played on the last song and that was a lot of fun. People seem to really like it. Thanks guys..

BMC, we started with a new space in, March of the TIlburgians??.. and opened with Stone Cold Killer and into the Ghost. It was not a great start. I had a hard time to get into the gig at the first and was a bit annoyed as no one in the band wants me in their monitors, or cares if they hear what I play. Daniel even said he did not want to hear, too much sound in the monitor was not good for him.   Next, we took the concert to the next level though with Landslide and Monster Serpent. Two of the new songs. MS is especially good. Next, we played Andromeda for the first time on the tour. The new way to play it is different but cool. Audience still wanted more and there was 20mins til closing so we did Enigmatic Superbandit. It was our longest show, about 75mins maybe even 80. 

Set List: Space Intro, Stone Cold Killer, The Ghost, Landslide, Monster Serpent, Andromeda, Enigmatic Superbandit

The band thought this was a terrible show (it was not, check it out below for yourself!). We will see when we hear the recording. I made a soundboard recording for both bands this night. For sure no one in the band heard anything I played again like in Oss….

https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-10-19.FLAC

25 paid people so we got 187€

I was very tired and the Norwegians wanted to close down the bar again and stay til 4 but I was not willing to do this and it was far away where we stayed at Richards. 20mins in the taxi, and a 25€ fee and stupid to pay that twice… We got back to Richards a little after 2. I have no idea how late they stayed up.  Thanks to Jurgen for helping us set up the show and Richard for giving us a place to crash….



Oct 20th- Paraplufabrieken, Nijmegen, NL

         I was up at 10 so that was great that I could lie down for 8hrs straight. My feet were not hurting that much (I am not used to wearing shoes) and I felt more rested. I had only had a few beers the night before. We managed to get the train and arrive in Nijmegen just about 1315 and find the club close by so we were able to stick to the schedule below.

13.30 get in and soundcheck. 
15.00 open
15.30 Bismut
17.00 BMC
19.00 Curfew and diner, you sleep there.

Super cool people at this small venue that is in an old squat that has become legalized. 8 people live in the building and there is an art gallery and 14 small shops or businesses.  Everyone was great..

Everything went smooth with the set ups and soundchecks and a lot of the bands friends and family was here since it was an early matinee show. It was totally packed for Bismt. You could hardly get another person in the place. About 50-60 people.  Great band and super nice people.


I stood on the floor for this gig and also played with Bismut for one song. I actually snuck a few sounds in on the 3rd song as well. Thanks guys.  All the shows were recorded for both bands. 
 
Happy Daniel at the Merch table.
We started on time and played another one we had not played on the tour but we started off with American Eagle after the space intro and into Jack’s Cold Sweat. 1st time on the tour. It was great.. Monster Serpent and Warp Speed and our hour was up and we blew them all away. Lots of happy faces. It was probably our best gig.  It works so much better when they hear what I am doing. I could see they could and we look across at each other and it was cool. Check out the show below. Best recording of the tour. 

Set List: Space Intro, American Eagle, Jack’s Cold Sweat, Monster Serpent, Warp Speed
We hung out with everyone, sold some stuff and drank some beers. IT was nearly 20 before they came with the food but it was really good, especially the spicy asian syle cucomber salad. Mood was great and I talked with all the bismut guys. Lovely people... I crashed out at 10 as did Daniel. No idea how late the other guys stayed up but I guess pretty late. They had to get up before 6 to take the train to Amsterdam.

I was up to say bye and then laid back down until 830 and took a shower, had some tea and a banana. Left Berry, who we stayed with a nice note and went to the train.  Everything was very smooth and I was at the airport 2.5 hrs early. Plane left on time and I got home as expected..

THANK YOU BISMUT!
What an amazing band and amazing people. We are so grateful to play with these guys. They were the most kind, the most generous people.  What other band gives you all the money from the gigs (except the Desertfest) minus their expenses??   Just insanely nice and generous of them and their friends that just helped us out every step of the way with transport, backline gear, etc.... We were so incredibly grateful and humbled by these amazing people- Peter, Nik, Huibert





Desert Fest Antwerp, Belgium Oct 18-20th, 2019


We arrived at Desertfest about 15 in the afternoon so we could get everything sorted out and it would run smoothly for us when we play at 23:25 on the Friday, the first day of the festival. We met all our contacts and all went very smooth. 

Everything went super smooth. We did some promo fotos with a really nice Portuguese lady. The band loved it when she said “Ricardo!”..  We got a few laughs out of that. The guy we were staying with Bram, was the stage manager for the stage we played on, so that was great. We had everything we needed. I spoke to the sound man about doing a soundboard recording and it was possible but some how we only got the last 14mins.. so he did not do right.. Pity..

Monomyth
Monomyth were the first band on and they had an amazing sound on that stage they played. I was really into it but they only played 35mins which was really short. They played a couple of new songs, as they have a new album that was just released now. I did not see it for sale but I had already ordered it!  Great band and I spoke to them a bit later as well. Seem like nice guys.


Nebula was the first band up on the main stage and opened with To the Center. Great choice. I think they had a new drummer since Sonic Blast last summer?? Anyway, they were sounding great. Eddie’s voice is very harsh compared to what it used to be but he can still play the guitar.  I only saw the first 25mins or so. Man’s Best Friend was a super heavy new song. Great stuff..


To the Center, Do it, Man’s Best Friend, Aphroditie, ??, ??



Temple Fang were next on the stage that BMC would play later. I love this band and told the BMC guys to for sure check them out. They only played two songs as a big medley of sorts, opening with Gemini, which they always play first. Then Not the Skull… Gemini is a slow spacey track where the guitar below does the lead vocal. He has a cool voice. It is a great track. They have a great classic rock vibe to them this band and can also play some high energy rock and roll as well with nice use of the two guitars. Can't wait for them to record an album but they are really slow. Have not even started yet. They did not play any new songs since when I saw them twice at Roadburn. They are making us wait!!

I caught a bit of the Truckfighters but it is not a band I really dig. They have an amazing energy and the crowd clearly really dig it and get into it and sing the songs and it is a wild time of high energy stoner pop riff rock!! No solos….   People go crazy for them and it was packed.
 
Truckfighters
30000 Monkies was a strange band. They reminded me of Mr Bungle or some of the crazy Mike Patton projects.  I am not sure people knew what to make of them and neither did I. I only saw 2 songs.

Yatra were next and this was some heavy stuff. Not my kind of music but they were passionate and massive… I spoke to the band a bit at the end of the night and they were super nice folks… Crowd was into their show, which is great..

The band before us (Black Moon Circle) finished early so we had a lot of time to set up and soundcheck was smooth and it sounded great.  I started the show with my new sequencer into the modular and did a 3 min space in, we called March of the Antwerpans!  We opened with Ghost, as we did the night before. The place was totally packed. Next up was a monster 20min version of Engimatic Superbandit. This went down well with the audience. We tried out the new song, Monster Serpent and also extended this to at least 15 mins. We had almost used up our time but I had spoken to Bram if it was ok if we went a little over and he said it was so we did Warp Speed. We only had 50mins but I think we played about 70! You can see the first part of the show below.

Set List: Space Intro, The Ghost, Enigmatic Sueprbandit, Monster Serpent, Warp Speed

Audience loved it. One girl told me it was the best show of the day. We hung out with lots of cool folks and went to the night disco until 0230. Peter was playing tons of cool stuff. It was a great night but I was very tired when we crashed at after 3.

It was great to see my friends Anders, Ann Karin, Sara, Benni, Desierre, Geir, Paula, Johnny, and Luc, and many others.. 

Oct 19th

Bismut
Our tour mates, Bismut were the first band on, so we arrive in time to see them and a few other bands before we had to head off to play in Tilburg!  Bismut had a great sound and pretty full room when they played. This is a fantastic instrumental metal prog-psych death boogie music.. I guess. Complicated stuff with heavy metal guitars but also strange sounds and effects on the guitar and bass sometimes. They played 4 songs in their set, I think two were new ones. They plan to record a new record in Feb-March 2020.

Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell from the UK were next up. I really dig these guys and their last show in the church at Roadburn a few years ago was awesome. Anyway, they have a new album out Oct 25th and I expected to hear some new songs.  This is down and dirty greasy, ugly rock and roll, straight up, no fucking around. 

Set List: Do it Now, Markon, Hairy Brian, Elementary, Potato Boy, Wrong, Robo Colobo, Red Admiral

Fireball Ministry was next on the big stage. I had never seen them. Scott Reeder from Kyuss was playing with them but sadly you could not hear him for the entire show. Totally shit soundman. The singer who was also the lead guitar player was inaudible for the first 3 songs as well. I really dig his voice and they had some cool songs but it just did not sound right with no bass and one guitar way louder than the other. Sound man sorted out the guitar after 3 songs but never the bass. Pity….  Lots of nice air bass from Scott!!
 
Fireball Ministry
I managed to catch a couple of songs by RRaigs, who Amber played for us in the bar in Oss. They started with what seemed like a jam before going into the first song, which I did not like at all. Just did not get it.. But the next song was really good and they seem to get rockin.  I think they have an EP out.

We had to leave for Tilbug so no more bands but lots of great stuff later that day including Church of Misery (I said hi to them..), Bongripper, Ruff Majik, Elephant Tree, Pelican, Lo Pan, Dopelord, Ty Segall, and more. Sleep was the headliner on the sunday. 


Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Legendary Flower Punk- "Wabi Wu (Tonzonen Records)


This is the 8th release by the band and the first since 2016.  Kamille, the main guy in the band has been very busy with the Grand Astoria, one of the most active bands from Russia.  The core is the 3 members: Kamille Sharapodinov - guitars, percussion, Mike Lopakov – bass and Nick Kunavin on the drums. As you can see below a lot of guests play on this record; Danila Danilov - electronics (2,3,5,6) , Gleb Kolyadin - synths (1,3,4), grand piano (5,6), Zhenya Strigalev - saxophone (1,2), Ed Wynne - guitar solo (2), Denis Kirillov - flute (4,7), Nick Antonenko - percussion (2, 4), and Guvi B - additional electronic noises (5).  This band is very inspired by the US Jam band scene. 
Side A starts off with Wabi Wu, an uptempo almost funky and very groovy track. I really dig the guitar playing on this track a lot. There are some nice synths and saxophone as well.  Hexagram takes things downt the intensity at least to start but the drums are very punchy on this and it slowly gets going after a minute or so. It features a guitar solo by Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles, Nodens Ictus).  It gets quite psychedelic when the sax comes in and then just really takes off with some really intense synths and later guitar. There are a lot of guitar solos but you can figure out when Ed kicks in with his! There is a really trippy synth towards the end and another sax solo. Strange and fun and another great track. Prince Mojito brings things down to a more relaxed feel and features some very nice melodic guitar as the pace slowly grows into a groove with an Ozrics like synth.  IT goes up and down in it’s mood. Azulejo is a mid-paced track with a potent guitar line that really pierces the sound. The flute is a lovely accompaniment to the track and shortly changes the mood. Aki Kaurismäki starts with some harmonics and spoken words and percussion. It slowly grows with some strange samples and synths to change the vibe a lot. Later a very cool effected guitar riff and groove kicks in. Love that keyboard line as it gets a nice groove going. Trance Fusion På Ryska (you can stream this song on bandcamp below) is a very happy dance track of sorts. Nice melodies from the 60s movies!! It also features a long piano solo. Zen Again, finishes off the record in fine style with a nice short track featuring the flute.


If you are fans of the Ozrics, Quantum Fantay, The Grand Astoria, for sure check out this brilliant new album.