This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..
Electric
Moon is back with another live record, this one was recorded on Sept 7th,
2013 in Innsbruck, Austria and features 2 album long side pieces. Innside
(21:32) starts off with a nice keyboard intro before Dave straps on the guitar
and they hypnotic heavy Psychedelic stoned trip begins.. If you are a fan of the direction the bands
last 5 or so releases have had, then you will dig this as well if you let
yourself just become one with the heavy fuzzy, flangy space guitar from hell….
As this is some heavy, dark stuff as this jam builds. The intensity drops a bit
at 15mins but not for long before a very flangy guitar section fills the
soundscape and Lulu and Marcus just keep pounding away. Heavy intense space
music. Phew..
Flip the record over for Outside
(17:19) and this has a more dreamy guitar to start things off but still rumbles
along with a pretty fast pace with very intense drumming but around 11mins as
the swirling sound has gripped your tighly around the neck, Sula plays some
lead guitar stuff that is pretty cool and moving beyond the heavy riffing, at
least for one minute before being sucked back into the space guitar vortex and
back to the heavy groove the band has laid down… Phew.. another intense trip..
If you like what the band has been doing for the last many record you will dig
this.. if you are looking for something less intense, you will not find it
here. The band have found their sound and are sticking with it for now with
little variation but damn if you like to have your head ripped off by dark,
violent, flanged out madness, this is the place, deep inside the Electric
Moon….
The
amazing Croatian band, 7 that Spells is back with another mind bender (recorded
in November 2013). In II starts things off with some frantic drumming and then
some very repetitive guitar and bass playing to compliment as the track builds.
I love the melody on this one. The title track, IO, starts with a nice sung
part by the bass player, Jeremy White, who also sings more throughout the
track. It has a very nice melody played by Niko (the official madman of the
band!), while Nikola keeps the drumming steady and flowing. The track gets
really spacey towards the end before building up again. I really like the
eastern guitar themes played in this track. It goes through a lot of changes of
the 18mins. Cool song. The third track is simply called One and it is very
short with some noisy and a nice piano played by Albin. Burning Blood again
starts with some like chanting vocals, throat singing (Nicola Ursoveic) and
slowly builds up with a distinct guitar line. The singing and guitar gain in
intensity and Niko goes for the first guitar solo and then comes back for a
more frantic and wild one as the hypnotic groove mesmerizes. The vocals return
and then at 7mins the track returns back to where it started with a return to
the original theme. Around 8½ mins the last part of the song enters into a more
psychedelic frenzy with lots of crazy guitar panned out to the left and right. At
12mins a phone starts to ring for 2mins and then the next track starts right away. The last song, Out II, has a more
or less repeated riff that goes on over and over and over for some time and is
the same as the opening track called In II. Far out man…
The
Canadian band, Blood Ceremony is back with a new 7” to debut one new song from
their upcoming record. The B-side is a cover of the obscure Scottish band, Iron
Claw. Let it come Down is a cool short 4min song which features a lot of flute
and a short guitar solo section, while having a good drive and vibe. If you
have their other material you will recognize the style, if you are new to the
band, think a bi classic Jethro Tull meets Human Instinct.. before I played the
b-side I pulled out the Iron Claw and heard their version so I could compare
for you. This has a cool riff and the band seem to maintain the same feel but
replace the sax (which the band said thought was maybe a mistake) and replace
it with a keyboard line (mixed pretty low) but they kept the flute line at the
end. Good choice.. Hope they play this one live.. A cool 7” with nice artwork.
It comes in multiple colors. Only the clear ones are sold out at the time of
writing this.
Demon
Head are a new local doom band that sounds a lot like early Pentagram. They
released a cassette tape a few months back but it has sold out now. This 7” has
2 tracks and is released in 500 copies, each numbered and comes with an insert
with the lyrics. Demon Head starts things off and takes you back to 1973 and
the basement where Pentagram used to get stoned and jam! The track is a slow,
melodic and menacing track. I love the almost psychedelic guitar at the end. A
great song. Flip the 7” over for Winterland. This is a more melodic and easy
going track with a steady groove and a catchy theme and some nice harmony
guitars at the end. This is a really promising new Danish band, so please check
them out..
Sue and I met at this festival 8
years ago.. Wow… how the time flies. We have been staying in the same place for
the last 3 years and the place has the same people every year (Spanish people
for the last 8 years, and Finnish people for the last 14 years) so everyone
knows each other a bit now… We arrived in time to settle in and have a bit of a
rest. The clock in the room was off by an hour so we laid around too long and
missed Vdelli from Australia, whom,
was one of the few bands I really wanted to see on this day.. Pity..
Freak Kitchen (Sweden) has played many times at Sweden Rock but I
had never seen them. They had a pretty large crowd and played what the people
needed, some good old straight forward heavy rock songs with some heavy metal
guitar solos. We did not hang around too long and went off to see if anything
was new.
It
was really disappointing to see they did not take the advice of the people or
the soundmen to move the Rockklassiker stage and it was in the same position as
the last two years. This is just a nightmare whenever anyone is playing on the
Rock stage as it sucks for us watching the band but probably also for the
players and certainly for the soundman. We must start a petition to get this
moved next year. This is just not right and ruins the experience for everyone
at that stage. Just foolish they have not fixed this…
Backstreet Girls (Norway) was much more fun though. The singer was
a lurch like giant compared to the small guitar player and they were quite
silly at times but played straight up Ramones inspired rock and roll music with
a bit of a snotty attitude at times… Lots of fun songs and they even ended the
set with Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones….
Eddie Meduza Lever (Sweden) had a large crowd and we tried to check
some of it out but this was very Swedish and if you are not Swedish you will
not really get or understand this bands humour. A bit like a Swedish version of
Slade with some more nasty songs. There is a huge amount of info on this
Swedish legend, who is now dead, named Eddie Meduza.. This gave us some time to
go around to the stands and see what people were selling food wise and also
merch and other stuff. Was cool to see my friend Johnny, who has a great stand
of vinyl and CDs for sale under the Record heaven name.. We had a short chat…
We caught the first 25mins of Crowbar but this dual guitar, heavy tuned
down angry stuff, I get quite bored with. Why have two guitars that both play
95% of the exact same chords? There are no guitar solos, not enough variation
to keep me interested. People seem to enjoy it though so they must be doing
something correct.
Black Trip (Sweden) is a new young band that is very inspired by
Thin Lizzy. They have watched the videos, got the moves, the harmony guitars,
the young energy the band had in 1977 or so…. Nils said they were great at
Muskelrock so we checked them out and stayed for the entire show actually…. It
was really enjoyable but they are not very original at all but do the Lizzy
vibe and 70s rock great. The lead guitar player was really excellent on the
right side. The end of the set they covered Outlaw by Riot and Built for Speed
(Motorhead)… Fun stuff..
Magnum was up next and I guess we stayed and watched about 45mins
and some of it was really cool like the long version of Jerusalem and a lot of
it just did not interest me at all. This mid paced melodic hard rock sound with
the occasional heavier guitar augmented with some cool and some padded synths,
the style I really don’t like. The crowd loved them…
Rainmakers
The Rainmakers were a US band I had never heard of and they
actually did bring the rain! It had been dry since the festival started with
only a few drops but half way through their set it really started to rain..
They had some really fun songs like Shithole Town, Monster Movie and others.. I
actually guide liked them but it was hard to describe the style. Quirky rock
music, sense of humour like the Talking Heads but a more music like Jason and
the Scorchers or something.. They are from Kansas City…
We caught a few songs of the Paul Dianno vs. Blaze Bayley before
we left. I would have like to see Queensryche
but the weather had turned quite nasty and we were tired now. The Iron Maiden
thing had a huge crowd and it is sort of weird to see these ex-singers doing
all these songs but clearly there is still an audience for it. Both singers are
now bald and overweight and sing not nearly as well as they did back in the day
(some singers are still great today like Bruce, Gillan, etc..)…. Anyway,,… the
crowd was huge and into it and having fun and that is the way it is supposed to
be…
Blaze Bayley
Day 2
11:00 We are already on the bus
and want to see Jake E. Lee’s new band at 12. Spoke to people on the bus and
Queensryche were supposed to have been really excellent. Lots of energy and
focus on their new and early material. Pity we missed them.
12:00 We saw the first half hour
of this new Swedish band Riot Horse.
This was a great way to start the day with some bluesy 70s hard rock style
stuff. The band played well together in their 3-4min short song format. I think
they have a way to go before they take it to the next level. The guitar player
just was a bit of a let-down for me… it is his role to really make the songs go
to the next level with better soloing, more emotion, pushing the bass player..
they all seemed a bit too relaxed… I still enjoyed their songs and will check
out their record.
The crowd for Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel was not that big but the people
slowly came. Sadly, the first half of the concert was completely
Jake E Lee's Red Dragon Cartel
fucked up as
Jake’s guitar cut out three different times during three different songs when
he was soloing. I don’t know if it was his cables, pedals, the amplifier (this
seem to be the problem..) or what but it sucked the energy out of the show
completely. The last half they tried to make it up but the momentum, as shot.
It was great to hear a lot of the old Badlands songs like Zep inspired High
Wire, Shine On from Voodoo Highway, etc… I liked this band and saw them once
back in 1992, I think.. He of course played Bark at the Moon.. Cool to see him
back.. he started slow but was ripping at the end…
13:10 We saw the entire set of
this new Swedish band, Mamont. They
have had recently played in Copenhagen but I missed them but I picked up their
record but had only heard one side. They were fantastic! A great mix of psych,
stoner and doom with some 70s mixed it. The lead guitar player on the left he
was great and did a lot of solos. The whole band played well and the singer was
really passionate and into it as well. I have no idea what the set was but they
were very good and a huge surprise..
15 the weather was very nice now
so we sat up on the hill and heard most of the Cloven Hoof concert and that was not what I had expected. It is
only the original bass player and a lot of young people and they play more like
90s heavy metal or something.. Lots of guitar heroic like solos, screaming
vocals at times.. The young singer who also did a lot of lead guitar he was
great, no doubt but the songs were just a lot of energy and fast solos and it
did not really speak to me at all. Nothing epic.. I don’t think they even
played any of their old songs at all.
Transatlantic
16 Transatlantic was not a band I had actually expected to see but in
the end, they were really fantastic. This is a prog superstar band with guys
from Spock’s Beard, Dream Theatre, and the Flower Kings. Ronnie, the guitar
player from the Flower Kings totally blew me away. That guy was killer…. They
sounded a lot like early Kansas at times for me and they had really good songs
with lots of solos, which was excellent. Amazing sound as well. The crowd was
good until it started to really piss down rain during the bands last long song
and people were sent scattering for shelter or their rain coats, etc… A very
good concert… I briefly met my friend
Mats which was great..
17 We went to go see Black Stone Cherry but ended up leaving
as the sound was just awful. The bass was so overdriven that you could nearly
only heard bass, drums and vocals… Totally shit sound. I tried to tell the
sound guy but he did nothing. There were a lot of people who also said the sound
was shit.. This was the only band with bad sound yesterday.. It was not the
sound system but the sound man…. Anyway, they had a lot of energy and all the
sounds sounded the same to me, when you can’t hear the guitars clearly.. We
left.. I had hoped to catch some of
Turisas but we missed all but the last 1 min, just in time to take a picture.
Damn..
19 A huge surprise was a 30th
year old UK band called The men they
couldn’t Hang. It was UK folk music mixed with some inspiration from Wales,
Ireland and Scotland. They had two male singers, mandolin, two guitars, bass
and drums. A lot of fantastic songs and they had a really great sense of humour.
People were dancing and generally acting very silly but having a great time…
20 Another huge surprise was just how
great, The Crystal Caravan were.
This is a young new Swedish band that has made 2-3 records of high energy rock
and roll. I have the first couple but had never seen them and they kicked our
ass. One of the
The Crystal Caravan
Alter Bridge
highlights today for sure. The singer is a happy, fat and
charismatic guy.. He also can really sing.. not sure he needed to take off his
shirt for us but what the hell, its rock and roll!!!!!!!!!! Fantastic concert.
I just totally got sucked into the vibe…
When they finished we went over and saw a bit of Altar Bridge, but all their songs sounded he same to start so we
went to get some food and came back and heard the last part of the show. We
could hear them where we ate, we just could not see them.. They had a huge and
very enthusiastic crowd. The singer is great and a solid band. The lead guitar player
seems to play the same style of ripping solos on every song. Wish he had a bit
more variety. They played one ballad like song towards the end of the set where
the singer did a great guitar solo as well. Pretty cool…
21:45 Now you had to choose
between Rob Zombie and Uriah Heep. It was an easy choice for us.. Uriah Heep, of course.. I saw them for
the first time in 1982 but I think this was the best ever. Mick Box was really
killing it on the guitar today and what a great sound mix. They had poor sound
last time they played. The classics were of course the best and it is a pity
they always play the same ones, Sunrise, Gypsy, Look at yourself (The best
song), July Morning, etc… They did play two new songs, one of which was pretty
good. What did really surprise me was how amazing and intense the drummer of
this band was. He hit he drummer and played more intensely than anyone we saw,
including Mr. Portnoy from Transatlantic… Amazing drumming… they played a great
set.. We missed he encore though as we wanted to get a good place for Alice
Cooper and one more beer and have pee…..
01:00 Alice Cooper…. What can you say??? The guy is still totally
amazing. He sings great, he performs great, has a killer band, great stage set
up…. Just damn fun mix of the old songs. He opened up with Hello Hurray and No more Mr. Nice guy, Dept of Youth,
Billion Dollar Babies., and a mix of some newer songs as well. He had an
amazing female guitarist how did more than 50% of all the lead guitar.,… very
intense style of playing.. The graveyard
set as I will call it was so cool. They popped up some different gravestones on
the stage and then later on the backdrops for 4 famous dead rock musicians and
then performed one of their songs. They started off with Jim Morrison and Break
on through to the other Side, then John Lennon and the songs Revolution.. next
up was Jimi Hendrix and Foxy Lady and finally, Keith Moon and My generation.
They played the complete songs, not just a few hints but the real full songs.
Alice did a great job of singing them all. The Hendrix one was the most
difficult for him to try to sound like Jimi.. Wow.. so cool… We got all the hits like Under my Wheels, 18,
Schools out, I love the Dead, the ballad of Dwight Fry, etc… The huge Frankenstein
character was really awesome as well. Like a
large Iron Maiden Eddie figure. Fantastic concert.. Dark Angel was playing when we left but we had been there hearing
bands for more than 12 hrs now..
Set List: Hello Hooray, House of
Fire, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Under My Wheels, I'll Bite Your Face Off, Billion
Dollar Babies, Caffeine, Department of Youth, Hey Stoopid, Dirty Diamonds>Jam,Welcome
to My Nightmare, Go to Hell, He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask), Feed My
Frankenstein, Ballad of Dwight Fry, I Love the Dead, Break On Through (to the
Other Side) Revolution, Foxy Lady, My Generation, I'm Eighteen, Poison, School's
Out (with Rob Zombie)
Day 3
This was Swedish national day
celebration and they had some specific things going on including some funny
music for kids and adults on the main stage with the Electric Banana band. We could only seem them from a distance with
a lot of pink and some people in banana suits… Skillet (USA) was on the Sweden Stage and I heard only one song by
them as I walked over to see Talisman.
Skillet was a strange mix of pop music and heavy metal riff guitars. The singer
also played violin. It was a strange mix but people liked it.. They had a big
crowd. Talisman had reunited just for this show and this was the first time
they had played since Sweden Rock 7 years ago, the singer Jeff said. It was a
large crowd but I know for sure I don’t care for this sort of melodic metal,
with the sweet singing, almost pop but mixed with metal also but more melodic,
smooth, fast ripping guitar solos, etc….. I watch a few songs but then headed
over to the 4 Sound stage where I really wanted to see Jaguar. Garry, the
guitar player was just sitting on the stage so I spoke to him a bit and he was
super cool and excited to play. He said all was well but he had a bit of
arthritis these days so sometimes it was a bit more of a struggle to rip it up!
14 Jaguar totally kicked ass. It was so much fun to hear these old
songs. I own all their old 7” and original press records as well. The singer
was just fantastic! Sounded a bit like Biff from Saxon at time but he was funny
and sang very powerfully. They played a lot of cool old songs like Axe Crazy,
Dutch Connection, Stormchild, War Machine, etc…. Crowd was into it for sure and
grew as the band played.. It was early…..
16 Joe Bonamassa started at 14 and played for 75 mins. He had 90 but
quit 15 mins early and no encore. I did not expect him to play a Theremin but
that was something different. He opened with a few heavy numbers before going
into the more slow bluesy stuff. He also played soul, funk and of course a long
and jammed out version of the Ballad of John henry.. It was a great set and the
sun was out in full force.. I had not seen him since his first Europe tour in
1999. He has a great band and plays amazing guitar. Very good set. Poor Sue was
in the cue for the bathroom for 45mins during their set as they had a local
pipe break and the festival had to shut down 90% of the toilets for a period of
time…
Set List: h Beautiful, Story
of A Quarryman, Midnight Blues, Who's Been Talking, Slow Train
?, ?, Sloe Gin, The Ballad of John Henry
18 Kverlertak (Norway) was next up on the big stage. I had never heard
of them. They are a 6 piece band with a powerful front singer and three guitar
players (all riffing and very few solos). This was really angry, rock music
with a punky, hardcore edge. The singer started the show of with this amazing
owl mask. Wow.. that was cool…. This was a band that really lacked variety
though. All the songs were about the same high speed and it was more rock and
roll than metal, which was good but I got very tired of the singer yelling or
screaming at me all the time… They really suffered from terrible sound though.
The bass was just so overdriven that if you were standing where most of the
audience was you just had a lot of low end, screaming voice, kick drum and some
thin sounding guitars that were just noisy with no definition.
19 Blues Pills, are a young new blues from band living in Sweden but
composed of a French guitar player, American bass and drums and powerful
Swedish female singer. They played nearly the exact set as I saw the week
before at Freak Valley but they did not do the opening jams and just played the
songs on the records as they are on the record with no variation. All the songs
are 3-5mins long. They are great players and could really jam it out but they
don’t. Maybe one day. The crowd was really into it and they sounded great
despite being drowned out by TNT on
the Rock stage.. This really sucks that you can hear the band on the other
stage better than the stage you are standing at. I still don’t understand why
they don’t change the placement of the stage. It really sucks..
Blues Pills
20 Next we checked out a few songs
of the high energy Swedish R&R band called Royal Republic. They had a big crowd and the music was very choreographed
and they had a killer energy and attitude. They were really fun but it we got a
bit bored after 4 songs so decided to go sit and hear some of Kamelot on the main stage. They had a
huge amazing backdrop. I had never heard of them but they are another of these
bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation, etc.. but the main vocalist is male
but they also had female backing singers and sometimes lead vocals as well.
Powerful, dramatic, melodic metal but a bit too predictable. This is a genre
that is very hard to be unique. Each song that the heavy guitar riff, the
combination of angry vocal, beautiful singing, ripping lead guitar, occasional
keyboard solo but mostly these pad synths… No doubt they had some very great
songs and played very well. Their sound was not so good to start, way too much
bass like most of the bands on this stage this year.
22:15 We had to choose between WASP and Canned Heat… I had seen WASP many times and they never change the
main set list so they were for sure going to be predictable. We went for Canned
Heat, the old American band that was by far the oldest band to play this year,
having played at Woodstock and starting in 1966! It was pretty relaxed blues
with some nice harmonica and single or dual guitars. We really enjoyed the full
concert from up on the hill. A lot of older people but also young ones.. This
was something very different and a nice change.
23:30 BLACK SABBATH! IT is always great to see Black Sabbath and Ozzy was
in a funny state making these “Cuckoo Cuckoo” sounds from backstage before they
started. They opened with War Pigs and the sound was massive and powerful. Ozzy
sounded quite good on this day but many times his vocal timing was slightly off
since he reads all the lyrics from the monitor for every song instead of just
knowing when to sing. The set was very focused on the early stuff, which Ozzy
can sing best. Tony was struggling with his solos early in the concert and
really lacked his normal speed but he was killing it by the time Age of Reason
came around and played some great solos.. IT seems he was improvising his solos
a bit more. Awesome concert.
Set List: War Pigs, Into the Void,
Snowblind, Age of Reason, Black Sabbath, Behind the Walls of Sleep>NIB, Iron
Man, Faries wear boots (with drum solo), God is Dead, Children of the Grave, Paranoid
01:30 After Black Sabbath you had
the choice to see UDO, who replaced
Megadeth or Death SS. I have some of
the old Death SS recordings and had never seen them. They are quite a
controversial horror metal band from Italy. They had a really cool stage set up
with these big crosses, paper flames, and a screen where they showed clips of
old horror films like Village of the Damned, and others.. They all had really
intense make up and the music was mixture of mid and fast paced metal tracks.
Steve is a great front man and singer and did a great job of acting. They had
these women come up at various times as a dominatrix, completely naked with
just a thin veil of clothes and at the end of the show they had a simulated sex
scene on the stage. I really liked it a lot. Cool stuff and the music was very
good. We were too tired to stay and see Therion though. We heard that was a
stripped down line up and not the big band with all the singers and choir,
etc.. Madjock said they were good and played a sort of greatest hits set. I
guess most bands do these days, which is a pity…
Day 4
The Hawkins
10:40 I am on the bus with the
Spanish and Finnish people from our hotel and I am going early as I want to see
a bit of Horizont at 11:45 and Monster Magnet at 12. At 11:30 was a young band called The Hawkins. A Young four piece band that really rocked. I filmed one of their songs but sadly had to delete the video to make room on my camera. I liked what I heard.. Rockin'...
Horizont
Horizont had a quite large crowd
and really rocked out. I saw the first three songs including the Unseen and
then I ran off to see Monster Magnet. On the last tour they played the entire
new record from start to finish. I had my doubts they would do that at the
festival. Monster Magnet totally blew us away. What a great choice of songs and
a great concert. Dave was sounding great and having a good time although he did
say much to the audience. They opened with Superjudge, a song I had not seen
them play in a very long time. There was loads of classics in the set like most
bands and nothing really out surprising. The two new songs were great live.
Set List: Superjudge, Medicine,
Nod Scene, Dopes to Infinity, Last Patrol, Look to your Orb, Powertrip,
Spacelord, ??, Tractor
My friend Gustav said we should
see some of a band his friend Charlie plays in called the Night Flight Orchestra, which is a Swedish all-star group that
get together to play classic 70-80s style rock like Boston or Styx. This was a
band of great musicians and they were having fun and actually they played a lot
of guitar and keyboard solos (although he was mixed too low). The crowd was
having a good time as well. The weather was amazing on this day.
15 The RODS hit the stage at 14 and just rocked the place for an hour.
I had last seen them in 1982 opening for Foghat, who were actually playing
later today, which is funny. I was scheduled to do an interview with the band
later today. Anyway, they played a great set. I had hoped to hear Waiting for
Tomorrow and Nothing going on in the City (which they did play part of during a
medley with Crank it Up and Power Lover). They played tracks from most all
their records, which was cool. This was a band that still has the original
members and they all were smiling and having such a great time playing together
again. Great to see. Solid concert…..
Set List:Hold On For Your Life, Devil's Guy, Let Them Eat
Metal>Born To Rock, Evil In Me
I Just Wanna Rock, Burned By
Love>Drum Solo, The Night Lives To Rock, Fight Fire With Fire>Too Hot To
Stop, Hurricane, Cold Sweat And Blood, Nothing Going On In The City>Crank It
Up>Power Lover, I Live For Rock And Roll
16 Next, we went and sat down on
the grass and heard some of Foghat.
This is a band that were so great when I saw them in 1980 on the Boogie Motel
tour with Blackfoot opening. Today, the band more or less played exactly the
same concert as they did 5 years ago, which is a bit sad to see. I also felt
like the songs were just a bit off today and lacked this sort of stoned groove
they used to have. The crowd did not seem that into it to start but really dug
it at the end.
Set List: Road Fever, Home in My
Hand, Slide solo, Driven Wheel, Stone Blue,???????, Slow Ride
I had never seen Sodom before so
we left Foghat after 30mins and went and saw the Sodom concert. They had a pretty good crowd and it was hot in the
sun watching them. What a great energy. The pit really started up when they
played Blasphemer from the first record. I don’t ever listen to this kind of
music at home anymore but I really still enjoy to see these bands live
actually.. We made it back to hear most
of Slow Ride by Foghat actually.
16:30 Now you had to choose
between Powerwulf, Pain of Salvation or
Y&T. I had my interview with the Rods at 17:15 in the VIP area so we
decided to see Y&T at the main stage. Y&T said this was their 3rd
time to play here and the first time was back in 2003. We saw part of their set
like 5 years ago. They were a great band in the 70s and most of the 80s, never
becoming totally commercial and sticking with their mostly hard rock roots. The
set was a real mix of their popular hits and hard rock songs. I was able to see
the first 40mins of the show up through Black Tiger (although I could hear the
rest of the show in the backstage area very clearly).
Set List: Mean Streak, Don't Stop
Runnin', Don't Be Afraid of The Dark, Hang 'Em High
Dirty Girl, Midnight In Tokyo,
Black Tiger, Winds of Change, I'm Coming Home, I Want Your Money, Contagious, I'll
Cry For You, Rescue Me, Summertime Girls, Forever
Y&T
Dave and Garry of the Rods
The Rods interview did not go that
smoothly. Me another guy from a Norwegian radio show were sitting and waiting
as the guy before us went 30mins overtime and had like tons of pictures and all
the bands records he wanted signed, it was bit annoying. The band, one of the
shortest in the history of metal and rock were super cool guys and we talked
about the tour they did in 82 with Foghat and Danny Joe Brown, what they did
for a living today, the state of the music business, etc.. sadly, my SD card on
my recorder would not let me record so I had to record only some of the
interview on my camera with video and that filled up as well. So I could not
even get a picture with the band, pity. We agreed to stay in touch and I would
send them the live recordings I made of them in the 80s…
18:30 Five Horse Johnson totally kicked our ass! This was one of my favourites
today for sure. I just love their mix of stoner blues with harmonica with a lot
of attitude. I will for sure have to get their new record.. They were in a really good mood and very happy
to be playing. The crowd was really into it as well. Fun band.. Saga (Canada) was still playing so we could
hear some of them while we waited for Avatarium.
20 Avatarium played a very solid concert. I had only seem 2 songs at
Roadburn but it was nice to hear the entire concert. This was the only band
really playing doom at the festival this year. They had a lot of great songs
with some cool synthesizer-organ, heavy guitars and great solos and a beautiful
and wonderful female lead singer who also plays the occasional acoustic guitar.
All around a very good band. The crowd was into it.
Set List:Moonhorse, Bird of Prey, Boneflower, Tides of Telepathy,
Deepest Sorrow, Pandora's Egg, Avatarium
23:30 Ok.. Ted Fucking Nugent….. this was my first concert in 1978 and it is
always good fun to see him live and he brings a lot of attitude and killer
classic songs. The set was all the hits and same songs as last time he played
here except for Turn it Up (from Cat Scratch Fever) and the new song, Shut up
and Jam. Strange that in shut up and Jam, that they sing nearly the entire song
and it did not even have a guitar solo much less a jam… The band for sure did not even have a
rehearsal before this show as they were not that tight all the time and Ted was
not really ripping it up that well. A bit rusty… the version of Strangehold was
the clear highlight of the show. Great version. This was one of the loudest concerts
at the festival this year but also too much bass in the sound mix.. I had a
really good time…
Set List:Gonzo, Just What The Doctor Ordered, Wango Tango, Turn It
Up, Stormtroopin', Free For All, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang>I Can't Quit You
Baby, Fred Bear, Hey Baby, Shut Up And Jam, Cat Scratch Fever,, Stranglehold, Great
White Buffalo>Spirit of the Wild>Great white Buffalo
I once again had a great festival
and the sound was very good this year, the best in years, except for a few
bands like Black Stone Cherry, who’s sound man just did a poor job. I still
wish they would move the Rockklassiker stage as it really takes away from the
enjoyment of the concerts. Please put it back where it was 5 years ago between
the Sweden and Rock stages in a tent.. It was much better there..
For those who are thinking about
coming I thought I would just give you a breakdown of what it cost us this
year. For two people we spent 1660kr on drinks, 860kr on food, 400kr for two
t-shirts, and 20kr for a program over 4 days. This of course does not include
the ticket, train from Copenhagen to Solvesborg (1050kr), hotel (4000kr) and
the buses back and forth to the festival (80kr per person each way, so we spent
1550kr)… it is far from a cheap festival but a great experience if you can
afford it..
My favourite bands this year…..
Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, The Crystal Caravan, Five Horse Johnson and the
Rods!
This was an amazing festival… the
bands, the people, the place, the vibe… all of it was great. I missed the first
rainy day and arrived in time to catch at bit of Mother of God (Sweden) laying
down some cool 70s rock and stoner to get people going…. Next up was Mothership (Texas), who I was really
looking Blood Ceremony was next and brought
their version of Black Sabbath meets Jethro tull occult rock to the stage. They
played a diverse set and unless I missed it, they did not play either song from
the new 7” record, which really surprised me… this is a very good band, they
are very tight (maybe too tight.. I would like to see them take some chances
and do some jamming but I doubt it ever happens with them).
forward to see as I dug their first record a lot… They are a lean, mean
tattooed no nonsense rock and roll band from Texas…. They played some kick ass
stuff and a few new songs as well. They started with an instrumental, Cosmic
Rain, Serpent Throne (new song), City Nights and a few other tracks. Great set…
Blood Ceremony
Set List: ?, Black magic, I’m
comin’ for You, Return to Forever, My Demon Brother, Witches dance, Lord
Summerisle, ?, (Song about Oliver hattersly)
WO Fat—wow…. I love these guys as well and we hung out with the
band (minus Ken) a lot. Super cool guys and ØSC fans as well…. They did their
thing and Ken played killer guitar but man his voice was pretty trashed. The
tour and talking to too many people can do that.. They played a cool set with
two new songs and some old ones but not some of the old ones I really dig like
Analog Man..maybe next time..
Set List: The Black Code,
Conjuring, Read the Omens, Bye Yo Juju, Nameless
Cults, Riffian, Black Lotus
Next up was something completely different
with Solstafir from Iceland. I am
not really sure how to describe these guys. It is a four piece band with two
guitars, a bit heavy metal, a bit hard to describe.. Lots of heavy and spacey
riffing guitar and hardly any guitar solos to speak of.. The lead singer has an
intense approach to singing a mixture of power and screaming attacking like
vocals.. He played this really cool E-bow guitar on the first number. They were
pretty cool and people seem to dig them…
Truckfighters are Swedish Stoner rock band that have come back with
a vengeance. There was a big crowd. They had a really massive and bassy sound
as the guitar is tuned really far down. They are a bit hard to describe but
most of their songs had a similar structure with these melodic vocal parts and
then these bouncy stoner rock grooves with the very rare guitar solo. The bass
player and guitar player run and jump around like crazy (especially the
guitarist) and give a lot of energy to their show. I actually got a bit bored
after 30mins as it was a bit too much but the crowd was digging them and they
sure had a lot of fun for sure…
Blues Pills, a band with French, Swedish and American players but
based in Sweden, hit the stage a bit late and ended up being cut off when the
PA was cut right at 01:00.. Anyway, they play a pretty traditional blues rock
with a really powerful and charismatic female lead vocalist and a great young
guitar player who show no facial emotion or expression, like had wore a mask…
he puts it all in to his emotional playing and head movements.. They started
off their set with a few mostly instrumental pieces before playing the songs
from their new LP and a few from the 10” records like Devil Man… They have a lot of songs that are really
similar in structure but they were still great live. The bass and drummer are
awesome together as well. Cool band… It was damn cold on this night though..
Blues Pills
Day 2
The first band up on a small stage
was Magnetic Mountain. I only saw a couple
of songs but it came across as pretty straight forward and powerful stoner rock
grooves (did not hear any solos on the songs I heard).. next up was a band that
I really liked who is sort of the house band for the festival called Bushfire. I stood with Tony and Shawn I
think) from Mos Generator and we all dug the show. Great front man…. This band
play a bit like Clutch and with a lot of energy.. Fun band…. Check out the
video….
Bone Man
The first band on the main stage
was Bone Man (Germany)… I only
caught a few songs by them as we had to get all of our things together as we
were playing in a two hours time. They play some pretty raw punky attitude rock…
there was some pretty cool guitar sometimes but not a lot of solos per se. Nice
people…
Zodiac was next and I thought they started off a bit too slow and
boring but man, did that change 15 or so minutes into the set when they really
took off and played some great 70s rock stuff, with the occasional organ,
played by one of the guitar players. Towards the end of the set they played a
great version of Cortez the Killer by Neil Young. They really ended on a high
note and were great in the end..
Zodiac
My
band, Øresund Space Collective was
up next and we rushed to set up as fast as we could and soundcheck and play but
it did not really work too well. The sound on stage was terrible and we had not
time to really sort it out and I had technical issues with my cables so in the
end, we just got on with it and played about an hour.. we were supposed to get
80mins but the stage manager was telling me we had 5mins left when we really
had 15… so we only played one hour and we had 80mins… Anyway, the crowd was
awesome and gave us a great response and feedback. The band played great (it
was not my best show, this is for sure) and Nicklas from Papir joined us on the
last jam as well. Enjoy this cool video of the first 25mins below..
Mos Generator
Next up was Mos Generator and it was great to see and hear these guys again. I
did not catch the entire set as I had to sell some merch and talk to people but
I was digging it for sure. I spent some time at the festival chatting with these
guys, the Elder guys, Wo fat guys Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell and Kadavar
guys.. All super cool people…. Not sure what the set list was… they make it up
each night as they go…
Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell
Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell was another band I was really excited
to see and I saw their entire set. They are a quite special acquired taste sort
of band… either you like the taste of the their nasty rock and roll or you don’t
get it…. Cool 70s attitude and great playing. Some funny and great songs and
nice solos and bass and drum parts.. Very authentic, very nature, real…
Set List: Do it Now, Devils,
Elementary, Running from Home, Black
Sheep, 2 tonne Fuckboot, I death, Bulletproof, Last Run, Red Admiral, The
Thicker the Better
Samsara Blues Experiment
Samsara Blues Experiment are another band I really like a lot but
my path and Christian (the guitar player, singer and band leader, whom I have
known since 2003) rarely seem to cross. We did have some nice chats.. Anyway, I
was really looking forward to see them and now they are a three piece band,
which surprised me but they still pull it off. The band played 5 like 10mins
songs and for some reason I felt like Christian was really holding back a bit
today, not playing as intense while the rest of the band were really killing it…..
he said it was true.. he hated the guitar sound and this was really bothering
him.. He does not like Marshall… Anyway, I thought they were great…
Set List: Souls, Revelation and
Mystery, Back to Life, Shangri la, Double Freedom
Elder
It was a bit strange to have Elder play right after Samsara as they have
a bit in common… Both a trio, in the stoner rock genre, both with a lot of
intense guitar solos, etc… This is also a really great band. I saw like half
their show at Roadburn (still don’t have the vinyl) and liked it a lot. One of
the members bought an OSC t-shirt, which was cool… Anyway, they rocked the
place and opened with playing both tracks from the Spires Burn EP and the
Compendium, The End and Riddle of Steel Part 1… Great set.. Fucking cool band….
The next band, which I have seen
many times, just blew me away tonight, MOTORPSYCHO.
It took an hour to change out the stage and all I can say this band is playing
better than ever before. I have no idea what the set list was but it was
captivating and having the 2nd guitar player allows Hans to really
let loose.. The entire band was just unreal. The drummer is so intense, the
bass player just lays down the killer grooves. They played a lot of
instrumental music including a 40min suite in the middle of the show. The first
encore was a powerful version of the Grand Funk Railroad song, Into the Sun..
Wow…. Just amazing concert….
Kadavar closed the festival and sadly had their set cut off at
01:00 when the band and the crowd was really hungry for more music. This is
also a great and powerful band that although they have this Black Sabbath feel
at times, they know how to lay down the 70s rock… Wow..
It had been three
years since I last played with Syreregn. I had seen them play a couple of times
in between, when Freddy from Fuzz Manta was briefly in the band. The new guitar
player Casper is really cool and great for the band. Sabine and I arrived with
all my stuff for the soundcheck at 17 as agreed but only the other special
guests, the people running the place and some from the Landsyn band had
arrived. It was probably after 17:30 before Syreregn showed up but all went
very smooth with the set up and soundcheck and then Langsyn used the same
backline and did a soundcheck and all was ready to go. We tried out 1½ songs at
the sound check and it was cool. I could have been louder in the monitor but
Casper felt like he was getting blasted since we shared a monitor.
There
was only about 20 people when Langsyn started about 20:50. Not many of their
friends or fans, it seems as most all these people were here for Syreregn.
Rasmus (Causa Sui, ØSC) and his friend Christoffer showed up and Janne from my
work as well. Langsyn apparently had been around for a wile and released a
record in 2010 but only in the last 5-6 months got back together again. They
sing all their songs in Danish and are really inspired by the 60’s beat music
like Steppenvulve, and also Bob Dylan (a lot). They had a lot of good songs and
people seem to enjoy their short set.
It
did not take too long for us to change over and we were on stage before 10. I
did not play the opening Overture or Hvem ved Hvad. Next, we would play the
entire new record, which I played on 3-4 songs. There was also Mattias joining
on hand drums and a sax player on three songs as well. We started with Skabt
værk with all the guests and this became a cool jam right away. This is realy
blues rock but I seem to find my place to make it more like cosmic blues rock.
Thor he writes really excellent songs. Going Under is a classic hard blues rock
with a great guitar solo. Marana Tha (they used to call it Østen) is a long
Indian inspired track in D that I really enjoyed playing on. Psykedelic Baby is
their new like radio hit, and I only made a few space sounds at the chorus but
people were really into this one. Hypnokongen the band has made a cool video
for, see the link below. Mirror Mirror is another older song and everyone came
bacak and this was a long 10min+ jam… Great show.. I had a fantastic time but I
had to run before the last band as I promised I would come to a 50th
birthday party of a friend. Great night and go check out this excellent new
album, which will be out next month on the Bilocation label in Germany…
Set List: Overture, Hvem ved Hvad, Skabt Værk, going Under, Marana tha,
Psykedelic Baby, Hypnokongen, Mirror Mirror
So when did Glitter Wizard first start and how did you get recruited?
Glitter Wizard was formed by
Wendy Stonehenge in Santa Cruz about 8 years ago. Wendy moved to the bay area a
year or two later and visited an oracle. She took his blood and read his tarot,
it was foreseen that Doug Graves and Fancy Cymballs shall be recruited to play
synthesizer and drums respectively. Filling in the rest of the band were
Gayngel on guitar and Arthur Tea on Bass. Gayngel eventually sprouted his wings
and flew to the gay heavens. Lorfin Terrafor soon replaced him on guitar. This line-up
released the first Glitter Wizard 7 Inch (Black Lotus b/w Witches Limbo) and
the Solar Hits LP. Shortly after the release of the LP Arthur Tea left the band.
The oracle visited me in a dream; her head rose out of flaming church and spit
tongues of fire at me as I lay tied to the ground. She burned off the ropes,
setting me free. My only debt to her was to join Glitter Wizard as their new
bass player and thus Kandi Moon was born.
How
does the band go about writing songs?
For most of the early material Wendy wrote the songs out on bass and would
bring them to the band. Wendy has a certain idea for how the song will go but
the band members write all of their own parts. If we get too off base Wendy
will guide us in a particular direction but we are never told specifically how
or what to play. As long as it is within the chord progression of the song it
is up to us. Recently, Lorfin Terrafor has been sharing the song writing duties
with Wendy. Similarly he will bring songs/riffs written on guitar to the band
and we will write our parts accordingly. The structure of the song is always up
for debate and can be altered. Some parts may be added or deleted depending on
the feel of the song. Things always sound different when you add three more
instruments and vocals to it. I contributed the song “Sunlit Wolves” to Hunting Gatherers and helped write most
of “Space”. It seems as we grow as a band the song writing process has become
more collaborative and will continue in that manner.
Clearly,
the band has a great sense of humor.. How did Hunting gatherers title and artwork concept come to life?
As with many of the things
involved with the band, both of these were Wendy’s brainchildren. Whether he
consulted the oracle again I do not know. He could have also been very horny at
the time.
You
just completed a crazy European tour.. can you tell me some of the stories, the
highs and the lows….
This was quite an endeavor.
One that has given us much joy and much stress. A definite highlight was
playing Roadburn, probably one of the greatest festivals that I have had the
honor to be a part of in my musical career. We played last at Stage 01 on the
first day of the festival to a raucous crowd. The show was wild and it was hot
as hell in there. The feeling was electric in that room and I think we rose up
and delivered and excellent performance. We played an awesome show in Kassel,
Germany the day before with Swedish/Norwegian shredders Brutus and partied all
night. Those guys rule! Another highlight was playing with our American buddies
Carlton Melton in Liege, Belgium at La Zone and raged all night. That was a
great show, Carlton Melton are an amazing band and seem to get better all the
time. We hit a rather large bump in the road in Vicenza, Italy. The bump was in
the form of a SAAB hatchback and the van was totalled. We were stranded in
Vicenza for three days and had to cancel the Vicenza, Budapest and Croatia
shows. Luckily the promoter Eric and his friends helped us get all of our gear
to a safe place and arranged a hotel for us. Our driver Simon, had to take the
train to Lithuania to grab a new van and after a couple days of not knowing
whether or not we would be able to continue the tour we were on the road again.
We played a rager in Berlin at White Trash and picked up some cocaine so we
were partying all night. The recording of our set was ridiculously fast and the
sound guy chose not to put anything in the PA except for the keyboards and
vocals and nothing in the monitors. We sang like deaf kids and the instruments
sounded like shit but people seemed to like it, so fuck it. The next night in
Bayreuth, Germany was a really fun show this awesome promoter Peter put on at
this squat/skate park/venue. We played really well and a good amount of locals
came out and were ready to party. The night didn’t end so well for me
specifically. All tour I had refused to skateboard claiming that I would hurt
myself. After we had packed up I headed to the green room to do a final double
check for any left behind gear. I had to walk through the skate park to get
there and my hammered brain decided I was going to skate the park. Bad idea. I
ate massive shit skating this quarter pipe and was pretty sure I broke my ankle
or leg. Lorfin and the rest of the band seemed to believe that I had only
sprained my ankle. I have a high tolerance for pain and when you’re drunk and
the pain is excruciating that is a very bad sign. They carried me to my hotel
room and my girlfriend, Alejandra, nursed me through the night. The next day we
had a 9 hour journey to Copenhagen. Mind you we have a completely full van, so
I had to sit up normally with my feet on the ground for 7 hours, I got to put
my foot up for 2 hours while we were on the ferry, and then back to the car for
another hour. The only pain killers I had were some IB Profin. We pull up to
the venue and the band goes in to check in. Alejandra checks my ankle and it
has swollen to the size of my thigh. I can barely keep my eyes open at this
point because I was in so much pain. We head to the hospital, I was hoping to
get some pain pills or a splint and play the show. The doctor takes one look at
my leg and sends me up to get an x-ray. Turns out I broke my tibia in two
places and my fibula, both of which are clean fractures and the only thing
holding my foot to my leg was skin and muscle. He told me that I would not be
playing at Heavy Days in Doom Town that evening and that I would need surgery.
The band had to play the set without me, but thankfully Dr. Space sat in on
modular synth and Doug playing some of my bass parts on synth. Wendy also
played bass on “Summertime”. I just listened to the recording yesterday and am
damn proud of the dudes, they pulled it together and played a badass set at a
doom festival with no bassist! All in all I spent 7 days in the hospital and
needed 4 hours of surgery with 13 screws to piece my leg back together. I have
been heavily medicated since then and am currently healing at Dr. Space’s place
in Copenhagen. The positive thing is that Denmark has socialized healthcare,
even for dumb foreigners like me, my operation and stay in the hospital were
completely free. I’m a dumb lucky son of a bitch.
How
many new songs did you play on the tour and what are they called?
I
think we played four new songs, “Death of Atlantis”, “UFO LSD”, “Fungal
Visions”, “Circle of Kings” and a cover of Rainbow’s “A Light in the Black”
that was new to us and quickly became one of my favourite songs to play.
I love this new one Death of Atlantis… it seems to be
much more complex and almost like prog rock, comments?
This
song truly unleashes our love for bands like Uriah Heap and is a good example
of the direction the band is headed. We have a couple new songs on deck
including “Smokey God” that take you on an epic journey, rarely repeating
itself throughout. I think we are progressing as a band and accordingly our
song writing and song structure are progressing. I am excited for the new
record and am looking forward to what we will come up with next.
Tell
me about your other band that you have with Lorfin, the guitar player from
Glitter Wizard?
Lorfin and I play in another
band Buffalo Tooth under the assumed names of Sean Grange and Greg Downing.
Lorfin plays drums, I play guitar and sing and our bassist Eric Kang fills out
the three piece assault. I would describe our sound as everything badass with all
the fat cut off. We have released two 7 Inches, our sold out S/T debut and a
split with SF prog\shoegaze shredders Creepers out on Under the Gun Records.
Better snag that one quick, because it is almost sold out as well. Our debut
full length, Gardeners of the Devil’s
Lettuce, will be out on Captcha Records by the end of the summer.
What other bands do the
other guys play in as well….
Every member of Glitter
Wizard has played in tons of bands, Doug Graves has by far the longest roster
of any member. As far as current projects go I think Buffalo Tooth is the only
one still active. Doug and Fancee are in the process of starting new projects.
Recently Fancee played in an outfit called Iron Witch and Wendy played in a
band called Fruit Stripe Band, but I believe both are not active anymore. Wendy
and Doug also play in a Hawkwind cover band called Ad Hawk and Doug has played
in a Devo cover band called Mongoloid for years, both bands are amazing cover
bands.
It seems that the people in
Europe are much more into the Glitter Wizard than the US, what do you think??
It seems that Glitter Wizard
gets more love in Europe, we definitely sell a lot more merch, get paid more
and people seem to be a little obsessed at times. We had two guys in Gdynia,
Poland that drove two hours just to see us! That’s insane, no one would even
drive 45 minutes in the states to go see us, not even our friend’s haha. We
also had opportunities to play several festivals on this tour, something that
has never been offered us in the states. I think Glitter Wizard likes playing
Europe more anyway, maybe the states can just fuck off. Too many entitled
pricks. When we played Roadburn, the next day we went to get paid and Walter
(Mr. Roadburn) heard that we were there and came down to personally thank us
for playing, told us how much he loved our record and that he would love to
have us back. Holy shit!!! That is amazing!!! He doesn’t need to say anything
to us, he runs fucking Roadburn but he did because he actually cares. Touring
Europe made us feel like we were actually doing something important whereas
playing in the states you end up feeling like a piece of shit slacker cause
that is what everyone is telling you that you are.
Greg at Roadburn...borrowed from the site..... www.roadburn.com
You guys only have toured on
the west coast of the USA or only in California (and now Europe)…
We have toured the full west
coast and the furthest we ventured east was to play Reno at a shithole called
Jub Jub’s Thirst Parlour a place I will never go to or play at again. We might
do a more extensive tour of the U.S. it all just depends on how things work out
with booking and what not. The Space Booking Agency says that they are
interested in setting up a tour for us so we will see how it works out. Until
then I need to heal my broken leg so it won’t be for some time.
Do you think you guys will
start recording the next record later this year?
That is the plan, we just need
to write about two to three more songs. Lorfin and Wendy say they have a couple
on the back burner so hopefully we can begin recording in the fall or winter.
Will you try to get back to Europe next year?
Without a doubt, this was
the best tour we have ever been on and I can imagine the next European tour
will be even better. Ricky from Sound of Cobra/Swamp booking is an awesome dude
and we would love to work with him again. Europe also knows how to party and
really appreciates music, I can’t wait to come back.
The link below is the tour diary the band wrote if you want to read more.. This is a great band it was so cool to play with them as well. Please support the band!
