The Things that Burn, Useless, Guitars and Disco- Børneteater, Christiania June 2nd, 2012

 I had asked Nicklas, the guitar player from Papir, if hd wanted to come over and hear some of the mixes of the material that we recorded in the studio together in April but he told me that he was playing a special guitar duo gig tonight, so I decided to come and check it out. I arrived early and things were running behind schedule so we had plenty of time to talk about things while he played guitar to warm up, while the things that Burn set up their gear, which they had a lot. We heard their sound check and it was a very eclectic mix of music.

          Anyway, Guitars and Disco, this was the debut gig with Nicklas from Papir on guitar and Oliver (plays in a number of bands including Skamsvogn-Wagon of Shame) on guitar, effects and beatbox. They played very experimental music with a lot of dissonant tones, different tuning, some pure freak out once, semi-melodic stuff as well. Nicklas said the first 3 pieces were totally improvised and then the next several were ideas they had come up with over a few rehearsals, so they had starting points. The young audience in the left of the club were mostly attentive and not sure what they were experiencing while the people on the right near the bar and door where talking constantly and not giving a fuck. They played like 8-10 pieces in 38mins. Far out.

          Next up was a young kid pouring his heart out in his songs. He played solo electric guitar and sang some personal poetry like lyrical music. Musically, it was all very simple stuff but this was about the words and his presence.  I only saw his first 3 songs and then I had to leave due to the cigarette smoke was so heavy I was having trouble breathing. Probably 40 of the 50 people in this place were smoking and they had no doors or open windows, so it was terrible.

          I did not get to see The things that Burn play their real set but I would have liked to. They had banjo, violin, two guitars, drums and a lady who also played a organ and accordion. One of the guitar players also had an old Roland synthesizer running through a couple of Doepfer modular synths units. It was pretty cool stuff but I only heard the soundcheck. I think most of the people at the event were here to see them. They also had a CD digipack EP for sale at the bar for 30kr that I should have bought. Damn..