Ill Wicker and Tidebound-BumZen, Copenhagen Aug 10th, 2015

BumZen is apparently a very old, if not the oldest squat house in Copenhagen and there has been live music here on and off for many years.  This was the first time I had ever been to the place. It is run in the same ethics and by some of the same folks that run the Ungdomshuset. I was surprised at the number of female couples at the gig tonight.. Very cheap beer and drinks.. 

Anyway, I arrived early and hung out a bit with Tom and Sven and Stojs.. There was about 50 people mulling about on the streets and they ran out of beer for a while so people were just hanging out.  Tidebound is a one-man guitar show by local Dave Mülller.  I have met Dave many times at Roadburn and other concerts over the years but I never have seen him play music.  He played 5 songs, I believe and 4 were originals with pretty interesting and dark lyrics. The one cover, was by Townes van Zant, called Our Mother the Mountain. There were about 30 people watching him. The space is very cramped. I enjoyed the show.

Ill Wicker are a  6 piece Swedish band from Göteborg, whom I saw perform at Heavy Days in Doomtown. They are very inspired by UK acts the Incredible String band and Comus. The place was really packed now with about 60 people.  Unfortunately for everyone, there was one drunken Asian guy who could not keep his mouth shut and would babble annoying crap every 3-4 mins and get nasty looks from everyone, otherwise you could really enjoy their sound, with a cool mixture of guitars, violins, some keyboard and xylophone and hand drums and standup bass. They are all really excellent players, school trained in either classical or folk music. I have the debut album but a lot of what they played was new music.  They are heading to the UK this week I was told and will record a new record when they return.  They are also looking for a label. I think Fruits de Mer would really like these guys..

Cool night…