Just a plain t-shirt without fancy secret pockets.

I don't know how I managed to miss this topic for 4 years....

in compensation, here's a link to pictures to a few gigs I've been to (and this collection is being regularly updated): http://www.flickr.com/photos/m...s/72157600351425766/

Threshold House Boy’s Choir

Threshold House Boy’s Choir is the solo post-Coil project by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, which is heavily influenced by the time he has spent in Thailand in the last few years. Spotting a gig listing in Monorail, the Glasgow record shop in the café/bar Mono, suggesting that he was playing in the sister venue Stereo, was something of a surprise. I bought a ticket straight away. I was offered a ticket which already had a date in March scored out and replaced with a date in April. Before I could pay for the ticket, the phone went, the date was scored out in response to the phone call and replaced with the 3rd of May. Not reassuring that a member of Coil/Throbbing Gristle is going to turn up in Glasgow, of all places, especially given all recent gigs he has done seemed to have been in Russia.

But March goes, April passes, and the bank holiday weekend in May comes round, as does the Euro-exclusive gig by The Threshold House Boys Choir. Having seen different start times listed, I turn up at 7, enthusiastic and admittedly more nervous with anticipation for a gig than I’ve been in a long time. The sound check is still going on downstairs, they estimate more likely another half hour before they are ready to open. But Stereo is café/bar, so its cool to sit upstairs with a drink and wait for the gig to start. As the half hour or so passes the place starts to fill up, though the upstairs isn’t that big anyway. Strangely I find myself sitting on a stool by the bar, with Peter Christopherson standing beside me, looking at the menu, before ordering food from the waitress. A few people can’t resist, and soon there are people wandering over for a chat. Friends arrive and tell me that downstairs is open, CDs are on sale, including the particularly limited THBC Amulet edition release. Heading down with them, I manage to get the second last copy of the Amulets that they have with them, along with some other bits and pieces (the Soisong album, tour CD by Throbbing Gristle). The guy selling the CDs tells me that Sleazy is about and will be happy to sign stuff, and as if on cue Sleazy comes down the stairs, and shouts “Let me get a pen!” Before he knows it a crowd of people forms, I get my Amulet signed and shake his hand - Coil are one of my favourite bands and it is so good to have Sleazy here and to find him to be so amiable and easy going.

Popular Glasgow DJ and musician DJ Twitch plays a set of records by way of opener, the same as he did when Neubauten had played their only Glasgow appearance a couple of years before. As 9pm approaches anticipation grows, hoping he’ll go on then, standing by the stage, looking at a screen that says “Up Next! Threshold House Boys Choir”. In the end it is closer to 9.30pm by the time he does go on. He pulls on his ceremonial robes, tells us that we start the night with some film appreciation, and plays us a clip from the film “The Thief of Baghdad.” He tells us how the clip relates to his thoughts about the “sacred and profane” and how much those things have been in his thoughts, have affected his work of late.

From here he starts his set, a mixture of projected video and sound. With each piece he tells us the story of the music and the film. Even sometimes during the music, he will turn to the audience and make comments - sometimes about a piece of software, about his intent for the piece, or just a thought. The night is quiet, downbeat, moody and atmospheric. In some ways it’s a strangely intimate evening, like watching home movies with your favourite gay uncle who is just back from his trip to Thailand - this is the bit I filmed down the temple, I made some music to go with it, I think I’ll make it into a documentary, shrug, you know. Or its comments about his boyfriend, and how he is made to feel so terribly Western in his attitudes, making it sound as though he is so hard done by, while its clear on another level how happy he is.

A lot of the pieces are works in progress, some included on the Amulet. The first is a piece he did on street boys, and how they prostitute themselves. He couples the images of them with a prayer, with his music, and tells us how he hopes that by doing so he is doing something sacred, something that will in some way improve the lives of these boys. The next piece is inspired by one of his particular themes for the documentary, temple tattooing in Thailand. How gangsters have monks tattoo them, and that the tattoo they get is protection against evil. The video he uses for this piece is from one particular day every year where one of the most famous, and oldest, monks appears in public. Hundreds of tattooed gangsters gather and sit in front of the temple, soldiers line up between them and the monk. As the gangsters sit they become possessed by the spirit of their tattoos and run at the temple. The soldiers catch them, and as Sleazy observes, instead of doing anything negative, the soldiers restrain them, make sure they don’t hurt themselves, talk them down. It’s a sight to see, watching the video of these men running, crawling, hurling themselves, seemingly unaware of their actions.
Apparently in Thailand people buy and sell mobile phones according to how much they can afford any particular week. With mobile phones being popular for making home made sex tapes, and people frequently neglecting to delete them when they sell the phone on. In turn there is then a trade of exchanging these by blue tooth, with the impression that I got that there is even a channel on TV that shows these clips. Sleazy, living up to his nickname, has started to collect these, and showed some on screen, layered through effects to give a strange psychedelic feel while he played his music to go with it. From the topic of sex, the next piece is about death , Sleazy tells us how his dog died while he was in Bangkok, and how it was the first real death to touch him since the death of Geoff (John Balance, other half of Coil). The piece which results was inspired by those feelings, is included on the Amulet, and while being about death he didn’t want it to be too serious, so he contrasted the topic with footage of Liberace. To continue the cycle he plays his next track to footage of a decapitation, then plays a happy song, with dancers dressed as demons at a ceremony. Before improvising a last piece a bit to act as an encore finishing number, the noisiest piece of the night, and having not planned it, he goes back to the sex tapes.

At the end of the show he thanks everyone, for coming, and how much he enjoyed sitting watching home videos with friends. The music for the most part is the atmospheric stuff, the more droney layered kind of stuff, mixed with Thai influences, voices and sounds, encompassing and pleasing. He waves, leaves the stage, and tells people he’ll be hanging around for awhile, if anyone wants to have a drink with him. And somewhere in conversations he lets drops that he will be back with Throbbing Gristle in June, and the mind boggles at the chances of these two events happening so close together.

Going to the Ralph Stanley Festival this evening and tomorrow up on Sandy Ridge. Always an interesting and spiritual experience.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric:
Going to the Ralph Stanley Festival this evening and tomorrow up on Sandy Ridge. Always an interesting and spiritual experience.

Oh! So jealous! The only nearby bluegrass fest always happens on a weekend I have other committments. Sometimes I miss living in MD, playing in weekly jams.

Just bought tickets for Combichrist, next month in Tucson. I called my husband at work and asked him if he wanted to go, and for a second there was a stunned silence like "...and you had to ask because...". So yeah, we're going.

If you ever get a chance to come by Sandy Ridge on Memorial Day Weekend, it's worth it.

(first up, I made the mistake of loaning my 'carry everywhere' camera to the kids, and therefore now can't find it to carry everywhere - so no pics)

Went to Greenfest in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens today. First week of winter here, but it was sunny and gorgeous and I was worm and comfortable - sometimes a bit too warm - in just jeans and t-shirt. Lovin' that.

Alex is the big vegan/greenie in the family, so we had intended to just take her in, check it out for a while and then head off shopping, but there were a couple sf stages with bands, and we ended up staying most of the day. Bit of a rundown:

Buick Six - Brisbane rock trio with a lead guitarist-singer on a Tele. Rocked pretty hard, in a chaotic kind of way... I enjoyed them, but remarked to Suzie that some kind of mildly altered state would improve the listening experience considerably.

Sunshine Reggae Band - Aboriginal reggae from the outback: much mroe than competent, but just not really my cup of tea.

Banawurun - Aboriginal male lead singer and Zimbabwean female lead, excellent conscious rock and soul. Good gear.

Botanics - first big discovery of the day. Conscious Aussie rock/hiphop (they rap as well as sing and have two rappers but one of them also plays a 335). Reminiscent of Hilltop Hoods, groovy, clever and excellent.

Mason Rack Band - absolutely the discovery of the day: balls-out blues-rock from a fantastic Gold Coast blues singer-shouter-guitarist who played lap steel and electric with equal facility. Just stomping and fun, kept a huge grin on my face the whole time, which stretched to the point of pain when he jumped down off the stage, vaulted the crowd barrier with a pair of drumsticks in his hand, rolled an aluminium beer keg into the middle of the crowd and started a percussion duel with the drummer on stage. So much fun I'm thinking seriously about going to see them again tomorrow. Hear some samples here: http://www.myspace.com/masonrackband

8 Ball Aitken - an authentic North Queensland freak and guitar phenom, playing dobro, electric and acoustic slide guitar and singing roots and blues (with a touch more country than is really my preference) in an Aussie accent rather than the fake American one so many Aussie roots artists affect. Excellent player, and under any other circumstances I would have lapped it up, but I have to admit it seemed a bit anticlimactic after Mason Rack.

Most excellent day, finished off with a trip home on the river.

Maybe I'll chase up my camera and take it tomorrow...

20.5. K17 Harmony Dies/Soul Demise/Penetration/Diseased Ghoul

Diseased Ghoul first band. Band we came to see actually cause the kid that plays bass invited us at a club.

Death Metal/Grindcore. Singer talks too much (More obvious cause their songs are short and brutal) and needs a pair of braces to keep his pants up which I told him afterwards. But they were good. Or at least I liked them.

Penetration were next. (I'm quite sure I found the right link. The name appears to be popular for some reason.)





Band from the US. Shows dedication I guess to come a long way just to tour. Good band.

Soul Demise bored me. I was just trying to think up a reason why. I guess their singer lacks stage presence.

Harmony Dies - old school Death Metal. Singer is quite a stage hog. Good show.







I got more pictures but I resist the urge to bore you...

... in here.

Dweezil Zappa at the Colston Hall in Bristol. The Dweez appears to have shut himself away for a couple of years of continuous heavy-duty guitar practice and then taken his dad's music out on the road. The difference in his playing from the days of "my guitar wants to kill your mama" was astonishing. His band were also of a very high calibre - the bass player, Pete Griffin, is probably one of the best bassists I've ever seen play live.

People were shouting out all sorts of stuff for them to play, but as Dweezil pointed out, his dad released 80-odd albums so there's a lot to learn and so far they've nailed around 18 songs. The set list is different every night, but amongst other things we got "Outside now" from Joe's Garage, "Don't eat the yellow snow" "The black page #1 and #2" and "Dirty love." Great fun. Before the encore, Dweezil spotted a family in the audience and asked how old their daughter was. She turned out to be twelve. Dweezil said he thought she'd probably been made to come along and would have decided to do something more entertaining like homework if she'd been able to choose, and then dedicated the next song to her. When the encore was over and the house lights came up, the band didn't leave the stage. The bassist got the set list, made the rest of the band sign it, and gave it to the 12 year old. Then Dweezil started signing autographs, and people started coming down to shake his hand and say hello; he was still there when we left. He's a very cool guy.

best,
Chris H

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chris H,

Disassembled, Aesthetic Perfection, Julien K and Combichrist at the Rock in Tucson:

I'd never been to this venue before; usually they have more, well, "rock" oriented acts. The building was probably put up in the 70's, built to look like one of those "old Pueblo" sort of adobe things. Can't say they've done much maintenance of the outside, but the inside was pretty nice for what it is. It was an all-ages show, so I spent most of the time behind the "fence" separating the bar area from the rest of the venue. Only had 2 beers; the main reason we stayed back there was so we wouldn't get trampled by all the teeny-boppers acting all excited about the first band. No cameras allowed, but the Mister got some pics on his phone. Will post them once I find the damned data cable.

Disassembled: My Dj friend told me these guys were good, but I wasn't impressed. I like that they used a regular drum kit. The music was executed proficiently, but if all of their lyrics are as bad as the ones they put on the screen behind them for one number, I'm glad I couldn't understand them. Just didn't make any sense, really. Their set got better as it went on but at the end I still wasn't excited about them.

Aesthetic Perfection: Now these guys were good. They had a Funker Vogt kind of feel to their music, which I really like, and they played with energy and skill. Had I had any t-shirt money left I would have bought one.

Julien K: I'd heard of these guys before but not heard their music so I was anticipating something "good enough". What I got was "pretty awesome". The vocalist put on a good show, taking his leather jacket off and showing us his rock-star abs, posturing like Al Jorgensen back in "the day". My husband and I could only describe their sound as (*nerd alert) "a great World of Darkness" band--dark and atmospheric, pounding beats and showmanship.
I plan to buy some of their tracks at least. They did a pretty cool cover of Romeo Void's "Never Say Never" that made me feel old.

Combichrist: Whooo, Lordy!! I knew I was going to get a faceful of driving rhythms and graphic lyrics. What I didn't know was that I would actually jump around like a marionette on speed and almost get in trouble for moshing! These guys were awesome, they gave us everything they would have at a bigger show plus some. Andy, the vocalist, even asked the crowd, "so, how many of you are from Phoenix? How many of you are from Sierra Vista?" like he actually knows where Sierra Vista is. During "What the Fuck is Wrong with You", he turned the microphone around on the stand and let us do his job for him for like...2 minutes. It was unbelieveably cool to see an act that was so appreciative of this mid-week crowd. I think they were expecting maybe 50 people and ended up with somewhere between 150-200.

After Party: DJ Plastic Disease and some guy from Sadisco in Phoenix, at a bar in the Downtown area. We stayed until 1 a.m., talked briefly with Julien K and Combi before heading home.

Flogging Molly will be in Vancouver on October 29th and 30th.

Tickets are on sale here.

Mrs GL and I will be at both gigs.

Join us if you can.

PK and I are in for the Friday.

I've seen Flogging Molly twice now, and both times they were awesome. *is so envious!*

I'd be there, but the new job didn't allow me to take time off so soon.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I was blown away by Tricky's set at the Latitude Festival. He out-metalled pretty much every metal band I have ever seen. I don't know his music well enough to be able to tell you what he played, all I know is that he was feckin' awesome.



Best act of the festival. No contest.

best,
Chris H

Skafest Potsdam 10.7./11.7. 2009 - Lindenpark

The Scorchers were the first band of an entertaining evening. Not bad but as you can listen for yourself not exactly special either.



But people started moving. Good start, all in all.

I have mentioned The Essentials before and have nothing to add. They are still excellent.