nuzzaci - an online journal

Photograph captured by Pix Gremlin

It’s not very often that I attend a concert where an artist and her/his/their work is basically undiscovered or unanalysed by my ears in advance. At least main acts; quite often the warm-up act is a new experience.

Willow bought the tickets for the Seasick Steve concert after a recommendation from a friend of her’s. If it wasn’t for the recommendation or for the fact that Willow bought the tickets, I would most probably never have attended this Seastick Steve concert. Seasick Steve is not something I would enjoy through the medium of a pair of headphones in an office environment (sadly, that’s the way I consume 90% of my music nowadays), and therefor most probably I wouldn’t have gone through the effort of buying a ticket.

But life works in mysteries ways.
I really enjoyed this concert.

It wasn’t down to the fact that his music sounded any better live than on recordings — i’m still no fan — but his charisma and stage presence lit up the whole of Astoria (which was completely rammed with people). Most of the set he was alone, just one old man, but from time to time he got accompanied on stage by his hippy friend or younger son behind the drums and for two of the songs KT Tunstall did a guest appearance.

Hats of to Seasick Steve.

The warm-up act was a Swedish band called Billie the Vision & the Dancers. Both Willow and I agreed that the lead singer must be long lost brother of our good friend Henrik Engdahl. Besides the fact that they are both ginger, they look incredibly similar and have a similar body-language. I’m even convinced that if Henrik took a few song lessons he would sound similar. The songs and lyrics are also something I can imagine Henrik writing. Yeah, if you know Henrik, have a look at a few movies on YouTube (heres a good start) and feel free to correct me if you think i’m wrong.

I didn’t really know what to expect on my first Marilyn Manson gig. I’ve seen a few live videos and heard about his amazing theatrical stage performances and stage set, for instance, the Hitler-esk podium act during Antichrist Superstar, but for the last few years I haven’t been tuned in to the world of Marilyn Manson.

I attended the concert with Richard Dee and Simon Waterfall. Richard was a Manson Virgin, as I, while Simon was an experienced manson-ite.

On our arrival to Wembley I was a bit disappointed. I thought the concert was in the new Wembley Stadium, built in 2007 and seating 90,000; not Wembley Arena, built in 1934 and seating 12,300. But since the Arena turned out to be about 1 third empty — the entire back section of the arena — I can see why they chose the Arena and not the Stadium. Obviously I thought an artist of Marilyn Manson’s caliber would attract a larger audience. So, even before I entered the venue, I had to re-adjust my expectations; turn the dial down a few levels. One positive outcome of the smaller venue was that our otherwise poor seating was closer to the stage.

Similar to a check-in queue in airports; it’s fairly easy to guess what has brought the gathering of people together. In an airport it’s the destination, at a concert it’s the artist. An audience is an artist’s reflection. So, on a Marilyn Manson concert… well, I can’t say it’s a pretty sight. Freakshow is not the right word but the first that comes to mind. Confused. Lost. No. One thing is certain — I didn’t blend in. So, to be honest, I was the freak.

Supporting Marilyn Manson was the Norwegian deathpunk band, Turbonegro. They are absolutely wicked. Unfortunately not that many people were there to see Turbonegro, and Turbojugend, their famous fan club, didn’t seem to have many representatives present. When Turbonegro tried to get the audience to sing along to the song “I got Erection”, hardly anyone joined in. So Hank Von Helvete, the lead singer, abandoned the attempt and tried get the audience to sing “I’m a Londoner, so I can’t get an erection” instead. Brilliant.

Photograph captured by Andrew Kendall

And then came Manson. From start to finish the performance just grew and and grew and got better and better and better and better. Looking back on it, I don’t think he could have failed even if he tried too. With songs like Disposable Teen, mOBSCENE, The Irresponsible Hate Anthem, Sweet Dreams, The Fight Song, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Antichrist Superstar and The Beautiful People, I can’t see how a failure would have been possible.

One thing that I wouldn’t have minded more of is dialogue between the songs. I see dialogue between songs as bonus material that you don’t get on albums, and it’s something I treasure quite highly when I go to a concert. A front figure like Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine can get away with not uttering a single word during a concert, but he belongs to the exceptions and not the norm. An artist like Marilyn Manson is the kind of artist you’d expect and want to speak his mind between songs.

As the concert kept going, I began to get very jealous of the job of my fellow Swede and guitarist, Tim Sköld. I would have loved to be on that stage and play those tunes. So much energy. So easy and yet so damn good. However, I have learned that Tim’s role in the band extends way beyond just playing guitar live — he’s producing, editing, doing artwork, electronics, drum programming and beats, playing guitar, keyboards, accordion, synthesizer bass and backup vocals — which I can’t say I envy. But to stand on a stage and deliver the energy of those songs through a guitar — priceless.

Photograph captured by David Herranz

One thing that struck me during ‘The Fight Song’, while the words FIGHT were flashing up in big red letters behind the stage, and the main part of the standing audience were raising their fists and screaming along “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”, was how provocative Marilyn Manson really is. We liberal Europeans shouldn’t forget that Manson’s main audience is based in America, where about 80% of the population are christians. As Simon Price on the Independent said:

Context, of course, is everything. A recent USA Today /CNN /Gallup poll revealed that 88 per cent of the American population believe that God had at least some hand in the creation of life on Earth. And so, when Marilyn Manson ascends a lectern for a mock-Nazi rally during “Antichrist Superstar” and sets fire to a copy of the Bible, one has to remember where he comes from.

If Manson’s shock tactics appear a little blunt to us urbane Europeans, one has to remember that this – the land of the religious right, the Intelligent Designers and the pro-lifers – is the battleground where he fights.

Photograph captured by James Harber

As the lighters during a ballad have been replaced with the light of a camera-phone, youtube seems to be the replacement for photography, reviews and set lists. I had to spend quite a while online to locate the set list of the night, I finally managed to find it on lyingonthecovers.net, but way before I managed to do that, my search query had found basically the whole concert through the eyes of a camera-phone lens on youtube.

1. If I Was Your Vampire (See it on YouTube)
2. Disposable Teens (See it on YouTube)
3. mOBSCENE (See it on YouTube)
4. Tourniquet (See it on YouTube)
5. The Irresponsible Hate Anthem (See it on YouTube)
6. Are You The Rabbit? (See it on YouTube)
7. Sweet Dreams (See it on YouTube)
8. Lunchbox (See it on YouTube)
9. The Fight Song (See it on YouTube)
10. Putting Holes In Happiness (See it on YouTube)
11. Heart Shapped Glasses (See it on YouTube)
12. Rock Is Dead (See it on YouTube)
13. The Dope Show (See it on YouTube)
14. The Reflecting God (See it on YouTube)
15. Antichrist Superstar (See it on YouTube)
16. The Beautiful People (See it on YouTube)

Enjoy.

Last time Ani Difranco visited the UK, Willow and I had tickets to the concert in Edinburgh but couldn’t go. So this time around i decided early on that only illness or death would be valid scenarios to prevent me from attending this concert. My character was put to the test when i realised that the F1 season finale in Brazil would collide with the concert. The question was never Ani DiFranco or the Formula One, the question was whether or not I would be able to watch the F1 first and then rush over to Shepherd’s Bush Empire for the concert. I decided it was too much of a gamble — even if it might be possible. I also decided that i didn’t want the outcome of the F1 to have an impact on how i would enjoy the concert.

Since i didn’t watch the race live, i knew i had to be careful with reading any text messages or answering any incoming calls to my mobile phone. So i only read text messages that arrived from people i knew weren’t interested in F1 or didn’t know i’m totally addicted to it. So when i got a text message from a Swedish mobile number that i hadn’t stored in my addressbook came through i thought it was safe. It read:

Vilken härlig tävling

Which means; What a wonderful competition

I didn’t know if i was being paranoid or not. A Formula One Grand Prix is not a competition — it’s a race. No, i thought, this must mean something else or it’s meant for someone else…. Then it hit me: Kari Kontro! I suspected (and later it turned out that i was right) that the text message from my ex girlfriend’s dad.

Kari and i had quite a few nice races together between the years 1999-2002. We were a bit like ying and yang when it came to Formula One; he being from Finland obviously liked McLaren with Mika Häkkinen from 1993 to 2001 and 2002 to 2006 with Kimi Räikkönen, me being half italian obviously loves Ferrari.

Anyone who knows people from Finland (or have seen press conferences with Mika or Kimi) now understand that the text message he sent to me has so much more weight and meaning than if it was sent from somebody with any other european cultural background. It could mean “YES!!!! KIMI WON!!!!“, it could mean, “It was really exiting. Kimi came close once again.“, it could mean, “Alonso and Hamilton were wheel to wheel during the end of the race.“. It’s now been a month and we all know what it meant (KIMI WON!!), but that’s now. A month ago i was sitting on the second balcony on Shepherd’s Bush Empire waiting for Ani Difranco to go on stage.

© Steve Asenjo 2007

Ani is special. A bit like special needs but without needs. Rather the opposite. She’s an extremely talented independent feminist solo artist measuring 157cm (5′ 2″) operating in a male dominated industry that focuses mainly on marketing female artists for their look and sex appeal; not their talent.

If you’ve read a few of my post (or know me in person) you might already know that i despise the modern music industry and am extremely pleased that they are down on their knees and covered in shit. Ani, to me, represents what music should be all about. I’m not tying it to the genre of music or that she has a political view or even that she is an extremely talented guitarist, lyricist and songwriter; she does what she does for the right reasons, and i adore her for it. Honesty before greed. Love and passion.

This was my first Ani concert, so i can’t compare it to any other Ani concert, but as far as concerts go — it was amazing. I went to the concert with Willow and Karl Ringman, and we all loved it.

I managed to capture a bit of footage with my mobile phone. It’s maybe not the best set up - a mobile phone on the second balcony - but small things can achieve great stuff. What i captured was Ani preforming a poem and a new song.

I’ve been a few places now, flown through vast empty spaces with stewardists who’s hands look much older than their faces.

My new mission is to write happy songs. Yeah i know — good luck — yeah i don’t know. Its like a fucking muscle i never used.

What doesn’t show in the footage (and that i haven’t mention yet) is how amazing the drummer was. Her name is Allison Miller and she was perfect.

Willow, wrote:

Leaving an Ani gig, you want to fill in the blanks of a conversation you started with her in your mind.

and i totally agree. I think Willow and I have to invite Ani over for bruschetta and a plate of freshly homemade spaghetti.

On Thursday Willow and I went to see concert number 20 of the 21 concerts Prince preformed in London through August and September. The 21 concerts add up to a total of 52 and a half hours on stage, 504 songs and an audiences of half a million.

The concert was psychologically the shortest concert I have ever been to in my entire life. The two hours felt like 10 minutes. On one hand this is a bit disappointing, on the other, it’s extremely impressive.

I do believe if more artists, musicians and other people involved within the music industry had the same approach to music and performances as Prince Rogers Nelson, the world would be a better place (or, at least, the music scene would be less cluttered with transparent plastic laminated disposable s**t).

Since the beginning of last week I have been in heavy tooth pain, which has resulted in low enthusiasm about most events and an inability to sleep well.

So even before Fionn got on stage, I wanted to go home. The warm up acts had killed the small amount of joy I had left in my body for the day.

You could say that everything about the evening worked against the odds of me appreciating Fionn Regan’s performance.
If I had left the venue last Tuesday being very disappointed, I wouldn’t have written this post. It would have been unfair against Fionn: he was swimming upstream against my toothache.

So the only reason I am writing this is because Fionn pulled it off. He was amazing. He has the special thing a singer/songwriter needs that most singer/songwriters lack. I don’t know what The Thing is, but he has it. The songs also grew when they were preformed live. The meaning behind the lyrics came through in a way they don’t on his album.

So, if you’re anything like me, view the amazing video Be Good or Be Gone on YouTube, buy the album The End of History on iTunes Music Store or order it from Amazon and stay tuned on Official website for Fionn Regan for upcomming gigs.

My friend Adam Frankel and I went to see the Hotel Cafe Tour 2006 at the Carling Acadamy in Islington, London. It turned out being quite a emotional rollercoaster panning from bad, ok and excellent. Overall the evening was a disappointment.

The main reason to my disappointment is probably that I was expecting an evening with Tom McRae, and not an evening with a mixer/blender effect of 5 artist doing 2 songs at the time and taking turns on playing with each other.

Tom didn’t disappoint me, he was brilliant. On stage he was very relaxed, personal and funny. The singing and playing was spot on. I’m quite sure that if the evening had only been with Tom, I would have been more than satisfied.

But it wasn’t.

After Tom’s beautiful, charming, personal and promising start, the whole evening got an increasingly aftertaste of plastic image and bad lyrics. From time to time I was proven wrong, but those moments were among the exceptions.

At one point I turned to Adam saying:

Adam, we are standing in a venue named after a beer that has more similarities with pee and water then proper beer, listening to an American songwriter singing “I’m going to the country” in front of a big backdrop saying;
MYSPACE.COM + (RED)
The Cafe Tour 2006

Adam quickly replied:

Yeah… I know, they surely could have left out the ‘2006′ bit.

The highlights of the Evening were:

1. Tom McRae’s presentation of the artist.
2. Steve Reynolds guitar playing.
3. Jim Bianco performance of his sing Painkiller.
4. Last but not least; Tom McRae preformance of the evenings, and his, final song - I’m the boy with the bubblegun.

Links:

• tommcrae.com
• jimbianco.com
• joepurdy.com
• carybrothers.com
• stevereynoldsmusic.com
• islington-academy.co.uk

The title of this post is something Annika Norlin, above, (a.k.a Hello Saferide) said last night to present one of her songs. And those words nicely summarises the whole gig.
It was very cute, very warm, very good, very happy and very inspiring.

A thanks to Maia Hirasawa for a lovely warm up.

Since I have mostly good thinks to say about last night, I decide not to discuss Gustaf Kjellvander solos performance of The Fine Arts Showcase.

I just bought tickets to the Nine Inch Nails concert here in London on the 8th of Mars 2007!!

Lucky me ;)

Lets go back in time. Back to 1996 and the year that I bought the album ‘About to Choke’, by Vic Chesnutt, from the record shop ‘Rock On’ in Skelleftea. I loved that album from day one, and within a year I owned all Vic’s albums: Is the Actor Happy?, Drunk, West Of Rome and Little. My good friend Marcus Burman and I were totally absorbed and adored Vic and his albums to bits. Even thought they were all good, About to Choke remained the favorite.

Then in 1998 we found out that Vic was playing in Stockholm, and within a few hours, the flight and concert tickets were booked. Moonspell and Therion was also playing that same weekend, so more tickets got booked and another friend, Johan “Jorra” Radstom, decided to come along as well. Even though I really like Moonspell and Therion, the trip was all about Vic.

It was the 3rd of October 1998. As we arrived at the venue a poster said that the special guests for the evening were Calexico and Lambchop, and, to our surprise, that Vic had released a new album called The Salesman and Bernadette.
The initial thought was: F**k - I didn’t know he had released a new album! The initial hopes were: I hope the new album is as brilliant as the rest of them and that he will mostly play songs from About to Choke.
It turned out that Vic did not only play songs from the latest album The Salesman and Bernadette, the album was also far from anything similar to any of his other albums. Instead of a naked acoustic singer songwriter sound, it was an experimental music cooperation with Lambchop and their 21 piece band. I hated it.

Still today - 10 years later - About to Choke is one of my absolute favorite albums. Vic Chesnutt is still one of my favorite musicians and song writers. But my so far only Vic Chesnutt gig is one of my worst and most disappointing concert experiences.

I think we all have had similar experiences, maybe not to that extent, but I bet we all have been to a concert where the band didn’t play ‘That One Song’. That song that is a bit special to you. The song you think is better than the hit song that made the band famous. Your song. That song.
I have many times gone to a concert and wished they would only play songs from ‘That One Album’. You know - you don’t care about the latest album, even if the latest album is ok, you prefer if they could promote it some other time, and not when you have made the effort to attend the show.

It’s a bit of a Catch 22 - you need to know an album and it’s songs to truly enjoy a concert , and once you know the album, the tour to promote the album is over and the next time the band is in town, they are already promoting the next album.

Now let’s go back to 2006 and last sunday when I arrived to the Barbican with Willow, her friend Lucy and Lucy’s boyfriend Scott, to see Tindersticks. This time a flyer said:

Welcome to the second year of Don’t Look Back, the season that invites a diverse range of artists to preform a retrospective of one of their works. In most cases this means seminal or great albums live in their entirety. This is all about records we endorse - not necessarily how many copies they have sold, but more about how they have touched our hearts and minds. In the age of the iPod where many people pick and choose tracks, Don’t Look Back encourages fans to preserve the album as an art form.

Tindersticks, will be preforming Tindersticks II.

I pinched my arm. It can’t be true. It’s to good to be true.

When they all came on stage, the singer, Stuart A Staples, leans towards the mic and says;

I think we all knows what’s gonna happen next.

It was amazing. Breath taking. Blown away. Stupendous. Electrifying. Non stop action. Thrilling. World class. A masterpiece. A triumph. Truly compelling. Superb. This year’s most sumptuously enjoyable gig. Expansive and radiantly generous. A transatlantic epic.

No need really for me to write a review in detail. If you know the album you know what you missed, if you don’t, you don’t. And if you don’t, just try to imagine one of those albums you just totally adore and imagine you seeing that album being preformed live.

What I found out as well, that I didn’t know, and that adds even more value to it, is that the Tindersticks don’t longer exist as a band. The lead singer, Stuart A Staples, have gone solo. The concert was a one-off.

I feel privileged to have experienced this, and I would like to thank Tindersticks, my lovely girlfriend willow for purchasing the tickets, and the organiser ATP for making it happen. The concept of getting an artist to preform an album is just brilliant. Me like it a lot and me will definitely keep me eyes open for the 2007 brochure.
It says on the ATP Don’t Look Back website that they take suggestions on future artist and album… maybe I will get to see Vic Chesnutt performing About to Choke after all. Knock on wood.

It’s a different thing going to a concert and seeing a band where the members are old enough to be your dad. Next to the tick-boxes on your criteria sheet you will not find:

• [ ] stage dived
• [ ] climbed the stage scaffold
• [ ] trashed instrument
• [ ] jumped into the drum kit
• [ ] good contact with audience
• [ ] tight
• [ ] good sound

You expect routine and brilliance most bands totally lack, purely due to less experience. You expect that the fact that they have been playing and performing together longer than you have been alive should show and amaze you.

Other bands that I have seen that falls into the same category are, in chronological order:

• Iggy Pop, 1967
• Black Sabbath, 1968
• AC/DC, 1973
• Ramones, 1974
• Mötorhead, 1975

The latest member to be added to this list is, as you might have figure out, the daddy for many rock bands - The Rolling Stones, 1962. But I’m afraid that it is the list’s weakest member.

Before I start ranting on about my disappointment and so on, I must confess that I don’t know The Rolling Stones. I didn’t listen to them growing up and I haven’t had much enjoyment of them later in life. I don’t own a single Rolling Stones album or memory. This is simply because what I have heard is nothing I’ve been too impressed with… but looking back on my list again - that was the case with Iggy Pop and The Ramones as well and they didn’t disappoint me.

Basically this is what I knew before the concert, and some of it may not be all true (don’t see it as facts):
I knew that Mick Jagger is the lead singer, and that he has impregnated a lot of women around the world and likes to date and marry models. Even though it might look like he’s related to Aerosmith Steve Taylor and the guitar god Steve Vai, he’s not. I knew that the guitarist is Keith Richards, and that he really likes wearing a bandana around his head, John Rambo style, and a Fender Telecaster resting on his left shoulder.
I knew that their most famous graphic representation is the tongue and lip logo… and I kind of knew that they wrote the song Sympathy for the Devil and Satisfaction.

So my hopes on this gig weren’t high, I just wanted to get an explanation and understanding on why The Rolling Stones are one of the longest running and most successful rock acts in show business, and why they keep filling stadiums and arenas around the world, being the highest grossing act the year that they tour. I didn’t expect to leave the stadium in south west London buying a tongue belt clip and going home with an urge to learn how to play the songs on the guitar. I just wanted to understand. Which, you might have figured out - I didn’t.

Maybe they are to old, but then should they play? It felt almost like if you took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the museum instead of the theatre. The stage looked and felt oversized. When Mick or Keith moved over to the far end of the stage, to salute the people sitting on the sides, everyone stood up and applaud - it felt like we applaud the fact that they actually made the afford to make it over.
It definitely didn’t sound like these boys have been playing together for what, 44 years? And that you can’t even justify with old age, maybe old age in combination with a lot of drugs, but then again - should they play if they can’t actually play. Parts were dreadful. The sound were horrible.
What’s up with all the changing of clothes? When did changing clothes between every other song become a part of a rock act?
And if you have been to a few bigger concerts you weren’t impressed by the show either - the fire, the moving stage, the big screens. 80000 people payed about £150 each. That should be enough to make something a bit more spectacular. Again, they are suppose to be the highest grossing act the year that they tour.

I know, they probably changed the cause of rock history. They probably have inspired thousands of bands. 10 years ago they probably held amazing shows. I should probably shout the F up and show them some respect. But that was then - thanks you. Not now.

I think most people, including me, go to see The Rolling Stones because people say that The Rolling Stones is one of those things you should see (before they die). People, including me, go to see them so that they can tell other people they have seen them and the person being told knows who ‘They’ are. Most people don’t know the history. Most people don’t know the songs. Most people are people like me. And if I hadn’t gotten the ticket for free - I wouldn’t have gone. And if anyone is planning to go and see one of the best rock acts in the world ever - please book tickets for AC/DC. They will never ever let anyone down. I believe, and hope - the day they can’t play - they don’t.

The name Rolling Stones comes from the the proverb “A rolling stone gathers no moss”, which has two meanings: 1) people pay a price for being always on the move, in that they have no roots in a specific place (the original meaning); 2) people who keep moving avoid picking up responsibilities and cares.

So that’s the relationship between the band ‘The Rolling Stones’ and the Bob Dylan song ‘Like A Rolling Stone’… that, the proverb, and maybe the irony of coincidence between the proverb, the band and the lyric of Bob Dylans song.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?