nuzzaci / gig /

Flight of the Conchords at Circus, Stockholm, 24th May 2010

June 5th 2010

Photo by Jesper Frisk grabbed off Rockfoto.nu

The first time I heard Flight of the Conchords was a few years back while driving up to Newcastle. It was a recoding of their BBC radio series. As I remember it, it was about the band trying to make it in London.

Since then they have moved on quite a bit. Regarding success. TV series, world tours and feature in movies. The concept of the show, humour, characters and topics have remained rather similar.

I went with Henrik Engdahl. We probably had the best seats at the venue. Row 7 in the middle. Unfortunately we had a girl sitting right behind us who obviously had a big crush on the guys on stage, and was constantly trying to catch their attention by laughing hysterically even when they weren’t making jokes. Rather annoying. But what can one do? You can’t ask someone to laugh less on a comedy show… not matter how warranted it is.

The warm-up act was Arj Barker and he went down well. He’s coming back to Stockholm later this year to do a performance at Söder Teatern. If I’m in town, I’m going.

The Flight of the Conchords were good. At times they leave you wondering how much of the performance is a routine and how much of it is just them sitting on stage improvising. Are they a band with funny talk between songs or are they a comedy act doing songs? Don’t think there is (or need of) an answer to that, but it makes you wonder.

Over the course of the evening they have a few less funny passages of rambling, but, whenever they had a low, they picked it up and made the low a thing of the past.

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Dave Matthews Band at Fryshuset, Stockholm, 15th March 2010

March 21st 2010

When I sat down to write this post I was happy and full of joy. Then I started to look around the web for a photograph of the event in question and stumbled upon a few reviews… Now I’m angry. Not sad-angry. I’m pissed-off-rant-angry.

All the reviews goes something like this:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet massive in the US, consectetur adipiscing elit. Grate ful Deads Curabitur in nulla vitae arcu bibendum imperdiet nec eget ante. In hac habitasse platea jam band dictumst. Fusce faucibus libero jazz a tellus consequat pulvinar. Proin vestibulum urna at est consequat fermentum. Curabitur extremely skilled musicians accumsan, metus a placerat varius fermentum quis, but it gets boring nulla est porttitor purus, ac cursus diam sem quis dolor urna at est. Vestibulum urna at est consequat but I get a feeling it’s for people who cares more about the quality of the TV than was actually on it. Lorem fucking dolor set.

See, I had a period in my life when I just hated people who wrote music reviews. I don’t know if it was due to the fact that I were on the receiving end a few times, or that I, in general, have a hard time respecting critics with low qualifications.

When it comes to music writers, in many instances, there’s a fine balance between being a journalist and a music enthusiast.

I’m not saying that you have to be a musician to write about music. But if you aren’t, you need to have the journalistic skill to articulate what you don’t like in a manner that doesn’t shift you’re not-so-good-music-knowledge into a bias I-don’t-like-this-so-they-are-shit.

How do you rate a concert if what you hear isn’t something you like, and you’re not capable of zooming out of the personal zone or skilled enough to judging the performance from a strictly musical angle?

When is a review a statement saying “this is not my cup of tea” and when is it a professional documentation of the quality of a performance?

I thought I had put all of this behind me. That I, past 30, could live in harmony even in a society where shit heads express their ignorance and get paid to do it.

There are just so many parts of these reviews that just amplify how the world would have been a better place if they didn’t attend the concert, or, at least, decided not to write about it.

An example extract from these reviews would be Dan Backman, who writes for SVD.se and Po Tidholm, who writes for DN.se. Both of these fellows decided to share with the world their qualified drum and rhythm qualifications by slagging of the drummer Carter Beauford.

Mr Backman claims that Mr Beauford never ever finds a groove “worth of it’s name”. Mr Tidholm writes something along the lines of; no matter what mood or atmosphere of the song Mr Beauford preoccupied himself with some sorts of non-stop sweeping masturbation on his 37 symbols and 63 drums and toms. Now that’s quality.

Mr Tidholm also ends his review by saying that people who like Dave Matthews Band are the sort who “care more about the quality of the TV than what’s on it”. Ooo, nice one. I’d almost like to turn that metaphor 180 degrees — sorry for liking music. An extra nice touch with his last statement is the fact that most people reading this review will undoubtedly be people who like Dave Matthews Band. Yeah, there are lessons to be learned here — this is how you build a fan base among readers.

Besides Dan Backman and Po Tidholm, also Anders Dahlbom, who writes for Expressen and Håkan Steen, who writes for Aftonbladet decided to chip in. They both had an opinions on the Bob Dylan cover “All along the watchtower”. Makes me assume they aren’t actually familiar with any of the Dave Matthews Bands material.

I’m convinced, that the 3200 audience attending this concert, not because they had to, but because they wanted to, can’t disagree more with these reviews/opinions. That the fact that Dave Matthews Band are a renown live performer and one of the biggest live acts in the US as well as a holding a high position on the RIAA top selling artists is not just a fluke, but a result of skills.

So… my review of this concert ended up being a long slag-off of other reviews… classy. Oh well. I’m sorry for the angry mood. But, I had to get this of my chest. I will leave my review part to the 140 character summary I posted in on twitter

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Oh, yeah, and I ended up steeling the photo from www.rockfoto.net.

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Monsters of Folk at Filadelfiakyrkan, Stockholm, 19th November 2009

November 20th 2009

monsters-of-folk
A ‘supergroup’ is a term describing a music group where members already have made their fame and fortune in other constellations or ventures.

Monsters of Folk is a super consisting of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes and M. Ward.

So the concert was a combination of Monsters of Folk, My Morning Jacket, Bright Eyes and M Ward songs. I didn’t count, but the concert lasted for 3 hours, so somewhere around 30 songs where played.

Overall, the concert at Filadelfiakyrkan was a failure. Long queues to get in, delayed, uncomfortable seats, bad sound, at times questionable performances, often they all stood facing the drums instead of the audience and the concert was too long.

But. The concert had a few really really magic moments.
So I’m willing to forgive.

Jim James definitely stood out from the rest. His performance of “Look at You”, “Bermuda Highway”, and “Golden” was superb and those alone almost made the concert worth the trouble. Other hightlights was M Ward magic guitar shredding solo, Bright Eye’s “Soul Singer In A Session Band” and the Monsters of Folk songs “Whole Lotta Losin”, “Dear God”, “Say Yes” and “The right place”.

I tweeted a tweet during the concert (probably after Mr James shone):

At a Monsters of Folk concert. Truly inspiring. Makes me want to take a sabatical and just play guitar…

It’s not an idea that established during the concert. But the seed definitely get a healthy potion of water and sunlight.

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Metallica at Globen, Stockholm, 4th May 2009

September 16th 2009

metallica-1

A good friend of mine, Daniel Norberg, phoned me a few days before the Metallica concert and asked if I had any plans since he had a spare place left in the VIP room.

My imitate thoughts where, “Child on the way? No. Wedding? No. Funeral? No.”, my answer to Daniel was an badly imitating James Hetfield, “yeeeeaaaah!!” (as in, no, I don’t have anything planned).

But. First time around, Mr Hetfield managed to be sick; had eaten some Asian food and got food poisoning. We only got to see the warm-up acts, drink 2 beers and then head back home. Extreeeeeeeeeemely disappointed.

All of us were very gutted. But as we left the VIP room we quickly put everything in context and realise how lucky we were. Most people there had actually paid for their tickets and traveled from far away. I almost ended up saying sorry to teens as I walked out.

Second time around. Everything went as planed. As a gift to everyone Metallica had printed special t-shirts that they gave away for free. It was a extremely ugly black t-shirt with neon print showing Mr Hetfield being sick.

Na, the big gift wasn’t the t-shirt. It was the amazing show.
They were absolutely great.

metallica-2

I am a huge fan of Mr Hetfield presence on stage. I had never experienced it live, but I have during my own music career tried to re-invent his presence and make it my own. I like to think that when I play live I’m a mixture of James Hetfield, Chuck Berry, Angus Young and Dave Grohl. Don’t think I pull it off, but know people appreciate me trying.

They played a collection of old and new. As always, you wished it was more old and less new. But the new songs do work really well with the mix.

metallica-3

The latest member, bass player Robert Trujillo, fitted in nicely and definitely added to the show. Hetfield lived up to his expectations, Kirk Hammett was anonymous as usual and I think we all wished Lars Ulrich would accept the fact that he plays the drums…

I brought my camera to the concert and have some photos on my flickr page. All photos in this post, and more, can be viewed here

metallica-4

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AC/DC at O2 Arena, London, 16th April 2009

September 16th 2009

Photograph captured by Timm Nüchter

In April this year I flew over to London to see AC/DC. I didn’t manage to get tickets for the Stockholm gig so I decided a trip to London could be justified by combining the concert with picking up stuff in the London flat and visiting some friends.

I have seen AC/DC twice before (Stiff Upper Lip tour) and am a huge fan. They are living legends. Even if you don’t like it, you should almost appreciate it. So, yes, any AC/DC review by me is biased.

But. They do have an achilles heel.
The school uniform of Angus Young.

They are getting old. Brian Johnson, born 1947, being the oldest and Angus Young, born 1955, being the youngest. This doesn’t mean that they still don’t put on a show like no one else — they do — almost just makes it more remarkable.

But unlike Brian, though, who seems to be like a fine wine and just gets better and better with the years, Angus, is facing an uphill battle jumping around in a school uniform at the age of 55.

You might hate me for saying this, but I would almost prefer it if for the next tour they made an active decision and amended the show so that Angus doesn’t have to jump around like a crazy old man rocking at 120mph 3 hours straight. This could hopefully give them a longer shelf life and prevent them from stopping touring when Angus’s ageing catches up with him.

Yeah, we should let Angus grow old.

I’d rather have a less energetic AC/DC than no AC/DC.
But, whatever the case. Whatever they do.

I salute you.

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Seasick Steve at Astoria, London, 24th January 2008

February 5th 2008

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 â€” i’m still no fan â€” 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.

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Marilyn Manson and Turbonegro at Wembley Arena, London, 5th December 2007

December 28th 2007

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 â€” the entire back section of the arena â€” 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 â€” 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 SkÃ¶ld. 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 â€” he’s producing, editing, doing artwork, electronics, drum programming and beats, playing guitar, keyboards, accordion, synthesizer bass and backup vocals â€” which I can’t say I envy. But to stand on a stage and deliver the energy of those songs through a guitar â€” 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 â€“ the land of the religious right, the Intelligent Designers and the pro-lifers â€“ 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.

If I Was Your Vampire (See it on YouTube)
Disposable Teens (See it on YouTube)
mOBSCENE (See it on YouTube)
Tourniquet (See it on YouTube)
The Irresponsible Hate Anthem (See it on YouTube)
Are You The Rabbit? (See it on YouTube)
Sweet Dreams (See it on YouTube)
Lunchbox (See it on YouTube)
The Fight Song (See it on YouTube)
Putting Holes In Happiness (See it on YouTube)
Heart Shapped Glasses (See it on YouTube)
Rock Is Dead (See it on YouTube)
The Dope Show (See it on YouTube)
The Reflecting God (See it on YouTube)
Antichrist Superstar (See it on YouTube)
The Beautiful People (See it on YouTube)

Enjoy.

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Ani Difranco at Shepherdâ€™s Bush Empire, 21st October 2007 (and the F1 Grande PrÃªmio do Brasil 2007)

November 24th 2007

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 â€” 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 hÃ¤rlig tÃ¤vling

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 â€” 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 HÃ¤kkinen from 1993 to 2001 and 2002 to 2006 with Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen, 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.

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 â€” 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 â€” good luck â€” 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.

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Prince at The o2, London, 20th September 2007

September 24th 2007

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).

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Fionn Regan at Dingwalls, Camden, London, 6th of February

February 12th 2007

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.

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