A few of my associates- including the people responsible for at least two of the blogs linked in the column to the right- traveled from Kansas City to Columbia for a Wilco concert yesterday. Fools! One of the best rock shows of the year transpired in their own backyard last night.
My misguided friends might suggest that the triple bill consisting of two German metal bands past their commercial prime and a relatively obscure Finnish doom band is either ripe for mocking or best ignored. They're wrong. Kreator, Accept and Swallow the Sun haven't garnered an iota of the critical accolades that Wilco has received. So what? Respectability, after all, isn't very rock and roll.
My regret about missing the local openers evaporated during Swallow the Sun's first song. The Finnish sextet frustrated would-be moshers with slow jams like "Cathedral Walls". The band put a spell on me.
Accept is associated with one gloriously dumb anthem ("God bless ya!… hey!"). Fans know that there's a lot more where that came from. I realize this is heresy, but I prefer Accept's poor man's version of Judas Priest to the real thing. Accept was truly great.
Kreator was no less vital. The first thirty minutes of the thrash band's set were every bit as good as recent area performances by Slayer and Anthrax. Kreator's power didn't surprise me. New material like "Phantom Antichrist" indicates the band is in top form.
The Beaumont Club can be an uncomfortable place during crowded shows. Yet when just a few hundred people are in the room it strikes an ideal balance between spaciousness and intimacy. All 350 metalheads at the Beaumont Club on Sunday- including at least a dozen women!- were totally into it. And the sound was superb. Come to think of it, last night's concert made me so giddy that I still feel just like this. (Hey, I love Wilco too.)
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Bob Dylan's Tempest is the funniest album I've heard in ages. Most of the time I laugh with Bob. Sometimes I laugh at him. Tempest is ridiculous. And I love it.
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Bizarre Tribe: A Quest to The Pharcyde, the latest extended mashup by Gummy Soul, is available as a free download. RIYL: A Tribe Called Quest and the Pharcyde, obviously.
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I just learned of the retro act William Pilgrim and the All Grows Up. RIYL: JD McPherson, Bonnie Raitt.
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I'd been looking forward to catching Ram Herrera, Jay Perez and David Lee Garza at Union Station last weekend. Yet Expo America's unwillingness or inability to post set times prevented me from attending the festival.
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Kansas City Click: Godemis returns to the RecordBar on Monday.
Ron Pope plays the Czar Bar on Tuesday.
Swans perform at the Beaumont Club on Wednesday.
(Original image of Kreator by There Stands the Glass.)
7 comments:
Would you care to elaborate as to why you think Tempest is a ridiculous recording?
Can't say much about Tempest (it's good, the Titanic song was too long imho).
I had to laugh about your metal review. I've found Wilco boring for years (except for Nels Cline's guitar skronk). In the 80s I saw Accept on the Balls to the Wall tour with Saxon. It was a pretty empty coliseum that night too.
Don't tell me Tempest doesn't make you laugh out loud too, BGO. A few examples:
*The cover art could be the worst for a significant artist in the past decade. Bob knows.
*Lines like "A gal named Honey took my money" on "Soon After Midnight."
*Bob sounds as if he's trying not to laugh at his gags on "Long and Wasted Years."
*His voice and phrasing- which have obviously always been "distinctive"- have never been more exaggerated.
*Referencing "Leo" on the Titanic song. Really?
These aren't bad things. In fact, Bob's embrace of ridiculousness contributes to my love of Tempest.
One 275-pound fan wore a really sweet denim jacket with a Saxon patch as its centerpiece, Gary. I was genuinely impressed.
You obviously have done no homework on Bob's mindset these days. If you've read Mikal Gilmore's interview in the new RS you'd know about Bob's Jones for being transfigured. You should consider this about LEO:
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/leo-zimmermann.html
So...perhaps me and Bob are on similiar wavelengths, but then again, I think not.
I'm loving his phrasing by the way. And to tell you the truth, Bob don't give no hoot about why I nor you think about him or his new baby.
And who is Calvin, Blake & Wilson and why do they gamble?
Love,
bgo
You're right- I've done no homework on Bob's mindset nor have I read any interviews or bios about the man in over a dozen years.
I'm sure you agree that art should be able to stand on its own.
And I don't care what Bob thinks- just as he shouldn't care what I think.
It's interesting that a passenger was named Leo Zimmerman. But then again there's this.
What's you point about Jack drawing Rose and quoting the future Bob Dylan? Dylan paying respect back to Cameron? I frigging doubt it. Leo digs some chick named Cleo aboard the ship. I don't think Zimmy is referencing the movie at all. And the watchman? There is a chance he is somewhere else dreaming and that be Bob (cue Twin Peaks music now)
bgo
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