Tonight's show is by two leading exponents of what you might call modern psychedelia, psych-punk or late 60's rock revivalism.Call it what you will, but Primal Scream and The Brian Jonestown Massacre are both now long tenured acts that have carved out a notable career by borrowing heavily from rock's past and trying to give it a modern spin.
This evening's venue is the rather sterile and way-too-modern, theater-sized, Club Nokia, situated in the new-ish L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Staples Center. The 2,400 capacity club is on the third floor of this entertainment behemoth. As I cross the Nokia plaza with it's giant digital display of "Nokia" taking up one side of a building, I see Anderson Cooper bathed in intense white lights and surrounded by a film crew and bystanders. That's L.A. for ya.
This venue has all the charm of a hotel convention hall. That and the fact that the prices for everything are sky-high ($20 to park, $10 beers, $9 for a pre-made sandwich or salad) do not put me in a great mood for a night of wild rock and roll. The sound and lighting are top-notch, and the back bar looks like it has the same art direction as a Stanley Kubrick film, but this place feels cold and empty. Welcome to the 21st century, I guess.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre are up first. This band has been led by the mercurial Anton Newcombe since 1990. They specialize in a sort of droning, psychedelic guitar music that draws on such influences as The Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones circa 1967, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Spacemen 3 and a touch of shoe-gazer acts like Ride.
BJM are probably best known for the 2005 documentary, "Dig"--a must-see rock-doc about two friendly and similar bands (BJM and The Dandy Warhols) who get caught up in classic music industry hype. We witness how this affects their relationship and how they go about dealing with it. It is a fascinating study of how the two band leaders (Newcombe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor) cope with the prospect of imminent fame and success. Both are portrayed as being maniacal control freaks, but while Taylor-Taylor is seen as an ambitious opportunist, Newcombe comes off as someone who shys away from the attention and seems hell bent on self-destruction and self-sabotage. They both to battle to a draw in who can come off as being the more self-involved jerk. Nevertheless, it is an essential document of how art and commerce often exist uncomfortably together, as well as the corrupting effects of money, media and fame on smart and creative individuals.
This evenings opening slot sees Anton Newcombe and his seven cohorts plow through a 45 minute set that covers a wide range of material from throughout their career. Suprising to see erstwhile members Matt Hollywood (guitar and vocals) and Joel Gion (tambourine shaker extraordinaire, comic relief and used buyer at Amoeba in SF) back in this ever-shifting line-up after having been out of the band the last time I checked. Newcombe is situated stage right all the way at the end, with his mic and body turned sideways facing the band. Either he suffers from some stage fright or else he wants to keep a close eye on his charges. He is looking pretty haggard, but then that is usually par for the course with him and it doesn't seem to affect his performance at all.
Their reverb-heavy, druggy and hypnotic sound is mesmerizing, however it is performed with such cool detachment and at times lacks really memorable tunes, that often you feel that it is a bit of a studied pose. Hard to believe these guys were once being hyped as a potential big mainstream cross-over act. They would seem most at home in some small, low-down club and appear out of place in this sterile and cavernous corporate venue.
Primal Scream, meanwhile, are perhaps too big for this hall. They are practically an institution in the UK and have been filling arenas and playing huge European festivals for close to 20 years now. They were formed in 1984 in Glasgow, Scotland by former Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie (lead vocals), Andrew Innes (lead guitar) and Martin Duffy (keyboards) who remain the core of the group,but are now supplemented with former Stones Roses member Mani (bass), Darren Mooney (drums) and a second touring guitarist.
The Scream have had a long and distinguished career that has seen many changes in their sound. This has led to criticism in some quarters that they are musical magpies--hopping on whatever musical bandwagon is trendy and then hopping off and onto the next passing trend. Perhaps this notion has been overstated, but it is true that their career has seen time for 60's psych-revivalism in a Byrds and Love mode (not too successfully I might add), MC5 style hard rock (again, kinda of iffy), indie rock/dance ( on the landmark "Screamadelica" album that brought Acid House and rock music to the masses, at least everywhere but the U.S.), early 70's Rolling Stones clones (a sound they embraced wholly on "Screamadelica's" follow-up "Give Out But Don't Give Up" and have been returning to as sort of a default setting, especially 06's "Riot City Blues" ), electronica (1997's "Vanishing Point"), and noisy Krautrock (2000's brilliant "XTRMNTR" and 02's "Evil Heat"). This schizophrenic approach to their music has made them a most eclectic band who now can draw upon all these influences and put on one hell of a rock show. I have never seen them before and they don't play the U.S. too often (last time being in 2001 I believe), so I was very primed for this show.
So it was that they took to the stage at Club Nokia and proceeded to just about take the audiences heads off with the volume and propulsive attack of their music, aided and abetted by a truly disorienting light show filled with relentless flashing strobes and a laser beam that I haven't seen since The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" film. The first five songs, beginning with 'Kill All Hippies' and concluding with 'Jailbird' was about as breathtaking an opening salvo as I've seen from any band ever. Andrew Innes' Gibson Les Paul played through a Marshall stack amplifier was absolutely lethal.
They then slowed things down to take on some of their more trippy, psychedelic songs, where the two guitarists made ample use of their effects pedals and keyboardist Duffy provided spooky textures and strange loops. The high point of this middle section was 'Higher Than The Sun' from "Screamadelica" and 'Deep Hit of Morning Sun' . Lead singer Gillespie is a stick figure with a Phil May circa 1965 haircut. He is not the most powerful vocalist out there, but he gets the job done and is a charismatic front man.
They then shifted back to an uptempo mode and ripped through seven high octane rockers that began with 'Exterminator' and finished off with their heavy Stones-referencing, 'Movin On Up' and 'Rocks'. A four song encore followed, highlighted by Stonesy-stomp of 'Country Girl' and capped off with the mind-bending (and ear-splitting) tour-de-force that is 'Accelerator' a feedback spattered bit of noise rock that is a fitting farewell from this band.
I am stunned by how good this show was and how powerful this band is. I am completely worn out! They have spent 25 years of developing into a first rate rock band with enough stylistic detours to keep it interesting and a somewhat dark and mysterious image that serves them well too. I'm hoping that they will be back sooner next time and when I see them I plan to bring ear plugs and sunglasses.
This evening's venue is the rather sterile and way-too-modern, theater-sized, Club Nokia, situated in the new-ish L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Staples Center. The 2,400 capacity club is on the third floor of this entertainment behemoth. As I cross the Nokia plaza with it's giant digital display of "Nokia" taking up one side of a building, I see Anderson Cooper bathed in intense white lights and surrounded by a film crew and bystanders. That's L.A. for ya.
This venue has all the charm of a hotel convention hall. That and the fact that the prices for everything are sky-high ($20 to park, $10 beers, $9 for a pre-made sandwich or salad) do not put me in a great mood for a night of wild rock and roll. The sound and lighting are top-notch, and the back bar looks like it has the same art direction as a Stanley Kubrick film, but this place feels cold and empty. Welcome to the 21st century, I guess.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre are up first. This band has been led by the mercurial Anton Newcombe since 1990. They specialize in a sort of droning, psychedelic guitar music that draws on such influences as The Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones circa 1967, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Spacemen 3 and a touch of shoe-gazer acts like Ride.
BJM are probably best known for the 2005 documentary, "Dig"--a must-see rock-doc about two friendly and similar bands (BJM and The Dandy Warhols) who get caught up in classic music industry hype. We witness how this affects their relationship and how they go about dealing with it. It is a fascinating study of how the two band leaders (Newcombe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor) cope with the prospect of imminent fame and success. Both are portrayed as being maniacal control freaks, but while Taylor-Taylor is seen as an ambitious opportunist, Newcombe comes off as someone who shys away from the attention and seems hell bent on self-destruction and self-sabotage. They both to battle to a draw in who can come off as being the more self-involved jerk. Nevertheless, it is an essential document of how art and commerce often exist uncomfortably together, as well as the corrupting effects of money, media and fame on smart and creative individuals.
This evenings opening slot sees Anton Newcombe and his seven cohorts plow through a 45 minute set that covers a wide range of material from throughout their career. Suprising to see erstwhile members Matt Hollywood (guitar and vocals) and Joel Gion (tambourine shaker extraordinaire, comic relief and used buyer at Amoeba in SF) back in this ever-shifting line-up after having been out of the band the last time I checked. Newcombe is situated stage right all the way at the end, with his mic and body turned sideways facing the band. Either he suffers from some stage fright or else he wants to keep a close eye on his charges. He is looking pretty haggard, but then that is usually par for the course with him and it doesn't seem to affect his performance at all.
Their reverb-heavy, druggy and hypnotic sound is mesmerizing, however it is performed with such cool detachment and at times lacks really memorable tunes, that often you feel that it is a bit of a studied pose. Hard to believe these guys were once being hyped as a potential big mainstream cross-over act. They would seem most at home in some small, low-down club and appear out of place in this sterile and cavernous corporate venue.
Primal Scream, meanwhile, are perhaps too big for this hall. They are practically an institution in the UK and have been filling arenas and playing huge European festivals for close to 20 years now. They were formed in 1984 in Glasgow, Scotland by former Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie (lead vocals), Andrew Innes (lead guitar) and Martin Duffy (keyboards) who remain the core of the group,but are now supplemented with former Stones Roses member Mani (bass), Darren Mooney (drums) and a second touring guitarist.
The Scream have had a long and distinguished career that has seen many changes in their sound. This has led to criticism in some quarters that they are musical magpies--hopping on whatever musical bandwagon is trendy and then hopping off and onto the next passing trend. Perhaps this notion has been overstated, but it is true that their career has seen time for 60's psych-revivalism in a Byrds and Love mode (not too successfully I might add), MC5 style hard rock (again, kinda of iffy), indie rock/dance ( on the landmark "Screamadelica" album that brought Acid House and rock music to the masses, at least everywhere but the U.S.), early 70's Rolling Stones clones (a sound they embraced wholly on "Screamadelica's" follow-up "Give Out But Don't Give Up" and have been returning to as sort of a default setting, especially 06's "Riot City Blues" ), electronica (1997's "Vanishing Point"), and noisy Krautrock (2000's brilliant "XTRMNTR" and 02's "Evil Heat"). This schizophrenic approach to their music has made them a most eclectic band who now can draw upon all these influences and put on one hell of a rock show. I have never seen them before and they don't play the U.S. too often (last time being in 2001 I believe), so I was very primed for this show.
So it was that they took to the stage at Club Nokia and proceeded to just about take the audiences heads off with the volume and propulsive attack of their music, aided and abetted by a truly disorienting light show filled with relentless flashing strobes and a laser beam that I haven't seen since The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" film. The first five songs, beginning with 'Kill All Hippies' and concluding with 'Jailbird' was about as breathtaking an opening salvo as I've seen from any band ever. Andrew Innes' Gibson Les Paul played through a Marshall stack amplifier was absolutely lethal.
They then slowed things down to take on some of their more trippy, psychedelic songs, where the two guitarists made ample use of their effects pedals and keyboardist Duffy provided spooky textures and strange loops. The high point of this middle section was 'Higher Than The Sun' from "Screamadelica" and 'Deep Hit of Morning Sun' . Lead singer Gillespie is a stick figure with a Phil May circa 1965 haircut. He is not the most powerful vocalist out there, but he gets the job done and is a charismatic front man.
They then shifted back to an uptempo mode and ripped through seven high octane rockers that began with 'Exterminator' and finished off with their heavy Stones-referencing, 'Movin On Up' and 'Rocks'. A four song encore followed, highlighted by Stonesy-stomp of 'Country Girl' and capped off with the mind-bending (and ear-splitting) tour-de-force that is 'Accelerator' a feedback spattered bit of noise rock that is a fitting farewell from this band.
I am stunned by how good this show was and how powerful this band is. I am completely worn out! They have spent 25 years of developing into a first rate rock band with enough stylistic detours to keep it interesting and a somewhat dark and mysterious image that serves them well too. I'm hoping that they will be back sooner next time and when I see them I plan to bring ear plugs and sunglasses.
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