Loud and gritty in Wolverhampton

Time again for the periodic trip to Wolverhampton. The last few visits (Nov 2008-Sigur Rós, Jan 2009- Seasick Steve) were to Civic Hall, but 28th April was to the smaller sister venue Wulfrun Hall. We hadn't been there for (I believe, don't really want to count!) 5 years, and in a lot of ways it is a better venue than the Civic -more intimate but still good acoustics.

The reason for this trip was to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC). I somehow want to write 'underground', but as the show was a sellout and I believe many of the other dates were/are too, maybe 'ignored by the media' will suffice. Certainly I can't recall reading much about them recently, however over the years there's been a steady stream of albums with a few varying styles. M and I saw BRMC separately back in 2003 and enjoyed the band's live sets then. Amazingly, BRMC's website has their entire 'gigography' online, so according to them the respective dates were 4th and 8th November (Sheffield and Cardiff dates). My! It really doesn't feel that long ago!

The support, Dark Horses, were new to both of us but certainly entertained. Kinda dark psychedelicy rock, seemed entirely suitable too. Well worth a future listen, myspace available. According to another review I found here, Dark Horses are unsigned?! I would hope not for long. There is a link on their myspace and on their website for 2 free downloads.

Dark Horses started playing to a fairly empty room but by the end of their set the sellout was obvious. BRMC teased the crowd with a false start but then kicked off with War Machine. Set list (from the same midlands rocks review mentioned earlier): War Machine / Mama Taught Me Better / Red Eyes and Tears / Bad Blood / Beat The Devil's Tattoo / Love Burns / Ain't No Easy Way / Aya / Berlin / Weapon of Choice / Annabel Lee / Awake / Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll (Punk Song) / Acoustic Break / River Styx / Shuffle Your Feet / Conscience Killer / Six Barrel Shotgun / Spread Your Love / Stop / Shadows Keeper. Happily for us the set was a mix of old and new; I think my standout tracks were Shuffle Your Feet, Weapon of Choice and Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll. BRMC are very polished live performers with an incredible sound (volume as well as melody!) and were on stage for nearly 2 hours. All this for a very reasonable ticket price. Excellent!

A must see band, as much now as they were in 2003. New UK tour dates for later in the year have been announced, see link for the list on BRMC's site.

Comments

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej , Emily Nenninger , Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey , Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing: MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 MONIUSZKO Sen (The Dream) Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl) SZYMANOWSKI Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying) Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest) CHOPIN Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong) Moja Pieszczotka

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