Club Notes
Love You Long Time
originally published February 16, 2005
On an Arctic-wind-chilled night of Thursday, Feb. 10, I find myself in the 40 Watt grinning as Jason Nesmith fronts a Casper Fandango/ Soft Rhombus amalgamation for "A Night Of One Hit Wonders," which is more like a night of one-night stands. Nesmith is playing some vaguely recognizable '80s-Euro-pop while he and the band prance and pose in true Duran Duran/ Bucks Fizz attire. Soon the crew breaks into the original German version of Nena's "99 Luftballoons" and I'm transformed back to my high school German class as Jason hits the Deutsch perfectly. The synth and electronic drum backing is a real treat.
After that sweet peck on the cheek, I leave my first one-night stand behind for some tough love in the Caledonia Lounge. Local five-piece ¡Subversivo! is assaulting its audience with dynamic, funky metal. It's fair to say that four members of this band are playing metal - which breaks of into a kind of heavy speed jazz - while saxophonist Alexis Daglis provides a meandering and psycho-freaky jazzy tone that elevates, texturizes and transcends the overall sound in a uniquely muscular avant-garde fashion. The band also achieves some bold, fast, "Baggy Trousers"-era Madness ska beats and gypsy-carnival psychedelia, which mandates much sympathetic foot jittering and head bobbing. It's not very often that I get to put the words satanic thrash metal, jazz and Euro-folk in the same sentence without referring to a musical Technicolor yawn. In this case, the bass-heavy, triple-keyboard monster that is ¡Subversivo! can only be described as: frenetic, challenging, offensive, enthralling and damn well brilliant!
Speaking of diversity: an expanded version of The Stand-Ins are now on in the 40 Watt. As I walk back in, they are segueing from something Blondie-sounding into a high power version of "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors, and that's all she wrote. Short and sweet: leaving the audience with a small - but rich - collection of sensory charged nostalgic memories to cherish on cold nights when such outpourings of musical passion are few and far between.
In reality, the frequency of these one-hit wonder/ one-night stands is more akin to speed dating; the next band on my card is Nutria (with a few ring-in singers including Kenny Aguar, AKA the 8-Track Gorilla) flirting with Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind." I like where this is going! The unmistakable melody of T-Rex's "Get It On" is Nutria's next advance and if I weren't so painfully sober I would probably acquiesce. Nutria lays its cards on the table making an open ("I just need somebody to love") declaration, singing former-local-boy Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" before closing the deal with "Your Love" by The Outfield.
Back in the Caledonia Lounge, the sonic onslaught is continuing with Amish Jihad's campaign of musical shock and awe. Starting of with an advance movement of high velocity booming bombast, AJ's three soldiers of subsonic-fortune lay down a heavy blanket of high-caliber, rapid-fire beats. The vibrations coming off this unholy three-piece are, at first, alluring as they tenderize the flesh; prolonged exposure, however, leads to a severe yet blissful pulverization. This leaves the senses completely unguarded against the terrorizing short-and-spasmodic guitar fire, followed by a sensory overload of bass riffs. Even before the band is finished with their final head-banging assault, punctuated by kick-drum cluster bombs, it is evident that the collateral damage is extensive and I'm shell-shocked. Oh shit… my military vocabulary is burnt out and my earplugs are on fire… medic!
Back in the 40 Watt, Lona exits stage-left and the camp-pop five-piece The Shut-Ups come on in their trademark pajamas, led by Don Condescending and local lad Ben Spraker. Reaching into their grab bag of one-hit wonders, the first up is Big Country's "In A Big Country." Somehow the band draws a range of obscure one-hit wonders from the 12th century, the Civil War - including a narrative on the history behind the haunting military salute known as "Taps" - and an unlikely version of every piano student's fallback tune: "Chopsticks." Obscurity departs and a song that sounds like the Commodores ensues, followed by a '70s disco-synth anthem and Charlene's drag-queen classic, "I've Never Been To Me." The Shut-Ups wind up with that damn "Milkshake" song by Kelis, "Major Tom (I'm Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling and "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant: very entertaining, boys.
On Friday night, jazz heavyweight Dave Douglas and his new band Nomad are at Nuçi's Space playing music from the new album Mountain Passages, much of which is dedicated to Douglas' late father. The music is drawn from a trekking experience where Douglas was invited to join a mountain gathering held at an altitude of 10,000 feet, where all the musicians trekked themselves and their instruments in on foot. Douglas is one of the country's top jazz trumpet players and merely by association it's fair to assume that the four musicians that he has chosen to work with are in the same league; through their inspired solos and collaborations each and every one of them proves this very point. Nomad comprises a saxophonist, a tuba player, a cellist and a drummer. Led by Douglas, their seemingly-spontaneous, climax-free-style jazz journey is at times subtly sparse and intricate, and at times fantastically bold and cacophonous, and at times very comical. Above all though, this live performance is spiritually invigorating, hypnotic in its beauty and captivatingly diverse.
Ben Gerrard
Ben Gerrard is a radio journalist and writer living and working in Athens. Club Notes is a weekly look at the local club scene.
Ben Gerrard
-
-
Club Notes
Bo Knows
originally published February 9, 2005
-
If you are having problems with the site, or have questions or suggestions, please contact us here. Thanks!
Care to comment on this article? Click here!
You will be the first person to comment on this article.