Live reviews

Ghost Rocket - 26/5 Ungdomshuset, Copenhagen

Ghost Rocket is the new 60's psychedelic garage punk band by Morten Aron, former lead guitar player in On Trial. He left On Trial back in 1999 after the Roskilde Festival and has put out a couple of solo records on Sort Hash or Orpheus (www.orpheus.dk) records but this is his first live outing. The band also features Nick on bass (Hybris), Claus on organ and on drums. The band were opening for a band from Argentina called Argies. I did not stay to see the Argies on this Weds night. The band had a really cool authentic 60's sound with the organ. Morten also sang lead vocals. The band played mostly originals but included a couple of cover songs as well. It was great to see and hear Morten rocking again. The band will release a single with Drug Freedom and 1 Million times this year. Look out for it!

Sgt. Sunshine + Magnified Eye + the Davolinas - 28/5 Studenterhuset, Copenhagen

This was the first Stoner Rock night to be put on at Studenterhuset so we hoped for a lot of people. Lene, lead singer in the Davolinas (www.davolinas.dk) organized the gig. It had been 1½ years since Magnified Eye had played in Copenhagen and the first time for the Malmö band, Sgt. Sunshine. A reasonable crowd was assembled when the Davolina's started close to 10. They sounded really good and played some different songs from a month ago at the gig with Colour Haze. They had a guest singer on Stormy Monday. He reminded me a bit of Mark Lanegan. Great set… The crowd really liked them as well.
Next up was Magnified Eye. They had recorded a new CD and were looking for a record label. Torben gave me a promo copy. Anyway, the band played a lot of new songs on this night, starting off with Trailblazer and Transition. Torben immediately broke a string and they had to take a break for him to change it as he only brought one guitar. The new material sounded great and the band really rocked! The end of the set they played a few songs from the first CD, Diesel Breath and No Big Deal. Religions Children finished the bands set. They played an encore song that I had hoped they would and they dedicated it to me, Mountain. One of their best songs and damn heavy! I think they got some new fans on this night. Strong rocking set… I heard people say too many of the songs sounded a like. Were they listening closely???
Sgt. Sunshine had not played a show in a year but were in a good mood and psyched to play. I love the bands debut CD and had hoped that they would do a lot of jamming as the CD has that sort of feel to it. I was not disappointed. The band were really great. They had a couple of long improvs in the set which included Eduardo using a violin bow on the guitar. The material was mostly taken from the bands CD but a few songs I did not know were played as well. An excellent band and I can't wait to see them play live again

Deadbolt + Taggy Tones : June 4th, Stengade 30

During the last couple of years Taggy Tones have geared up their straight rockabilly sound with more speed, now coming off as a semi-psychobilly band and it actually suits these Copenhagen veterans. The international success of Nekromantix probably also has a thing or two to do with it. Who came blame'em? Their set was as solid as ever with familiar cover tunes like "Burning Love", "In The Midnight Hour", "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Rockabilly Rebel" and "Folsom Prison". The singer Jess had met Cash a few years back and dedicated "Folsom Prison" to the man in black, and said Johnny was an 'angry old man'.
Prior to Taggy Tones, JT and I met some youngsters upstairs in Stalingrad, when they heard we're gonna see Deadbolt a snotty teen proclaimed; "Ain't they just some old men in leather jackets?". JT and I looked at each other, each wearing a black leather jacket, and howled; "And what the hell is wrong with that??".
San Diego's voodoobilly motherfuckers aka 'The Scariest Band In The World' hit the stage much to my amazement only as a 3-piece. Head honcho Harley Davidson apparently fired two members cuz "I didn't get along with them". And I as expected the unique Deadbolt sound hadn't changed at all, one bassplayer worked as just good as three! Maybe the two others were just good drinkin' buddies of Harley, well, not anymore I guess. This was the first time I've seen the sunglass-wearing-cigarette-chainsmokin' evil hoodoos without a brand new album in the bag, but we got a lotta ol' classics like "Conductor", "Truckdrivin' SOB", "Tiki Man", "Voodoobilly Man" and the creepy "Zulu Death Mask" performed with menacing panache with Harley as our narrator of twisted humorous tales of the evil that men do. Yes, evil men do evil things, when I tried to talk to'em backstage they wouldn't let anybody in unless they could tell a funny joke. Not even their pal Anders, 'The King Of Slagelse' as the boozer screamed all nite, was allowed backstage. So in my drunkeness I hollered; "Harry Potter is a Taliban!", and they let me in to drink a beer with'em. When I couldn't come up with another, the vicious fuckers threw me out of the room. Harley held a chair over his head and looked like somebody stole his surfboard while grinning like a crazed middleaged biker thug! Truly a grand nite for angry old men, haha.
(Jens)

Taggy Tones :
Deadbolt :

Balzac +Powergrill : June 18th, Stengade

Singer/guitarist Claus was kinda offended that when I said that the 8 tracks of Powergrill's new demo sounded just like their old tunes. Well, tonite I was forced to eat my words since most of their set consisted of new songs, which sounded way stronger than the old stuff. Cuts like "Nurse Joy", "One Pint Of Beer", "High Performance" and the Danzig/Cash cover "Thirteen" impressed the hell of me, and the best tune was probably the brand new "667" which had some cool backing vocals by bassist Smiley. Powergrill is still in love with that timeless Ramones sound (they did "Commando") but the Queers-like poppunk influence was almost gone and replaced with more rough rock'n'roll approach not unlike Turbo A.C.'s which suited me just fine. This was probably the best damn Powergrill show I've seen yet, the boys were in high spirits and joked a lot with the audience. Powergrill has sometimes been plagued by incompetent soundmen but tonite the sound was perfect; loud as hell, yeah, but you hear all the details of their brand of fast punkrock.
I've heard very different opinions on Balzac, Japan's answer to Misfits. Well, their ghoul/skeleton look certainly made'em come off as the ultimate horror punkband, but sadly the painful truth was that this was just generic melodic hardcore that sounded like any other Fat Wreck combo with lotsa whoa-oh singing. Not terribly scary or eerie, after 20 minutes or so I kinda lost interest despite the fact Balzac were very skilled musicians and had a great stage presence. Pretty much a letdown (all their songs sounded exactly the same), but I must say their merchandise items on the "Atom-Age Vampire In 308" Euro tour were very impressive, you could even buy some neat Balzac dolls! Still, gimme Guitar Wolf anyday.
(Jens)

Powergrill
Balzac