Livereviews

Heavy Trash, Powersolo, The Defectors, The Tremelo Beer Gut
- July 12th, Den Grå Hal, Christiania

By Jens Photo: Rasmus Z

Den Grå Hal (The Grey Hall) has been inactive for like 8 years, so it was neat to see this big-ish venue (ca. 1500) open again for r'n'r action at Christiania. JT and I was kinda low on cash so we drank some vicious 9.5% Hancock beer at the Woodstock bar prior to The Defectors. Our Aarhus friends started the nite with a short 30 minutes set of oldies like "C'mon C'mon" and "Alright Girl", as well as some Shubidua (old Danish pop rock act) tunes from their split 12" with Powersolo. They sounded as Defectors anyway, haha. The band's got a new drummer and guitarist, and I must say his picking on "Paint It Black" wasn't that exciting, but okay its his 4th job in the band. Still a pretty solid show of classic garage rock. Nice Zorro moustace, Mort!

My woman listens to Powersolo every fuckin' day, so I thought I'd be tired of hearing their tunes again, but 2 songs into their set I surrendered completely. These 3 fun lovin' dudes' brand of quirky twang ('donkey punk' as they call it) were just as amazing as ever. We got "Juanito", "Nascar", "Truckin'" and couple of new promising tunes, as well as some bizarre vocal gymnastics from Kim Kix that made you wonder if he was from the same planet as you. Outstanding!

I wasn't that familiar with Heavy Trash since I've only heard their debut album once. Apparently Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray (Speedball Baby) wanted to go back to that classic Sun rockabilly sound, and their record really succeeds in that quest. JT told me they haven't rehearsed that much before the tour, but Kim Six (slap bass) and the Tremolo Beergut drummer backed the guys pretty neatly. The set was slower than the album, more soulful rootsy country (even gospel) sounding which allowed you to hear Jon Spencer's excellent crooner voice instead of him screaming "It's the Blues Explosion!" every 5 seconds, haha. A very atmospheric concert with New Yorker Jon as the southern soul preacher and master of ceremony. By then I was getting pretty loaded and since surf ain't my thing, I skipped Tremolo Beergut and went backstage for more boozing, and the rest of the nite lost in a drunken haze. I'll never drink those evil Hancock beer again, sick stuff!

Defectors
Powersolo
Heavy Trash