Live reviews

Suma - Sidewinder - Toner Low
Ungdomshuset, Cph, May 13th 2006

If I only smoke weed once or twice a year, I suppose it's no wonder that I get immensely stoned when I do it. Considering that I had spent the previous two days at a party convention, gotten drunk the night before, only to get up at 7 next morning to spend another day of listening to speeches and voting for resolutions, and then smoked weed, it's a wonder I wasn't totally catatonic before I reached home, falling into a deep sleep for the next 12 hours. As my friend noted, had I been a pilot, I would've been banned from flying until sometime next year.

The evening started out cosy enough, though, having dinner and discussing Buddhism and noise rock with the smoked up, bearded slayer hippies from Suma, the resulting interview to be seen on this page in the forthcoming summer issue. After that, it was what in hindsight seems like a River Styx of beer with my friend until we got to witness the quasi-mystical experience that is Suma live. True to their promise, they sped up things a little compared to their show in Cph last month supporting Boris, seeing as they were playing a punk venue this time. The result wasn't less overwhelming, only in a different way: Whereas the show with Boris was based around droning and noise, this time the songs were more in the pagan stoner metal vein, with the samples coming through clearer this time - the woman supposed to do the sound had celebrated her birthday party the previous night and was sleeping it off, so the band just played on their back gear. Singer Jovan was strangling himself with the microphone chord and screaming his lungs out. He was getting married the following weekend, so tonight's show was something of a bachelor party for him, getting covered in shaving foam afterwards. Congratulations!

After Suma, Sidewinder had all odds against them, even though their Nebula-inspired stoner rock ought to fit in well with Suma. Unfortunately, they had three major things going against them, and, even more unfortunate, all 3 centred around the singer and guitarist: His voice wasn't too strong, and the flamboyant axemanship seemed so out of place in Ungdomshuset, it was a joke. Worst thing, though, he wore a bandana. By this point, I was already stoned beyond repair, and I'm not sure I would give this band such a hard time in other circumstances, but there you go. He looked like Jamie Walters, too.

I was looking forward to Toner Low, headliner of the night, since both Amar Jens and Stoner Nils had bigged them up, but come midnight, I felt myself being drawn into a black hole, quickly made my excuses and zigzagged home through the city to enter a coma. According to the few that saw them, they were good. Next time, then.

After a weekend like this with the wife out of town, I appreciate being married even more.

Suma:
Sidewinder: