Blog, Concerts

The Revival Tour, 12th October 2011, Cologne

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Yesterday night was my second Revival Tour concert. This time in Cologne, where it should have originally take place in the Gloria but was re-scheduled into Live Music Hall. The positive part of this was the fact that we were not seated, another one that the WDR Rockpalast was going to record the concert and therefor it will be shown in Television in the night from Sunday to Monday for 3 hours.

As we were not seated the connection to the band / musicians was much better and I believe they enjoyed it more than they did enjoy Wiesbaden. The cameras for the TV were sometimes a little bit bothering .. but this can’t be helped I guess…and it’s they price we pay for being able to sit back Sunday night and see the concert again.

Funny for us (not for the musicians) was the fact that first during Dan Andriano’s set a string on his guitar broke. It totally turned him over, but luckily the crowd was great, helping him getting back into the song and least but not last Dave Hause who directly came out on stage when this happend to support Dan for the rest of the song. Two more broken strings happend to Chuck yesterday night, so it seemed to be the night of broken strings. A little weird was the fact that more than one person in the crowd called for „Radio“ from Alkaline Trio during Dan’s set, which means they either don’t know that Matt is singing that or they thought Dan would do it too. Dan explained that he would not play songs of Matt while he’s not there, but that they’ll return in November for an Alkaline Trio show and that they are going to play „Radio“ there. He then played „Emma“, a song that Matt wrote but Dan is singing (the only one btw.) supported by Dave (who was doing a really good job on this…maybe the crowd should have asked him for „Radio) telling us that Matt named that song after Dan’s dog.

Brian Fallon was, as always, very funny to have on stage. Besides the fact that he’s really chatting with the crowd all the time, he offered the choice between another song and doing breakdance. Needless to say we got both.

The Rockpalast has already the first video up (59 Sound) and some interviews. You can check them out here

The Setllist

All

  1. Nomade by Fate
  2. Me and Denver
  3. Great Expectations
  4. Prague

 

Dave’s Set

  1. Time will tell (with Dan)
  2. Pretty Good Year (with Chuck)
  3. Pray for Tuscon
  4. Resolutions (with Jon)
  5. Jane
  6. Melanin
  7. Trusty Chords (with Chuck)
  8. C’mon Kid (with Dan)

 

Chuck’s Set

  1. It’s what you will
  2. Let it rain
  3. Cut em down
  4. Nothing left to prove
  5. You get what you give
  6. For Broken Ears (with Dave)
  7. Fixin to Die
  8. Between The Lines
  9. Meet you in the Middle (with Brian)
  10. The Boat

 

Dan’s Set

  1. Every Thug needs a Lady
  2. Annother Innocent Girl
  3. Hollow Sounds
  4. It’s gonna rain all day
  5. Hurrican Season (with Chuck)
  6. This Light
  7. First Eviction Notice
  8. Blue Caroline (at the end with Dave)
  9. Emma (with Dave)
  10. Crawl (with Brian)
  11. From this Oil Can

 

Brian’s Set

  1. Black Betty and the Moon (with Ian Perkins)
  2. I witnessed a crime (with Ian Perkins)
  3. Ladykiller (with Ian Perkins)
  4. The Diamond Church Street Choir
  5. Old White Lincoln
  6. The Boxer
  7. Here’s looking at you kid
  8. Blue Jeans & White Shirts

 

All

  1. American Slang
  2. On the Bow
  3. California Burritos
  4. The Bridge
  5. I was a Prayer
  6. 59 Sound
  7. Revival Road

 

Blog, Concerts

The Revival Tour, 11th October 2011, Wiesbaden

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Yesterday night the Revival Tour finally hit Wiesbaden. A concert I’ve been looking forward too since April (when I bought my tickets and saw the line-up).

Whoever has the chance to see a Revival Tour concert shouldn’t miss it. The European part 2011 unites 4 absolutely awesome male voices: Chuck Ragan, Dan Andriano, Dave Hause & Brian Fallon, which are supported by Jon Gaunt on the violin and Joe Ginsberg on the contrabass.

The Wiesbaden date took place in the Ringkirche..which left me with quite a strange feeling as we German learn from the beginning on that you have to be quiet in church and you have to behave. I was overall afraid this could destroy the atmosphere of that concert and I’m pretty sure it partly did for the band. They got nearly no response from the audiance during the show (besides applaus and screaming after the songs). The crowd remained nearly motionless on their seats (yes…seated) during the concert. Only for the last 3 or 4 songs Dave Hause made them leave those and dance in front of the band (luckily)

The whole concert was 3 hours and 30 minutes and this is even longer than my longest Pearl Jam concert.

The Setlist..as far as I could get it last night:

  1. Chuck Ragan song…sorry I couldn’t figure it out (done by all)
  2. Me and Denver (Dan) – done by all
  3. Great Expectations (Gaslight Anthem) – all
  4. Prague (Dave) – all

Dave’s Set:

  1. Jane
  2. Resolutions
  3. Pray for Tuscon
  4. Pretty Good Year (w. Chuck)
  5. Coverversion … for me unknown
  6. Melanin
  7. C’mon Kid (w. Dan)
  8. Time will Tell

Chuck’s Set

  1. It’s what you will
  2. Nothing left to prove
  3. Wish on the Moon
  4. For Broken Ears
  5. Hidden Track of Covering Ground
  6. Geraldine
  7. You get what you give
  8. Meet you in the middle
  9. For Goodness sake
  10. The Boat

Dan’s Set

  1. Blue Carolina
  2. Every Thug needs a lady
  3. Crawl (w. Brian)
  4. Hollow Sounds
  5. It’s gonna rain all day
  6. Hurricane Season
  7. The first eviction
  8. The last day we ever close our eyes
  9. Buried
  10. From this oil can

Brian (& Ian) ’s set

  1. Black Betty and the Moon (Crowes)
  2. I witnessed a crime (Crowes)
  3. Ladykiller (Crowes)
  4. Last rites (Crowes)
  5. Jesus brought us together (Crowes)
  6. Goodnight Irene (w. Chuck)
  7. Old White Lincoln
  8. Looking at you kid
  9. Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts

All

  1. The American Slang (Brian / Gaslight Anthem)
  2. On the Bow (Revival Tour Comp.)
  3. California Burritos (Chuck)
  4. The Bridge (Dave / The Loved Ones)
  5. I was a prayer (Dan / Alkaline Trio)
  6. 59 Sound (Brian / Gaslight Anthem)
  7. Revival Road

They used to jump in and out of each others songs during the concert …and I can’t always remember it. Whoever know what was Dave’s coverversion or the opening song…please leave a comment.

Impressive show…I probably will never forget and I’m more than happy to see them again tonight in Cologne.

Sidenote on the merch..for the upcoming shows: T-Shirts are still all available. The Revival Tour compilation is only left on vinyl. The solo CDs are all available, but Dave Hause’s vinyls are sold out as well.

Some pictures

Blog, Music

Mike Park – Smile

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The same day as Dan Andriano’s „Hurricane Season“ was released there was another release through Asian Man Records, this time from the boss itself. Mike Park has released his first full length childrens album called „Smile“.

The songs are perfectly arranged for children: catchy music & perfect lyrics. It’s a fun listen for grown-ups and I’ve catched myself dancing through my flat to „Wiggly Wiggly Worm“ more than once already. I had several kids as test listener meanwhile, before the two CDs that I have will pass on to their destinations. No matter what age they were (9 months to 7 years) they loved it. Especially the first track with his typical Ska appearance is such a good mood song that all of them wanted more directly after that. The songs have the perfect length to keep the kids attention!

Additionally some of the lyrics are not only funny, but even make some sense in a educational way. One of my three year old test kids, even though he’s german and has never spoken English beforehand, was able to count from 1 to 8 in English after listening once or twice to the album. Nice job Mr. Park!

Tracklist (self-explaining)

  1. Wiggly Wiggly Worm
  2. Apples Are My Favorite
  3. Little Green Frog
  4. Everybody Loves To Jump
  5. I Can See The Ocean
  6. 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..Drums
  7. When The Light Turns Red You Stop
  8. Paint With Me
  9. Turn Off The Lights
  10. Bus Driver Gus
  11. I Love To Play My Saxophone
  12. We All Live At Animal Park
Blog, Music

The Horrible Crowes – Elsie

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9th September another dearly awaited release came out across Germany. I was in the lucky position to have it two days early due to the fact that I had ordered it in England where the release date was 6th September. The bands name: The Horrible Crowes, which features as member Mr. Brian Fallon and Mr. Ian Perkins. Whereas Brian Fallon is sure known as the singer of the band „Gaslight Anthem“ the genuine fan might not be aware that Ian Perkins is the guitar tech of Brian for exactly that band. So already the notice that Brian would start a new solo project with his guitar tech raised high expectations into that upcoming release.

When the first demos of „Elsie“ could be heared it was absolutely clear that this would not at all be anyhting similar than the music Brian is „normally“ doing with his main band. „Elsie“ contains 12 songs that are totally different from any Gaslight Anthem song and they would definitely not fit on a Gaslight Anthem album. The songs are mostly much calmer and slower, more or less based on Brians voice. I’ve already listened to it some days in my car on the way to work and so far I can say it’s beautiful music. A kind of music that I would rather place in a dark little bar or little club than in a concert venue. Bittersweetness or sadness would be the feelings it carries for me.

The first release „Behold The Hurricane“ is definitely the most uptempo song on the whole record and possibly the one that comes closest to that what is known from Gaslight Anthem. I would not recommend „Elsie“ to fans that mainly stick to the first Gaslight Anthem release. Most of them will directly start to complain and I’m sick of those discussion about  „selling out / mainstream“. And there’s no way to compare it with any Gaslight Anthem album. For anybody who likes high quality deeply touching music with a raspy voice I can only recommend to give it a listen. It’s a wonderful record and I’m quite curious how some of those songs will sound like if they are played during Revival Tour, maybe featuring Chuck, Dan or Dave in them. I believe this is going to be awesome!

For everybody who wants to give it a listen with one or two tracks to decide I’d recommend „Sugar“, „Ladykiller“ & „Black Betty And The Moon“ which are clearly sticking out for me. Followed by „Go Tell Everybody“ or „Crush“

Tracklist:

  1. Last Rites
  2. Sugar
  3. Behold The Hurricane
  4. I Witnessed A Crime
  5. Go Tell Everybody
  6. Cherry Blossoms
  7. Ladykiller
  8. Crush
  9. Mary Ann
  10. Black Betty And The Moon
  11. Blood Loss
  12. I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together

 

Blog, Music

Scorpios – Scorpios

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This year is definitely the year of solo / side projects … and another one fell into my lab this morning.  Joey Cape, Tony Sly, Jon Snodgrass & Brian Wahlstrom have a new project called Scorpios ( related to the fact that they have all this same zodiac sign in common) and have released a 10 track album containing 10 awesome, beautiful songs, mostly acoustic.

One of the points that makes this album so incredibly beautiful is the combination of exactly those voices, that are all known through more or less famous punk bands and which couldn’t be more different. A wonderful album for a laid back evening, relaxing on the couch, drinking a glass of wine (or beer)!

For the moment the band distributes the album as a „choose yourself what you want to pay“ download through their own homepage. So everybody is free to choose the amount he wants to pay, and if you regard the fact that in my home country most albums have a minimum amount of 10 Euros (as download) whereas in the States you often get albums for 8 USD ..  I really hope nobody is going to download it for just 1 Cent. It’s really worth a fair amount!

The tracklist is as follows:

  1. Scorpios old
  2. Happy Anniversary
  3. Lifer
  4. We Won’t Speak Of This Again
  5. Daisy Train
  6. Oise
  7. Weighing In
  8. Lonely Parade
  9. Waiting For A Spaceship
  10. Moonshiner
Secondly those 4 awesome musicians are doing a Europe tour this fall. Most of the locations aren’t that big..so make sure you get your tickets quickly.
14th October 2011 – Hamburg (DE), Knust
16th October 2011 – Münster (DE), Gleis 22
17th October 2011 –  Hannover (DE), Chez Heinz
18th October 2011 – Dresden (DE), Groove Station
19th October 2011 – Vienna (AT), Arena
22th October 2011 – Zagreb (CRO), Mochvara
23rd October 2011 – Maribor (SLO), MC Pekarna
24th October 2011 – Steyr (AT) , Röda
25th October 2011 – Munich (DE), Hansa 39
26th October 2011 – Freiburg (DE), Walfisch
27th October 2011 – Solothurn (CH), Kofmehl
28th October 2011 – Lyon (F), Ayers Rock Boat
29th October 2011 – Paris (F), O’Sullivans by the Mill
30th October 2011 – Leuven (B), Het Depot
31st October 2011 – Den Bosch (NL), Wilem 2
1st November 2011 – Trier (DE) , Exhaus
2nd November 2011 – Cologne (DE), Underground
3rd November 2011 – Wiesbaden (DE), Kulturpalast
4th November 2011 – Kassel (DE), Hotspot
5th November 2011 – Berlin (DE), Lido
Strongly recommended!

 

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Alkaline Trio – Damnesia

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So 2011 is the year that Alkaline Trio is performing for 15 years already. As their latest release „This Addiction“ has been 2010 normally nobody would have thought they were going to release a follow up this year. Due to extended touring 2010 this was more or less impossible.

But Alkaline Trio wouldn’t be one of my favorite bands if they would not find a solution for this problem. Therefor the band met this spring to record an album of fan favorites in acoustic versions, which would be the birthday release 2011.

I’ve read some reviews that were constantly mourning about the fact that this is
– no new music
– acoustic is crap
– disappointing, as the band should get back to their punk roots

However I don’t really understand what those guys are thinking as it was absolutely clear that „Damnesia“ is an acoustic album or an album re-arranging old , beloved songs. For the fans. And that’s exactly what they put out and that’s exactly what I wanted to have.

The tracklist reads as follows:

01. Calling All Skeletons
02. Nose Over Tail
03. This Could Be Love
04. Every Thug Needs A Lady
05. Clavicle
06. Mercy Me
07. The American Scream
08. We’ve Had Enough
09. Olde English 800
10. I Held Her In My Arms
11. Blue In The Face
12. I Remember A Rooftop
13. Private Eye
14. You’ve Got So Far To Go
15. Radio

So to the old songs three new ones have been added.

Personally I wouldn’t say „Calling all Skeletons“ or „American Scream“ are my favorites. But this is always depending on personal taste and I guess whatever songs they would have chosen there would always be someone complaining.

„American Scream“ was the biggest surprise for me musically. It was my least favorite song on „This Addiction“ and clearly developed one of the most beloved on „Damnesia“ as the way they re-arranged it is incredible and the piano suddenly made me feel the song, which I couldn’t beforehand.

The three new songs (one of them being a cover) are fun to listen to and so I’m absolutely happy with that new record!

Thanks to the band for sticking around so long! Hope to see you on a regular basis in the next 15 years!

 

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Dave Hause – Resolutions

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Resolutions – by Dave Hause

One of my favorite albums of 2011 so far, has been Dave Hause’s Resolutions. It was already published in January. I bought it in April when the dates of Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour in Europe were announced and it was clear that besides Chuck Ragan himself, Dan Andriano and Brian Fallon there would be a guy called Dave Hause joining. Until that point I had never heard anything from him and I decided to change that right away.

Due to the fact that Resolutions (if you want to order it via Amazon in Germany) costs more than 20 Euros, I went for the I-Tunes download option this time (which means I still do not have a hardcopy version and I’m really hoping he’s going to sell them during Revival Tour).

The album more or less blew me away. Dave Hause is an awesome songwriter and the songs on that album are perfectly arranged. Most of the songs are totally different. There are quite slow and calm ones and there are up-tempo songs that make the feet automatically start to whip in the rhythm.

The song “Rankers & Rotters” reminds me of a Foo Fighters song while others like “Time will tell” can not be compared with anything else. It starts quite slow and calm and at the end it’s an up-tempo song with that just keeps you wanting more, which makes the song the perfect opener for the album.

Whoever is going to see the Revival Tour in Europe this autumn should definitely give that album a try beforehand. It’s awesome and Dave deserves our sing-a-long during the tour (I know that can as well be regarded as torture sometimes) and his songs are easily sticking in mind.

For sneak listening I suggest:
-Time will tell
-Pray for Tuscon
-C’mon Kid
-Heavy Heart
-Rankers & Rotters

Which is already half of the album … but I can’t help, this would be my top 5 of this album!

As for the Revival Tour, all 4 have outcoming albums in 2011. Dave & Dan have been published already and Chuck & Brian (w. Horrible Crowes) are due for September. So far, with pre-listening some of those upcoming songs, I can already tell that the Revival Tour will be my personal highlight of the year!

20110812-113805.jpg

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Conspiracy Theory

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Something came to my mind today and maybe someone out there in the world wide web knows the answer. It’s summer and most of my co-workers have their windows opened in the afternoon to get some fresh air. (no A/C in the building). Around 2 p.m. it starts: The invasion of the monster flies. Suddenly they are sitting on the windows. Fat, round flies. They even hit the window on the outside when it’s closed, like if they are eagerly trying to get inside.
When they are in the building, all they are doing is sitting on the windows. They only fly around very little.
The curious thing is … the next morning they are gone, even though the windows are closed over night. They just disappear.
Since I’m watching that already for some weeks this raises some questions in me like:

– Where are they going? Do they just completely vanish or do I need someone to check for dead fly bodies that are invisible in my office….
– Did someone send them? The way they are trying to get in and then are just sitting around to be gone the next morning somehow makes me feel like they are on a mission….
– Why does the invasion start after lunch time? If I was a them I would try to come around during lunch time….
– And…as this has always been something I wanted to know: why do the fly around in the middle of the room when they are in my apartment but not in the office? I mean you know how flies keep flying in circles in the middle of the room (until my cat gets them). They only do that in my apartment but not in the office…
– Those office flies behave so completely different to my home flies can this really be coincidence or are they either sent by some alien nation or some competitor or the authorities? May they be the new secret weapon no. 1?

So any expert out there who has the answer, please feel free to leave a comment!

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Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room – Hurricane Season

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A lot of time has passed since I wrote my last post about music. Not due to the fact that there haven’t been great releases meanwhile, but I somehow neglected that part and so all those will find their way to my homepage later than there release date. Nevertheless the latest addition to my vinyl / cd collection can not wait for bad weather.

My music collections contains a lot of different bands from sometimes quite different genres. Some of those bands have been there ever since their first record came out and whenever a new one is released it’s added to the collection. I wouldn’t even say that I constantly listen to those. Sometimes I don’t for month and then when I’m in a special mood I pick up one of those album to listen to and they always have the ability to drag me into the music. All those bands have one thing in common. They have a singer that is able to transport feelings, lyrics, just everything just by the way he/she uses it’s voice. When it comes to this point I have like 4 favourite male voices that are able to make me shiver or help me relax to an extent that I only experience when hearing those voices sing.

Those artists are: Ed Vedder, Chuck Ragan, Brian Fallon & Dan Andriano. The lastest is one of the two singers of the band „Alkaline Trio“ and his voice & songwriting is probably the reason why the band has been & still is one of my favourites. Due to the fact that Dan is the second singer of Alkaline Trio it’s clear that there’s a number one and this can be clearly seen by the shares of those two voices on the Alkaline Trio albums. Normally Dan has 3 or 4 songs and Matt has the rest. (Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt’s songs too, but it’s different). So a long time I was hoping that one day Dan would finally publish some of his solo stuff on a solo record and this is happening today!

His first release is called „Hurricane Season“ and contains 10 beautiful songs from what people normally call singer-songwriter-genre. All songs combine breathtaking lyrics with wonderful relaxing and comforting music. Strongly recommended.

Just an example what I mean with breathtaking lyrics, an excerpt from „The last day we ever close our eyes“:

You and I did sprout like a planted love, so deep in the ground that it grows on forever. So that anyone can feel it. And ten bugs will come to fill up on our sweet blood and chew up the bark that shields us. But we’ll keep on growing towards the sun.

The whole album is full of such awesome lyrics! Unfortunately 10 songs go by pretty fast, so that I really, really hope Dan is not going to keep us waiting another 15 years until the second album shows up.

When it comes to the songs itself, Dan has done a Track-by-Track comment, so there’s nothing left for me to say on the tracks itself.

The album has been release through Asian Man Records (500 black, 500 turquoise, 500 clear). Kings Road Merch is selling a blue vinyl limited to 300, Interpunk a white limited to 300 and from Hot Topic one can order a clear red which is limited to 300 as well. All sell the CD as well and downloads are available through Itunes or Amazon, whatever you prefer.

For all the rest I can as well recommend Dan’s homepage .

And I will catch up in the following weeks with music from : Dave Hause, Alkaline Trio and some more…..