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Archive for the ‘Fu Manchu’ Category

Fu Manchu: 30th Anniversary Tour / Speedealer (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 24, 2022) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Fu Manchu, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rush, Speedealer, Underground Arts on March 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: March 24, 2022] Fu Manchu / Speedealer [rescheduled from May 9, 2020 and March 18, 2021]

indexThis show had been rescheduled for March of 2022 after two previous cancellations.  But with the rise of more COVID cases Fu Manchu decided to cancel once more.  It strikes me that they seem quite content to just cancel a show and then work with the venues for a future show, so I’ll assume they’ll be back to Philly eventually.

~~~~~

This concert was never formally cancelled it seems (as of last week you could still get tickets for it).  But Fu Manchu officially cancelled all of their shows on the tour.  No word yet if they’ll be back, but I hope so.

Fu Manchu is one of the great stoner rock bands.  They have been around for thirty years with a similar fuzzy, grungey sound.  I missed them the first time around but because more keenly aware of them when their 2018 album Clone of the Universe featured not only an 18 minute song, but also a guitar solo from Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Their early stuff is really catchy and I wish I had known about them for longer.  They seem like they’d be a really fun live band.

Speedealer was originally called REO Speedealer, which I love.  They were told to cease and desist from REO Speedwagon (imagine that).  They play a kind of aggressive garage metal.  They have a punk edge and the lead singer has a growly punk voice that is clear enough amid the roughage.

I feel like they don’t quite pair with Fu Manchu (they seem a bit too aggressive) and would pair better with Monster Magnet.

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Fu Manchu: 30th Anniversary Tour / Speedealer (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2021) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Fu Manchu, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rush, Speedealer, Underground Arts on March 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: March 18, 2021] Fu Manchu / Speedealer [rescheduled from May 9, 2020; moved to March 24, 2022]

indexThis concert was never formally cancelled it seems (as of last week you could still get tickets for it).  But Fu Manchu officially cancelled all of their shows on the tour.  No word yet if they’ll be back, but I hope so.

Fu Manchu is one of the great stoner rock bands.  They have been around for thirty years with a similar fuzzy, grungey sound.  I missed them the first time around but because more keenly aware of them when their 2018 album Clone of the Universe featured not only an 18 minute song, but also a guitar solo from Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Their early stuff is really catchy and I wish I had known about them for longer.  They seem like they’d be a really fun live band.

Speedealer was originally called REO Speedealer, which I love.  They were told to cease and desist from REO Speedwagon (imagine that).  They play a kind of aggressive garage metal.  They have a punk edge and the lead singer has a growly punk voice that is clear enough amid the roughage.

I feel like they don’t quite pair with Fu Manchu (they seem a bit too aggressive) and would pair better with Monster Magnet.

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Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2021) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Agnostic Front, Cancelled, Fu Manchu, Heavy Temple, Monster Magnet, Nebula, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Silvertomb, Type O Negative, Underground Arts on January 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: JANUARY 24, 2021] Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple [rescheduled from March 22, 2020]

indexOn September 17, Monster Magnet was the first band on my concert schedule to realize that our government couldn’t do anything and there’s no way a concert tour could happen in January.

“Unfortunately, due to ongoing covid concerns and continued restrictions we are canceling our January/February 2021 USA tour. Holding your money and moving the tour for a second time hoping to be open where we move it to does not seem logical or fair at this point. We would prefer you all had the money back in your pockets and we hope to rebook this at a more appropriate time for all. Please get refunds at point of purchase.”

It is clearly going to a full year without live music.  A vaccine can’t get here soon enough.

~~~~~ (more…)

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Fu Manchu: 30th Anniversary Tour / Speedealer (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, May 9, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Coronavirus, Fu Manchu, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rush, Speedealer, Underground Arts on May 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: May 9, 2020] Fu Manchu / Speedealer [moved to March 18, 2021]

indexFu Manchu is one of the great stoner rock bands.  They have been around for thirty years with a similar fuzzy, grungey sound.  I missed them the first time around but because more keenly aware of them when their 2018 album Clone of the Universe featured not only an 18 minute song, but also a guitar solo from Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Their early stuff is really catchy and I wish I had known about them for longer.  They seem like they’d be a really fun live band.

Speedealer was originally called REO Speedealer, which I love.  They were told to cease and desist from REO Speedwagon (imagine that).  They play a kind of aggressive garage metal.  They have a punk edge and the lead singer has a growly punk voice that is clear enough amid the roughage.

I feel like they don’t quite pair with Fu Manchu (they seem a bit too aggressive) and would pair better with Monster Magnet.

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Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 22, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Agnostic Front, Fu Manchu, Heavy Temple, Monster Magnet, Nebula, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Silvertomb, Type O Negative, Underground Arts on March 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: March 22, 2020] Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple [moved to January 24, 2021]

indexMarch was going to be a very busy concert month for me.  This show was scheduled for the same night as the Thundercat show and I was quite torn between the two.

I ultimately decided to go to Thundercat, but if that Thundercat show ended early, i was considering swinging by UA to catch the end of Monster Magnet (if there were four bands on the bill it was surely going to run late).

I saw Monster Magnet open for Aerosmith with my friend Matt back in 1998. Monster Magnet really impressed me and I wound up getting Powertrip and a few other albums.  “Space Lord” was one of my favorite songs of the year.  I haven’t really listened to them in a decade or so, but I was totally on board with hearing Powertrip in its entirety.

It was definitely a tough choice between this and Thundercat.  Now the choice has been taken away.  I hope it’s rescheduled though as I think it would be a real trip.

I have never heard of Silvertomb, Nebula or Heavy Temple, but I assume that they play stoner rock and I would have enjoyed the evening (with earplugs).

So Heavy Temple is a band that consists of High Priestess Nighthawk (low end and vocal power), Siren Tempest (rhythm) and Thunderhorse (6 string axe slinger).  Damn, I would have enjoyed that.

Nebula is made up of members of Fu Manchu and Silvertomb is made up of member of Type O Negative and Agnostic Front. I guess I know what I was in for with them!

I have seen Thundercat on a Tiny Desk and I really enjoyed his album “Drunk.”  It’s not exactly my kind of music–sometimes a bit too R&Bish for me, and yet I love his overall vibe and style enough that I thought a live show from him would be really fun.

I have no idea who TeeJayx6 is or how to say the name.  Indeed, there wasn’t even an opening act announced for this show until very recently.

But I had to look him up and I see that he is part of the “fringe world of scam rap.”   According to Wired, all he does is scam and rap about it.  He raps about the scams he does, the tools he uses and the ways he did it–so you can do it too.

“Swipe Story” is about lifting seven Xboxes and TVs from Walmart–from a red-herring perusal of the clothes racks; through fumbling conversations about golf with the clerk; to the feeling of relied zooming away in a rental car with  the cargo.

Damn, see what the virus had me miss.

It turned out to be the eighth of dozens of shows cancelled or postponed by the coronavirus.

Obviously, my main concern is for everyone’s safety, including the bands!

My selfish concern though is that once the shows are rescheduled that all of these shows will be scheduled on the same day!

Let’s hope the rescheduled dates also do some social distancing.

monster

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Danko Jones–I’ve Got Something to Say: 10 Years of Rock and Roll Ramblings (2017)

Posted in Ace Frehley, Adele, Alice Cooper, Amon Amarth, Away, Black Sabbath, Blackmore's Night, Bono, Burning Guitars, Can, Candlemass, Captain Canada, Chrome, Close-Up Magazine, Cop Shoot Cop, Cult of Luna, Danko Jones, Death Angel, Deep Purple, Dio, Doug Hennig, Duff McKagan, Dungeons & Dragons, Earth, Emperor, Eraldo Carugati, Essays, Etiquette, Fiona Smyth, Foo Fighters, Fu Manchu, Funkadelic, Gary Dumm, Gene Simmons, Ghost, Ghost B.C., Hella, Hellacopters, Helmet, Hockey, Ian Gillan, Iron Maiden, Jeff Buckley, John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Killdozer, Kiss, Lemmy, Lemmy Kilmister, Leonard Cohen, Manowar, Marben, Mary Fleener, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, Motorhead, Mule, Mutes, Nation of Ulysses, Neil Peart, Neil Young, Opeth, OutKast, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Stanley, Peter Bagge, Peter Criss, Peter Pan Speedrock, R.E.M., Ramones, Ravi Shankar, Richard Comely, Ritchie Blackmore, Rock Hard, Rock Star, Royal Trux, Rush, Sacrifice, Saxon, Shakti, Slayer, Slint, Tad, The Backyard Babies, The Beatles, The Huffington Post, The Melvins, The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Thrill of a Lifetime, Turbonegro, Unsane, Valient Himself, Vision, Whitney Houston, Wu-Tang Clan on November 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DANKO JONES-Garage Rock! A Collection of Lost Songs From 1996-1998 (2014).

Danko Jones has released nine albums an a bunch of EPs.  Back in 2014 he released this collection of songs that he wrote and recorded before his first proper single (1998).

This is a collection of raw songs, but the essential elements of Danko are in place. Mostly fast guitars, simple, catchy riffs and Danko’s gruff voice, filled with braggadocio.  With a cover by Peter Bagge!

He describes it:

Back in the 90’s,the Garage Rock scene, as I knew it, was a warts-and-all approach that favoured low-fi recordings and rudimentary playing over any modicum of musical prowess in order to glean some Rock N’ Roll essence. However, once a band got better at their instruments, songwriting and stage performance, the inevitable crossroads would eventually appear. Deliberately continuing to play against their growing skill would only evolve into a pose. There were a lot of bands who did exactly this in order to sustain scenester favour. We did the opposite.

What you hold in your hands is a document of what we were and where we came from. We didn’t know how to write songs and could barely play but we wanted to be near to the music we loved so badly. We ate, slept and drank this music. We still do. That’s why we have never had to reunite because we’ve never broken up. After 18 years, we’ve stayed the course, got tough when the going did and, above all else, we have never stopped. This album is the proof.

The first two songs are the best quality, with the rest slowly deteriorating with more tape hiss.

1. “Who Got It?” a big fat bass sound with lots of mentioning of Danko Jones in the lyrics. [2 minutes]
2. “Make You Mine” is 90 seconds long.  With big loud chords and rumbling bass Danko says “one day I’m going to write a book and let everybody know how to do it.  Seems to me there a lot of people around who want to see if I can prove it.  I been a rock prodigy since the age of 20 and my proof… my proof is right now.”
3. “I’m Your Man” is a bit longer.  The quality isn’t as good but the raw bass sound is great.
4. “She’s Got A Bomb” is good early Danko strutting music.
5. “Rock And Roll Is Black And Blue.”  He would name an album this many years later.  This song is fast and raw and only 90 seconds long.
6. “Dirty Mind Too” This is a fast stomping one-two-three song that rocks for less than a minute.
7. I’m Drinking Alcohol? This is funny because later he says he doesn’t drink.  I don’t know what the words are but the music is great–rumbling bass and feedbacky guitars with lots of screaming.
8. “Love Travel Demo” and 9. “Bounce Demo” are decent demo recordings.  “Bounce” has what might be his first guitar solo.
10. Sexual Interlude” “ladies it’s time to take a chance on a real man.  I’m sick and tired of seeing you women selling yourselves short, going out with a lesser man.
11. “I Stand Accused” Unexpectedly he stands accused of “loving you to much.  If that’s a crime, then I’m guilty.”
12. “Best Good Looking Girl In Town” a fast chugging riff, “oh mama you sure look fine.”
13. “Payback” This one sounds really rough but it totally rocks.
14. “Lowdown” Danko gives the lowdown: “You want a bit of romance?  I got you an bouquet of Flowers and a box of chocolates.  Why you crying for?  That ain’t enough?  Me and the fellas wrote this song just for you.”
15. “One Night Stand” garage swinging sound: Danko is a one woman man and you’re just his type.
16. “Instrumental” is great.
17. “Move On” is a long, slow long bluesy track about love.

It’s not a great introduction to Danko, but if you like him, you won;t be disappointed by this early baby-Danko period.

[READ: August 10, 2019] I’ve Got Something to Say

In the introduction (after the foreword by Duff McKagan), Jones introduces himself not as a writer but as a hack.  He also acknowledges that having something to say doesn’t mean much.  He has too many opinions on music and needed to get them out or his insides would explode.  He acknowledges that obsessing over the minutiae of bands is a waste of time, “but goddammit, it’s a ton of fun.”

So this collection collects some of Danko’s writing over the last dozen or so years. He’s written for many publications, some regularly.  Most of these pieces are a couple of pages.  And pretty much all of them will have you laughing (if you enjoy opinionated music writers).

“Vibing for Thin Lizzy” [Rock Hard magazine, March 2015]
Danko says he was lured into rock music by the theatrics of KISS, Crue and WASP.  But then he really got into the music while his friends seemed to move on.  Thin Lizzy bridged the gap by providing substance without losing its sheen or bite.  And Phil Lynott was a mixed race bassist and singer who didn’t look like the quintessential rock star.  What more could Danko ask for? (more…)

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