RADIO BIRDMAN
THE DIRTSHAKES
Cobra-Solingen
September 9, 2003
RADIO BIRDMAN
THE HYDROMATICS
Bielefeld Forum
September 10, 2003
WORDS BY JELLY
PICTURES © STEVE HOLLAND
So, the first Radio Birdman show ever in Germany. Solingen seems like a smallish
town (I say "seems" - I didn't have much time to do any exploring),
and as I walked to the venue, it didn't look too much; a nice friendly looking
bar with a small enclosed courtyard to one side. However, once you were inside
there was a long corridor going back and down from the bar, and then, wow, a
pretty damn big room, I'd guess 30 metres wide by 20 or so deep, with a big
stage, and thankfully a bar along one side of the room.
I arrived early, since I didn't have an advance ticket, and so got to wander
round, alternating between the auditorium and the front bar (which also served
some fine snacks). Definitely a cool vibe to the place; the front bar was playing
late '60s Nuggets-style stuff, while down in the venue they seemed to have a
copy of the "Do The Pop!" compilation playing; there seemed to be
plenty of people there who knew all those old favourites like "Sun God",
"I'm Stranded", "Savage" etc, which augured well in my mind.
Support
band were The Dirtshakes, a local combo; indeed, I believe their bassist was
the promoter for the gig or something (which is a good way of making sure you
get a gig!). Mind you, these were no mere opportunists, but big fans, judging
by the large Birdman tattoo on the lead guitarist's right bicep. A four piece
- two guitars, bass and drums unit - they struck me as a Ramones-ier version
of The D4, which is Damn Fine by me. I thought some of their songs lacked a
bit of focus, but they gave it their all, including a spirited cover of The
Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get", before finishing with a lively and impressive
cover of "When The Birdmen Fly". Great touch, guys.
As 10.30 approached, the PA music switched into Herr Hendrix's "Are You
Experienced?" (a fitting intro tape for the tour, I feel), and the band
slipped onto the stage. By now the room was pretty full, although not unpleasantly
crowded. Indeed, although there were several hundred people here (difficult
to tell with no elevated position to count from, but I'd say over 400), there
was no jostling or crowding or other unpleasantness - lebensraum in action,
as it were. Anyway, the band ripped through "Do The Pop!", "Smith
& Wesson Blues" and "Burn My Eye", and we were away!
They powered through "Non Stop Girls" and "I-94" with all
their usual fire, before dropping the pace (but not the passion) for the smouldering
majesty of "Love Kills". Back to full throttle for "Alone In
The Endzone", and then Ron launched into that great intro for "Descent
Into The Maelstrom", and boy was this a highlight for me. The power and
the intensity was breathtaking, blistering even; power enough to pull them out
of a black hole, let alone a maelstrom!
The crowd were definitely having a real fun time of it and there was no let
up with "What Gives?" and "Hangin' On", before the band
launched into a great pairing of "455SD" and "Dark Surprise",
the former dissolving into a spacey and atmospheric feedback passage, before
launching into the latter. "Dark Surprise" is fast becoming a huge
favourite of mine. Hmm, spacey feedback passage to connect songs; it's a relatively
brief bridge, so I won't accuse them of listening to too much Grateful Dead,
but there's definitely an air of psychedelia about some of their playing.
"Crying Sun" maintained the momentum, before "Murder City Nights"
just went right out there to another place, screaming, stomping and wailing
with concentrated malevolence. At this point I should say that the sound in
the room was excellent, and that it's a pleasure to hear Pip's keyboards throughout
the show; my one reservation about the shows I saw last year was that Pip was
often lost in the mix then - but not now.
"Anglo Girl Desire" followed, and when Deniz and Chris were soloing
together I was struck by the fact that I hadn't heard something so melodically
attuned and musically dense from two guitars since I saw Wishbone Ash, but that
this had a whole raging, thundering tsunami behind them, something that the
Ash never had (nor to be fair to them, probably ever tried for). The set ended
with a rapturously-received "Aloha Steve And Danno", before the band
retired for a few minutes breather. Then they were back to treat us to "Man
With Golden Helmet", "Waiting For The Man" and an awesome "New
Race".
Another brief retreat from the stage was met with volleys of applause and whistling,
and they were back again for a trio of excellently executed covers: "Cold
Turkey", "Transmaniacon MC" and "You're Gonna Miss Me".
And then about 90 minutes after they'd started, they were gone. Damn was that
good.
Waiting around by the front of the stage after the gig, I met Steve, who'd seen
the band in London in '78, and had then been so impressed with the show he'd
booked up for the German dates. Ron came out and chatted briefly, and then Steve
and I retired to the front bar. Looking at Steve's pictures from '78, we were
suddenly joined again by the good Mr Keeley, and then about 20 minutes later
by Deniz. Well, we sat and chatted and drank, and heaven help me if it wasn't
gone 3am. before we left the bar. It was a great gig, and a hell of a capper
to talk to such friendly and open people; none of that rock star ego bullshit.
Just seemingly ordinary folks playing extraordinary music like their lives depended
on it. (And the fact that they're far from ordinary people, and that their lives
most definitely don't depend on a Birdman tour makes it even more extraordinary).
1/2
- The Dirtshakes
3/4
- Radio Birdman
And
so to Bielefeld, a couple of rain-swept train hours from Solingen. It rained
all bloody day in Bielefeld, and by the time I got to the gig, I was absolutely
soaked.
The venue was a strange set-up, a big square room that was presumably some sort
of industrial unit previously. The stage is in one corner, the bar in the other,
but it's a funny set-up. The stage is in the top right of the square, slightly
at an angle, but predominantly facing down the right hand half of the square,
so those in the top left of the square don't have a great view. The bar is in
the bottom left of the square, but that bottom corner of the square is separated
from the rest of the room by partition walls. Having sourced a ticket earlier
in the day, I arrived a little later, by which time there's probably about a
hundred people in the club, the biggest group of whom are clustered around a
TV showing the Germany-Scotland football game which was on that night; good
thinking by the venue (shame they couldn't have done anything about the bloody
monsoon).
Opening attraction, a little late, are the Hydromatics, a four-piece (twin
guitar) unit, featuring Detroit legend Scott Morgan on guitar and vocals. Turns
out they'd driven that day from Amsterdam, and with the rain and delays from
traffic accidents on the main roads, they'd only just made it. They turned in
a sterling set of high energy, rock'n'roll with a twist of soul in that Detroit
way. My enjoyment of their set was only marred by having a succession of German
people standing in front of me who insisted in having shouted conversations
with each other during the performance. Just as one lot left, another lot arrived;
it was uncanny.
I particularly enjoyed "RIP Rock'n'nRoll" and "Dangerous",
and then for a finale, yes, marvellously, the Klondike Tek collective arrived
on stage with guitars, and we were treated to six and a half minutes of "City
Slang". It was wild, it was noisy (hell, you've got four guitars there),
you had to love it, you had to be there (or at least be a better wordsmith than
me to describe it).
Well, follow that. Don't let it be said that the Birdmen shirk a challenge!
The set was essentially the same as the previous night ("Do The Pop",
"S & W Blues", "Burn My Eye", "I-94", "Non
Stop Girls", "Love Kills", "Alone In The Endzone",
"Descent Into The Maelstrom", "What Gives?", "Hangin'
On", "455 SD" -> "Dark Surprise", "Cryin' Sun",
"Murder City Nights", "Anglo Girl Desire", "Aloha Steve
And Danno") but they never play things exactly the same do they? There
were a few glitches with the PA (and I gather with the monitors), and I thought
that Rob's voice was a little hoarse in places (hopefully the day off before
Oslo will help), but generally they turned in another excellent performance.
This was a lively crowd, and maybe that spurred the guys on. Maybe I was just
tired from the night before, but I thought there were a couple of slightly flat
spots early on. And yeah there was a flubbed note somewhere, and one of the
endings sounded a bit strange, but if I wanted to hear perfect versions I'd
stay home and listen to the albums. The power and passion still shone through,
and it was still a hell of a lot better than pretty much any other band I've
ever seen, and probably a lot of the rest of the crowd too, gathering by their
reaction. Maybe this band are like those grand cru French wines; lay 'em down
for 25 years, and then when you come back to them they just keep getting better.
Anyway, there was a bit of a change with the encores tonight, although not as
much as the guy who shouted for "Don't Look Back" was expecting! ("Good
call, but we didn't rehearse that for this tour," replied Rob, before Deniz
quipped "Don't look Back? - that's a shot in the dark!"). And so Deniz
dedicated Man With Golden Helmet to the "greatly misunderstood artist"
Leni Riefenstahl who's just died. "Route 66" followed, and then "New
Race" (with Rob chucking in a couple of lines from Chuck Berry's "Let
It Rock").
A brief break from the stage, and the band are back again, to round out the
night with Jim Dickson's rumbling bass intro taking us into an intense and desperate
"Cold Turkey" (with a Stooges' "Down On The Street" lyrical
tease from Rob). A rip-roaring "Breaks My Heart" followed, and then
the dependable insanity that is the rollercoaster called "You're Gonna
Miss Me". Never a truer word.
Steve and I hung around for a drink or two after the show and ended up chatting
with Ron and Rob for quite a while, and all the time there were people coming
up to say how much they'd enjoyed the show and thanking the guys for coming
over. It's been happening all tour apparently, and it's gratifying (and hopefully
promising) to see. And despite the fact that I had to get up at 6am the next
morning, it was still gone 2am before we hauled out of there.
-
The Hydromatics
-
Radio Birdman
