RADIO BIRDMAN
"Dirty Water Club"
The Dome
Tufnell Park, London
September 13, 2006Words: JOHN EDWARDS
Picture: PETE CRAVEN
It's two days since the gig and my head is still hurting, my ears are still coming to terms with every day sounds again and my jaw is still in "dropped" mode. The world is a duller place and i know why. It's because i saw Radio Birdman on 13 September, 2006 and I want to see them again tonight ... and tomorrow night .... and the night after. But i can't and in a really odd way, it hurts.To witness the energy of a Radio Birdman gig is something that will live with me until the day I die.
Who cares how old Rob, Deniz and Pip are? Rock and roll will never be played with as much brutality, passion and energy as Radio Birdman. It's enough to make any aspiring rock band want to give up!
A sweaty and eager crowd (much more up for it compared to the London gig in 2003) were swept away on a wave of unrelenting and searing power from quite simply the best rock and roll band ever.
If you thought Radio Birdman were wonderous on vinyl/CD then catching them live you would have your views notched up a peg or two. No band on this planet can touch this performance in tems of the power and relentless speed
of every song tonight.The classics from the "Living Eyes" and "Radios Appear" albums were sent screaming from the speakers and the new stuff from "Zeno Beach" never gave the ears a rest either.
To stand in the same room as Deniz Tek is one thing but to be at the front of the stage and witness the coolest rock guitarist on the planet effortlessly play the coolest guitar on the planet will live with me forever. (By the way, this man should write a book. a fighter pilot, surgeon and rock god!? Incredible!)
Chris Masuak, who looks like he is getting younger by the year, duelled with Deniz on his wonderous firebird. to witness Jim Dickson's face at the end of every song was an absolute treat. He was loving every minute. Ron Keeley will always be the Birdman drummer to me but Russell Hopkinson was imense.
In fact, it was Jim and and Russell who fought to keep the songs from rushing away with themselves but it was hard. the power of the songs seemed uncontrollable, I was amazed at the breakneck speed of the tracks. At times it was frightening. I was witnessing a thunderstorm onstage.
There was Rob Younger, still throwing his body and looks at all of us. he was loving it. The warm smiles said it all. Pip Hoyle is a joy to watch too. The Charlie Watts of the keyboards. Nonchalant, ambivalent, motionless (except for his beatnik arm movements in time to the astonishing skewiff riff which is "Alone in the Endzone"). Yet it's his angular, spikey keyboards that make radio birdman come alive in a different way to the duel guitar punch of Deniz and Chris.
The searing highlights for me were "smith and wesson blues", "Descent into the Maelstrom" (what a solo), "Burn My Eye", "We've Come So Far (To Be Here Today)", "Die Like April", "Alone in the Endzone", "Locked Up", "Aloha
Steve and Danno", "Search and Destroy", "New Race" ..... oh bollocks ..... who am i kidding? The whole set was incredible.As I left the gig with my mates, we were greeted with an angry midnight sky with sheet lightning and a torrential downpour. The sparks were flying outside too. It seemed dangerous yet beautiful and memorable. just like the
previous 90 minutes in front of a collossal wall of Birdman sound.You can always tell when you have witnessed a great band. the next day, you think that nothing else in the world really matters (except your loved ones of course). Well for the past couple of days even those i love don't seem
that special!!
