April 2015 Greetings from Vienna

Last month Mike enthusiastically came back from Amsterdam where he had listened to the gang of 4. Myself, instead I listened to my own gang of three.

 

I went to Vienna to visit a friend and by chance stumbled into a bar right next to Prinz Eugen's fantastic castle and garden, the belvedere, and right around the corner from where I stayed.. It turned out, the place called Lousiana, is one of the best venues for blues in vienna with live music from wednesday to saturday. And that although it holds at the most 30 people. It turned out one of the women who run it comes from close to where i come from and she took care right away to get me a pleasant spot at the bar.

That night the mudcats were playing. Guitarist Herby Dunkel, drummer Didi Mattersberger and Benji Hösel playing bass guitar did a great show until long after midnight. The atmosphere was not only blue.... it was like being transferred back into the time of endless revolutions in vienna between 1918 and 1938 which is so well described in stephan zweig's famous autobiography "die welt von gestern" (the world of yesterday)

When I came back next night, the owner had already reserved one of the precious spots at the bar for us. Guitarist Erik Trauner was giving a one man show, that is, the crowd shouted a theme, and he played a suitable song. We did not get home much earlier that night.... It's definitely a place to go back when I return to Vienna next time.

And here the owner and her teckel, who had to have a look from time to time....

But here is what is going on in our favourite spots in May:

Paard

07.05. kleine zaal HERITAGE BLUES ORCHESTRA whining guitars, styleful old men, if you like real blues… this might be a photographers dream too  

10.05 grote zaal ALPHA BLONDY & THE SOLAR SYSTEM we had him before, but he does not like photographers…. http://findmypicture.blogspot.nl/2009_11_01_archive.html

15.05 grote zaal GOTCHA! Hard rock from Haarlem

23.05 kleine zaal PORTICO electronic synth pop

29.-31.5. the SNIESTER pop rock festival, Mike would probably like SUE THE NIGHT on friday

31.05 kleine zaal OTIS READING no, not the one of …. (who died age 26) but his son who has soul as well

Paradiso

08. Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba (Mali) who according to the paradise plays the traditional be instrument with the dynamics of Jimi Hendrix

12.05 MACEO PARKER a frequent guest in our area

20.05 DELTA RAE American rock and folk

22.05 NOURA MINT SEYMALI blues form Mauretania

23.05 ZANE CARNEY songwriter guitarist

25.05 ERIC BURDON the legendary….

29.05 JESSE MALIN punk

30.05 THE REPLACEMENTS influential indie rockband from the 80ties  

Melkweg

10.05 MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS…. Unfortunately sold out

22.05 DANKO JONES Canadian rock

26.05 SOL Y LLUVIA well known in Chile since 1978

28.05 HANS DULFER see him before it is too late….

Rotown

07.05 AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR post rock from belfast

09.05 SOPHIE HUNGER the famous swiss singer in a concert in ROTOWN!!!!

23.05 TINARIWEN touareg blues

29.05 ANDREA GIBSON something completely different…. Poetry from colorado

March 2015 Sleater Kinney and JJ Grey

We all regretted that Mike stopped with the monthly account of the "Music in his mind". We urged him to continue, but to no avail. But we are all eager to go to more concerts. So I decided to start a similar blog of my own - in the hope, of course, to sometimes drag Mike out of his hole, because this never can be a replacement for what he did.

I hope this will be on a regular, maybe monthly basis, but don't expect too much. A start is made.

Sleater Kinney is an all girls rockband from Portland, Oregon. After 9 years they reunited and we went to their show in the great Paradiso in Amsterdam.

The band, Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar), Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), and Janet Weiss (drums) can be considered as part of the west coast riot girl and indie rock scene. They are known for their feminist and left leaning attitude.

They were praised the best rock band in 2001 and greatest living rock band in 2015, and really, they know how to scream in high pitch. Anyway, i forgot to take ear plugs and i really was afraid that my right ear, turned to the speakers, had taken irreversible dammage since it was numb and ringing for two days....

Then on saturday, the 28th, quite the opposite. Blues rock from the east coast, JJ Grey&Mofro and Marc Broussard in the Paard. It was their last concert of the latest European tour and JJ repeatedly announced his intention that he would play until drunk enough to have to stop. 

So we were treated with 3 and a half hours of Blues and Jazz Rock at its finest. With musicians great enough that they were actually able to present themselves playing several solos each during the evening. This is something i increasingly miss with a lot of the late contemporary bands.... they play well as a group, but none of them dares to stand out.

We don't think JJ really stopped because he couldn't stand on his feet any more, but we hope that he enjoyed his plastic cups of beer well enough to come back.

So what is going on next month? I have listened through the video clips on the agenda's of a couple of venues and this is what i found interesting. If you have more suggestions, please leave a comment:

Paard

08.04. kleine zaal CARL PALMER'S EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER LEGACY, legendary rock

10.04 kleine zaal MONOMYTH & SHAKING GODSPEED, alternative they call it. I would call it good old rock

11.04 grote zaal THE GENTLE STORM FT. ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN, sounds like one of the good old rock operas

18.04 kleine zaal BABY DEE (PRESENTED BY MUZINE) sounds very much like an  extravagante blend of classical songs and modern songwriters

25.04 kleine zaal TEXAS RADIO, THE AFTERVEINS & THIN PILLOW an evening of psychedelic and punky regional bands

Paradiso

11.04 too late …. the concert of BETH HART is already sold out

17.04 RATS ON RAFTS post punk from Rotterdam

23.04 CITIZENS indiepopband from London

Melkweg

21.04 GANG OF FOUR post punk

26.04 TIKEN JAH FAKOLY African reggae

Rotown

16.04 THE DEAF no comment necessary for this favourite of Mike….

 And, don’t forget, on april 17^th, you can test your knowledge at the pop quiz in the Paard’s cafe