(PIC: bikes outside my window...)Van Halen
Van Halen (debut)
Live Bootleg - 1982??
...people forget the VH brothers are Dutch -Indonesian!!.
As you may know..The Dutch..during their brutal, murderous imperialistic/colonial years.... slashed and burned their way into dominating Indonesia.....and moved some of the people to another colony ..Suriname. I was born next door to Suriname, in ANOTHER former Dutch colony - now called Guyana. When I was born in 1965 it was called British Guiana..confused yet..???
SO ANYWAY..... when I come to Netherlands at some point I always make a beeline for some amazing Indonesian and/or Surinamese food..there are a lot of Indonesian people here. And thank the gods...because such a union produced those fabulous Van Halen Brothers.....
To celebrate their incredible rock-genius I had to blast the untouchable debut album "Van Halen" and then a random concert from 1982...just fuckin' roastin, Eddie is when he's on. Unreal
Urban Dance Squad
Life n' Perspectives Of A genuine Crossover
Then a few tracks from another great dutch band....what a shame they only stayed "underground" in the US despite some close calls at getting a bona fide hit with "Deeper Shade Of Soul" on their first LP. This was the 2nd one, my favorite -- it's really all over the place and just...wow, such killer riffs and melodic ideas. this gets a lot of spins thru the years, it's so good and...timeless.
Saw them once with...was it Living Colour at Cornell University...?? I think so. God the years are rolling by. All good.
These guys were really unique -- Rude Boy's great hip hop moves over a LIVE band...that was all over the map--- kinda like Manu Chao meets Fishbone or something. they could go from soulful funky stuff to anthemic rock in a flash, always glued together with the turntable and funky bass. Kind of a pre-cursor to all the rap-hybrid stuff of the later 90s,
UDS always reminds me of that amazingly fertile, happy late 80s/early 90s time -- with Fishbone, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction , Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, Faith No More, King's X, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar!), Bad Brains, Rollins Band, fIREHOSE, Voivod, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surferss, NIN...all the Lollapalooza nation stuff.
I listen to a TON of new bands, sampling them on iTunes and their myspace pages. But I don't often hear anything that's not a hybrid or derivation of a lot of the above bands.....there's some REALLY great stuff out there , you just have to seek it out.....music is alive.
Adrian Belew Power Trio -THE SHOW
what a killer show!! I'll keep saying it -- the band thrives-- like any good live band - on a rabid, involved and engaged audience. And this show, closing out the Dutch Trilogy (Groningen, Den Haag, Eindhoven) was just memorable stuff...
Started out with a spirited soundcheck, including trying out some parts for the "e" recording sessions coming up...
(PIC:SOUNDCHECK..eindhoven)
A soundcheck made extra special for me -- as my friend the great Theo Van Rock had shown up early to hang.
As you may remember- Theo is the sonic architect behind the board for virtually all of the Rollins Band LPs/CDs whatever. Rollins always listed him as a band member, and rightfully so -- that band always had the most incredible sound, and he found a way to capture their might in the studio too....so he was there smiling approvingly at all the crazy math flying by....The venue EFFENAAR is a stand alone building, with a big "zaal" (stage) and a small stage. there was another show that night so the enegry in the place was high wiith super-efficient dutch production and hospitality people scurrying about. With the hotel a 5 min walk away we were in great shape, able to get back and rest after soundcheck and a nice dinner at the venue, including some indonesian veggie curry, awesome...
'e'...the new work-in-progress the band has been doing.....this just rocks them every time -- it sounds better as they go along...the looping guitar stuff really becoming seamless...and the band keeps digging deeper for the improv stuff in 'beat box guitar' and 'madness'. Like everywhere here in NL, some super-Crimson freaks flipping out when they hit those numbers...Soon it was over with THELA HUN GINJEET, the usual encore of choice for this tour..
Just a great, high energy show.... the backliners brought EXACTLY what the band ordered, so everyone was happy -- the perfect Yamaha drumset, Marshall 1960 4x12 cabs and the Ampeg SVT w/8x10. Yes, they read the rider...
Actually, I can't hate -- virtually everyone on this tour has been really great here with the backline...VERY few snafus....i don't wanna bash -- but the CLUB THAT WILL REMAIN NAMELESS, BUT RUN BY AMERICANS, fucked us up on the gear a bit. Whatever.
We ended a great night with a stroll down to Theo's favorite bar for a quick nightcap and some conversation. He's currently doing sound in the NL, once in a while a small tour in the USA, and also some studio work with some of the guys from URBAN DANCE SQUAD. Cheers!
EINDHOVEN NL
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