[Dead-Air]

...and it sucked. I left bored before the set was over. A lot of this was the fault of the sound person who was fucking up everyone's sound last night, especially those with vocals (it was the Halleluwah Festival here in Portland at Holocene). I couldn't understand a word of what he sang, and I think it may have been in English! Some of what went wrong is the result of what Damo does though.

The concept of a legendary artist gathering a bunch of top notch local musicians he's never played with at every show and improvising sounds good on paper. Certainly I was looking forward to seeing what would happen when he played with White Rainbow and the Yellow Swans among others. However, the "among others" part was a bit of a problem. There were too damn many musicians who'd never played together going at once and with bad sound, I'd bet they could barely hear each other as well.

I saw Stephen Stapleton of Nurse With Wound a few months ago do this same sort of thing and that too was unfocused and eventually boring. He too had way too many unfamiliar musicians on stage. Jandek pulls off this sort of thing by keeping it down to two other people, plus they clearly do sound check and rehearse a bit, and since he's doing guitar and vocals there is some sort of lead to the music.

I'm sure on other nights Damo pulls this off much better, but it was a disappointment to watch somebody that important just faking it by chanting inside a wall of meandering half attempts at starting something. The night wasn't a complete loss, as Climax Golden Twins and Evolutionary Jass Band both turned in stellar sets, notably without vocals.

[hat and beard]

But really, though, has anybody ever understood anything Damo Suzuki has ever sung? I think not.

[pbradley]

I remember trying to spend weeks deciphering "Mushroom." I had to give up.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by hat and beard

But really, though, has anybody ever understood anything Damo Suzuki has ever sung? I think not.

Really? I couldn't sing along with any of Can's records with him on them or anything, but I can often understand many of the words and some sort of narrative direction to what a song is doing or where it's going. There wasn't anything nearly as discernable as "Sing Swan Song" going on here. His music with Can draws you in to wonder what the fuck is being said even though it's impossible to nail down exactly. This show was nothing like that.

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

Originally Posted by hat and beard

But really, though, has anybody ever understood anything Damo Suzuki has ever sung? I think not.

I pick up things now and then.

[Onani Nic]

I saw Damo about a year back in Sydney. He was great but they got this terrible wanky post-rock band to play as his band. They were called Pivot, don't bother looking them up.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by Onani Nic

I saw Damo about a year back in Sydney. He was great but they got this terrible wanky post-rock band to play as his band. They were called Pivot, don't bother looking them up.

More power to him for being hit and miss I guess.

[atsonicpark]

haha. damo sazuki is a funny little asian man.

[Glice]

Worth checking out again, unfortunately, because he can, very rarely, be good.

[k-krack]

Really? That's kind of a silly idea, beyond like, a single one-off show...
Maybe I'm too conservative but that just seems like, for such a legend, he would be the least important member of the group, plus that's really, really lazy and... kind of bland.

[Glice]

Depends on what you enjoy about a show really. I'm entirely jaded on rock gigs, but when I go I tend to enjoy it whether they're good or not.

You are too conservative, yes.

[Toilet & Bowels]

when i saw him i could understand what he was singing, it was just some corny mantra that he sang over and over for about half an hour, and he played with a bunch of ultra-bland session-musician types.
to be honest though, i've never really understood what it is about damo suzuki that gets everybody's knickers in a twist