Gig review: Went, Cannot

I'm kinda late with this gig review, but I was extremely looking forward to writing some words for it. To be honest, I didn't plan to write about it actually, but after the show the urge to manifest my feelings on paper (monitor?) was just overabundant.

So, the gig took place a few days ago, namely on Thursday 19th May at KC "Grad" (Cultural center "City"). One other reviewed show was held at this venue, "Analena"/"36 Daggers" (found here by the way), though I just realized that I didn't quite talk about the very gig place in that writeup. Not much to say actually, it is quite a small venue, but with great sound and a high number of happenings. This is probably my favorite gig place at the moment, simply because it has enough space for the crowd and most importantly the acoustics of the club are good, so literally any type of music can be performed here and not get flawed by the venue, which tends to happen in Belgrade occasionally.
Anyways, the gig was about to start 10 PM sharp and I was panicking and bitching constantly due to the fact that both of my friends and myself were running late, being sabotaged by the stupid public transport which all but died that night. By some cosmic force or something the show was running late, so we got there just in time. "Went" was the first to kick off and I must say that they are the reason why I'm doing this review. I already wrote about two of their shows (their solo gig found here and the amazing gig with "Radio Burroughs" and "Petethepiratesquid" here) and most of you who read this blog already know my feelings about them. But every time I see them live I simply get blown away and it comes as such a wonderful surprise that this is "just" a local band. They have absolutely beautiful sets which really manage to invoke various emotions in the crowd. One minute they calm you down with gentle acoustic sounds, but after that they just pick you up with a frantic and pounding tune, ranging from something post rockish to garage/indie. "Went" just keeps bouncing you all over the room and personally I enjoy every second of it. I was extremely happy that I got to hear "Out", since it definitely is my favorite song (and thus the bitching about being late, since I knew this would be the second song played). Saying that it is just favorite is a serious understatement, that song is really a masterpiece and it is enough to say that the song alone got over 80 plays in my charts on "Last.fm" in the past seven days. Overall, I was melting in the front row during their part of the show and I really hope that "Went" manages to go out and see the world a bit, since it would be a real shame for a band of this caliber to stay on the "local" level.
After a short break, "Cannot" got on stage. I already heard this band in the same venue actually, in November last year when they had a promotion of their album called "3:33". I have to come clean regarding this four piece, this generally isn't my cup of tea as far as listening at home is concerned. This review won't be bashing this band however, since "Cannot" is a force to be reckoned with when witnessed live. For some reason, my thoughts are that the recordings didn't manage to fully grasp some traits which make this band good, so I will focus my critique on their live performance. They play a combination of grunge and alternative rock with a neat female vocal which gives the band a certain something. There is a lot of chaos going on in their music with quite a lot of shifts in melody, but a constant heavy and technical sound. In contrast to the bashing tones coming from the instruments, the vocal gives a soothing layer to everything. Of course, the vocal also has vast variations in singing/screaming style, so it really manages to create a full circle of sound, with equal parts of gentleness and aggression. In any case, they pulled off a very entertaining show both the first time when I saw them playing and now. They are quite talented musicians and I would really like to see them blossom even further.
Since this last part of the review is definitely written in a retarded manner I highly recommend that you check out "Cannot" on their website here. The site is still under construction, but you can head there and download "3:33", since it is completely free.

Gig review: Went

Ah, finally some time and energy to write something for the blog. I didn't really imagine that my new "job" would be so tough, one would think that when your job is just to write you can't get tired. Trust me, you can. Anyways, there is quite a lot of stuff I need to post, so I'll grab what time I have, but first I need to look back at Fridays amazing gig.

The concert took place three days ago, on October 22, in the "small club" of "Akademija" ("Academy"). Yeah, you guessed it, there is also the regular sized club next to the small one, but there was another gig there at the time. "Academy" has been around forever and it really has a cult status in Belgrade, but for some reason I don't like it. In the beginning when I was younger I really enjoyed and liked the place for it's design, the club having a catacomb look being composed of several connected halls. But as time passed by I started kinda hating the place, probably because of all the kewl peps who tend to go out there and the realization that the club tends to have an awful sound.

So as the gig poster suggests, before the band there was supposed to be a dj duo as support, but I kinda missed it, since I arrived somewhere around 10:30 PM. My girl, a friend and me wanted to get there on time, but we kinda failed and in a moment I was actually freaked out that we were gonna miss Went's opening. Luckily they kicked off around 10:45 PM, if I remember correctly. Oh damn, I completely forgot how beautiful their music is. A calming, mellow voice in a sea of instruments, sometimes peaceful and sometimes rending and chaotic. That would be their music in a nutshell. What I find fascinating about this Serbian quartet is that when you listen to their music, you really don't know what they are going to hit you with, a floating folkish tune or a whirlwind of fast-paced melodies. Their sets are unpredictable and all you need to do is just sit tight and enjoy the ride. To be completely honest, I haven't listened to some of their songs on myspace (which I will do just now and you can to if you go here) and I only have the "How Are You" release in digital format, so I know just two songs. Lucky for me both songs were played, so I got my share of singalongs. Despite several technical problems they had while playing and the overall catastrophic sound the club has, they have set up an excellent show.

A really short review, but hey it's just one band. At the end of the gig they announced another show coming up on 12th November in one excellent venue, plus they are playing with one foreign band, so that is definitely going to be something to look forward to. Expect a review on that as well. Until then, I strongly suggest that you boys and girls check Went out. I posted "How Are You" quite recently in one of the howling compilations, so it is just a few clicks away. Check them out, you will definitely enjoy!

Endless howling XV and a short report

I have been meaning to post some new stuff (which I promised I will post soon actually), but the fact is that I am so damn tired. The last few days were quite brOOtal for me, Friday was consumed with me helping out a friend with her master degree work, but yesterday was even worse. At noon I had a job interview, which luckily went good, so I got a new job. It pays shitty, but it seems it is not so hard and time consuming so we'll see. But the day didn't stop there, I had another job interview later that night, applied for some writing job over the internet and I had to write three articles...fuck, that was so brain melting. Needless to say, I pulled it off, only for the employer not to show up...

But enough talk, I'll just post some old stuff tonight, since I really can't push myself to write, yesterday killed me. Just for the record, this post seals the old link threads, so this is the final "endless howling" compilation, if we are to call it like that. The good thing is that it ends pretty well, me getting this job will help out the diy workshop project I mentioned in the previous report. These "compilations" didn't really contain a lot of old tunes that I love, but I will definitely be posting those older screamo projects, some time in the future. Hope you enjoyed the howling...

Watership Down - 7'' (1997)

Went - How Are You (2009)

While You Wait - A Life For A Life (2008)

Gig review: Went, Petethepiratesquid, Radio Burroughs gig

The fact that I am writing this show review is inspired by quite a few things. First of all, I was and still am very euphoric about it, since this is the second screamo gig in my lifetime. Yep it’s true. The first one was held almost a year ago, last November, the hosting of the amazing and well known French "Daitro". Sadly that concert never had a review, basically because I was completely blown away by the whole event and I wasn't quite into writing much at that time. But that is another story. This one is about Pete, Radio and Serbian Went. And yes, my mind was blown away again. Yet I found it quite stupid if I didn’t write this little text, since the small life pulses of screamo within my country should be marked in every way possible.

Secondly, why I am writing this review, I feel that "Petethepiratesquid" deserves to see how much of a great show they put on for us and also I feel it is my duty to do so and say sorry to Pete. Simply because, a long time I have thought that Pete is a quite boring and mediocre screamo act. Whoever knew me a bit better, knew that the only screamo I didn’t love were two bands, Pete and "Birds are Spies, They Report to the Trees". But today I feel embarrassed for both statements. I came to realize that you can’t judge with a clear mind a music act heard only once, which may have happened in a wrong moment, in a moment when my ears would more enjoy some sludge tunes or something else. So with this review I really want to say sorry to Pete for my bad thoughts of you boys and girls, you are quite an interesting and pleasurable band.

The concert took place yesterday evening, namely July 20^th 2009, in a well known Belgrade venue, "Living Room" in the Student Cultural Center. The show was due to start in 9 pm, but was a “bit” late so it kicked off around 10 pm. Seriously, the little delay was the only bad thing about the whole event. The beginning of the gig was marked with the beautiful "Went", Serbian alternative/indie/postrock act. They are a kind of revelation for me, since I personally never heard about them before the announcement for this event. An amazing mix of gentle melodies with a soothing voice and an aggressive outburst of rending guitar riffs, "Went" stunned me for a good half an hour of brilliant tunes. Their music really gives you a “floating” kind of feeling, in my mind the music created a view of a peaceful ocean landscape. This may sound too typical, but you have to see and experience this live and see what I mean. Luckily the "Went" dudes promised to give me some of their material for the blog as soon as they finish recording, so hopefully you boys and girls will find their tunes in the upload section. They are a perfect example of what I love about the music scene in Serbia, where a lot of hidden musical gems can be found. I will surely try and keep my eye on these young lads and their work.

Next up, "Petethepiratesquid". What can I say, except “wow!”? A lot of people, me included, enjoy more when the bands they like are both musically and visually pleasurable. And this band is the epitome of cuteness. Yes, I said it, cuteness. Looking at the stage and seeing Björn going nuts with the drum kit, Felix dressed up fancy with a tie, black shirt and pants, coupled up with crazy dancing, Jana jumping around and standing on her toes as she sings and talks and Ulli standing and playing bass while looking at the crowd and smiling, the whole scene makes you want to go up on stage and give them a group hug. And the fact that they wrote the songlist on a back of an old show poster and put it on the floor on the middle of the stage, made the scene even cuter. As far as the music part goes, the same amount of enjoyment was included. I really enjoy their music at home, but their live performance is on such a higher level. Gentle and elegant parts of a song where Jana talks, followed by an intense explosion of the whole band, fast paced parts really make your chest pound faster and faster. “Strangers with candy”, “Sharpshooter”, “Sure it was fun while it lasted”, “All the way from your bed to the door”, “All girl freak show”, “Mixed motives and social dilemma” and a bunch of other songs (which I can’t remember from the overall excitement) rang through the venue. They were very happy with the reactions of the crowd during the whole show, Felix even gave a compliment saying “You crazy Serbs”, and at the end we didn’t let them go so easily with screaming, clapping and whistling, so we got a bonus song. Yaaay!

Last, but not least, Pete’s good friend "Radio Burroughs". Everything I said about Pete’s performance could be copy-pasted here for Radio. Damn cute band with a bunch of friendly faces on stage always smiling and hopping around. Beautiful, fast paced, but graceful and tender songs with amazing girl vocals, made me speechless after the end of the show. You in fact have a wish to dance and sing nonstop while they play, so I gladly sang quietly whilst some of my favorite songs were played, like “Knit a Hole”, “Let’s Fill These Boxes”, “Just Like We Break Down” and “We Press Buttons”. However, sadly I left my “dancing shoes” in my pocket, since the crowd wasn’t really into dancing. But the crowd was going wild after every song with cheers and claps, so again we got a bonus song at the end.

So in the end, what can I say? Last night show was one of the best for this year, amazing mix of bands, nice people, beautiful atmosphere and after the show my wish to see all these bands again. And a new T-shirt bought at the small distro section, yaaaaaaay! I hope both "Petethepiratesquid" and "Radio Burroughs" had fun as much as the crowd did and that they come here once again in the future. Thank you for an wonderful show.

This show review has been written prior to the opening of this blog and was actually first posted on "Skream Your Lungs Out" blog.