Uncategorized
Free Tibet Concert, Chthonic, Taipei
by admin on Jul.12, 2009, under Uncategorized
As anyone reading the news recently knows, Tibet under their exiled leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is attempting to negotiate greater cultural and religious freedom whilst still under the suzeranity of China.
The Free Tibet movement takes this one step further and is campaigning for a tibet Free from the rule of communist China. As we have seen from Xinjiang, there are number of regions politically under Chinese control that are recent acquisitions and that are not ethnically Chinese.
Taiwan takes a special interest in Tibet as it is within a hair’s breadth, and a few thousand missiles pointed in its direction, of being in the same situation as Tibet: China claims it. Whilst much of the Taiwanese population is Chinese, the island itself has never been under total control and the people are fiercely independent and proud of their status.
The Free Tibet movement, with worldwide concerts, started in 1996 in San Francisco and continued on the 11th July in Taipei with renowned Taiwanese performers such as Panai, Dog-G, Chthonic and LTK.
Several thousand Taiwanese packed a square in central Taipei and enjoyed a free eclectic mix of music ranging from aboriginal Taiwanese songs, to rap and the special blend of Taiwanese black metal that is Chthonic.
Galley Beggar, Loom Bar
by bandsonstage on Jul.03, 2009, under Uncategorized
This was Galley Beggar’s debut gig in London. They are best described as acoustic folk rock,
listing their influences as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span,
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Fotheringay,
Circulus, Bert Jansch and Pentangle.
I’ll ‘fess up straight away and say that Galley Beggar don’t play a style of music that
I would normally go out of my way to see – I was there primarily because my brother is their
drummer, but I ended up being quite glad that I went!
The setting was an acoustic night at the Loom Bar.
The venue is suited to solo artists and duos,
but accommodating a seven-piece band was, shall we say, a bit of
a squeeze, and the PA was a touch on the weedy side.
However, space issues and less than stellar sound apart, they played a solid, strong and melodic set. The audience was
attentive and enthusiastic, the band were obviously having a good time, and if I hadn’t been told,
I’d never have guessed that it was the debut of this line-up. One to watch, if acoustic folk rock is your bag…
Chief, Luminaire
by admin on Jul.02, 2009, under Uncategorized
Ok, so I see a couple of hundred sets a year maybe and very, very occasionally, there’s a band I think “oh, yes”. Chief are one such. OK, I was pre-warned. People I know who went to Glastonbury and saw them raved about them and a mate who booked them up in deepest, darkest Kidderminster also rave. And I know their manager from a brief encounter at In The City five years ago.
All that aside, it didn’t open so well for me. But as they got into their stride, the chilled SaMo melodies insinuated themselved into the transiom of my consciousness and by the end I didn’t want them to stop. It was music for the setting LA sun, the beaches, the sushi and the surf.
If you weren’t there, you heard it here first. They have a few dates coming up, not least at the Louie in Brizzle which I’m tempted to go to as well.
Magenta @ The Peel – 300509
by soulcatcher on Jun.01, 2009, under Rock, Uncategorized
My favourite progressive rock band?
Well if you *possibly* remove the ‘progressive metal’ branch of the genre I would say, most probably yes!
Magenta snuck up on me. I’ve been quite into a few bands of this type for a while now and while I’m obviously not die-hard enough to have discovered them until their appearance at The Peel last year, pleasant memories of that performance have stuck with me ever since. In fact I remember mentioning after that gig to a gear-lugging Dan Fry the relatively fresh-faced bass player in the band that I considered that performance to be the best I’d seen there, beating even Richie Kotzen’s electrifying set from a few years back.
Even though I generally live on a slightly edgier side of prog, appreciating the likes of Dream Theater, Symphony X and Redemption far more than the less ‘exciting’ efforts of the likes of Yes and Genesis, and I would classify Magenta, in a lot of cases to be as far from Metal than these bands, I have to say that I never find them to be boring.
I wasn’t mentally track-skipping any of their performance on Saturday night. Sure there are quiet bits but they’re just long enough before a liviler section comes along and before that starts to grate on the ears we’re taking a break again. I realise this level of perfect balance is going to be different for everyone – all I can say is that for me, it’s pretty much spot-on.
Melody is sooooo important to me as well. Hooks are king. I love complex stuff and it’s really rewarding to ‘learn’ to listen to a challenging piece of prog – knowing where all the odd bits are that throw the first-time listener but some bands take this to extremes and forget that a good tune or motif can give an honest ‘life’ to a song and bring it into balance. Not so Magenta.
There are plenty of tricky little bits to keep a moderate prog fan happy but this is tempered by some absolutely gloriously melodic motifs that your granny could join in with. In a good way! 
I could go on for a good while longer talking more about this band but I think I’ve done enough here to recommend it to anyone who likes ‘good’ music. Check out their latest album ‘Metamorphosis’ and believe me when I say, they’re just as impressive live. The Peel is a small venue and while it’s got a reasonably good PA, the sheer quality of this band’s sound in a venue this size was unbelievable.
Check them out live or recorded. Believe me when I say you won’t be sorry.
