Live

Rip It Up, Issue 247, 1 March 1998, Page 32

Live

STEREOLAB, CHRIS KNOX Powerstation ‘ Auckland, February 10.

For the better part of this decade, London’s Stereolab have been eeking out their own world of nigh-on bohemian existence in the ‘rock’ world. None too concerned with fashions or innovations, they prefer to take = their influences (krautrock/Neu/Can/Velvets/French Disco/analogue technology...), boil them down, record them, and see what happens — and that translates into a small but cultish following. The Powerstation was decidedly empty when | arrived to the guitar and loops of Mr Knox, hanging around long enough to hear his joke about Stereolabia, “two’s better than one,” or something like that. Draped in black, the stage was set for the arrival of six of the most unrock ‘n’ roll looking types, including one very pregnant looking Laetitia Sadier. For the next hour and a half, those who knew tapped their feet, those who didn’t danced or looked (occasionally) bored — Stereolab are not one to let a good drone pass by too soon or allow repetition to be understated. From start to finish, Stereolab delivered something for the recently initiated, ‘Metronomic Underground’ off 96’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and thrills for those who had salivated for so long — the early single ‘Super-Electric’, with all Moog’s blasting. Most expressions | saw on people’s faces were trance like, fixed on the sound swirling about the half full venue, swaying to the mechanical rhythms and organic melodies of two sweet Voices punctured by soaring guitars. Could have just been drugs too | guess... kids!?! The lighting was fairly lame for such a psychedelic experience, but then what does that matter. As Homer would say, “It was a stone groove!” MAC HODGE BURT BACHARACH Hilton Hotel, Sydney, Australia, February 11. That irrepressible hitmaker, Burt Bacharach, sold out each of the four nights he played Sydney’s Hilton Hotel last month (February 11-14). Billed as, ‘An Intimate Evening with Burt Bacharach’, the tickets at NZ$l5O a pop weren’t cheap, but that included a three course dinner and your chance to say you once sang with Bacharach. Gone are the days when Bacharach toured with a 28-piece orchestra Now, he can capture the same sound with 10. As well as Bacharach steering, mostly from a standing position, from the big black grand, there were two electronic keyboardists, a trumpeter, a sax/flautist, a drummer, a bassist and three silky voiced vocalists who were more ‘fronting’ than they were backing singers. :

Bacharach takes the stage dressed in a bright white suit and shirt, carefully offset with black and white swirly tie. He could be a car salesman, but breaks into ‘Do You Know

the way to San Jose’, and reminds you that he wrote the book on car sales — or the song at least; ‘LA is a great big freeway, put a hundred down and buy a car.’ | The two hour show is medley dominated, and my friends think that’s a cop-out. But how else are you going to traverse a 30 year career and 100 plus hits with a diverse audience, each of whom is waiting on tenterhooks for their favourite song? The show kicks off with ‘Promises Promises’, and runs through everything hummable and lovable that ever existed — ‘Walk On By’, ‘This Guy’s ‘n Love With You’, ‘Say a Little Prayer’ — as well as the more recent goose bumpers, ‘Arthur’'s Theme’, and last year’s trans-Atlantic Costello collaboration, ‘God Give Me Strength’. . There’s a technical hitch, a blast of fiery feedback halfway through, as Lisa Taylor, one of the ‘fronting’ singers, is about to launch forth. Bacharach signals for the players to stop, leans back on his piano stool, and snarls towards_the mixing desk. “What’s the problem Barry?” And you can tell that he’s pissed. Bandmembers will tell you privately that he’s a grumpy old bugger, a perfectionist. “You play a bum note and you’ll hear about it.” Perhaps that's why Bacharach’s two previous marriages haven't lasted. Too much attention to detail. But without that, we wouldn’t have the music would we? And as he confesses during the show, “The songs are the story of my life. And the story of my wives.” Strangely though, ‘Wives and Lovers’ isn’t on the programme. , The highlights? All those film themes, back to back. ‘What's New Pussycat?’, ‘April Fools’, ‘Alfie’, and the penultimate, ‘Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head’, which even the Hilton staff quit work for. Beautiful music. Breathtaking stuff. I'll Never Fall In Love Again. ANTONIUS PAPASPIROPOULOS OZZY OSBOURNE, SUBTRACT Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland, February 12.

Alright — Ozzy finally made it back, a quarter of a century since playing here with Black Sabbath! Tickets had sold out well in advance, and there were people at the gates willing to pay big dollars to get in. One guy held up a sign — ‘Leather jacket for Ozzy ticket’ — but didn’t seem to have any takers. ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, and the like could be heard blaring from car stereos, and the L.C.C. bar ran out of beer within 20 minutes of opening. Inside, it was heatwave Ozzy fever, and from the word go the crowd was going.absolutely nuts.

Mr Osbourne launched into a howlingly good version of ‘Bark at the Moon’, while the sound engineer struggled in vain to get a decent mix from the concrete acoustics. An otherwise great song, ‘I Just Want You’, was marred with dropouts, and bassist Mike Inez threw his instru-

ment at one of the crew in frustration. It's quite embarrassing that artists have to put up with such pathetic venues when they play here. However, nobody was about to let these glitches stop them from having a wildly fun time, and Auckland-truly took Ozzy to their hearts tonight. The set contained expected favourites like ‘No More Tears’ and ‘Crazy Train’, and it was an exhilarating experience to see and hear them performed by the madman himself and his very hot band. It was an added bonus to have Zakk Wylde on guitar, and he looked the ultimate rock star with his target Les Paul, hair down to his knees, and leopard print flares. His playing was exceptional, particularly on the Randy Rhoads material like ‘Suicide Solution’, ‘Mr Crowley’, and ‘I Don't Know’. Cigarette lighters were in abundance for rousing the singalongs, ‘Mama I’'m Coming Home’ and ‘Goodbye To Romance’. ‘War Pigs’ went down a treat, and it could have been London, 1945 there were so many peace signs being pumped into the air. The only other Sabbath song played was ‘Paranoid’, which was sped up, extended, and of course, as cool as it gets. At one stage it sounded like ‘lron Man’ was on the cards, but it was not to be, which meant the show only lasted 85 minutes.including encores. It's quality that counts though, and this was definitely heavy rock at its best. There isn’t anyone else on earth like Ozzy, and he promised that it won’t be another 25 years till he comes back again. Support group was speed metallers Subtract, but don’t ask what the titles of their songs are because the lyrics were totally incomprehensible. Despite this, they did play very well, and the rhythm section was particularly tight. It must have been tough performing amidst constant chants for ‘Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy.’ GEOFF DUNN MUCKHOLE, KITSCH, VC Powerstation, Auckland, February 13. A bit of a double-edged sword this one — the release show for

Muckhole’s new album, and their last show for the foreseeable future due to the departure overseas of a couple of members. Upstairs, the going away party atmosphere was underway early on, with early drunken sloppiness from the pissed bogans, skaters, and assorted Muckhole fans — although perhaps that’s the usual weekend social behaviour of this hard drinking bunch. Moving downstairs (where there was less chance of having beer spilt on you, or of being accused of looking at some gorilla’s girlfriend), 1 realised how wrong giving VC the benefit of the doubt on my first encounter with them was. They're pretty awful, and their very metal guitar solos are both disconcerting and unintentionally hilarious. Still, there were a few good moments to be had. “This is a song about shoes,” says the vocalist, much to the surprise and consternation of the rest of the band. Kitsch also lacked in-band communication, as it takes a few songs before they even play in time, although things don’t improve much

thereaftér. A shame, because their Casualty-meets-NOFX approach isn’t half bad when they put the effort in,

but tonight they outstay their welcome badly. Muckhole, however, were determined to do whatever it took to make this a show to remember, and their awesome set at the previous week’s bFM Summer Series was going to take some beating. They succeeded. With the Powerstation energy levels - kicking into overdrive, Muckhole crackle with the spirit of electricity, generating a big reaction with dynamos like ‘Cool Guy’, ‘Not Like U"and ‘Pop Out Punk’ — bodies are flying everywhere and sweat is running down the walls — and Muckhole seem propelled by a rare determination that is driving them even harder than usual. They run through their entire repertoire, and it's clear that new songs ‘Lies’ and ‘Backscratcher’ would become firm live favourites had this not been the last show for ages. A pause to replace a broken bass string briefly takes the wind out of their sails, but a borrowed bass allows them to close with ‘Muckhole Theme Song’, before leaving the stage exhausted, having played a show that proved them to be at least equal — if not superior — to any visiting punk group we’ve seen in the last few years. Their absence will certainly be felt. TROY FERGUSON HUMAN, BLAST OFF, STOATGOBBLER Players And Hustlers, Christchurch, February 13. Amazingly, | found myself arriving on time (or were the bands running late), and managed to see all three bands. First up, and getting into the theme *of the night were Stoatgobbler. Quirky riffs with thrash out metal chasers. Kind of country

and metal mixed in a blender, with a few drops of Primus essence. A solid three piece with the beginnings of a really good style. : Next up, the always stimulating, Blast Off. They churned out those classic covers including ‘Hot in the Gity’, with a Mexican feel, and the crowd was soon chanting for their all time favourite, ‘Ace of Spades’. Dave Deakins sported a mammoth ’fro, Moby Dick rocked out, with Pete Bonham thrashing away, and Heartbreaker Kieren/Elvis leaned

back into some fiddly lead breaks. By the time they wound up, the crowd had doubled in size and were primed for Human. Fast .and loud and hard, did Human play. The dancefloor was filled with hundreds of miniature vibrators, violently thrusting around to,. . ‘Flintstones ~meet the Flintstones/We’ll have a gay old time.” Human have become a lot tighter, and they even stop and start with in-unison finger pointing. They played encore after encore, and it was a treat, but all good things must come to an end.

- As awesome as it was, perhaps the most interesting part of the night was stumbling across the two pissed rugger bugger near the Avon River, about to get it on. Christchurch rocks like no other. CARLA ROTTA