MUSIC LIVE REVIEWS
: Dunder-z
Venue. Edinburgh. 17 3 November. Moshers. slammers. divers. They danced on the bar. they flew through the air. they sweated a swimming pool‘s worth of fetid body fluid. This isa Dunderfunk gig and don‘t funking forget it, badgerscrote.
Dunderfunk songs are multi-paced and hairy palmed. Dunderfunk members are swaggerers and stompers. cock 0‘ the north cockiness their forte. the square-shouldered. cheek-tongued stance central to this metally. groovey. mushy thang. ‘Bring Your Halo‘ and its ilk are a galloping herd of dinosaurs grazing on furry mammals and lesser bands. ‘Buffalo' isa steamrolling killdozer, nicking ancient Rainbow lyrics (no. not ‘Up above the streets and houses. . .') and encouraging serious frenetics in their tonsorially ignorant maddo fans.
These faithful dig the theatricality ofit all in a big way. redoubling their efforts to clamber stagewards, perch expectantly. then soar crowdwards. Unfortunately. this also meant we couldn‘t see the band for much of the gig. But much like ram-raiding. it looked like foolhardy fun.
Two dudes
ambled by, their heads encased in carpet tiles. a sort of Ku Klux Rug. This was either to provide a buffer when stagediving, or to fillet out the crazier. insaner excesses of the ‘Funk.
Their versh of‘Things That Make You Go Hmm‘ shook me to my dunderwear. ‘New Rose‘ spat in the face of punk revivalists everywhere, and AC/DC‘s ‘Livewire' cranked out. fast, furious and final. It's all authentically and electrifyineg manic. and did they come from LA and not Penicuik. would have them on MTV quicker than you could say faithnochillinomore- noredhot.
Epic? You better believe it. (Craig LMcLean)
THETRASHCAN
l SINATRAS
King Tut’s, Glasgow, 18 November. ‘Frank! You’re a knob!’ a chirpy cheeky chappie Glaswegian yells.
‘Mister Knob to you,’ Frank Read replies, knocking us deadbeats into laughter and once again proving what a slickly-tongued, snappily-quipping prose-cur he is. This lyrical astuteness
and tonal breezlness are The Trashcan
Sinatras’ key elements, bumishing them with a particularly beguiling Scotpop-ish veneer, and the two things that flow together so fluidly on their
' records. But as for the live spectacle
debacle . . .
The first time these senses were assaulted by a Trashcans gig, they played for twenty minutes and Frank was so plshed he nearly fell off the stage. Tonight, the new Frank wears shades and drinks water, but still walks the wire. ‘Blood Rush In Vein’ (‘In Vain?’) is elegantly rickety, a harder
3 buzz than the ghostly Aztec Camera 2 shadowplay of yore. Then, oft-key,
off-pitch, oil-whatever, we get XTC’s
g ‘Love On A Farm Boy’s Wages’. The Trashcans’ characters begin to define
themselves as they always do; the
; into madness, llipping out through ; ‘Circling The Circumference’.
stoical stand around as Frank spirals ) i
mouth lntoatautrictus.
. they’re brillianfthey’re mega, when l
? Mad for an as-yet-untitled ballad (let’s
Mr Logic meets Mr Knob meets Mr call it ‘Drifting’), its sweeping goes haywire and twists his voice and Totally wired as usual, and when
they’re ordinary they’re crap. Of the
strings trashed, lungs stressed and
; limbs ierkllyllailed, always, always
’ lurks a neato song. They rail
vehemently on ‘Obscurity Knocks’,
. inspire devotional stage divers, peak
i knacked smile at the end. Such is the
with a mad rush at The Jam’s ‘Tales From The Riverbank’ and crack a
Trashcans’ perversity, vehemence,
‘ finger and the album out. (Craig
dynamism and proven supremacy. We’ll give their live erraticism the i benefit of the doubt. Now just get the
McLean)
V LIVE BARKY! BARKY/
L SAIDFLORENCE
Music Box, Edinburgh, 12 Nov.
- I hadn’t seen saidflorence before, and
now feel rather embarrassed about passing on second-hand opinions. To be fair, they’re under a lot of pressure to shine for record companies, but they look and sound like a high-school band, eagerto impress their peers with their ability to come up with a tune or two and carry out cute synchronised leaps.
True, it isn’t too hard to imagine them breaking the Top 40 (with the right help) with a song like ‘The Wishing Chair’, the best on offer here, but what could they follow it up with? Not a single one of the other songs they played tonight, certainly. As a friend remarked after their set, you can wander Into most pubs of a Tuesday evening and hear a band of the same standard.
Barkyl Barky aim Iowerand, ol the two, come out emphatically on top. Still, when you consider that Caner are now a chart act (unthinkable when Barkyi Barky brought out thelrlirst single, ‘Anlmals’), perhaps they’re not setting their sights that low, after all.
A loud and obstreperous relief, the Barky brothers do have certain similarities with Carter. They’re a two-man operation, playing atop programmed rhythms, and would look just as out of place at a ‘Smash Hits’
V BOOK NOW
Concerts listed are those at
I maior venues, for which ! tickets are on public sale at
1 ii i i i , grandiloquence warped as the singer i "'0 ° 90 no 0 press |
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND (226 4679) Electronic. 9 Dec; My
‘ ; Bloody Valentine. 12 new stuff we’re confident, ’cos beneath ! T the live jumble of drums bashed,
Dec: The Silencers, 22 Dec.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Paul Young. 12 Dec, Lisa
Stansfieid. 20 Mar.
I GLASGOW SECC (557 6969) New Kids On The
Block.SDec:Gary ' Glitter,23—24 Dec; ' Simply Red. 27 Jan; Eric
Clapton, 3 Mar; Wet Wet Wet, 13 Mar;Cliff
Richard. 29—31 Oct; Tom
Jones,2Nov.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE
(5572590) Paul Young.8
Dec; Fish, 31 Dec; Wet
: WetWet.15 Mar; Rocky
Horror Show. 20—21 Mar: 5 Erasure,3—5 Jul.
|
Barkyl Barkyl
party. They’re sharper than saidflorence, more relaxed, and they know how to cook up a strong live sound and deliver it with crowd-pleasing punchlness. Plus, Jim Brady has a winning line in rapport, rambling about religion, animal rights, the status of women and whatever else crosses his mind.
Their first single was about Lalka, the Russian dog shot into space. Their new one, played tonight, celebrates cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. It’s too much of a coincidence. They were reaching for the stars all along. (Alastair Mabbott)
I EDINBURGH OUEEN'S HALL (668 2019) The Silencers, 19 Dec.
‘ JAZZ 8: FOLK
I ousoow concern
HALL (227 5511)Chick Corea Elektric Band. 26 Mar; Sonny Rollins. 21 Apr. I GLASGOW THEATRE
l ROYAL (332 9000) Carol
Kidd, 27 Dec.
I EDINBURGH QUEEN'S HALL (668 2019) Chick Lyall Norwegian Quartet. 6 Dec; Dick Gaughan, 10 Dec; Andy Sheppard. 13 Dec; Clarsach Concert, 15 Dec: Jazz Ball. 20 Dec.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 551 1) Asian Concert, 9 Dec;Maic01m Sargent Cancer Fund, 13
. I GLASGOW RSAMD (332
5057) SEMC. 6 Dec; SUMC. 18 Dec; Junior Concert. 21 Dec; Anthony Rolfe Johnson. 23 Jan; Scottish Ensemble. 24 Jan; SCO Brass. 25Jan; John Williams. 6 Feb; Hebrides Ensemble. 16 Feb; Scottish Ensemble. 28 Feb; John Lill. 12 Mar; Scottish Ensemble. 10 Apr; SCO Brass. 11 Apr. I GLASGOW SECC (557 6969) Jose Carreras. 9 Dec.
I EDINBURGH QUEEN'S HALL (668 2019) Meadows CO. 7 Dec; George MacKay Brown Concert. 8 Dec: Cappella Nova. 21 Dee; Hebrides Ensemble. 19Jan; Scottish Ensemble. 26Jan: ECAT—SSPCA Charity Concert. 2 Feb; Gould Piano Trio. 11 Feb: Songmakers Almanac. 17 Feb; Scottish Ensemble. 1 Mar; Brindisi String Quartet. 16 Mar; Orkest de Volharding. 25 Mar;
' Alfred Brendel. 11 Apr; Scottish Ensemble. 12 Apr; Evelyn Glennie &
Anna Steiger. 29 Apr. I EDINBURGH USHER
HALL(228 1155) Messiah
(ERCU ). 2 Jan; Verdi's
; Requiem (ER(‘U).9
May.
j ISUBSCRIPTION
SEASONS Programme details and tickets for Royal Scottish Orchestra. Scottish Chamber Orchestra. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. and City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra are available from
Ticketcentre.Glasgow
(227 551 1 ); Usher Hall. Edinburgh (228 1 155)“. Queen‘s llall. Edinburgh (668 2019). Tickets for Scottish Opera from Theatre Royal. Glasgow (332 9000); Playhouse. Edinburgh (557 2590).
Lisa Stansfield
34 The List 22 November —
5 December 1991