MUSIC LIVE REVIEWS
THE AMPS
The Garage. Glasgow, 5 Dec.
Just how cool is Kim Deal? As underground idol status goes she's got a track record that any aspiring trash guitar merchant would burn their sneakers for.
Her latest incarnation finds Deal backed up by the drummer from the Breeders and a couple of tattooed homeboys from her hometown in Ohio. It’s kinda like a boys‘ gang with Deal playing the honorary lad and taking the lead role, knocking back the long necks, smoking like a beagle and grinning goofily. She's the tomboy who lives next door and while she joshes about and cackles throatily. she ain’t goin' to take no shit either. But that doesn’t mean that she's cracking the whip and ordering a tightly disciplined set. Loose-limbed larking and swapping shop-lifting tips with the punters are the order of the day. As gigs go this is rest and relaxation with capital Rs.
At times Deal's voice (and let's face it. without Deal no-one would have heard of The Amps) is subsumed into a cacophanous wall of sound that's as primitive and as clear as mud. But then that's the point. stoopid. if you want sweetness and light, go see Kristin Hersh. lfyou want red raw, low-key rock that sounds as though it’s being skinned alive in a swamp then you're in the right place. This is music for low-lifes, people with pallid skin who don't see much sun and damn fine it is too. The basslines lurch from shadow to shadow while the guitars either merge into the sonic soup or contrast sharply. cutting their own path through the morass.
Of course. it's Deal's voice that steals the show, alternating between the demure and the savage. the husky and the howling. Being a scuzzball should never be this much fun. (Jonathan Trew)
DAVID BOWIE 8500, Glasgow, 30 Ilov.
One Aladdin-streaked face and a few defiant wisps of purple hair aside, Bowle attracts a dowdy crowd given his history of sartorial imprudence. But he did reinvent himself as the beloved entertainer in the 80s, and perhaps this solid mainstream audience is his legacy. In fact, his perionnance tonight shows him to have been a drone on autopilot on the last all-the-hlts tour. One imagines that the Outside tour must resemble pre-let’s Dance gigs, in spirit if not content.
Looking splendid, Dame David emerges from the fog - after a delay that raised fears he might sing the whole show crouched behind an amplifier in a salute to Duchamp or something - onto a stage littered with statues, oblefs and an oak table. Twenty years ago, he might have
strapped Mick Benson across it and spanked him with his own guitar, but Dave’s a secure married man now and that’s just the way it is, so let’s just , wipe that image from our minds . . . And replace it with the moment when the singer grasps the mike-stand in a strangely inimitable way and articulates a line in a way that only the most foolish of clones would attempt. Your very own ‘Bloody hell, that’s David Bowie, that is’ moment. It’s extremely silly. It’s also great.
(dominated by guitarist Reeves
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Bowie selectively cherry-picks oldies: unrecognisable versions oi ‘Andy Warhol’ and ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, a less radically reinterpreted ‘Breaking Glass’ and a sprinkling oi tracks from lodger and Scary Monsters. less than half the set is taken up by songs from Outside, which are hampered by their dependence on its alleged plot, but the band
Gabrels’ blend of precision and wanton frenzy) render them so forcefully that their unfamiliarity and art-rock foundations don’t seem to matter. The reception oi the sscc crowd suggests that, in ‘liallo
Spaceboy’, ‘Outside’ (which swells to stadium proportions) and ‘Strangers ! When We Meet’, he may have come up ; with new songs'to augment those cherished live favourites. (Alastair Mabbott)
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1 THE KAISERS Archaos, Glasgow, Nice.
1 i
There’s a new sensation sweeping the nation and, in the words of the popular song, let me tell you baby, it’s called rock ’n’ roll. All over the country the kids are getting hip to the beat and Glasgow Is no exception. In one of the city’s newest nightclubs, Archaos, the young people oi today gather to frug wildly to the freaky beats emanating from the danceiloor.
Edinburgh’s The Kaisers are among those spearheading the new movement, which fuses raw B 8: B with an accessible, melodic sensibility. Many say it will supersede more
. waxing sounds like turgid AOR
| infectious magic on an initially
traditional musical styles, such as
techno, trip-hop and Brltpop. One thing’s for sure - where The liaisers lead, other combos will follow. The Beatles, for example, are tipped for stardom, even though their latest ‘
boflocks. Live, The Raisers work their
hesitant crowd, performing a selection of their own material and popular cover versions of other rock ’n’ roll standards (though, frankly, you can’t tell the diiference). The quartet keep things uptempo In a crowd-pleasing bid that gets the young ladies gyratlng on the danceiloor in a palpable demonstration of the sex appeal of this new version of the devil’s music.
ilesplendent in the leather waistcoat, drainpipe jeans and cuban-heeled uniform of the rock ’n’ rollers and sporting that all-important lacquered quiff, the Fab Four (as they are sure to be known in the future) lay down their garage riffs while couples live to the backbeat all the way from Archaos to the Reeperbahn. With their songs of life, love, qulffs, rock ’n’ roll, pointy boots, going to nightclubs to dance to the latest sounds and being hip to all the current trends, The Raisers can certainly claim to be in tune with the heartbeat of the nation’s adolescents, although the potential nefarious influence of their current mono longplaying disc Beat It Up! with its clear incentive to violent action should be carefully monitored.
In a nutshell, pop pickers; lock up your daughters - The Kalsers have arrived! (Fiona Shepherd)
BOOK NOW
Concerts listed are those at major venues, for which tickets are on public sale at time of going to press.
ROCK l ennaomuos (226
I GLASGOW
4679) Gene. 20 Jan; Deep Purple, 2 Mar.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) The Mavericks. 30 Jan; Tori Amos, 29 Feb.
1 I GLASGOW GARAGE (332
1120) Frank Black. 29 Jan.
I GLASGOW IBROX STADIUM (339 8383) Bon Jovi, 11 Jul.
I GLASGOW SECC (248 9999) Simply Red. 17—19 Jan; Michael Bolton. 20 Mar; Meatloaf, 24 Apr; AC/DC, 1 Jun.
I LIVINGSTON FORUM (557 6969) Saw Doctors, 15 Feb.
I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) Blues Brothers Tribute. 5—9 Mar.
I EDINBURGH INGLISTON (557 6969) Pulp, 25 Feb; M Peo 1e. 14 Jun.
I EDI BURGH MURRAYFIELD STADIUM (557 6969) Tina Turner, 30 Jun.
; I EDINBURGH OUEEN’S
HALL (668 2019) Echobelly, 19 Jan.
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (228 1155)Ton' Amos. 27 Feb; Mike and the Mechanics. 14 Mar.
COUNTRY
I GLASGOW CONCERT
- HALL (227 5511) Alison
Krauss and Union Station. 24 Jan; The Mavericks. 30 Jan; Boxcar Willie, '2 Feb.
3 I EDINBURGH USHER
HALL (228 1155) Boxcar Willie. 5 Feb.
JAZZ
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Herb Miller Orchestra. 3 Feb. I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) Herb Miller Orchestra, 4 Feb.
FOLK
I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) The Fureys, 3 Mar; Mystere
Black is back: former Pixie Frank plays Glasgow Garage:
des Voix Bulgares, 11 Mar.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Celtic Connections, until 21 Jan.
LIGHT
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Shirley Bassey. 13 May; Connie Francis. 19 May.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) 1 Like To Be In America, 7, 8, ll. 14, 16—17 Feb; Alfred Brendel. 12 Feb; Warsaw Sinfonia, 14 Apr; Anne- Sophie Mutter. 18 Apr; John Williams. 9 May; Vienna Phil. 11 May; Evelyn Glennie, 17 May; Na icon. 26 May.
I SGOW RSAMD (332 5057) Paragon Ensemble. 9 Feb. 17 Mar. 28 Apr; Hebrides Ensemble. 25 Feb, 5 May.
I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) Acis and Galatea. 28 Jan; BBC S30. 11 Feb; More About Opera. 18 Feb; BBC $80. 25 Feb; Zaide. 16 Mar; BBC $80, 17 Mar; Peter Grimes. 27—30 Mar; Travelling Opera. 17—18
Apr.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN’S HALL (668 2019) Chamber Group of Scotland. 15 Jan. 29 Jan. 4 Mar, 22 Apr; Juliane Banse. 22 Jan; SCO Qt. 28 Jan; BTSE. 15 Feb; Quator Ysaye. 19 Feb; Hebrides Ensemble. 27 Feb; SCO Qt, 10 Mar; Grieg Trio. 11 Mar; King's Consort. 16 Mar; Emperor Qrt. 19 Mar; Jean-Yves Thibaudet. 25 Mar; BTSE. 11 Apr; SCO Wind Ensemble. 5 May; Hebrides Ensemble. 6 May; King’s Consort, 9
May.
I SUBSCRIPTION SEASONS Programme details and tickets for RSNO. SCO. BBC S80 and CGPO concerts are available from Ticketcentre. Glasgow (227 5511); Usher Hall. Edinburgh (228 1155); Queen‘s Hall. Edinburgh (668 2019). Tickets for Scottish Opera from Theatre Royal. Glasgow (332 9000); Festival Theatre. Edinburgh (529 6000).
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“The List 15 Dec 1995-11 Jan 1996
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