Reviews
PUNK ("ORV
GREEN DAY
SECC, Glasgow. Thu 10 Feb 0...
Punk r ,r;k cabaret if. a r;e’,;i"ra' '1’ “cert for man. to grasp but. ’We" line shows. Green Dag. barr- nr-a' ;:<-"e te’f the concept. Front the th rnte' "fl rrrtro to the endless bangs. irar ks. flashes and flames. tr» the Hurlsef talent contest and the ticker taise shower, rt's the biggest kids tart, ever organrsed by a trio of Californian millionaire freaks in bondage trousers. The bottom lrne rs it's‘ all fantast»::. all that a rock show should be. and 'riore. Occasionally there's even trme to enjoy the finer points of the” excellent new album Arum/(tar) ldrot as well as the frner pornts of thorr bombastic back catalogue. They strll rule the roost when rt (:orrres to this punk pop thing and even If a rendrtron of Queen's ‘We are the Champrons' would have Joe Strummer spinning in hrs grave. rt's carried out wrth suffrcrent bravado to suggest It's just for laughs. (Mark Robertsoni
ROCK FIGHTSTAR 00 The Venue, Edinburgh, Tue 8 Feb
Let's be honest. We're here for one thing: Charlie ‘the posh one Outta Busted' Srmpson's 'proper' band. the very reason the pop-punk-puppets split. Wouldn't rt be great rf they were amaZrng'? Or totally shrte’r’ Unfortunately they're rust average emo thrashers and
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COUNTRY ROCK
THE SUNDOWNS Bannerman’s. Edinburgh. Wed 2 Feb 000
If the Sundowns liad to’rrtei: .i rtetatfe and a half ago. people would 6;.i'el‘. talk about them today rri the same breath as Teenage Farittlub or BMX Bandits. But they're all too freshfaced for that. which means a battle through a contemporary Scots musical landscape already densely populated by New Wave plunderers and agrt folk outfits
Perhaps that explarns why they're hitherto pretty much unheard of. even though they've supported the dryerse (to put rt very mildly'l talents of the Delgados and Status Quo, While the debut album The (Merchant House Tapes was a polrshed gem. the forthcomrng follow-up (Ia/abasas r launched here - deserves to sink them rnto the hearts of young and old across the land.
It seems to be a more subdued offering. the pedal-steel assrsted likes of 'Different Drug' and ‘Wendy' strolling down the mrddle of a country road wrth the Eagles and Parsons~era Byrds. Thorr execution rs subtle yet fastrdlous. sounding lard back yet obviously taken great care of. whrle the closing country-pop charge of 'Handlebars' proves they're so much more exertrng than rust a la7ybones MOR-fest. (Davrd Pollock)
Edinburgh Folk Club, Wed 23 Feb; Tollbooth, Stirling, Thu 24 Feb
Over the last decade or so. the huge upSerge in Interest in traditronal rnusrc has focussed not or. songs 0r singers. but on the sounds of fiddle. pipes. sguee7e box. harp or flute — especrally when played in so-called 'celtrc' dance music. But among the thousands of emergent bands at home and abroad. few have created such a unmrstakable musrcal srgnature as Flook! They are but two flutes. a guitar and a bodhran. yet an astonishing. endlessly inventive stream of exerting. rntoxrcatrng and cockle-warmrng melody and rhythm flows from the interplay of these three guys and one woman. Understated yrrtuosIty rs the order of the day when guitarist Ed Boyd and bodhran player John Joe Kelly take the stage behrnd flute whistle players Sarah Allen and Brian Frnnegan. The Success of their musrc means. however. that they're always on the mOy e.
‘We’re always tray'ellrngf says London-based Allen. ‘l've rust been rn Indra. although that wasn't a grg. But before that we were in Germany. France. other places rn Europe. And the USA.
We seem to just do mrllrons of grgs.’
'We drd deCrde to cut back a brt last year and through May. June and July we kept rt down to
around fOur gigs a month. But it's Crept back up agarn. I don't know how."
And where‘s best’? 'I loye being in Australra.‘ says Allen. 'My dad's Australran. And I lrke playrng in New York. But we do a great grg every year in a little pub rn Belfast for the Open House Festival. There's always a queue round the corner. and rnSrde rt's a fantastic atmosphere.’
BefOre they come to Scotland next week. Flook! are off to Wales for a few days recording. l ask Allen rf she also stands on one leg (she's famous for rt. lrke a certarn Tull personl when she's rn the studio. 'I love balanCrng like that.‘ she admrts. 'When I‘m balanced on one leg. I play better. lt might be a yoga thing. but rt feels really good.“ And she adds. laughing: ‘MuSrcally. me wrth two
feet on the floor rs not a good srgn.‘ (Norman Chalmersl
Sth‘ii ii SL‘NJ‘IJ“ ii .34 BRENDAN BENSON The Venue, Edinburgh. Mon 21 Feb
Jack White, Jack White, Jack White, Jack White. There, that‘s the mentions out the way. Brendan Benson is always referred to in this country’s press as ‘Jack White‘s best friend Brendan Benson’, which is starting to get slightly irritating for a talented songwriter in his own right with an established music career. It's not helped at the moment by the fact he's making an album with White, due for release next year. Benson‘s press guy tells me not to ask about Jack White. I do anyway.
‘I do get a bit sick of him being mentioned all the time to me, but what can I do?’ he says, sounding not particularly sick of it. ‘I am friends with him, we are making a record and he lives round the corner from me. Maybe I should deny I ever met him, or stage a big fight with him in public. Yeah, maybe I‘ll do that.‘
Yeah, that’ll stop the press references. Benson’s third album, The Alternative to Love, arrives in March, and is a more optimistic and assured record than his previous outing, Lapalco.
‘l was in a dark place lyrically for Lapalco. and I guess some of the new songs are more upbeat,’ he says. ‘Musically things aren't that much different, but the lyrics seem much more accomplished, to me anyway.’
Although Benson stuck to recording the whole thing himself (he admits to a certain megalomania with his own material), he has been producing and playing with a host of other artists (including the aforementioned high profile unmentionable) almost to the point of obsession.
‘I fucking love nothing better than being immersed in music,‘ he admits. ‘My friends are always making fun of me, saying I should get a hobby, but I like nothing better than just sitting in a room making music. That‘s the truth.’ (Doug Johnstone)
- ‘ :24, - ','.;' '7 THE LIST 73