The Perfect Transcription (Live Spacemen 3 & Spiritualized tribute) (feat. Speedway / The Disraelis / Ostrich Tuning / The Mighty Oaks / Flowers of Hell / The Pow Wows / The Blooming Rosebuds / The Hoa Hoa's)
The Piston. Saturday, December 4, 2010.
You can read up on the first half on the night here, but to recap: this was a benefit show for Natty Brooker in the form of a live tribute to Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, with a massive lineup of sixteen bands taking the stage. Commonalities between the bands included lots of lyric cheatsheets, plenty reverb, and quite a few of what we might term "older bands" (in terms of rock'n'roll, though, as opposed to, like, life.)
An appearance from Speedway — apparently reunited for the occasion — was considered to be a big deal in some quarters, though I admit I was unfamiliar with them.1 Stripping the gear down to the minimum required for a howling squall, they brought three guitarists and drums. The band was perhaps a bit rusty — or maybe just a little too untethered — starting off with an instrumental, and moving into "May the Circle Be Unbroken".2 I don't have anything to compare this to, but it didn't feel like the band was really tearing into the material.
Or perhaps they didn't get to leave such a strong impression after the searing appearance from The Disraelis. The start of what would be a definite Optical Sounds tinge to the rest of the night, this was the band's first time out with a new lineup, with vocalist Cameron Jingles switching over from bass to guitar, Dave Barnes on drums and Calvin Brown on bass.3 A bashed out "Losing Touch With My Mind" was quite bracing, but even better was the following "Rollercoaster" — a 13th Floor Elevators elevators song favoured by the Spacemen 3. That one featured Richie Gibson (also from The Hoa Hoa's) on second guitar. This was pretty fantastic — rough-hewn but holding itself together, and certainly enough to give hope that the band will be returning for more.4
Listen to a track from this set here.
No strangers to Velvets-influenced drone-rock, Ostrich Tuning were a natural fit for this show. Like several other bands on the night, they chose to contrast the quieter and louder tendrils of the S3 sound, starting with "Honey" before kicking up the noise and getting all cosmic with "How Does It Feel?". My notepad contains a scrawled note that I'm thinking reads "insta-raga!".
The Mighty Oaks brought a more straightforward classic rockin' sort of sound — these guys could probably fill in a slot at a Crazy Horse tribute night with equal facility. They followed up "Just To See You Smile" with a fabulous version of "Transparent Radiation" that owed just a little something to The Who and BTO.
Listen to a track from this set here.
Flowers of Hell are pretty malleable behind mainman Greg Jarvis, so I wasn't too surprised to see them as a lean rock attack unit on this night, with Jarvis backed by a second guitarist, bass (Calvin Brown again) and drums. They also reached into the S3 live catalogue for a rocket-powered version of MC5's "Starship" — a little sloppy, but more than adequately propulsive.
As the hour grew later, I was starting to feel a little tired and wobbly. I even thought I was suffering some sonic hallucinations, but it turned out that the phased sounds of the Bo Diddley album playing between sets was entirely deliberate, as if it was being run through a flanger. At this staggery point of the night, The Pow Wows came out like a shot of espresso, leading the crowd in a chant ("N-A-T-T-Y SAT-UR-DAY NIGHT!") before a garage-y "Mary-Anne", which sounded like the product of a band that had been spending some time playing "Gloria". After that, they played "2:35" — and whether by accident or design, the clock actually passed that point as the band played the song — building up into shouting and frenzied drumming. It was a real rave-up, ending with a small-scale stage invasion and bassist/singer Jazzy Jimenez climbing on the drums — Sat-ur-day night, indeed.5
Listen to a track from this set here.
By this point, it was late enough that the bar staff were coming around and physically taking everyone's drinks away as The Blooming Rosebuds were setting up. I don't know much about this band (and their online info is pretty slim) though I did recognize Katerina T from Planet Creature on stage. They did good work on "Take Me to the Other Side", followed by a rolling version of "Come Down Easy". But the treat of the set was a reverse-engineered "Let it Flow", doing the Spiritualized song in a scrappy Spacemen 3 style.
Listen to a track from this set here.
By this point I was feeling rather knackered, but I was hanging on for The Hoa Hoa's, the night's last band. It was so late that there wasn't even any music on the PA while they band set up, while Cameron from The Disraelis was laying down on stage. From last call on, the crowd had been getting thinner, and it was to a discombobulated cadre that the band played the entirely-appropriately-entitled "Don't Fall Down". That one would count as a bit of a crate dig — a 13th Floor Elevators song that Spacemen 3 once recorded a demo of. And then, a properly dirge-y vibe to close out the night with the two-chord vamping of "Amen". And the whole thing wound up right 'round 3:30, six hours after the first band had taken the stage.6
Kudos to all the bands that got involved for a good cause, and to Davy Love, who put the whole night together. To commemorate the whole night, I've thrown together a compilation with one song from each of the bands that played — you can grab it here.
1 I dug around a bit, but I didn't come up with any more information about the band. If you have anything further to fill in on the bands here, do feel free to pass it along — along with any corrections to anything I might have gotten mixed up while trying to keep sixteen bands straight.
2 Given how the music of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized spend so much time in vacillation between profound sin and the search for redemption, there was more soi-disant evangelical material on offer this night than at most shows I go to. I wonder if anyone has done a cultural studies dissertation on "Spacemen 3 as 'Christian Rock'".
3 Most often seen behind the drumkit with The Hoa Hoa's, Brown might be a secret MVP of the Optical Sounds family, adding bass duties with The Disraelis to a such diverse talents as album cover artist and DJ — all while sporting a flashy fashion sense.
4 After a bit of a wait, it looks like there's tentative plans for a full-fledged show from the band in late May, so keep an eye out for 'em.
5 The Pow Wows will be playing what should be a rock'n'roll good time this Friday (April 29, 2011) at The Press Club along with The Bon and The Mark Inside.
6 In what should be a psych night extraordinaire, The Hoa Hoa's, along with Ostrich Tuning, will be playing with Asteroid #4 at The Boat on Friday night (April 29, 2011).
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