Quite a convoluted story, this one. I'll probably get the details wrong. Let's see.
BEEHOOVER, the German progressive sludge duo have played Edinburgh before, and wanted to do so again, but they would only work with Ewen from PISSCHRIST PROMOTIONS. Now, that would be fine, but Ewen gave up the promotions lark some years ago and suggested that Bailey from SCAPEGOAT could take the gig on. But no, it was to be Ewen or nobody so, for one night only, GOATPISS was born and the show went on! It was good to see Ewen back, though, even if it was just for this one gig,
Then the chaos started. Bands were booked, bands pulled out. Bands broke up. Bands were replaced, and the replacements pulled out, or were otherwise removed from the bill. Finally, we were down to a somewhat reduced six band line-up. And then, at the last minute, the opening band called off. Five bands, then. On the plus side, I had arrived late expecting to miss the opening band, but actually arrived just in time to catch the de facto opener, and missed nothing. Swings and roundabouts.
And then I realised that I'd totally forgotten to bring my camera with me. I have it EVERY TIME I go to a gig, but not this time. I had the video camera which CAN take still pics, but they're shit. Ditto my cheap-ass phone. Oh well. It was kind of liberating, actually, but I didn't quite know what to do with my hands all night. Anyway...
Line-up:
CULT OF SOBEK: Crocodilian doom from edinburgh Can't read heiroglyphs? Tch, kids these days... It says 'Crocodilian doom from Edinburgh.' Obviously. Slow, crushing sludgy doom, although giant singer/bass player Harry McCardle looks more like a lion than a crocodile.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/IyGY2_LvFFI https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088422994440
ACIDSAURUS BONG: More swampy sludge, this time more 'gators and moonshine' than crocodiles. I've seen these lads a few times now, but they've never seemed more... feral, perhaps, than they did this time. Raw.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/xwzXUlLHXZE https://www.facebook.com/acidsaurusbong
THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE: A step away from the sludge with this psychedelic stoner/blues trio, playing, amongst others, a BRAND NEW SONG, as featured in the attached video.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/6DPCGiNeUXc https://www.facebook.com/KryssTalmeth
CODESPEAKER: Further chaos and mishap. Promoted to main support, one of the country's finest post-metal bands were going to - and DID - play a song they've never played live before - the very excellent 'Hiraeth' from their debut album and I was going to - and DID, actually - record it. But guitarist Bob broke his guitar a couple of songs into the set and had to pick up the spare, which was set up SPECIFICALLY for Hiraeth, and was forced to do some rapid re-tuning, then tune it BACK for its scheduled appearance. Perhaps because of all of this extra twiddling - or perhaps not - he managed to break some strings during the song and had to improvise his parts, but that didn't go well. Anyway, he asked me afterwards not to upload the broken song, and I was happy to comply. So, no video for Codespeaker. If you haven't seen them before, there are plenty of other videos on my YouTube channel. Go watch one of them.Or all of them.
Next time...
BEEHOOVER: All the way from Esslingen am Neckar, which looks very nice. Proving that Drum and Bass isn't only Chase & Status or Royal Blood, Beehoover have been doing their prog/sludge thing for TWENTY whole years and have gotten quite good at it.
{Please note that I actually quite like drum'n'bass. Not Royal Blood, though. No.)
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Dyk24aSVOgg https://www.facebook.com/beehooverofficial
Well, there you go. A somewhat reduced day of entertainment. I had been looking forward to seeing the bands who didn't make it, but five for a tenner was still top value. Just a couple of random facts to finish off...
1. EVERY single person involved tonight had a beard, including the two promoters and the sound engineer. And me.
2. On the way home I turned the radio on in the car and got BBC's drum'n'bass show on Radio 1. Which was nice.
