DOOMSDAY SUN, LEGENDS, EDINBURGH, SEPTEMBER 27 2024

 A 'night of mixed metal' at Legends. Three new bands for me, and one old favourite. Sadly, though, Edinburgh fails to turn out tonight. Perhaps it's because there's other stuff happening, or just because the travelling bands are too unfamiliar. Who knows? Either way, there's only a handful of paying customers, which is a bit sad.

Line-up:

THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE: Local stoners, doing what they do and doing it well despite the lack of crowd. I wonder if they rely less on audience reaction than the rest of the bands tonight?

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/LFhZSzitBs4    https://www.facebook.com/KryssTalmeth

EPHEMERA: Noisy hardcore lads from Leeds. They do their best but, unlike TKTE, do seem to suffer from the lack of audience action. I imagine they would be unstoppable if there was a turbulent crowd flailing about in front of them. I'd guess that their singer would be out on the floor amongst us, if there was an 'us' to be amongst.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/tk-umV0RNKw   https://www.facebook.com/ephemeraukband

WORM HERO: Black metal/space-grind duo, out on the road with DOOMSDAY SUN. Visually quite striking and very odd, but clearly struggling with the lack of audience. I feel that their humour and their banter relies on feedback from the floor, and there's none of that tonight. They'd be great fun on another night. And their bass player looks like a vampire.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/JkW4n2dC7_U   https://www.facebook.com/eatitupwormhero

DOOMSDAY SUN: Not entirely sure how to define this lot. A bit sludgy, a bit doomy, a bit groove-y, a bit proggy... A 'mixed bag of metal', shall we say, with a fondness for songs about the Apocalypse. Not, it must be said, entirely serious. Once again, let down by the lack of crowd, but entertaining nonetheless.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/41LA3vnQEVw   https://www.facebook.com/doomsdaysun

Sigh. C'mon, Edinburgh, you can do better than this.

RUMBLE 3.0, CABARET VOLTAIRE, EDINBURGH, NOVEMBER 25 2023

One of a series of DIY showcase events in Edinburgh, in a venue I haven't been in since 2014. I haven't been avoiding it, you should understand, it's just that they haven't been doing gigs much since then. It's nice to be back.

Line-up:

AULD SPELLS: Multi-national - US/Scotland/Cyprus - retro shoegaze/slacker/indie sort of thing. Melancholic. Occasionally noisy. Down to 80% tonight, with one of the Scottish lads missing.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/CyZWQrIPHrc  https://www.facebook.com/auldspells 

THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE: Fudblog regulars. Groovy stoner/desert rock 'power trio'. Featuring fewer than the regulation number of shirts. And, indeed, shoes.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/2CFGsLj7aS0   https://www.facebook.com/KryssTalmeth

CONUNDRUMMERS: Tonight's hosts. Drummers, as the name would suggest. Lots of drummers. I think there were nineteen of them, but it was hard to tell.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/YBOIM879ZNI   https://www.facebook.com/ConundrummersEdinburgh

LOW & SLOW ALL DAYER, BANNERMAN'S, EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 7 2023

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.

NEBULA, BANNERMAN'S, EDINBURGH, JULY 22 2022

 Line-up:

NEBULA: Califorrnian stoners making their first ever appearance in Edinburgh

https://youtu.be/-OMYMOBFdKc    https://www.facebook.com/NebulaBand

THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX: Veteran stoners, who seem to have been permanently on tour for more than 20 years.

https://youtu.be/8L0V1OystM0    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100047212743104

THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE: Local bluesy psych/stoners

https://youtu.be/5GX-LSrEooM   https://www.facebook.com/KryssTalmeth