Shriekback - "The Fire Has Brought Us Together"

I’m a huge Shriekback fan and have been following and supporting them to put out new music and perform live for the first time since the early 90’s a couple years ago in London. I had a ticket to attend, but lost my passport and missed the show. Anyway, they just released a new album “Some Kind of Light” and this is their new video single from that album. The album just dropped the other day, but since I helped fund the new project I was able to get an early CD. It is truly amazing just like this single. This song eerily reminds me of “My Hubris” from the Jam Science album or something off their Big Night Music album. Take a listen, I think you’ll enjoy it.

COVID-19 and Live Events

 COVID-19 sure has put a damper on all of us in 2020.  I have not been able to do many things, thanks to my lockdown governor, but one thing I miss is going to live concerts. Back in May, there was going to be an amazing 80’s new wave festival called Cruel World about 20 minutes from my house. The lineup was incredible (see pic below). After the outbreak, they postponed it to September, eventually cancelling it when the outbreak turned into a pandemic. I sure hope that an effective vaccine will be available soon and these governors who have these ridiculously strict guidelines will loosen up the tough restrictions (probably after the election) so we can get back to normalcy and see live concerts again. Here’s to 2021 and the hope for a COVID-free environment and live music and festivals again. 

Echo & the Bunnymen w/Berlin

Last Friday night I was able to see two great 80's bands live. I had seen both Echo and Berlin multiple times, but only Echo I was able to see live in their prime back in the late 80's touring on their self-titled album. They did a tour sharing the headlining spot with New Order and Gene Loves Jezebel opening. It was an awesome show.

Both bands only have a few of the original lineup still in the band. Berlin only has Terri Nunn, but without her there is no Berlin. She still looks amazing at the age of 54. Echo has lead singer Ian McCulloch and lead guitarist Will Sergeant.

Berlin only played 7 songs for about 35 minutes, but they had the crowd up and dancing the whole time. They played 2 newer songs "Animal" and "All For Love", which according to Terri was the first time being played live. They also played their hits "No More Words", "The Metro", "Masquerade", "Take My Breath Away" and closed with "Sex".

Echo played for about 75 minutes and their set included a good mix of their hits covering all of their earlier albums. They also played their cover of The Doors "People are Strange". Ian was very talkative with the crowd and seemed to be in a good mood. In the past he always seemed like he was in a bad mood or a bit cocky. He was still a little arrogant but not off putting as before. He still claims "The Killing Moon" as the greatest song ever written, but this time he said it was the second greatest ever written. I added a video I took at the show of them playing "Never Stop". You can find it on the 'Videos' page. 

Overall, it was a great show!

New Order New Single "Restless"

Here is a link to New Order's new single "Restless". I found this courtesy of Richard Blade's Facebook page

http://youtu.be/NPAfi6fbvTk

The Cure

One of my all time favorite bands has to be The Cure.  They are the ultimate example of what is a Fresh Wave band.  The picture above is the last time I saw them perform live.  This was the 'Reflections' tour where they played their first 3 albums in their entirety, "Three Imaginary Boys", "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith".  It was an amazing show and of course they sounded incredible.  They must have the best sound crew around.  I go to a lot of concerts and every time I go to a Cure show, they blow everyone away with their sound quality.  Another great thing about Cure shows is that they are REAL concerts.  What I mean by "real" is that they just don't play for an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes.  They always for at least 2 hours.  They then come back and play REAL encores, yes plural.  Most bands come back for an encore and play 1-2 songs and that's it.  The Cure usually play 3 encores and each encore ranges between 3-7 songs each.

If you're a Cure fan you already know this, but for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing them live, when you do, be sure to go to EVERY available show near you on that tour.  Most bands play the same set list each night of their tour.  Sometimes they'll change the set list halfway through the tour, but that's about it.  For example, I live in Los Angeles so I'm very lucky to have multiple venues within driving distance.  When Depeche Mode comes to LA, they usually play larger venues like Staples Center in Downtown LA and The Honda Center in Anaheim.  They usually play 2-3 nights at each venue depending on how ticket sales go.  If you go to all 4-6 shows between the 2 venues, you'll see the same damn show each night with the exact same songs.  In contrast to this, The Cure does not play the same show in a row.  They do have a core number of songs they play at each show on that tour, but then they play different other songs each night.  Before this 'Reflections' tour, the last time I saw them on tour was for the "4:13 Dream" album in 2008.  They played at the Santa Barbara Bowl (about 2 hours north of LA), which I didn't attend.  I had tickets for their show at The Hollywood Bowl.  I was sitting next to a girl that went to the SB show the previous night and she told me how they play different shows each night.  I was able to put that to the test because the next night they played a show at the Shrine Auditorium near Downtown LA (next to the USC campus).  I was so glad I got tickets to both shows because the songs I wanted to hear that they didn't play at The Hollywood Bowl, they played the next night at the Shrine.  I only bought the tickets to the Shrine show because it was a little smaller venue and never saw a show there before.  I was curious to see how good they would sound.  I'm SO glad I bought those tickets.  Now, whenever they play near me, I'll go to every show.

Below is a set list from both the Hollywood Bowl and Shrine Auditorium shows I attended.  You can see the core songs that were the same, but you can also see the total number of songs played overall and during the encores.  I bolded the unique songs for each show to see how much they change their shows each night.  You'll notice the encores are usually all different from night to night:

           

31.05.2008 Los Angeles - Hollywood Bowl (USA/CA)

Underneath the Stars, Prayers for Rain, A Night Like This, The Walk, The End of the World, Lovesong, Sleep When I'm Dead, To Wish Impossible Things, Pictures of You, Lullaby, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, The Perfect Boy, Hot Hot Hot !!!, The Only One, Push, Friday I'm in Love, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, A Letter to Elise, Never Enough, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, It's Over,
E1: If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, The Kiss,
E2: At Night, M, Play For Today, A Forest,
E3: The Lovecats, Let's Go to Bed, Freakshow, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?,
E4: Boys Don't Cry

01.06.2008 Los Angeles - Shrine Auditorium (USA/CA)

Out of This World, Pictures of You, Fascination Street, Alt.End, A Strange Day, The End of the World, The Baby Screams, Lovesong, Sleep When I'm Dead, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, Kyoto Song, The Only One, Push, How Beautiful You Are, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Us or Them, Signal to Noise, One Hundred Years, Bloodflowers,
E1: Plainsong, Disintegration,
E2: Three Imaginary Boys, Fire in Cairo, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10.15 Saturday Night, Killing an Arab,
E3: Faith, Happy Birthday Song (for Simon Gallup's birthday)

Shriekback - 'Without Real String or Fish' pt.2

I wanted to continue my discussion of Shriekback.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, they are one of my favorite 80's artists and it's such a shame they did not get the recognition, acclaim and airplay they richly deserved.  Their music is so unique and different than anything else. 

I shouldn't say they didn't get any recognition and airplay because they did get some.  I remember the TV show 'Miami Vice' had a few episodes that featured music from their 'Big Night Music' album.  Also, the 1985 movie 'Manhunter' featured multiple tracks from the 'Oil & Gold' album.  For those of you not familiar with that movie, it was the prequel story to 'Silence of the Lambs'.  The book by Thomas Harris it was based on was called 'Red Dragon', which after the success of 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Hannibal', the movie was remade with Ralph Fiennes as the main star and was called by the same name of the book, 'Red Dragon'.

I want to give Shriekback more exposure so here is the video for their 1st single off their new album 'Without Real String or Fish' called 'Now Those Days are Gone'.  It's a great way to start off the new album.

I think one of my favorite songs on this new album is called 'Ammonia Tree'.  The music sounds very similar to the song 'Black Light Trap' from 'Big Night Music', but also has a touch of the mood of 'Oil & Gold'.

The track 'Recessive Jean' at the beginning sounds a lot like the beginning of the song 'Feelers', which is a live track on the album 'The Dancing Years'.  I'm not sure if 'Feelers' was ever released because I only heard it on that album.  This is also a great track.

For those of you who are Shriekback and especially those of you who are not as familiar with them, I strongly suggest buying this album.  It is available purchase on their website www.shriekback.com along with some of their other music.  On the site you can also sign up to receive their newsletter to find out the latest news.

New 'Tour Dates' Page

I added a page called 'Tour Dates' for 80's bands currently touring for the rest of 2015.  Feel free to add any bands and tour dates I may have missed.  I will try to update this page as often as possible.