Showing posts with label Broder Tuck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Broder Tuck. Show all posts

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Review - Street Dogs, Greta Kassler, Spotlicks and Twopointeight


Saturday July 7, two concerts roughly at the same time.
At Broder Tuck was the line up Spotlicks, Greta Kassler and STYGG
At Debaser Medis was the line up Two point eight and Street Dogs (US)
STYGG didn´t get any review because I missed them because of Street Dogs.


The Places

Broder Tuck


The Broder Tuck Restaurant is rather big, the concert room in the basement are small, very small.
The contrast between the gangster look´a´like door men, their general clientel on the ground level and the Anarchists, Metal Heads and Punks in the basement are striking. The sound is mostly terrible, and loud. Very loud.


Debaser Slussen
Debaser Slussen togheter with Debaser Medis, Strand and Rocks the only decent rock clubs in Stockholm City. Debaser Slussen and Medis are mainly built up around concerts. The Stage a Debaser Slussen are however a photographers nightmare because most of the light are pointed towards you, not at the band. But the sound are generally much better than most of the clubs and stages in the City. Debaser in general attracts mostly a rock audience, not necessary a punk crowd. Tonight there are a lot of punk fans in the bulding, along with rock n rollers.


The Crowds

Broder Tuck

If you consider that Street Dogs are giving a free concert two subway stops away and most people are away on vacation it´s amazingly much people at Broder Tuck this particular night. As I written before, Broder Tuck got a horrible little basement as their concert room. And the bands seem pleased that so many showed up.

Debaser

Not only were we blessed this last days with high air humidity, which isn´t too common in Stockholm, the Debaser Slussen club was packed and hot as well. When I arrived more than halfway through Twopointeight´s gig there were like an wall of warm sweaty air to team up with me when I enter. It was packed so I can´t say I have a very good place to see the end of their gig from.

When it comes to the Street Dogs I got a perfect spot just outside the moshpit, and If I been in better shape I would most certainly been in the middle of it. Even the Boston lads in Street Dogs complain about the heat. Where I stood there were a fan blowing so it was OK, but still I got a sweat soaked T-shirt after the gig.


The Gigs

Broder Tuck


Spotlicks


First out this lovely, warm summer night was Spotlicks. A three man band, or should I write two men and one woman band, a woman that  was the main singer even if all of them were on vocals. The style of their punk is mostly based in early Swedish 78 punk. The songs are built up around power chord riffing and Swedish lyrics. The sound was really bad and didn’t gave the band the chance they deserved, but got a bit better toward the end, it is a bit pity that the sound was bad in the beginning, the band was better than the sound. And it was mostly a loud treble that reach my ears. The song that stayed in my mind was about you are good as you are (Fatta att du duger) But the songs were good, they played it like I like it. No noncense here, no arty stuff, just riffs pretty fast and vocals and Clash and Ebba Grön style of drumming. I liked it and a better sound would been better, at least to more clearly hear the vocals.


Greta Kassler

Greta Kassler mix D-beat and Trall Punk. They played fast. Live that night they did it convincingly even if the sound wasn´t the best, but loud as the sound waves moved me physically a cm or something. Much better than the sound Spotlick´s had to cope with though. It was fast and tight and the two singers different voices gave the music a different feeling even if the speed was mainly D-beat. And they sang it, not shouted, not chanted or growling it. It´s political and angry. Tonight they convinced. Too bad I couldn´t stay for the last band ST. But then I had to hurry to even get in to see the Street Dogs. I didn´t have time to say goodbye to the people there.

Worth the money, 100Skr (10 Pounds)? Yes, but this came to be in the shadow of what the Street Dogs did.


Debaser Slussen


Twopointeight

There are a certain hype around Twopointeight, mostly because their commercial, radio friendly rock heavy influenced by the Clash and Rancid. And that´s what is bothering me with the band, it´s a bit to mainstream and radio friendly for my taste. Not only me BTW, other just hates themfor other reasons. They are trying too hard to be the Swedish Rancid so they lose any originality. On record the smart productions lack the energy or punk. With Greta Kassler still ringing in my ears, TPE are way too slow. OK, it´s unfair to compare a part of a gig with a full gig but tonight Greta Kassler wins, not because better voices or better tunes, but because Greta is fast and full of energy, Twopointeight was slow and seems to be too cool to get dirty, that and the total lack of energy was a let down on me, others seems to like it. Not even their best song, Red Eyes, worked for me that night. Gubbrock (Old Mans Rock) is a word they are dangerously close to it. But it seems like I am not in phase with the crowd next to the stage.


Street Dogs

It is a bit surreal to be seeing a class act as Street Dogs for free. The former Dropkick Murphys singer Michael McColgan quit the Murphys to fulfill his dream to become a fire fighter just as Dropkick broke in the punk scene. Since then he is a  Street Dog. It stood clear last night what Mc Colgan brought to the Dropkick Murphys debut record Do or Die (which is my favorite DKM record). The speed, the energy and the punk. Street Dogs lacks most of the Gaelic stuff that DKM based their career around, it´s more just punk.
First I have to take a deep breath before I go on and tell you about it, because the memory itself gives me shivers. And point out that sometimes you feel that you are in the right place at the right time. This gig was one of those moments. So seem the band feel about it as well.
I feel sorry for those suckers that ware at the Roskilde that night to see Bruce Springsteen, when it was at Debaser it was happening.
From the beginning the band showed that this was for real. The best sound all night, Loud but not as loud as during Greta Kassler. Fast and hard and mercy less! Most of their known songs, as well as a few covers and DKM songs. The two songs I missed was Power in the Union and Skinhead on MBTA (Will I ever hear my favorite song live?) but that didn´t matter tonight. Tight, heavy and fast (not D-beat fast but fast.) and with all the energy TPE didn´t showed.  
The best was the Dropkick songs near the end with old “Do or Die”  and “Get up”, the DKM songs and covers. Especially the song Do or Die (for a moment my eyes met Mikes as we were chanting out the lyrics as he pointed at me and I answered with a raised fist).
Wow, is the only word that describes it all. The Crowd did go absolutely mental from the first song. The band and the crowd ripped the place apart totally, I saw a bar table go wasted and the Gods only know what else broke, the blood was pouring down people foreheads, smashed bloody in the euphoria this night gave us. Energy, mosh pitting, sing a longs, stage diving, you name it, The good singer himself was crowd surfing as well. This was everything a punk rock concert should be about, it was there! The band seem to enjoy themselves, loving the crowd, the crowd loved the Dogs onstage. Some fans loved the Dogs onstage and was welcomed by a friendly band.
The band assured us that this moment will stay a long time in their hearts. I It will in my as well.

When the band as the second song in the encore burst out in Sham 69´s Bostal Breakout sung as Boston Breakout, then I thought both me and the whole place should explode. And so it went on throught the rather generous encore. What a night!. We all need a little Punk Rock n Roll.

It was pointless continuing drinking beer or chatting with old friends after. Because all I could think of was how blessed I´ve been to be there. So I went home rather quickly.

I went home with the worst Tinnitus in a long time, a big smile and a memory of seeing the light.
A light lit by some Street Dogs, Working class punk from Massachusetts.

Worth the money?……It didn´t cost anything, but let´s say this was one of the best concerts I´ve seen.      
Next chance for me to catch them is at West Coast Riot in Gothenburg July 26.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Greta Kassler Vs. Street Dogs, Broder Tuck Vs. Debaser

Broder Tuck Vs. Debaser

This saturdays clash between two punk band events will be interessting. In the south corner will be the Brother Tuck restaurant with its small cellar stage. On stage that night will be Spotlicks, Greta Kassler and S.T.Y.G.G.

and in the North corner will be Rock Club Debaser Slussen, with hyped up Swedish band Twopointeight and former Dropkick Murphys singer  Mike McColgans working class punk band Street Dogs.


Personally I find it annoying that such event ends up the same day. It´s cool that there is somethings happening. Too bad its on the same time.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Link at Broder Tuck 6/5-12


Link, Ligisterna, Murdering Murders and Handgranat at Broder Tuck review 6/5-12


There will be pictures later....


The Place
Broder Tuck I described at Ligisternas and the Dräperz review in earlier this year. It isn´t the best of places to see bands at. But at least I can see them, so I don´t whine to much about it.


The Crowd
It was a pretty fair crowd a Sunday night at the narrow basement of Broder Tuck. Sunday isn´t directly t the ball of a week. So I am surprised that, in the end, so many showed up. The concert room at Broder Tuck is in my mind pretty close to a disaster from my crowd point of view. The sound is usual quite bad. But tonight at least Link showed it is possible to get it to sounds good.
The place in itself doesn´t invite to mosh pitting but that isn´t high on the Stockholm crowds toplist.   

Handgranat
Handgranat was a new experience for me. And they set the pace for the night. It´s fast, it´s hard and it´s funny. The sound is good and the energy level is high. After a few bars the feeling of Sunday is long gone, now it´s all about survival. The singer have a deep throat voice that fit perfect with the rest of the band. The drummer gives a certain dynamic to the fast tunes that with a less skilled drummer should be suffering a bit.


Murdering Murders
Murdering Murders singer doesn’t have the same deep growling roar as handgranat´s voice handler. But he have a desperation from the inside that he pour on us as a bitter salt. It´s both funny and bitter in the same sentence. Between the songs there are monologs to set us in the right mood. And they show us how shitty the everyday life can be, how narrow minded and petty the Bougoise society can be. Early in the set they have gear trouble, that Ligisterna later will develop into an art form. So in the beginning of the set they sound not as heavy as Handgranat. But though the set they manage to get it right.


Ligisterna
Ligisterna starts off with a few disasters. First guitar trouble, then microphone troubles, microphone trouble. After the first song there was more guitar trouble. So they was a bit stressed by it and that affected the whole set. To make it worse for them, the crowd teased them that they play to slow, which the band answer with humor. -We will play ever slower soon, they reply. One of the strenght of Ligisterna is their bitter  humor. After two fast as hell bands it wasn´t an easy task to slow it down, to be more traditional punk. But here, Ligisterna should take the credit. Their songs are so good that they have no trouble to make an impact on both me and the crowd, especially on one skinhead that spontaneously moves to the music. The set doesn´t have the same amount of energy that I´ve been used to get from them, and I guess they them self think of it as a skitspelning (crappy gig). Ligisternas humor saves them together with their incredibly strong tunes. I mean, a band havn´t been tested until a disaster gig like this or in front of a hostile crowd is done, and I think they crawl out of it with a honor. In the end of SAAB I can´t help myself and I got a tear in the corner of my eye. That song is the pure essence of what is happening in the western world today.


Link
The Belgian band Link ends the venue and my nine gig weekend. And what a lession in professionalism that was. Listen and Learn! The sound was as close to perfect as you can get. The Growling roars that was the singing was the roar of hell. They were as heavy as the other bands together. And Yet, so musically and sonically sophisticated. This was the best gig of this week ends all nine gigs I´ve seen. The guys seems humble on the verge to annihilation. Don´t worry we are here to see you, I found myself thinking. Some of the audience have waited a long time to see them. I think I was blessed that I was there and the number of people that I think should be sad about missing this is quite a few. They really missed something.
I can´t help thinking that this band should be on a much larger stage. On an stadium I think it should be more fitting, in front of thousands of fans. The sound and songs gives me images of them at a big stage. If their intention was to drag me to hell to show what it is like? They really got me to like it.

OK, you read me whine about the “stand like statues” crowd culture of Stockholm. So this time I wind up some skins and punks for some mosh pitting in front. And I was great. I think Link deserved it.


Was it worth the 60Skr in attendance fee. Link in itself was worth the double so you can make up your own conclusion from it. Deaf and happy!

Saturday, April 14, 2012