Saturday, February 14, 2009

SOUNDS WITH KILLER ECHOS

And now for something completely different. No Van Halen this Friday night, wanting instead to plunge into a different pool by enjoying the sounds of two other bands.

I started off with a trip back to November 6, 1987 to hear Echo & The Bunnymen play in Gothenburg, Sweden. An excellent bootleg recording. The Rolling Stone magazine describes their style as:

"The standard-bearers of Liverpool's neopsychedelic movement, Echo and the Bunnymen's moody, atmospheric music combined punk's energy and edge with the Doors' poetic theatricality. Self-consciously literary, outspoken, and sometimes arrogant (singer Ian McCulloch was known as "Mac the Mouth"), they never matched their popularity in Europe in the United States. Their influence can be seen in the attitudes and guitar textures of such '90s English bands as Suede."

I like the sound because of its ethereal moodiness, with Ian McCulloch's voice having a mesmerising quality.

This show was relatively short, simply a warm up for Act 2 that followed. I did not realize it but the batteries in the CD player were low on juice, explaining why I had to crank it to maximum volume to get it close to where I like the volume. I figured it out with the next CD.

Public debt explodes
Victims dying in their homes
Our children's children

Stares through the windshield
Head numbed by mere words of faith
Four Marines will die

News report word spin
Discharged weapons a mistake
Can't mistake the dead

The wrong place and time
Swept up in net cast through fear
Detainee four three five

Download it here:

The second half of the evening was spent with The Killers, who appeared live in Berlin on November 11, 2008. Another excellent recording which makes for such easy listening. The only unfortunate thing about this recording is that it's only the first half of the concert. So when it ended prematurely, I freaked, running into the darkened house to pull another of their CDs off the shelf to complete the show.

I was flying by the end of the night. I have no idea what time I dropped into bed, to tired to even undress.

Invades through the ear
Sound's seed planted in his mind
Fevered infection

Music fills the ears
Like the Pied Piper calling
Grabs him by the heart

A world in distress
Human frailties exposed
In search of heros

Straps on the headphones
The tequila and music flow
Wakes up in a dream

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