|
fumanbru
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1462 Posts |
 Posted - 04/04/2003 : 15:17:57
|
This is from the Winnipeg Free Press.
Blown away by an alternarock icon
Fri Apr 4 2003
By Bartley Kives
4 1/2 stars out of 5
REPUTEDLY crusty rock legend Frank Black blew into Winnipeg on Wednesday and turned out to be an absolute sweetheart.
The former leader of The Pixies is not an effusive man. A bald, bulging fellow in a black western shirt and brown pants, he looks more likely to muscle you out of a diner booth than give you a hug.
But seeing as his groundbreaking old band never made it to this corner of the continent, he indulged a capacity crowd at Le Rendez-Vous by playing eight Pixies songs as part of a very loud and often transcendent set by his current band, The Catholics.
To the Winnipeg audience, this was a generous gift, because Black could have chosen more material from the eclectic Catholics' sizable but relatively obscure repertoire of country-rock and cow-punk numbers.
Instead, Black and his four-piece Catholics -- bass, drums, guitar/pedal steel and a Randy Rhoads soundalike on lead guitar -- kicked off the show with Where Is My Mind?, the Pixies number better known to pop-culture junkies from the closing scene in Brad Pitt's Fight Club. They also blasted their way down memory lane with Mr. Grieves, Gouge Away, Crackity Jones and Monkey Gone To Heaven, all from The Pixies' 1989 classic Doolittle, plus Cactus from Surfer Rosa and both Nimrod's Son and The Holiday Song from debut EP Come On Pilgrim. Tellingly, Black ignored the last two Pixies albums, Trompe Le Monde and Bossanova.
But this was not just nostalgia night for the aging college-rock set. Black also polished a few gems from his post-Pixies career, including Los Angeles from his solo debut, Headache from Teenager Of The Year, and both the troubadourish Robert Onion and Hermaphroditos from the Catholics' 2000 album Dog In The Sand.
Given their surprising volume and relentless pacing, Frank Black & The Catholics delivered as much bluster as a metal band, even when they slowed down the pace for mellower roots-rock numbers.
After a long standing ovation, they led off an encore with a countryish version of Dirty Old Town, the Celtic folk song penned by Ewan MacColl and popularized by The Pogues, progressively turning the tune into another punk song.
Black ended the night with a songs from his pair of new albums: The reworked Pixies instrumental Velvety, from The Devil's Workshop; and The Black Rider, the Tom Waits cover that bookends Black Letter Days.
Anyone who showed up expecting to see a shell of a former alternarock icon would and should have been blown away. At the end of the night, even the five guys on stage seemed surprised by what they'd accomplished. Before Black, ex-Pixies drummer David Lovering primed the audience with a short series of goofy pseudoscientific tricks that included illuminating a pickle with electrodes and blowing smoke rings across the hall.
Southern Ontario's Tangiers, one of the more likable new bands to revive the choppy late '70s sounds of Richard Hell and the rest of his proto-punk ilk, opened the show.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
My 2 cents: Thought it was a pretty good review, but i would have given the show a 5 out of 5 (but i'm a bit biased.)
favorite quotes from the article "Catholics' sizable but relatively obscure repertoire of country-rock and cow-punk numbers."-i've never heard the term cow-punk before but really like it.
"Frank Black & The Catholics delivered as much bluster as a metal band, even when they slowed down the pace for mellower roots-rock numbers."
|
|
Topic Locked
