The Tokyo Concert Experience

Near the end of the show, Tomas Lindberg lead vocalist of At The Gates, asked the audience if they liked death metal. As expected the answer was a roaring approval from the crowd at the venue. In response Lindberg said “We At The Gates, we don’t like death metal…” He then turned his back and shrugged his shoulders. People in the audience reacted in disbelief, fainted heckles were heard. You know what’s next, closed fist in the air and Lindberg shouting at the mic: “we love death metal!” Out of context this exchange might sound corny or cheesy, it was nothing but. Devoid of cynicism and irony, when it has the goods to back it up, like At the Gates does, a metal live show will provide you with a couple of hours of bliss. You just have to be in that moment. This concert was the perfect example of that. That exchange was followed by a blistering rendition of Kingdom Come from their first album The Red in the Sky Is Ours, one of many goosebumps moments in the show. Goosebumps w...

My favorite Roxy Music song is Remake/Remodel. In the last part of the song each member plays a two bar solo alternating after a two bars repetition of the main riff. The humorous approach of this section is unlike the relentless plodding of the rest of the song. The sax plays a simple line, the guitar plays what it sounds like an intro to a 50’s rock number, but the piano and the keyboards go to a different place. Eno’s modular synths embrace the technological and “futuristic” sound that you will normally associate with synthesizers of the knob-turning, patch-patching variety. Technology is a key element in Nils Frahm’s performance. The first thing you notice when you walk into the venue is the massive amount of equipment displayed on stage. There are at least two pianos, a Fender Rhodes, analog synthesizers, digital synthesizers, a Mellotron (a Mellotron!!) and even a toy piano, among many others I couldn’t possibly identify. In the liner notes of his latest album All Melo...

In the simplest of terms music can be defined as the combination of melody, harmony and rhythm. I don’t know if I agree with that, but I bring it up just to emphasize how difficult it is to achieve this just with percussion instruments. I have a little bit of experience with that, I used to play the drums myself in my teens and received complains about noise countless times. Konono No. 1 is most definitely an experimental band, but they don’t make noise music. On stage they make an infectious groove with five percussion instruments, without a single guitar or keyboard. Well, I guess the likembe is a thumb piano, though. Their arresting minimalistic sound was exposed to the rest of the world In 2005, when the first album of the Congotronics series was released. Between them, Kasai All Stars and a compilation including other artists, there have been seven releases in the series so far, all highly recommended. Having suffered the horrible setback of losing their founder and...