Tony L
Administrator
At approximately 10:05pm yesterday evening Damo Suzuki gave me an orange. Here is the orange
This life changing event took place in the unlikely location of a Yates wine bar in Wrexham.
Over the past few years Damo has set up the Damo Suzuki Network (see www.damosuzuki.de), this is a network of musicians from across the world who will back him in totally improvised performances. This to my mind is an absurdly good idea it basically means that Damo can play pretty much anywhere in the world with whatever members of the Network are local to the venue. Last night it was the turn of a band called Manchuko who would appear to be local to Wrexham.
Manchuko started by playing a set of their own stuff, it came across as pretty competent but somewhat generic post rock. After they had finished Damo appeared with a big bowl of fruit and went round the audience giving them out and generally being an incredibly friendly and decent guy a stated aim of the Network is to be a totally rock ego free zone, this was very evident throughout the procedings and so refreshing.
After Damo had taken a few very polite Japanese bows the band crashed into the first of three half hour slabs of improvisation. The music really gelled and just worked it became abundantly clear how powerful this method of composition is, and also shed a lot of light on how Can managed to produce so much incredible music. There were many points in the set where everything just locked into a incredibly clear and coherent groove, seriously good stuff. All totally unrehearsed and as a result totally fresh and exciting. If I ever take a guitar on stage again this is the way I will do it. After the last song had ended Damo went straight into the audience and shook everyones hand, he managed to totally break down the traditional barrier between band and audience. A unique and wonderful gig.
He is playing Bristol tonight and Leeds tomorrow with different musicians at each gig (details on his site), I strongly recommend seeing him.
Tony.
This life changing event took place in the unlikely location of a Yates wine bar in Wrexham.
Over the past few years Damo has set up the Damo Suzuki Network (see www.damosuzuki.de), this is a network of musicians from across the world who will back him in totally improvised performances. This to my mind is an absurdly good idea it basically means that Damo can play pretty much anywhere in the world with whatever members of the Network are local to the venue. Last night it was the turn of a band called Manchuko who would appear to be local to Wrexham.
Manchuko started by playing a set of their own stuff, it came across as pretty competent but somewhat generic post rock. After they had finished Damo appeared with a big bowl of fruit and went round the audience giving them out and generally being an incredibly friendly and decent guy a stated aim of the Network is to be a totally rock ego free zone, this was very evident throughout the procedings and so refreshing.
After Damo had taken a few very polite Japanese bows the band crashed into the first of three half hour slabs of improvisation. The music really gelled and just worked it became abundantly clear how powerful this method of composition is, and also shed a lot of light on how Can managed to produce so much incredible music. There were many points in the set where everything just locked into a incredibly clear and coherent groove, seriously good stuff. All totally unrehearsed and as a result totally fresh and exciting. If I ever take a guitar on stage again this is the way I will do it. After the last song had ended Damo went straight into the audience and shook everyones hand, he managed to totally break down the traditional barrier between band and audience. A unique and wonderful gig.
He is playing Bristol tonight and Leeds tomorrow with different musicians at each gig (details on his site), I strongly recommend seeing him.
Tony.
