Grilled Dark Sleeves on the menu - 18/4/2014 - Lamma Grill

by Nick the Bookman

Death. Good One! That'll get their attention. It's been (always) on my mind recently. The departures of Dick (opening day of Clockenflap 2014), Sue (three days before Xmas) and, most recently, Linda (on Good Friday). That's a big hit rate for our small island, especially in a brief timespan. Sadness results from X, the statistical probability number, nestled in/on the cusp/node of Frequency versus Compression. And if you're synaesthetic, imagine what that would sound like. Threnodious comes to mind. If such a neologism didn't exist before, it does now. (What the FUCK are you on about?).

Go away, other voice in my head. I was musing about death. Days drawing shorter. Endless night implacably approaching. Serious vibes from the End Times. Armageddon out of here! On the home front, Lena is recovering from a bad bout of flu/laryngitis. Fang and Jack are both on the far side of 18 in human years. My 20th Century dogs. Hell, tail end of the Second Millennium dogs! I've got high blood pressure, achy-breaky knees and I've stopped drinking again. For at least an indeterminate era. But Shit Happens! And Life Goes On...


...which is why I'm at the Lamma Grill for their 4th live gig. It's Dark Himaya (ladies first) opening for The Sleeves. Who've recently returned from a quick canter around the charming clubs and canteens of Cambodia. (I like alliteration). Probably not a completely truthful description. But, hey, they've willingly volunteered to take the vast sea voyage from Central to entertain us. So let me entertain you (unpaid obscure reference/plug for Robbie Williams is it?. Thank you for pointing that out, O.V), with this tale of them entertaining the 100 or so of you discerning music lovers, drinkers and family kin who were graceful enough to attend this Big Gig. Toppers of the Poppers are Caroline, James and Raj for being the Genial Hosts. They've upped the ante from the DJ gigs which were cool as well.

So lets Cut The Crap (The Clash's worst LP except for "This Is England") and "Hey, ho, let's go..." (The Ramone's opening statement of intent) and ...let me introduce to you... (The Beatles?, Flaming Lips? Jimi Hendrix? etc). Without further ado, it's Dark Himaya. Ivy on guitar. Aileen on keyboards (and all the bass riffage) and Matt on tasteful drums. It'll be my first complete experience of a Dark Himaya gig. Missed them on LFD and The Dickstock Memorial. Tardy behaviour on my part. They play their début release. It's a fine set. Kicking off with "Silent Protest" and "Cursed Muse" in a sort of proggy blues tempo. Big guitar strums and simple chords and a gently meandering keyboard excursion, delving into hints of classical organ, bits of honkytonk v barrelhouse, psyche folk... Aah, you were there. You know what you heard. The tempo doesn't change much over the next few songs. "Icarus" isn't on the album, but is a few years old. Then comes a lovely tribute to Sue. Her song "Sister" sparks some sad memories. Aileen says her music is up on Soundcloud (for free). Under Sue Shearman (which is her folkier stuff) and with New Tonic Press (her late blossoming rock chick inamorata. (Right word? Neologism? Sod off O.V.!).

Both of me will now stop squabbling for a moment while I plug http://www.mixcloud/nickthebook. Thanks to Jim (and Tamara) for setting up the site. There are six of my better CD mixes available for your pleasure. Number 48 is the favourite so far. Mainly, (I hope) due to the fact that Sue's rendition of "Something In The Water" - the last song she played at Lamma Fun Day 2014 - has pride of place among the other jewels in the mix. Malte's drums are awesome. Also, go to YouTube, type in lammafunday2014 and see Ewa's short film of that event. Sue is featured poignantly:


Back for more Dark Himaya. The two hidden tracks on their release are now played. "Morpheus Pal" and "Running To Lust" are given a good airing. Darren, who's Aileen's Other Half, says it's one of his favourites. I think Ivan (Ivy's Significant Other) quite possibly concurs. Matt takes his drumsticks for a stroll and a pail of ale. The girls shift through the gears and "Personal Demon", "Pia" and "Papercut" are the closest they get to rock(ing) and roll(ing) all night (xx!). Some of Aileen's keyboard passages remind me of "Catch Bull At Four" by Cat Stevens. Who is now Yusuf Islam. Doing mostly spiritual music these days. He's comfortable in the totality of his career and doesn't mind re-visiting some of his older alter ego material. Like "Mona Bone Jakem", "Tea For The Tillerman" and "Teaser And The Firecat". A fine starter. Meanwhile, Keith has snapped a few shots of the night for this story. We've had a mutual bonding over David Icke. Read "The Perception Deception" for a cosmic dissection of Life On Earth vs The One Percent. And a welcome to Lamma to Chris who's just moved here and lives above Stefan next to ArtLab. Enjoyed our chat the following day about D.I. For more conspiracy shit, see http://www.thealienterview.com, and the YouTube films "Thrive", "Zeitgeist" and "Loose Change". "Cosmos" on TVB at present is another must-see. If you want.

This is the fun/scary part of my writing. I've been trying to define my style. Scattershot? Funny? (hopefully). Educational. If you want). It's a sort of weird mix of reporting, reviewing, gossip, jokes, fun with words, fair comment from others, part blog, tangential... Generally good-natured except for the ritual abuse and slaughter of Stupidity, Venality, Totalitarianism (upcoming Sleeves plug). Including religious bigotry, fiscal malfeasance, blinkered viewpoints. Plus impending Apocalypse, etc. There's exaggeration and some... well, lost for words. I'm never sure how I end up from the start. I'm not even too sure who reads this stuff. I know a lot of people have appreciated the Linda tribute. Not my best (STET) work, but heartfelty in places and I was sniffling when I wrote the end. Glad you saw beyond the words to what her loss (individual and as a part of the human component of the Space Time Continuum) means. I guess The Golden Rule for Happiness is To Do One's Best To The Extent Of One's Means And Ability.

The Sleeves are a tight-knit Fourtet tonight. Keith on solid chops/rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Pete with all the swingy, bendy, rocky thrill runs up and down his guitar neck. Sinister Stu is solid foursquare superb on the bass. Slotting in seamlessly. Matt does some interesting tribal beats here and there on his fourskins. The set list includes powerful versions of "Stockholm", "Secret" (which is pretty in punk). Little rhythms writhing and spiralling out into the ozone. "Totalitarian Love Song" which echoes some of the themes touched on in this review-cum-?. There's "Walking With The Devil" which conjures up Robert Johnson meets Johnny Winter in kinky occult fashion. And to end is my fave rave. Yes, it's something (mumble) "...Museum". Keith gives me another shout-out for "always writing nice things about the band". I love the way Pete's guitar solo runs up the neck of the guitar. An increasing crescendo, which reminds me of both the organ intro to "Death Walks Behind You" by Atomic Rooster and the synth breakdown across the entire spectrum of the keyboard on Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein". Plus trenchant lyrics. Always a rare pleasure to enjoy your performances my friends. Oops, almost forget to thank Gareth and his techie crew for building the playspace and mixmastering the levels to sonic precision/pleasure levels.

And so the tale ends. The band made the ferry home. The fans slowly dwindled away. No one got hurt, that I'm aware of. Another good night among many on Lamma. Music is a fine medium for merry-ising melancholia. Almost done now. Quick mention of Lee who borrowed my notebook to write a rather good poem about the 21st Century. It's by Pete Docherty. Former Libertine. Manic and drug addled BabyShambler. Former beau of Kate Moss. And recurring Libertine. Sample lyrics/words include the opening stanza of "Listen hard and close. Why are you so morose? Did you take an overdose to the winner's post?... some of us are from Venus, some of us are from Mars (something, something, something) some of us hang out in bars". So, a snippetty titillation to end on. Sometimes it's really difficult to reach the final countdown to the finale fitting phrase.

Ah, fuck it. "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Which isn't literal from any of Star Trek and its many iterations. But, it's snappy. Like an alligator sandwich. "Set course for the second star on the right and straight onto til morning." That's sort of more Star Trek. Borrowed from Peter Pan. The Boy Who Never Grew Up. Or Old. A Dystopian Future that one. No Fun in Being The Last Gunslinger In Town. Or The Last Dope Freak (i.e. HST) with no one left to play with... But that's not Lamma. The next Party is coming. Jane and Mike, aka Songs For Children, have announced that Happy Mondays are coming to town. The "Mancy Baggers" are to bring their ecstatic brand of funk rock to the Rotunda at KITEC on 28/7/2015. There may be Pills. There will be Thrills. And Bellyaching from those who don't get a ticket. See you on the frontlines. And "Live Long And Prosper"...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.