Off Topic The Review Thread

My review of The Psychedelic Furs plus Lene Lovich

https://riserdrummer.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/the-psychedelic-furs-london-2017/

The Psychedelic Furs, London 2017

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Last Saturday was a date long-awaited in my calendar: the welcome return of The Psychedelic Furs to London after five long years. Their Singles tour has taken in nine UK cities, as well as dates in Europe, South America, and an extensive US road trip. Pretty much every date in the UK has sold out. and that’s without a new album to advertise or anything crassly commercial like that.

Nope – this was a tour for music fans, by music fans, delivering happiness, dancing, singing and memories both on-stage and off.

I’ll come to the headliners in a moment, but first, a few thoughts about the support.

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I want to know who booked Lene Lovich so I can shake their hand. As support, the choice of music’s maddest act was inspired. Lene and her band played a set of familiar and not-so-familiar tunes to an audience who literally lapped up every note. Just the same now as she was back in the early 80s, Lene Lovich still hits the highest of high notes with a style and a smile all her own. The audience loved her, and the platform for the main act was firmly set.

Then came the Furs. And boy, did they deliver.

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Rarely will you see a band so together. Fronted by the brilliantly eclectic Richard Butler, whose vocals and physical presence on stage mesmerises, The Psychedelic Furs are – in my eyes and ears at least – the very definition of the perfect gigging band. There’s the rock-solid rhythm section of Tim Butler on bass and my friend, the awesome Paul Garisto on drums. These two threw down a firm foundation for the three melodious ones, all of whom I could write paragraphs about. Rich Good‘s guitar work is effortless perfection, Amanda Kramer‘s keyboard work is so spot on that it hurts when she stops, and there’s very little I can say about Mars Williams‘ sax playing that could possibly do his genius enough justice.

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Starting with Dumb Waiter and running through to a second encore with President Gas, we called in at all the familiar stops, spanning a career that has seen their fan base grow and grow. All the favorites were there, including Mr Jones, Heartbreak Beat, Heaven, India, and – naturally – Pretty In Pink.

However, a mere track listing wouldn’t reflect the sheer exuberance and joy coming off the stage. The Psychedelic Furs really do have to be seen to be believed.

I attended the gig with my brother (to whom I introduced The Furs back in 2012) and an old friend Pete, who has actually written his memoirs around gigs he’s attended. given there are many, many hundreds to measure against, when he turned to me at the end and simply mouthed “How awesome was THAT!”, you knew you’d been there at a special time.

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I managed to catch up with Paul and Richard after the gig, and both confirmed what I thought – they had had such a good time, and were still on a buzz from the show. Paul particularly was amazingly relaxed and happy, and said that he’d not felt so comfortable and chilled at a gig for ages. It certainly showed in his playing.

Next time I’ll bring my copy of Talk Talk Talk for Richard to sign. Thankfully – according to him – this will hopefully not be too far away, as they are already starting to discuss a return trip to the UK. When they do coma back, get your tickets early, because The Psychedelic Furs really will be the hottest show in town.

 

I visited my local liquor store at lunchtime today to look at a few of those wines and their product expert confirmed that the Barolo wines were incorrectly classified on their website as "Red Table Wines-Hungary", when as you indicated they indeed hail from Italy. He indicated that the cheapest one at $35.29 was very good and would be quite comparable to Châteauneuf du Pape,

• Batasiolo Barolo DOCG 750ml
• UPC #632738100013
• Red Table Wines-Hungary
• Retail Price: $35.29

In the end I decided on:-

• Heritage Cotes du Rhone 750ml
• UPC #714320135006
• Red Table Wines-France
• Retail Price: $18.49

also two bottles of this quite well reviewed Portugese Alzira Vinho Verde on clearance sale - really cheap:-

• Alzira 750ml
• UPC #5601815511719
• Port-Portugal
• Retail Price: $9.66
• In Warehouse: 0

https://www.vivino.com/wineries/alzira/wines/vinho-verde-branco-2013

 

Just back from Tayyabs in Whitechapel , three of us, best curry I've had in a long time, byo and £50 later perfect, I would highly recommend. Lamb chops, mmm can't wait to go back

 

Actually having looked at the exchange rate C$35 isn't a bad price for a decent Barolo, go for it.

 

Sounds delicious, I love good curried dishes served with nan bread,

 

Just watched a Horizon programme about the end of the Cassini mission to probe Saturn. There were some individuals who had spent as much as 27 years on the project and they had all gathered together to watch the probe end its 'life'. The conclusion was oddly moving and reminiscent of the closing scenes of Silent Running, probably in my top ten films.

 

I’ll try and catch that when I get back. Probably for the politics thread, but contrast this commitment to what the BBC described as a ‘marathon’ cabinet meeting to read May’s speech for Florence, which weighed in at a full two and a half hours.

 

Presumably also destined to burn up in an alien atmosphere...?

 

Just watching the Later......25 Years Show from the Albert Hall. Good line up, so good I decided to watch this instead of MOTD. Finishing with a great performance of Gloria by Van Morrison (72). But the whole show was good, lots of real musicians of various styles playing properly live. Nice. I used to watch Later.....regularly, but have fallen out of the habit, might get back into it, usually has someone good and familiar and sometimes something great I’d never heard of before.

 

Got that recorded. There was a kind of 'best of Later' on last night which was pretty good, too.

 

Did anyone watch the BBC adaptation of The Child In Time last night? If so, could you explain it to me, please?

 

Completely lost me pal, when it finished me n the missus looked at each other and went "What the ****?"....

 

Ask your mate tED, I'm sure he knew what was going on.

 

Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen film. Amusing and playful and Marion Cottillard has now stolen my heart. She is sensational. There's a great scene when the protagonist meets Dali, Bunuel and Man Ray in a Parisian bar and tries to explain his predicament to the surrealists. There are also many other scenes.

 

I can highly recommend the new album by Samsonite Suitcase
It’s called I just made this UP

 

Once I saw the words ‘Benedict’ and ‘Cumberbatch’ associated with it, I quickly realised it would be some sort of pretentious, tedious ****e and hit the ‘steer clear’ button on my manbrator.

 

Today at the govt liquor store I spoke to their products expert/sommelier and asked his opinion of Barolo versus Châteauneuf du Pape with him - his opinion was that the Barolo was a more tannic robust wine in comparison and mentioned that a wine from an adjoining vineyard in Piedmont produced a very similar wine as Barolo using the same grape variety for C$15/bottle less that he considered extremely good value for money. He said this wine hits above it's retail price, whilst the Barolo was on par - there is also another Batasiolo Barolo @ C$62.99 with an even greater multitude of tannic flavours. Apparently these high tannin wines can be laid down for years in a wine cellar - the higher the tannin, the longer they keep.

Of course, like the Barolo the idiots also list it under Red Wines of Hungary on their website

• Langhe DOC Nebbiolo 750ml

• UPC #632738100099

• Red able Wines-Hungary

• Retail Price: C$20.49

• In Warehouse: 0

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Availabilty by Store
City....................................................................Bottles in Stock
Caraquet 20 D boul. St. Pierre Ouest Caraquet 18
Edmundston 575 ch. Victoria Road Edmundston 7
Fredericton - centre Corbett center 18 avenue Trinity Avenue, Unit F-3 Fredericton 9
Miramichi - rue Pleasant Street 227 Rue Pleasant Street Miramichi 4
Moncton - boul. Vaughan Harvey Blvd. 53 boul. Vaughan Harvey Blvd. Moncton 16
Moncton North / Nord 1780 chemin Mountain Road Moncton 12
Oromocto 375 chemin Miramichi Road Oromocto 11
Tracadie-Sheila 884 rue du Développement Tracadie-Sheila 5

• Batasiolo Barolo DOCG Bussia 750ml
  
  • UPC #632738100174
  • Red Table Wines-Hungary
  • Retail Price: $62.99
  • In Warehouse: 156

 

Nebbiolo is a very good wine and excellent value in certain forms. Next time you are in, or on the website, see if they can find a bottle of Inferno - (Valtellina Superiore, sometimes a blend, but usually a Nebbiolo) a fierce red grown on the south facing slopes of the Alps north of Lake Como in Lombardy, which became my house red when I lived in Milan over 25 years ago. I have never found it in the U.K., at least not in a shop.

Aside from Barolo and Inferno, the Nebbiolo grape is also the source of Barbaresco, another serious drink. These wines are worth aging, and drinking with a clean palate (ie don’t open the bottle half pissed on something else).

Wine is a fascinating and incredibly complex and tasty subject. I am an ignoramus in general, but my very limited specialist subject on which I claim ‘wine ****er’ status are the reds of north west Italy. Because I used to buy them in the supermarket when I lived there,

 

Not really a review because I wasn’t there, but I have read several reviews of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds concert at the Manchester Arena. Sounds like it was brilliant, with Nick engaging with the audience in typically direct ways - when hearing praise for his purple socks, he responded “I’m all for freedom of speech and all that , but shut the **** up”

What pisses me off is that I wanted to go to this, but it was flagged as sold out. Turns out the 21,000 seater arena (not ideal for Nick Cave) had large sections curtained off and plenty of empty seats in the open areas. Bastards.

 

We went to a Greek/Irish wedding yesterday, which was brilliant fun. There was a Greek band doing all the traditional stuff, followed by an Irish band doing likewise. It seemed to get a bit competitive, which made me think that it could be a Saturday night TV concept. 'Culture Clash' - two nations parade the best of their culture, competing for viewers votes. Danny Baker would do it.