HW: December tour, various other bits...

[Keith Henderson]

Hoi zaeme....

OK, I'm slumming it a bit here in jolly ole' Ohio, aka the land of corn and toxic nuts (ie., buckeyes*), but managing to survive as a homeless person in America (not enough of those yet apparently), and now to boot without health insurance (only for another week).  Oh, and I haven't been paid since last December, but who's keeping track?  (At least I've still got money for beer...and wine occasionally.  Found a *real* Shiraz from Oz finally today.)

*Ha!  Losers!  PSU 17 OSU 10 :)

Anyway, none of that matters...most importantly, I've gotten to see some good concerts here in the states, including Circle (twice), once with Dead Meadow (a decent-enough stoner outfit), and then Queensryche (reprising their full Mindcrime multimedia show, which was nice to see), but then most importantly (and impressively) an *outf*ckingstanding* Porcupine Tree concert in Cleveland's House of Blues!  First off, what a great club!  Perfect semi-intimate size (but big enough for semi-major int'l known artists (maxing out around 1,000)), and nice big stage with high ceilings and modern, hi-tech lighting gear permanently installed.  And then a great big whopping powerful sound system to blow your socks off.  And PTree, 2005 edition, is the right band to do just that!  They even played some unexpected things this time, including Don't Hate Me (from Stupid Dream), Radioactive Toy (ancient), and some non-album tracks from more recent days.  Robert Fripp (doing ambient soundscapes, which
 are nice, but don't have much impact in a live, "bar-type" setting) was the opener.

Oh, so now I'm working on my schedule for November-December, back in Europe, and now I can't find the intended Hawkwind dates in the UK!  What's up with that?  I know there were once five (semi)confirmed dates for the December mini-tour, but I didn't see them at MC and Dave Law only has Manchester and London-Astoria down as confirmed.  I know there's to be a show in Stoke-on-Trent and two others somewhere, but have forgotten where and when.  What's up?  Is there something I missed?  Anyway, I'll for sure be at the Astoria gig (it's an annual tradition now that I won't give up on just yet) and (I hope) at least at one other show 'cause the Astoria is not my favorite place acoustically-speaking.  So, because I'd like to make travel plans soon, can somebody tell me what the dates are (supposed) to be?  Thanks for that!

Thanks, Jon, for the nice Litmus/UZ review...wish I wuz there.  I guess I won't be going to the Gong Unconvention next weekend, because a. I can't get there in time from Amsterdam prolly and b. Litmus isn't playing, but I would like to hear them play Dynamite live if you can encourage them to keep that in the set (maybe I'll be in London on 13.Nov for the Amon Duul 2/Nik/Litmus gig...maybe not). But, thanks to some fortunate planet alignment, I might just get to see the Ozrics, Los Natas, Motorhead, Birth Control, Anyone's Daughter, iQ, and Van der Graaf Generator in Germany and Holland between Oct. 22 and Nov. 5.  Not a bad set of dates.  Then Porcupine Tree end up coming to Switzerland in November, so I'll catch them again once or twice.

OH...I almost forgot...does anybody have the CD by Daevid Allen called "Australia Aquaria"?  I just bought a shrink-wrapped 2CD package with this disc (supposedly) and Mother Gong's Wild Child, but my copy only had one CD in it (the latter)...other tray was empty...spotters!  I bought it out of town, so I can't return it.  If someone has this CD and can burn me a copy and send it to me, I would be much appreciative and I'd send you something in return.

Um...for American SpaceRock fans, you might be interested to know that Sky Cries Mary are officially back in business (with a lineup nearly the same as before), and they have a new 2CD live package out which I just heard for the first time last night, and it's great!  Excellent recording, excellent performance, and a great selection of tunes from their entire career.  It's called Here and Now, and is available from their website at www.skycriesmary.com.  Commercial over....

Well, not yet.  Anyone who likes old-style krautrock needs to get ahold of the original Kollektiv recordings...holy, sh*t is this stuff good!  The CD I got is self-titled, on some obscure Russian label, but I think it's really the album called SWF Sessions Vol. 5, which means that there's another self-titled Kollektiv CD out there that I don't have yet.  (Who's got it?!)  Anyway, the SWF one is just brilliant, and anyone who likes Agitation Free, or anything from Germany in that era (Out of Focus, Kraan, etc.) will *love* this stuff.  (Note that ~15 years later, some members got together with jazz fusion bassist Jonas Hellborg and made another Kollektiv CD, but this is nothing like the original.)

See ya' all later (some of you at the Astoria...party this year?), and everyone root for die Schweiz against whomever they face in the upcoming playoffs (either Turkey, Spain, or Czech Rep....we'll need it!)

Ciao...Grakkl

P.S.  Korai Orom's new album should be out by now (www.korai.hu), and that other great Ozrics-like band from Budapest that I told you about last year, TanuTuva (www.soundfreedom.org I think) now has their debut CD about ready (check out the MP3s in the meantime), so check those out if you can.  Perhaps Jerry K. at A-I.com will eventually carry these discs for US fans at some point (no guarantees).


---------------------------------
 Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.