Gang of Four @ Avalon Hollywood
Gang of Four was playing at Hollywood last Friday. Avalon is a great place for livehouse concert. Have to admit I was a bit shock by the balding, greying hair crowd. ^^;; It is different to see mass of them in a stadium live from a livehouse. Especially right after the first two opening acts (Men, Women and Children - a group of 16 years old looking british kids and Morningwood - female lead rock n' roll band), all the scattering 20-something crowd suddenly get swarmed up by the 40s-50s core fans. I resided on the side line (but a golden spot) with the younger crowd but soon a beefy old guy kept pushing back and elbow me all night, argh!
When the band comes on with "To Hell with Poverty", I heard murmurs from the ojisans "my god they got so fat". ^^;;; But really the gangs have incredible energy. The vocal jump and dance around all night, but his voice was coarse and harsh, not as solid as in the new recordings. The drums and guitars are way louder and heavier and not as biting as their magnificent old days. But at least the performance doesn't have the 'stiffness' and 'overpolishnes' as the new album does. They went 'rage against the machine' when the vocal beat the crap out of a microwave with a baseball bat during "He’d Send in the Army". "Not Great Men" felt a bit stale. The highlight performance for me were "At Home He’s a Tourist" and "What We All Want", they were really really awesome.
During the 2nd encore, the two opening bands came out and perforrmed "I Love a Man in a Uniform" together. It was then it struck me, my god they looked like granddaddies jamming with their grandchildren. ^^;;
So why the reunion? I would think in the wake of the recent post punk revival boom, they must be thinking why let the kids have all the fun...
I'm going to see Bauhaus this weekend @ Wiltern Theater (like Go4 they also reunited at this year's Coachella and now doing reunion tour). I wonder how it'd be like.
When the band comes on with "To Hell with Poverty", I heard murmurs from the ojisans "my god they got so fat". ^^;;; But really the gangs have incredible energy. The vocal jump and dance around all night, but his voice was coarse and harsh, not as solid as in the new recordings. The drums and guitars are way louder and heavier and not as biting as their magnificent old days. But at least the performance doesn't have the 'stiffness' and 'overpolishnes' as the new album does. They went 'rage against the machine' when the vocal beat the crap out of a microwave with a baseball bat during "He’d Send in the Army". "Not Great Men" felt a bit stale. The highlight performance for me were "At Home He’s a Tourist" and "What We All Want", they were really really awesome.
During the 2nd encore, the two opening bands came out and perforrmed "I Love a Man in a Uniform" together. It was then it struck me, my god they looked like granddaddies jamming with their grandchildren. ^^;;
So why the reunion? I would think in the wake of the recent post punk revival boom, they must be thinking why let the kids have all the fun...
I'm going to see Bauhaus this weekend @ Wiltern Theater (like Go4 they also reunited at this year's Coachella and now doing reunion tour). I wonder how it'd be like.