Festivalitis
16 07 2008Soooooo, where were we ? hummm… let’s refresh our little but sophisticated neurons: Stockholm and Moscow were the last ones, right ? And we were guests to about 10 more countries during the fall club tour.
I’ll let you revisit the past if you don’t mind. I always find the present and the future much more challenging… and attractive. Even though lessons from history are always needed to evolve…and maybe, probably even, become better.
No no no. No sentimentalism or « paternalism » please.
You know by now, if you’ve been following us carefully (as any human being would do for something they really find attractive, groovy, deep, funky, clever and sexy – aka a band named dEUS) the feelings, the ups and downs, the plans, the configurations, the eccentricity, the electricity, the joy and sometimes the deep downs of a life on tour.
Downs, luckily, were never based on human and/or personal crisis, but the results of touring in sometimes difficult conditions that were not always, hum, how can I say, foreseen by the management, the booking company, the crew…or the band itself. There were very few of these moments, indeed. Very.
Joys and ups, well, you were there, you shared those unique moments with us. Let’s not forget that it’s you, the audience, that allows dEUS to express themselves on stage. And gives a true meaning to it all.
As Tom said on the previous podcast, I don’t think they did any bad shows, either. I’ll go further than he does, I honestly think they still preserve and deliver the standard of quality you should expect from them. Delivering magic moments, unique ambiguity, as well as sometimes controlled chaos… and musical poetry.
But right now we’re sitting on a plane, flying over Athens, and on this one, I have a problem, and a serious one: I didn’t do any podcast over the last (and first four) festivals shows.
But, why do you make us read this then, are u gonna ask me ? And, more importantly, why didn’t you do anything ?
Hum, tough one.
Let me think.
Well, I could have gotten you some damn cool funny interviews with, for instance, our good old friend the unique Arno, when we met him in Belfort. But he had a difficult show (power broke down twice, guitarist was missing…) and I am sure we would have talked and laughed about it, in three or four different languages even, but… by the time I was done with my day job -it is still the reason I’m here, mixing the band…- he was gone.
Same story with my good friend Jim White (who I toured with briefly in the past for the cool Bill Callahan alias Smog), and currently drumming with the wonderful Chan Marshall aka Cat Power (what a beautiful gig it was, just before us, at les EurokĂ©ennes – dear readers, tell me you agree with me on this, please). I was planning to let you enjoy his unique OZ accent, his big laughs, his views on dEUS etc… and we would have probably talked about the dirty three, of course. And, as we were due to meet Warren Ellis the next day as he was playing the Werchter festival with Grinderman, I would have asked him the same questions. And, you know, done some kind of a cross interview, if you see what I mean. And Beck. And Massive attack. And Tim Vanhamel. And all the other nice people/bands we met during the first 4 festivals we did.
But, strangely, it did not happen.
Yesterday we spent the day -under 42 degrees Celsius, the good old Greek gODS must have been happy in their gigantic dreamy tombs- at the Rockwave festival (if you follow closely you should know by now that it’s in …Athens). I wanted to interview the Gossip, but they left right after their show. Not an impressive one between us.
I was excited (and so was everybody in the band actually, we’re still music lovers who were teenagers in the mid/ end eighties) to see and interview the punk diva, the legend (and the punk picture of tits, if you remember well those days !) who is: Siouxsie…but the show was so horrible that I didn’t feel like even trying after the gig. Sorry Siouxsie, we know and greatly respect (and sometimes love) who you are but it was so pathetic… it hurt.
Same with the only original remaining Ramones, Marky Ramone (and true hero of both my kids, hey ho let’s go is the first music sentence young kids really seem to love and remember: true genius) and talk about his views on Phil Spector’s current affairs ha ha ha, his very nice spoken words, his life as a Ramone…and as a Marky Ramone, and why not as producer of the…next dEUS album ha ha ha (joke, but he was a hell of a producer in the Richard Hell/Voivoids times), etc… but again, his show was simply… the worst tribute/cover band gig of the Ramones you could think of…
Another Pathetico moment under the burning sun of the Athenian gODZ.
And the guitarist of the Offspring seems like a cool guy, as he was reading his book all day and watching every band from the stage but sorry, his music doesn’t touch me, and I didn’t really have anything to say or ask him.
And that was it. For yesterday anyway. So I hope you understand that sometimes the line up and/or the situations are not always in my favor to operate and deliver something that I think is worth it.
But I will be back in the very near future with real podcasts.
Ones that you deserve. I hope.
BUT, in the mean time, I have asked the band the permission to let you enjoy the first 20 minutes of the Werchter gig. Filmed in situ. No tricks, no big production, not edited, sound straight from the board.
A lot, of course, has been said about the gig in the local press.
I didn’t read them as we were gone the next day, but I can tell you that it was a damn good dEUS gig. A real one. Based on the most current affair: « Vantage point ».
And, NO, it wasn’t a festival pleaser gig. No, the set-list wasn’t made to get 80.000 people dance and sing along. But to listen to. To get into it. To feel the vibe and actually, well, simply and consequently: listen to the music.
Isn’t it what truly matters. Even after four days of lack of sleep, rain, sunshine, burned burgers and greasy chips for the audience? I love to think so.
And I do.
So, here you go, you have it.
Hope that the people who were there will come by sometimes and revitalize the moment.
Hope that the people who were not there will watch it, enjoy it… and get into it…and see you in another field near your Mum’s breakfast, or daddy’s car…or secret lover’s joint.
Next stop, Dublin: who knows, maybe this time they will play « Little Arithmetics ».
Who knows…
gOD knows.
Hope you’re OK.
Vp.
dEUS - Rock Werchter 2008 (official live footage) [22:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
dEUS - Rock Werchter 2008 - Slow (official live footage): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download dEUS - Rock Werchter 2008 - Oh Your God (official live footage): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download dEUS - Rock Werchter 2008 - Instant Street (official live footage): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download dEUS - Rock Werchter 2008 - Fell Off The Floor, Man (official live footage): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
quite a crazy read, this !!
I was at les eurock, to see dEUS and Cat Power and Arno…
Arno had two power breakdowns ? i thought they were searching for the escaping guitarist twice while drinking some.. Still, the bassist did a good job
Cat Power was indeed pure magic. she even waved at me.. erm, us.. and Jim White (didn’t know him) was one fantastic drummer to the best, most sincere Cat Power show ever. I entered the backstage to find her , but got misled by Arno’s STARDUST tourbus thinking it was hers..
dEUS were madness, we yelled “BelgiĂ«” at the end, how confused we were after 1,5 hours of pogo and oldies crazyness – pure magic that concert, better than Berlin, 0110 or any live dEUS I had seen before..
I’m still high on those two gigs ever since
Thank you for a great gig. Flying all the way to Belgium, for the opportunity to see dEUS in their homeland was f*ing worth it (okay, so the festival itself helped too).
Great vibe, great sound, great set.
Thank you.
dEUS: een stukje Antwerpen in hartje Rome.
Woensdag 16 juli 2008: Cavea Auditorium.
Na de openingszin “Siamo di Anversa- Belgio” en een grappige opmerking over de schoenen van de bandleden die ongewoon goed zichtbaar zijn voor het publiek vanop de tribune, kan de show beginnen met “Slow”. Mijn 10 jarige zoon was superontgoocheld want had direkt “The Architect” verwacht als opener. Kinderen hè, ze moeten het nog leren om geduld op te brengen….Net als gewoonlijk tijdens de live shows van dEUS hier in Rome, passeren de klassiekers”Instant Street”, ” Roses”, Suds&Sodas, “Theme from Turnpike” the revue, ze kunnen het niet laten om die songs keer op keer weer van op stal te halen ….en ik ben daar altijd reuze dankbaar voor…can’t get enough of it too! Hoe dan ook de mannen waren in good shape, ook al was Tom zijn stem niet altijd even stemvast en had Mauro blijkbaar last van een hoestje, hoe dan ook chapeau voor het aangename gezelschap. Het was allemaal redelijk intiem, aangezien het totale publiek uit ongeveer 2000 man bestond en het Auditorium van architect Renzo Piano (zie link http://www.auditorium.com) absoluut meehielp om deze knusse sfeer op te wekken. dEUS in Rome betekende ook menselijkheid, geen 80000 grote mensenmasse zoals op Werchter, geen horden fans die liggen te drummen, maar spijtig genoeg ook geen merchandising. Hier in Rome behoort dEUS nog tot een “niche “, muziek voor geoefende oortjes en muzikale fijnproevers en lekkerbekken. Vooral Italiaanse 30-somethings die naar Radio Rock luisteren en Rolling Stone lezen, ze kunnen er ook niet aan doen dat hier geen Humo te verkrijgen is, anders zouden ze wel weten wat kiezen. DEUS in Rome was een speciaaltje : het publiek mocht meedansen op het podium, je kon napraten met de bandleden, ja waarom niet samen op de foto, op zo’n momenten ben ik blij dat ik hier woon. Superspeciaal was de cover van „Supernaturally“, was me dat een knaller, een kippevelmoment ondanks de broeierige temperatuur. Nick Cave had die song op 1 juni jongsleden hier in Rome zelf nog met zijn Bad Seeds gebracht, Ă©Ă©n van de hoogtepunten van hun show en ja ook toen was ik erbij en ik keek er naar….
Note to oneself: niet vergeten STEVEN de TM Assistant te bedanken voor de vriendelijkheid en het geduld om ervoor te zorgen dat zoonlief aan een handtekening zou geraken. Ik heb er niet aan gedacht om een frisse pint of „gelato“aan te bieden om hem te bedanken (shame on me!!!), hoe dan ook volgende keer beter, wie weet als ik nog eens naar mijn thuisbasis vlieg en met een echte Belgische pint kan trakteren…kwestie van de Belgische economie wat te sponseren…
Om de woorden van Tom Barman te gebruiken: MILLE GRAZIE! Complimenti!
la W, de Wilrijkse geit live from the hills of Rome
Ps: English version: to cut a long story short some keywords to identify the nature of the dEUS concert in Rome on Wednesday the 16th of July:” Anversa-Belgio”-great shoes-nice outfit (Mauro could fit right away in an Addams Family reunion)-groupie in a white t-shirt shaking tits and bum as best as she can to get Mauro a hard-on -amazing covers “Serpentine” and Nick Cave’s “Supernaturally” – a concert with a human touch- fans dancing on stage- fans actually talking to the members of the band- fans taking pictures with their favourite musician-fans all over the place singing Suds&Soda along- no merchandising- every time I hear the lyrics of ” TheArchitect ” it makes me smile, witty lines, maybe about the plan to build a new bridge over the river Schelde by some megalomaniac architect, who knows?!- note to myself: next time I fly home need to buy a drink to STEVEN the TM Assistant –“mille grazie-to be continued…….
la W, Wilrijk-Belgium-Rome-Italy
werchter was fantastisch. na 4 dagen aanmodderen leefde ik bij dEUS weer helemaal op, om naderhand op de camping in te storten. Ik word er te oud voor
Heb nog enerverende discussies gehad over dEUS bij de wasbakken, waar idd de mening heerste dat er te veel nieuw spul werd gespeeld. voor mij was het echter een zalig optreden. en nu live versies! thanks!:D
al is het wel een teaser, en als verwaand deelneemster van de internetgeneratie zou ik natuurlijk de hele registratie willen zien… ach ja, je geeft een vinger ..
Loved dEUS ever since Worst Case Scenario and the Werchter gig was the best I ever saw. It made 4 days of junk food and lousy sleeping worth while. So don’t pay attention to what the press and teenagers who only know dEUS from their hits.
Will be there in Vorst too and know for sure that next time they pass in Rome I will be there too, together with La Vikinga (and according to her Steven the TM assistent is a cute guy. So if he’s in Antwerp somewhere in August, let us know and we’ll buy him a beer)
dEUS gig at Werchter was – pardon me, the SHIT! I enjoyed every tiny moment of it and it is my personal highlight of the festival. Still got marks all over my mind/soul, so damn intense it was. Thank you for the footage, thank you for keeping us close to you, I will see you guys in Romania on the seaside at Stufstock Festival and hopefully on other many many gigs to come.
vp, thanks for the podcast. you’re always welcomed in romania and especially in 3 weeks at their concert.
I completely subscribe to what Tzontzi said. Thank you for letting us relive the magic!
See you at Stuf, hope you will like it there! We sure will.
la W alias la vikinga wrote:
Superspeciaal was de cover van „Supernaturally“, was me dat een knaller, een kippevelmoment ondanks de broeierige temperatuur. Nick Cave had die song op 1 juni jongsleden hier in Rome zelf nog met zijn Bad Seeds gebracht, één van de hoogtepunten van hun show en ja ook toen was ik erbij en ik keek er naar….
dEUS covering Nick Cave?
T is toch vrij bekend dat Tom Barman een grote van is van Nick Cave en ik veronderstel (of reken op hun goede smaak =p) dat de rest van de bandleden Nick Cave ook wel goed vindt. Ik vind het niet direct zo’n verassing …
Als iemand een bootleg heeft van dat nummer ..; Share it!
Mistake in my English version
“Serpentine” is no cover at all, as long as you don’t think about it as “dEUS covers Barman”;-) No kidding, lyrics and music of this amazing song are written by Tom Barman himself.(cd Tom Barman and Guy Nueten Live). Sorry for this huge mistake but….. ‘I’m only human, of flesh and blood I’m made, human, born to make mistakes;-)
@Johan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VI71huDQd8, nope niet de bootleg versie, maar wel Barman-Cave intervieuw, twee vliegen in 1 klap.
Your performance in Athens was fantastic!!!!! I really enjoyed the show and I’m sure many other people did.But you didn’t have the audience you deserved.
The audience consisted of 16 year-old braindead kids who wanted to watch the Offspring,so they didn’t pay attention to the other bands and not all of your fans were there,so don’t feel like you weren’t good,or you didn’t do your best.
I only went to watch you and Siouxsie and you were great!
Did you mentioned something about visiting us again in October?
I will definitely come and see you for one more time.
Much love from sunny Greece:)