DVD Review: What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf: Live at Cat’s Cradle

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

 

What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf: Live at Cat’s Cradle
Produced, directed and edited by Gorman Bechard
What Were We Thinking Films
88 minutes, 2011 / 2012
www.WhatDidYouExpectMovie.com
www.wwwtfilms.com
www.archersofloaf.net
www.mvdvisual.com

The 1990s was a good time for indie music. Just listen to Mary Lou Lord’s song from that period, “His Indie World,” and you’ll possibly think, “Oh, yeah, right.” One of the bands not mentioned in the song though, was the Archers of Loaf, hailing out of Ashville and Chapel Hill, NC.

Everybody seems to talk about how bad a band name it is, but what I never hear anyone say is that it’s actually the “badness” that first absorbs the attention of the listeners. In other words, people will remember the name better if it’s badder [sic].

Then

That being said, what the band is most memorable for is their music, of course. As director Gorman Bechard describes them on the DVD cover: “Archers of Loaf were the greatest indie rock band of the ‘90s. No one had more energy on stage. No one put out better records.” You might even say he is a fan (yeah, I’m bein’ a smartass).

The group formed in the early ‘90s, broke up in the late ‘90s, and reformed again for short tours (one of the band members refer to themselves as “weekend warriors”) in 2011, when this concert was filmed by seven pretty steady handheld cameras at the Cat’s Cradle, in Carrboro, NC, a mere few hours from their home turf.

Well, enough with the history lesson, let’s examine the documentary. Before anything, let me state that one of my pet peeves in concert footage is quick edits, I prefer slower and longer shots, to see what the band is doing musically (e.g., watching hands on frets). The tendency is to match the music to the edits, and with indie or punk bands, the inclination is to do extremely quick shots. For this film, the edits fall somewhere in the middle. Bechard uses medium length clips that are not gonna be flashing so fast it could set off a grand mal, but it’s not lingering, either. It’s a pretty decent flipping camera-to-camera ratio.

Most of the cameras, however, are either from the back, the side, long shots of the whole stage, or close-up to vocalist Eric Bachmann; often it’s hard to make out exactly what they’re playing. However, some of the camera work is excellent, such as the one to the far stage left near guitarist-lawyer Eric Johnson, which often manages to get his guitar and the rest of the band at a great angle.

Later

The Archers had four albums, so at this point when they play live they are a more or less a Greatest Hits group, like the Beach Boys. This is not a criticism, it’s just the fact. Luckily the music holds up after all these years. You can see it in the faces of the fans who look like they were in infancy when the Archers was originally active, and they mouth along with the songs. That’s a testament to both the band and the material.

The band takes a song or two to settle in, especially Bachmann’s vocals, but by the time the ballad “Greatest of All Time” comes up, he’s in top form. Some of my favorite bands have that couple of songs warm-up, so that’s not unusual. Except for some gray here and there and some hair loss on a couple of them, their energy levels were on full force. This is especially true for bassist Matt Gentling, rocking ripped cargo shorts, and just plain physically rocking…and jumping…and moving.

The Archers of Loaf sound is definitive ‘90s, with jangling guitarwork full dissonance, discordant chording and almost atonal melodies, but manage songs that you can sing along with, which is one of their strengths. It should be noted that they are one of the early proponents of that particular sound, and helped popularize it.

That style definitely feels strong here, thanks to the concert audio recording and mixing by Minnesotan bred, Carrboro living Brian Paulson, who was once in the band Man Sized Action (still have the LPs). More notably, though, he has produced recordings by this band, Wilco, Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr., Superchunk, etc.

Between songs, there are brief interviews with the quartet which I really found interesting, as they are a personable bunch of guys, especially Gentling. They tell of the origin of their name and the infamy of having such an unusual one, the differences of touring in a van versus a bus or plane, their friendship, and being in a band while holding other jobs, to name a few topics. For anyone who is going to be making a music documentary, please note that I (and I am assuming others) would rather the interviews have been after the film, rather than inbetween songs, because it’s harder to get into the music when it’s interrupted for talking heads, even when it’s the band doing the telling.

For the extras, there are six more songs from the same set (you can see the list below), giving you an additional almost 25 minutes of music. Also included, as Bechard is really good at giving these perks on his discs, is an additional 12+ minutes of interviews with the band, each of whom tell an extended anecdote that are worth a listen, and the trailer for the film (see below).

As for me, I still like their first song, “Wrong,” best, followed by “1985/Fabricoh.” But that’s neither here nor there, really.

Band:

Eric Bachmann: vox / guitar
Eric Johnson: guitar
Matt Gentling: bass / vox
Mark Price: drums

Song List:

Audiowhore
Harnessed in Slums
Greatest of All Time
Lowest Part is Free
Freezing Point
What Did You Expect?
Worst Defense
Attack of the Killer Bs
You and Me
Might
Bacteria
Web in Front
Nostalgia
Slow Worm
Encore:
Wrong
Plumb Line
Revenge
Second Encore:
Scenic Pastures
1985/Fabricoh
All Hail the Black Market

Bonus songs:

Dead Red Eyes
Strangled by the Stereo Wire
Form and File
Let the Loser Melt
Step Into the Light
Smoking Pot in the City

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lzHSkypbg

DVD Review: Europe – Live at Sweden Rock: 30th Anniversary Show

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

Europe – Live at Sweden Rock: 30^th Anniversary Show

Directed by Patric Ullaeus
Hell and Back AB / Revolver Films / MVD Visual
145 minutes, 2013
www.europetheband.com
www.ear-music.net
www.revolver.se  
www.mvdvisual.com

There is no one who can argue with the fact that Sweden’s hair metal band from the 1980s, Europe, is one of the A-Listers of the genre. They’ve sold tens of millions of nine albums across the world, influenced other bands, and stayed true to themselves. Even after a period of breaking up, they reformed and have been going strong for years.

Of course – and rightfully so – the five members celebrated their 30th Anniversary in their home Scandihoovian country of Sweden on November 5, 2013, with 30,000 (boy, there are a lot of the number 3 in this sentence) die-hard Swede fans who welcome their homeboys – er – home.

At first, I had given this DVD to someone else to review because, well, this is not my genre. I’m punk, so I like it loud and fast, I also like it short and sweet. The guy gave it back to me saying that while he enjoyed it, he didn’t feel like he could contribute anything. I respect that, so I put down my precious Ramones and picked up the DVD. And with Raymond J. Johnson Jr. stuck in my head, you should know that this concert is also available on this DVD, a 2-CD set, Blu-Ray, and digital VoD elsewhere.

Euro-hair metal is somewhat different than North American hair metal. Most of the ones from here, such as Poison and, well, most of them, were pretty interchangeable; of course, some may say that about the Ramones, but I soldier on. They were glam, silly, and superfluous (boy I can see a lot of hate mail may be heading this way). The Euro-bands, though, were more…serious? Well, fiercer, anyway. They meant that shit. And it seems the more north you get, the more intense the bands were. I mean, Sweden is arguably the locus of the rise of döds metall, or death metal.

Back in the 1980s, though, these kinds of bands were still into harmonies (fierce harmonies), which is what attracted fans to them from North America, Central Europe, Japan and beyond. With Joey Tempest (hey, wait, is that his real name?) out front it doesn’t surprise me that the band has such a loyal following. His singing is strong, on key, and a bit stereotypical (that vibrato every few lines, for example), but his energy level is powerful, even after all these years.  With all the air guitaring next to actual guitarist, and flashing extremely white and straight teeth and ample employment of the “excruciated-reaction” face during the solos (actually, he bears a striking resemblance to Del Shannon, but I digress…), the impression is that the band gets along and is having fun performing, and that transfers to the viewer. And the energy level is matched by the audience, which also propels the band.

Going into the virtuosity of the musicianship seems unnecessarily. Of course these guys know how to play phenomenally, and each rightfully gets their chance to show off often, though the main focus is on guitar and the drum. You don’t get to this level and this many decades without being able to wield your axe or whatever instrument you’re pounding on. The drum solo with Ian Haugland is him playing alone of the stage to a tape of The William Tell Overture.

As I said, the energy level is high and rarely dips, except when it’s meant to, such as the three-song section starting with the ballad “Drink and a Smile,” where the band sits on chairs and they all play acoustics. You don’t see much of the audience at first until this section, where you see multiple people singing along with “Open Your Heart” (including some dude stuck in the wrong decade wearing a long green wig and a too small red cowboy hat).

And how does the show fair from this side of the television? The flashing white or red LED laser lights can get tiresome, but what really stood out for me was the average of 2-5 second edits (with rare exceptions, those usually being long shots of the whole stage), sometimes feeling almost like a live action flip-book. And with a stage as huge as this one, the motion of the edits makes it hard to follow the “story” of what’s happening. What I mean by that is if you cannot see more than two or four bars being played, it makes it harder to get into the musical moment; just too harsh. Why even bother with HD?

There are two rock guitar gods guests that join the band for a song each in the third act. First there’s Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham, who takes lead on TL’s “Jailbreak,” and then Michael Schenker naturally joins for a UFO cover of “Lights Out,” each giving a new flavor to the band as each has their own style of rockin’ out.  In the latter case, both Schenker and Norum play similar Flying V guitars.

With harmonic songs and anthemic numbers like “Superstitious,” “Rock the Night,” and of course, their biggest hits “The Final Countdown” (which is used weekdays a theme for an afternoon talk radio program in Saskatoon), show them at their strongest, the audience rises to the occasion. There are also some songs they rarely play out, such as “Paradize Bay.”

Extras include a Set List, a nearly 6-minute Behind the Scenes (most of which is whatever, though two parts of Norum playing solo backstage with Schenker and with Gorham are cool, especially Norum’s expression of joy), an interesting 18-minute backstage interview with the entire band after the set about the show and their history (amazing they even have any voices left!), a 13-minute montage of still images (including screenshots), and a couple of audio choices (stereo or surroundsound). Included with the DVD is a nice 16-page color glossy mini-booklet with pictures and some text.

But the question of if this made me into a convert? No, but it was a fun ride for while, even though at the hour and a half point I started to skip along on occasion. Now to go listen some other four guys talk about beating on a brat.

Band:

Joey Tempest: vox / occasional guitar and bongos
John Norum: guitar / back-up vox
Mic Michaeli: keyboards / back-up vox
John Leven: bass
Ian Haugland: drums / back-up vox

Set List:

Riches to Rags
Firebox
Not supposed to Sing the Blues
Scream of Anger
Superstitious
No Stone Unturned
New Love in Town
In the Future to Come
Paradize Bay
Girl from Lebanon
Prisoners in Paradise
Always the Pretenders
Drink and Smile
Open Your Heart
Love is Not the Enemy
Sign of the Times
Start from the Dark
Wings of Tomorrow
Carrie
Jailbreak (including Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham)
Seven Doors Hotel
The Beast
Let the Good Times Rock
Lights Out (including UFO / Scorpions / MSG’s Michael Schenker)
Rock the Night
Encore:
Last Look at Eden
The Final Countdown

 

DVD Review: Big Country – Live at the Town and Country Club, London, 1990

Text by Matt Stevenson / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

Big Country – Live at the Town and Country Club, London

Directed by Chris Bould
Wienerworld Presentation
50 minutes, 1990 / 2013
www.wienerworld.com
www.mvdvisual.com

 

Big Country were the Scottish equivalent of Ireland's U2, appearing in the same early 1980s time frame and growing from similar roots of punkish teenage bands.  The early recordings of both bands shared the same producer in Steve Lillywhite, and in an only slightly different alternative universe Big Country could have enjoyed U2's massive later success.

Both bands were fronted by singers who wrote about topics large and small, tackling world issues as frequently as personal relationships.  One difference: Big Country had two guitarists who frequently sounded like bagpipers, as opposed to U2's one guitarist whose more processed sound frequently resembled anything but a guitar.

This set, shot at London's Town and Country venue in 1990 – during a period in which their usual drummer Mark Brzezicki was replaced by Pat Ahern – is short at 50 minutes. Yet it contains all their major hits plus one cover, Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," which was a pretty recent hit at the time, having been released by Neil the previous year.  Big Country's fans may not be as numerous as U2's, but it is apparent from the seething mosh pit that was the lower level at this show that their fans were less mellow and more rabid than U2's.  Not really surprising, as BC's songs were almost always more energetic than those of their Celtic rivals.

The personal demons of frontman Stuart Adamson were unfortunately a limiting factor on their potential success: shortly after this concert they were dropped by their label PolyGram, and from then on had middling results, though they received some exposure in the mid-90's after their Buffalo Skinners CD, when they opened for portions of the Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour.  

Adamson quit drinking for ten years after their label change and in 1996 moved to Nashville, but never rid himself of his torments, returning to booze and later hanging himself in a Hawaiian hotel room while facing impaired-driving charges back in Nashville.  Still, U2's The Edge told the mourners at Stuart's funeral that Big Country wrote the songs that he wished U2 could write.

At the time of this show, however, those sad days were still in the future and Adamson appears joyous and fully engaged with the audience, and the band really meshes and plays very tightly.  The show is not as comprehensive as their other concert DVDs, but anyone who is thinking of purchasing this will find it a worthwhile addition to their collection.

 

Band:
Stuart Adamson: vox / guitar

Bruce Watson: guitar / vox
Tony Butler: bass / vox
Pat Ahern: drums

Song list:

Restless Natives

Look Away
Fields of Fire
Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)
Come Back to Me
Wonderland
In a Big Country
River of Hope
Rockin’ in the Free World