Bruce Cowie
twitterwebsite
I am very old. Went to my first gig in 1976, when Pounds were still made of paper and you didn't need to spend sixty of them to see a band. Been to quite a few since then.A confirmed member of Team Post-rock, but I like all sorts of things. Except jazz. And country & western. And Nickelback, obviously, but that kinda goes without saying, really, doesn't it?Can't be bothered with vinyl. It really doesn't sound better. No, don't argue, it doesn't. MP3s are just fine with me, but my favourite format is 'LIVE'. I shall continue to be 'that old guy' at gigs, and if the youngsters don't like it, they can kiss my hairy fat arse.I have several hats, but only ever wear one at a time, and contrary to the evidence of my profile pic, my head is not made of wood. It is, however, fat, bald and ugly, and it would spoil your day if you saw it.I have an alter-ego who makes live music videos, but we don't talk about him and nobody knows who he is**Everybody knows who he is.
Articles by Bruce Cowie
Core Fest 2023 – Day 3Maryhill Halls • Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 20-08-2023 Photos by Bruce Cowie
Core Fest 2023 – Day 2Maryhill Halls • Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 19-08-2023Photos by Bruce Cowie
Core Fest 2023 – Day 1Maryhill Halls, Glasgow, 18-08-2023 Photos by Bruce Cowie
Safe to say, however, that this is not a record that will be troubling the Ibiza dancefloors next summer. It’s a thing for solitary enjoyment.
DVNE have been utterly spellbinding. Majestic. They have become something very special. Absolutely, ridiculously, immense.
It’s as if someone else has taken all of my frustration and helplessness and screamed it away into the void for me and has left me cleansed.
This is a damned fine sludge/doom/drone record, and inarguably one of Lovely Wife’s best.
Each and every live gig, good or bad, is a unique experience. It CAN’T be background music, because you are IN it as much as IT is in YOU. I miss the gig scene terribly, and I want it back.
That’s the thing about post-rock. It doesn’t tell you what you should be feeling, it lets you make up your own mind.
The show’s not over. As expected, they’re back, and take us right back to their very beginning with ‘Hurry on Sundown’ . . . and then the quintessential Hawkwind riff-monster, the incomparable ‘Master of the Universe’. This is it. This is what made me love Hawkwind forty-odd years ago, and what is likely to keep me coming back from time to time.
It is unlikely that you will step away from this record humming one of its merry tunes. This is not a party record.
Before I start, I’d like to make a short statement. I have long resisted writing anything about Calla. Not because of them, but because of me. They deserve better than me, more than I can give. My writing is, and always has been, frivolous. My analysis …
Yes, it’s cheesy and yes, it’s sleazy but, dammit, Metaltech are just so much FUN. Mind you, I’d hate to have to clean the place up afterwards. . .
There’s been bands I loved, bands I really didn’t, and a lot in between, and it will have been exactly the same for everybody. Let’s hope that the Damnation philosophy never changes.
Do yourself a favour, check this out, close your eyes for a while and let it carry you off to weirdy-beardy space-land for a while.
I come to see Wren, and Wren are magnificent. I get two top class supports in Sapien and Haar. And, to top it all, I get to see the fabulous Death Engine, my new favourite French shouty harcore/noise band.
It’s Independent Venue Week, y’know . . . So, let’s go to Leith Depot for a gig. It’s a venue, it’s independent, and RM Hubbert is playing. . .
Bruce Cowie does Damnation 2017, watches Big Business do the business, discovers that Myrkur are more like peanut butter than Marmite, and wonders why pasties cost more in the evening. . . Oh, and did he mention Wren?
In his his inimitable style, Bruce Cowie reckons the best way to see Damnation 2017 is to and fro between the smaller stages (with the odd pasty break) and make sure you see Wren. . .
It’s a stoner/doom album. Never pretends to be anything else. You might draw comparisons with Sabbath, obviously, St. Vitus and Electric Wizard. Ewen will also offer Reverend Bizarre as a reference, if you ask him. But it’s a DAMNED FINE stoner/doom album. Yes.
