Fu Manchu & Mos Generator

Yes, another concert entry, immediately after the THC one posted last week.  It’s not my practice to blog about literally every show I go to, unless I feel something special is worth noting, as I do here.  I have no prior blog on Fu Manchu in particular.

By the way – about the Sword show two days before at the Baltimore Soundstage.   This a band who are fairly competent and astute on streaming/MP3/CD/vinyl/8 track whatever, but their stage presence is borderline catatonic.  Lead singer John Cronise simply stands there and sings and plays his Firebird I, and the other band members likewise do little but play their instruments.  I would advise against seeing this band live.  By now I’ve seen them several times and they tend to put me to sleep.  The highlight of this show was running into a friend and suitemate I hadn’t seen since college at UMCP (1886-1890).

Two days later I caught Mos Generator (opening) and Fu Manchu (headliner).   MG are from Seattle and remarked that this is their first concert appearance in DC.   They’re a three piece, Tony Reed being the singer/guitarist.  He was wearing a Trapeze (Glenn Hughes) shirt, and had tattoos of Iron Maiden, Ace Frehley, Black Sabbath’s first album cover, and the King Crimson Court Face.  The remarkable thing about this is that I had an MG album, The Late Great Planet Earth, which I hadn’t listened to for some time.  I listened to it again with the show coming up and apparently had forgotten how good the band were.  They have a new album, Shadowlands, due out next week, from which they played a few songs.  The latest release is Abyssinia, also high quality.  This band approaches, if not exceeds, the quality of Fu Manchu.

The show was at the R’n’R Hotel on H Street in northeast DC.  It’s a small club with a rectangular standing-room only floor area, though upstairs (out of line of sight of the band) there are seats, a bar, and the concessions area.  I’m getting older (aren’t we all?) and standing for long periods of time is getting more tedious and less tolerable than it used to be.  Getting up close to the band is more apt to make the standing a bit easier.

Normally I write off the opening act as a band easily forgotten.  Not so here.   MG were high octane, heavy duty, and I actually liked them more than Fu Manchu.   By all means Czech them out.

FU MANCHU came on and were as happy and energetic as always.   Frontman/rhythm guitarist Scott Hill, the only constant member, thanked us all for coming out on a weeknight.  Lead guitarist Bob Balch and bassist Brad Davis were solid – I was on Davis’ side of the stage.  The drummer is Scott Reeder, NOT the left-handed bassist Scott Reeder.  Scott Hill is the only original member, but by now Balch and Davis have been with the band since the mid-90s, i.e. close to the beginning.  They know the material and appear to enjoy playing it.

Discography: (full studio albums): No One Rides For Free (1994), Daredevil (1995), In Search Of… (1996), The Action Is Go (1997), Eatin’ Dust (1999), King of the Road (2000) (my favorite), California Crossing (2001), Start The Machine (2004), We Must Obey (2007), Signs of Infinite Power (2009), Gigantoid (2014), and newest release Clone of the Universe, featuring Alex Lifeson of Rush on extended jam instrumental “Il Mostro Atomico” – the set closer though unfortunately Mr. Lifeson is apparently not participating in live performances of this song, notwithstanding his own band’s permanent retirement from touring.  Maybe he has Trailer Park Boys engagements to hono(u)r.    

I got into the band thanks to a former friend whose name rhymes with Ren, back around 2001.  Prior shows I had the pleasure to attend were:  DC, February & September 2002 (California Crossing tour); Baltimore, October 2004 (Start The Machine tour); Jaxx in Virginia, March 2007 (We Must Obey tour); DC, September 2010 (Signs of Infinite Power tour); DC, May 2014 (Gigantoid tour), and this most recent show.

Incidentally, very early on, 75% of Fu Manchu was Eddie Glass, Mark Abshire, and Ruben Romano – they left to form Nebula, who sound remarkably similar to Fu Manchu.   I managed to see that band in June 2001 (Mercury Lounge with Ren), in DC in March 2006, and DC again in August 2008.  After a lengthy hiatus it looks like Eddie has resurrected Nebula and is playing some shows in California.  Romano currently has a band called the Freeks.  Not only that, stoner god Brant Bjork was on several albums too.

I would say that FM are a bit more energetic onstage and clearly enjoy performing, particularly for crowds as appreciative as the RNR Hotel audience, including myself, were that night.   The other redeeming factor is that the band has a GROOVE, you know what I’m saying?  I found myself moving my head up and down rapidly, which has been an inclination absent as I’ve grown older and probably a bit more jaded about bands.  I was happy to regain that sensation yet again.

 

Setlist: Eatin’ Dust; Clone of the Universe; California Crossing; Weird Beard; Evil Eye; (I’ve Been) Hexed; Hell on Wheels; Mongoose; Dimension Shifter; Laserblast!; Nowhere Left To Hide; King of the Road (!!!), Il Mostro Atomico; encore: Godzilla (Blue Oyster Cult cover).   By now I’m zone out on “Godzilla”, even when BOC play it – which they do.  Consistently.  And they tour.  Consistently.  Anyhow.

Opening Acts.  As noted, usually they’re bands we don’t care about and don’t even bother to show up early enough to catch them.  However, for the following shows, we considered the opening act of equal importance to the headliner:  Accept (Dokken); Triumph (Yngwie Malmsteen); Clash of the Titans:  Anthrax, Megadeth & Slayer (Alice in Chains, back when Layne Staley was still in the band); Van Halen (Alice in Chains) (same deal, a year later); Kyuss Lives! (The Sword); Clutch (Orange Goblin); Corrosion of Conformity (Brant Bjork); and last night’s show.   On rare occasions we considered the opening act MORE important than the headliner:  Def Leppard (Tesla), Billy Squier (King’s X); Audiovent (Fu Manchu); Foreigner (Don Felder).  Of these, we stayed to watch Def Leppard and Foreigner. 

So it was a great night:  The Fu brought it, as they so often do, but the opening act was also top quality, not just a waste of time before the headliner.  For their sake, I hope Mos Generator reaches the level of becoming a headliner. 

The Sword and Witchcraft

I’ve been trying to get my brother – who mostly shares my taste in music and is my most consistent concert companion - into stoner rock, but he’s been reluctant and indifferent.  Recently he articulated his major beef:  “all the bands sound like they’re ripping off Black Sabbath.  If I wanted to listen to Black Sabbath, I’d listen to Black Sabbath.”  Fair enough dispute, though after having listened to Pentagram and sHeavy, plus Witchcraft & The Sword, adding in some Obsessed, I’d say the more accurate critique would not be that they all sound like Black Sabbath, rather that they all sound like each other.

http://thehardtimes.net/news/innovative-stoner-metal-album-blends-influences-black-sabbath-black-sabbath/

Funny enough, let’s talk about Witchcraft.  They’re from Sweden, of all places, so add them to ABBA and Ace of Base, then add in Opeth and Ghost BC.   Supposedly they started as a de facto Pentagram tribute band, which are for their part Washington DC’s answer to – drum roll, please  - Black Sabbath.   I can hear that.  But I hear enough other stuff thrown in that it becomes a bit different.  Still heavy, still droning, still riffing, but different.   Why?  Because vocalist Magnus Pelander, instead of copying Ozzy Osbourne, as sHeavy vocalist Steve Hennessy does (while looking like early-era Whitesnake David Coverdale) – mind you, Hennessy is the only one who comes close to getting Ozzy’s voice down - or even copying Pentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling – who looks more like a long-haired Marty Friedman than Ozzy Osbourne – he’s actually copying The Sword vocalist John Cronise.   See?  Mixing it up by copying each other instead of Ozzy, Tony, Geezer or Bill.  

For that matter, I’ve yet to hear a stoner rock vocalist who sounds anything like Ronnie James Dio.  Then again, Hennessy is the only stoner rock vocalist I’ve heard who sounds like Ozzy.  But sHeavy sounds so much like Ozzy-era Sabbath that many of us thought their early track “Electric Sleep” was a long-lost Sabbath song.  Listen to it yourself and decide.

 

Incidentally, Pentagram won’t be touring much anymore these days, as Liebling is going to prison for beating up his mom.  Yeah.  Liebling has been a heroin addict for a while, but like most addicts swerves from periods of relatively clean stability where he has his s**t together, to other times when he’s more of a colossal screwup.  It’s sad because musically the albums, including the most recent, Curious Volume, are actually pretty good.  In fact, you’d never know what a colossal screwup Liebling was by his music.  They’ve been around since the early 70s, but attempts during that decade to get a record deal went south on two major occasions:  he turned off Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley (KISS, you know), and then Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman (Blue Oyster Cult, you know).  It wasn’t until the 1980s that Pentagram finally released an album.   I managed to catch them live at American University and then the Baltimore Soundstage, both times headlining.  Anyhow.

Back to Witchcraft.  They have five albums, Witchcraft, Firewood, The Alchemist, Legend, and Nucleus.   All of them are pretty much the same, of equal quality as well as sound, with no major departures.  There’s some softer interludes and change-ups which break the monotony, so you can listen to an entire album without getting bored – though a five album marathon might be pushing it.  I haven’t been able to see them live yet.  They’re from Sweden.  They need to ask Papa or Mikael Akerfeldt who does their visas, as neither Ghost nor Opeth seem to have any trouble getting into the US to tour. 

Having absorbed their repertoire with much appreciation and satisfaction, I’m now swerving back to The Sword, who are from Austin, Texas.  Although I’ve yet to catch Witchcraft in concert, I’ve been lucky enough to see The Sword a few times:  the (new) 9:30 Club in DC in 2010, opening for Kyuss Lives at the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore (2011), headlining the R’N’Roll Hotel in DC in 2015, then opening for Opeth at the Fillmore Silver Spring in 2016.  Not particularly energetic or exciting live, though: more of a band that just comes out and plays their music.  Now they have six albums, plus a live album:  Age of Winters (2006), Gods of the Earth (2008), Warp Riders (2010), Apocryphon (2012), High Country (2015), and an acoustic version of that album, Low Country (2016).  The Sword are somewhat faster than Witchcraft, but share this deal where every album sounds pretty much the same, making a multiple disc marathon somewhat dull. 

Song Length.  Black Sabbath songs are relatively short, with “The Warning” from the first album being the longest studio track and the extended “Wicked World” from Live At Last being the longest live track.  Witchcraft have several 10-15 minute songs.  The Sword songs are about 5-7 minutes long.  And The Obsessed scarcely tax your patience, with songs which are 3-5 minutes long, fairly brief and intense.   Though if Wino’s on it, be it The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, or Spirit Caravan, we’re talking some measure of doom involved.

Then you have Earthless.  They’re coming around on tour next spring, so I decided to listen to them again to determine if I wanted to see them for the first time in concert.  I only have two of their albums, the split with Harsh Toke and Rhythms From a Cosmic Sky.  Here we’re talking 15 minute instrumental jams.  But it’s not mellow and laid back like the Grateful Dead or the Allman Brothers, rather it’s intense soloing like Deep Purple’s “Child In Time” or Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”.  You kind of have to be in the mood for that kind of thing.  But it’s clearly different than Black Sabbath.

Even bands which sound like each other, like Fu Manchu and Nebula (thanks to Eddie Glass, a common member), there’s subtle distinctions.  FM are more straight ahead and even somewhat punk oriented, with shorter songs and subject matter about skateboarding or vans, whereas Nebula have longer songs and are space-oriented.  Bottom line is that you have to have the patience and inclination to really listen to the music before you can begin to distinguish them from each other – and from Black Sabbath – but the differences are there.  Black Sabbath obviously serves as the starting point, but each of these bands take slightly different directions.   For some, Pink Floyd is the opposite end they’re going for; for others it’s the Misfits or Ramones.

As for the overall resemblance to Black Sabbath?  As it is, they have 9 studio albums with Ozzy Osbourne, three with Dio + the Heaven & Hell album (The Devil You Know), 5 with Tony Martin, and one each from Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes.  Is that really enough?  

Stoner Rock 101

I suppose it started with Hawkwind…Pink Floyd….Blue Cheer…maybe even Captain Beyond. Up until the early 90s, heavy metal was alive and well, as we could see in “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”. Then Nirvana came around and ruined it all with grunge (see my grunge blog). Now we have “nu-metal”, Good Charlotte, A Simple Plan, Disturbed, etc. all the dazzlingly brilliant and original (ha!) bands on the Ozzfest. Hold on, where’s the real metal? And I don’t mean Manowar….


I’m talking about bands that know, understand, and live for riffs, guitars, guitar solos, old-school, old-style banging around like …Black Sabbath, who are probably the most important influence to many of these bands. But despite the name, you don’t have to smoke dope, or get stoned, to listen to this or enjoy it, although obviously many of these bands are probably chemically inspired in different ways, to various degrees. For some reason many of the bands come from California. Oddly, there’s little jamming and not much psychedelic (except for Gas Giant) – just straightforward heavy guitars and good fun.


So what passes for real metal these days is best known as “stoner rock” and will not be found opening for Ozzy or Black Sabbath. Maybe just as well, because it means we can see these bands at local clubs for $20 a ticket and maybe even meet the band members after the show. Who are these bands? Here are a few of the most important (i.e. these are not only the ones I’m most familiar with, but who are also the most popular and tour the most – with the exception of sHEavy, mentioned below - and the list is by no means exhaustive):


Kyuss. They are considered the first stoner rock band, if you leave out Hawkwind and Black Sabbath (precursor bands). I actually saw them in concert years ago and can’t remember a thing. D’oh!


Queens of the Stone Age. Derivative of Kyuss thanks to Josh Homme. Despite the name, none of the band members are female. This is one of these more original bands with its own sound that’s hard to describe, but it’s definitely heavy and definitely different. My favorite album is Rated R. I’ve been able to see them a few times, including with Dave Grohl of Nirvana on drums (Songs for the Deaf tour).


Fu Manchu. If Black Sabbath were surfers and into vans, cars, etc. you’d have Fu Manchu. Scott Hill is a bit smarter, and has a better voice, than Ozzy. IMHO, their best album is King of the Road. This is the band of these that I’ve probably seen the most.


Nebula. A three-piece that used to be ¾ of Fu Manchu, with Scott Hill being the 4^th who remained the core of Fu Manchu. Nebula sound almost the same, though with a more spacey riffing and losing the vans & surfing themes.


Monster Magnet. From New Jersey, and led by Dave Wyndorf, the closest thing to a rock personality that stoner rock has. They have several albums and are heavily influenced by Hawkwind – they even covered “Brainstorm” and “The Right Stuff.”


Atomic Bitchwax. This started out as a side project of Monster Magnet guitarist Ed Mundell, but now has a life of its own with replacement guitarist Finn Ryan, who looks like a blond version of Jason Lee. More riff-oriented than Monster Magnet; my favorite song is (surprise, surprise) “Black Trans Am.” They even cover Deep Purple’s “Maybe I’m A Leo.” I got to meet the band in Baltimore and talk to Chris Koznik, the bassist/singer.


Electric Wizard. From England, EW tune the guitars down to C and really, really drone on. Their album Dopethrone should be a dead giveaway (wizard w/bong) as to their inclinations. Imagine Black Sabbath slowed down half speed…and you have Electric Wizard.


Acid King. Now…substitute a female singer in EW and you have….Acid King. Pretty much the same deal. They do an excellent cover of BTO’s “Not Fragile.”


sHeavy. Of all these bands, sHeavy have by far the closest sound to Black Sabbath, thanks to the singer, Steve Hennessy, who does a dead on Ozzy impression. For some reason, this Canadian band doesn’t tour. I finally saw the DVD that comes with their latest album, The Machine That Won The War, and could see why: half the band (aside from Hennessy, who looks like he belongs in a band) look like they have day jobs, wife & kids, etc. and can’t go off on a money-losing tour of Canada or the US. Too bad, as they are damn good.


Fireball Ministry. These guys sound like 70’s Black Sabbath with 90’s-era Ozzy singing.


Pentagram. The DC area’s Black Sabbath. Remarkably, they’ve been around since the 70s yet only put out an album until the 80s. The only consistent member is singer Bobby Liebling, though their drummer, Joey Hasselvander, recently played drums for Blue Cheer, and I found out that Liebling was at the Blue Cheer show I saw at Krug’s Place in Frederick, Maryland (see the shot of me and Dickie Peterson on my Yahoo 360 album).


The Suplecs. A trio from New Orleans. Fortunately they’ve survived Katrina, but I haven’t seen them tour around this area yet. “Cities of the Dead” is my favorite song, and they do a knockout cover of the Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy.”


Gas Giant. These guys are from Denmark, not to be confused with an Arizona band called the Gas Giants. They have two albums, Mana and Pleasant Journey in Heavy Tunes, both of which are fantastic. They actually have some pretty psychedelic stuff going on, more so than even Hawkwind these days.


Orange Goblin. This was one of the first of these bands I heard, and I got to see them play in Baltimore. Pretty damn good. They are one of the more Sabbath-oriented groups, though the earlier material from the first three albums, Frequencies from Planet Ten, Time Travelling Blues, and The Big Black, are the trippiest.


Lowrider. Teleport Orange Goblin from England to Sweden and you have…Lowrider.


Valkyrie &The Sword. For some reason I put these two together and can’t pull them apart in my mind. They both sound the same. I suppose it’s because The Sword evoke a lot of Norse mythology, which matches up with the name of Valkyrie. They should definitely tour together.


Wolfmother. This new band from Australia gets lumped in with these other bands. They’ve been compared to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but I hear more Grand Funk Railroad – but I seem to be the only one making that connection.


Even within this narrowly limited genre of rock music, there is much variety, but in addition to cool riffs, they share a remarkable talent for cool album covers, as you can see.