European Tour Journal Day 10: Winterthur, Switzerland

We crossed back into Switzerland without a hitch, since we knew the drill by now. We stopped and declared our merch and did the tally and left the deposit and were on our way to Winterthur. I didn’t get many pics since it was wet out and the windows were filthy by now, but the drive was another beautiful one.

THE VENUE

Big Room

Bigger Room

The venue was a sizeable space with a rather large room that we would play in, and an even larger room for name acts. We arrived to a prosciutto spread and a bustling kitchen where a small staff were preparing home cooked meals for the bands and club workers. The communal aspect really made for a welcoming environment and everyone was really friendly.

Again this was one of the shows we played that were govt. subsidized, which removes a lot of tension and headaches which can make for an un-enjoyable show for everyone involved. I really grew to love this model for that very reason.

One thing I also loved was the compact yet powerful industrial turbine heaters they used to heat the giant space, I had to record it for future sampling. I was maybe ten feet away and I could barely stand it long enough to record for 10 seconds:

I knew we were hooking up with Motorizer again, we played with them in Bludenz as well, but I kept asking who “Turoffnung” were until I finally got a local to inform me that “Turoffnung” means doors opening…Hahahaha! I thought ‘what a clever name for a band’

THE SHOW

We had another good crowd and the sound was excellent, it was also nice to have a bit of a bigger stage to move around on. Enjoy these pics from Phillip Reinhard, some of the best we got this whole tour:

An excerpt, Nick Doom shreds:

Our encore, including a nice moment when the crowd serenaded us with that Scott McKenzie song:

It was such a fun atmosphere that after the show, many if not all of the staff stayed until the wee hours playing drinking games that involved bottle-caps, and talking and listening to music, and of course smoking a boat load of cigarettes, which again, occurred right next to the room we were to sleep in.

One refreshing thing I have to acknowledge is that I barely saw any kind of cell phone or smart phone the entire night. Everyone was content to enjoy each others company and the music and the simple games that got them through another cold winter night in the Swiss Alps.

Either way, we rocked that place and had a nice time hanging out with the promoter and staff afterwards. It was such a different experience than we’re used to in the U.S. The Switzerland shows will surely stay with me.

Christopher Lyman Drummer and a “G”

Next stop Salzburg, Austria.

All pics by Jeff K. other that the live band series by Phillip Reinhard

All video shot by Jeff K.

The Scientists @ The Chapel SF

 

It still seems like a dream or distant memory. This was one of those bands that I never thought I’d see live.

I got turned on to The Scientists back in the early-mid 90’s while working at Apollo Records in Buffalo and receiving one of Gary Apollo’s comprehensive “History Tapes” which were high quality dubs of pristine vinyl releases from his personal collection, and he had stuff nobody around there had. Add to that, this was pre internet, so he had stuff nobody around there knew about. His “histories” had nothing but the hits in chronological order, plus various rarities, such as 12″ b-sides or cuts only found on comps etc. all carefully compiled and recorded onto a high quality master cassette and dubbed onto Maxell UDXL II tapes for friends or whoever might have been interested, and back then, very few were interested…

I was already into The Cramps, Gun Club and ‘Dirgy’ bands like Jesus Lizard and Birthday Party, so when I heard The Scientists, they fit right in. There was always something about those Aussie bands that got that post apocalyptic wasteland thing dead on. There’s the “Swamp rock” thing that they get labelled with, but there is also as much desert/spaghettiwestern/tumbleweed aesthetic in there as well. Radio Birdman were like “Death-Surf” and other bands around that scene such as Beasts of Bourbon, The Visitors, Crime and The City Solution and later These Immortal Souls (UK/Australia) were an amazing mix of energy and darkness and depravity that I’ve never heard from an American band, very rarely anyway.

I’ve been lucky enough to see Radio Birdman twice when they did a couple of shows in SF around the release of “Zeno Beach” 2006. I never thought I’d see them. I also saw Crime and The City Solution a few years ago. I’m fortunate enough to live in a city where these artists actually make the rare appearance when they come from so far, so I was really excited to hear that these guys were coming over for the first time ever to do 11 dates! We got tix immediately after they went online and they did not disappoint.

I shot most of the show, enjoy!

We took a spot up on the balcony for a birds eye view. All far away pix by me.

All close up pics by Eric Moffat

A few more vids from up top!

 

They were hornery and antagonistic at times.

 

A rollicking version of Braindead:

This was a once in a lifetime show and I highly recommend going if they ever come back to the U.S.

 

 

 

Alphastare Studio Explorations

I set up my rig at friends studio in SF and did some exploring. We ran everything though a house system and it sounded huge! We also set up a raw room recording into a digital recorder that uses cdrs. Just 2 mics but they were really good mics. Still working out some kinks as the audio only came out of one channel, so here are some raw vids with no audio edits. Something to get a sense of it. Going in for another session soon.

 

 

LIVE

My next live show is at Bird and Beckett Books in SF as part of a series called Audible Method on Saturday afternoon, Nov 10th.

Modular Synths in the above videos include:

Make Noise Maths and Morphagene

Intellijel Quad VCA

2HP Pluck and Tune

Doepfer Wasp FIlter

Pico DSP

Befaco Muxlicer

Also using a Moog Mother 32 through a MF104M Moogerfooger

Tascam 424 cassette 4 track as a mixer and recorder

Korg Volca Sample

Korg SQ1 sequencer

ipad mostly using Samplr and Field Scaper or Sound Scaper apps (Igor Vasiliev)

Bells

Flute

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European Tour Journal Day 9: Bludenz, Austria

Continued coverage of Turn Me On Dead Man’s European tour from Feb 2018.

We continued our journey through Switzerland but actually had to leave for a bit to cross over into Austria for a show at Villa K. a  youth center in Bludenz.

We had to hang out at the border for a bit to handle our business with customs, who retained a deposit from us against any merch we sold, so we paid them whatever taxes owed and continued on to Austria!

Random Smurf Sighting

Border lurkin’

ONWARD!

Driving through the Swiss Alps was breathtaking and these pics do no justice.

Villa K.

The surrounding area was a quaint little ski village surrounded by enormous mountains

Our View

The Show

A few shots from our set. I took the first one, I forget who took the rest. We had a good turn out and a responsive crowd.

here’s our encore from that night:

Stay tuned for our next stop back in Switzerland at Gaswerk!