Newcastle; Cluny2 17th May 2024
In a perfect world, last night I'd have been in the iconic Newcastle [O2] City Hall, watching The Black Crowes, but the diabolical way the tickets were marketed, there was no way. Instead, I found something a little different. If you'd asked me at the start of the year, the only Maserati I knew about was the one that roared down the road behind a trident badge. However, while this Maserati certainly roared, it was a four-piece band from Athens GA (not Bologna, Italy) and the only thing that came in 3s were the huge speaker cabinets behind the band.
So, 1st up were Gram Gram, a band at the moment I can tell you little about, other than their haunting, pulsing electronic rock with intense bass, raw vocals; bit like the soundtrack to a mid-budget, 1990's vampire movie. Bit of a double-take though, the guy on sax & sequencer, with his white pilots helmet, I thought for a moment that Bob Log III missed his bus after his Tuesday show.
After a quick stage re-shuffle, moving keyboards and bringing up the drum kit, we got down to the main event. Almost a last-minute punt on my part as I've been looking for a bit of a change and I'm struggling to remember the last fully instrumental band I saw (think it was Claudio Simonetti & Goblin about a decade ago). Like Goblin, Maserati come under the "Prog" label, but this is "Power prog". There's no pastoral airs or songs about wizards, unicorn or chaste maidens. They are also described as "space-rock", so I guess it ties in with my current appetite for old Hawkwind, but this is "space-rock" if you imagine your 12 favourite TV & movie spaceships, in a demolition derby, in an asteroid field. If you look, and not too hard, you can pick out several influences; but it's the way they've merged them into a unique sonic landscape.
Overall, the sounds Coley Dennis – guitars: Matt Cherry – guitars: Chris McNeal – bass: Mike Albanese – drums; make is intense and rises to the near brutal; like starting in a cement mixer and ending in a rock crushing mill. However, it's far from boring; the guitars and synth cut through without shrieking and the whole becomes a near physical thing. I managed a quick word with Chris McNeal, post-gig, and I think this has been their 1st time around the UK; certainly hope it won't be their last.
Think you may like these, NickSlikk....
Not a lot to find on YouTube, but here's some tasty past/present moments: -
Monoliths (10/24/09) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lasRLdZYTtk
Rehumanizer 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8oIZg5 … mp;index=3
Inventions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZY5T4C9Ck
Live session from KEXP 2011 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeLFeEOTclI
When life gives you lemons; don't make lemonade.
Give back the lemons. Why were the lemons free? What's wrong with the lemons?
Do Not trust the lemons...
