NIN – Wave Goodbye, Fort Canning, SG.

10-08-2009.

NIN’s final tour, 1989-2009, second to last ever NIN concert, at Fort Canning park, Singapore.

Organisation: Very poor, but thanks to Lynne from the Crew who managed to get us in via the rear exit ahead of most priority advance ticket holders (considering I bought our tickets back in April, I had priority entrance tickets)

Concert: After an extended (very extended!) soundcheck, when NIN came onstage,  let rip into an awesome, powerful set with the expected crowd surging and moshing. A whole new generation of people learned the meaning of Ultra-Violence. Everyone (or according to some, just me and a few others! ) really got into the traditional, heavy moshing that needs to be unleashed at a concert of this level of sound and fury. And the sound quality was truly excellent, and beautifully loud and crisp.

Just fucking awesome, and great to finally see them live, close and very personal. Still counting the bruises.

Trapped – in my own head.

“Medication”

Medication for us all, it is a new way
& we’re gonna take it cause we love it
Don’t you know?

Is this the dose you’ve been dreamin’ of?
A revelation from a gun
Doesn’t matter
Overtaken, mine was yours, now overthrown

Just copulation in a song
I’m so contagious, can i cum?
In the new way
All of us cast asides became what has become

Medication for us all
You think you know me, well you’re wrong
Doesn’t matter
All of us cast aside became what has become.

QOTSA

Never truer words for our times … and a damn fine song.

Billy Bragg – NPWA, 2003.

I grew up in a company town
And I worked real hard ‘’til that company closed down
They gave my job to another man
On half my wages in some foreign land
And when I asked how could this be
Any good for our economy?
I was told nobody cares
So long as they make money when they sell their shares

Can you hear us? Are you listening?
No power without accountability!

I lost my job, my car and my house
When ten thousand miles away some guy clicked on a mouse
He didn’t know me, we never spoke,
He didn’t ask my opinion or canvass for my vote
I guess its true, nobody cares
‘Til those petrol bombs come spinning through the air
Gotta find a way to hold them to account
Before they find a away to snuff our voices out

Can you hear us? Are you listening?
No power without accountability!

The ballot box is no guarantee that we achieve democracy
Our leaders claim their victory when only half the people have spoken
We have no job security in this global economy,
Our borders closed to refugees but our markets forced open

The World Bank says to Mexico,
We’ll cut you off if you don’t keep your taxes low
But they have no right to wield that sword
‘Cos they take their orders from the chairman of the board

IMF, WTO,
I hear these words just every place I go
Who are these people? Who elected them?
And how do I replace them with some of my friends?

Can you hear us? Are you listening?
No power without accountability!

Random shots. Now I know where Placebo get their “chops” :)

Had a new stamp made up for the business the other day, and just gazing at the box I noticed whose name they had used as an example of their product. LOL! Pure coincidence?

Best song title I’ve heard this week.

 A new album that I doubt many of you are familiar with, called “Black Sheep” by Julian Cope – ex “The Teardrop Explodes” for oldies and late 70’s throwbacks.

It has to be said that Cope’s work has become, well, let’s be frank and call it weird shit since his Jehovahkill album of 2000. And he has written two huge tomes of work on Megalithic structures in the UK, and in Europe. Well recommended reading if you can lift the damn books off the table! I have a copy of the first hardback edition, and I’m still not sure if he didn’t intend it to be a monolith itself

He is totally out there, as his Head Heritage site proves, but the song title, and I love it:

All The Blowing-Themselves-Up Motherfuckers

(Will Realise The Minute They Die That They Were Suckers)

Starflight. (By Robert Calvert)

READY?
Ready. R for Ruminant
LARGACTIL: FIVE MILLIGRAMMES
Check
VALIUM: TEN MILLIGRAMMES
Check
HALIPERIDOL: FIVE MILLIGRAMMES
Which?
THE LITTLE WHITE ONES. W FOR WHITE
OK Check
PHENOBARBITONE: FIVE MILLIGRAMMES
Check
DISIPEL: FIVE MILLIGRAMMES
Check
GLASS OF WATER
Check
Our Father
Which art in Heaven
Mea Culpa
Mea Culpa
Mea Maxima Culpa………

Do you remember?

Just some timely appropriate lyrics: Welcome home!

Husker Du – Do you remember?

We do it all for fun you know
Get loaded after the show, it’s all part of the scene
Don’t hate us, we’re just kids
People say we’re behind the times,
go ahead and see if I care
Do you remember?
When you were our age
Do you remember?

Inhale, Exhale.

Henry Rollins: Inhale, Exhale.

Inhale resolve, Exhale ambition
Inhale all I need, Exhale all I want
Inhale love of life, Exhale fear of death
Inhale power, Exhale force
I have all I need
I can live without
I have what I need
I can live without
Inhale tolerance, Exhale judgement
Inhale what I am, Exhale what I think I am
I have all I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without
Don’t hold me down
Don’t hold me down
Don’t hold me down
Inhale fact, Exhale assumption
Inhale what I want to be, Exhale how I want to be seen
Don’t hold me down
Don’t hold me down
Don’t hold me down
I have all I need
I can live without
I have what I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without

On the steps of the cathedral….

I’m so sorry
I know exactly what you mean
Tired of being devilish
Sick of being wicked
Habitual, and untrue
Another starting over
Although it is the ending
I send regards to you
Standing on the steps
Steps of the cathedral
Watch the summer fade
Just trying to get to somewhere
Trying to get just anywhere
And I know it ain’t my day

Mark Lanegan.

Everything hurtz

In the immortal (ish) words of Mark E Smith – The Fall, John Peel’s favourite band of all time – everything hurtz.

Today anyway.

“Come to me
Come unto me
All ye that labor
You that are heavy laden
Cos everything hurts
And everything hurts
I’ve been pursuing the fuel too long
Got a big fat pain in my chest bone
Got an empty pocket book
Got a big fat momma in my cheque-book
And everything hurts
And everything hurts
I got the disease tinnitus
I’m speakin’ like I’ve got Tourrette’s
And everything hurts
I’m born
I’m dressed like a road beacon
On my way to Valhalla breakfast
And everything hurts
Can’t you see the bitches by my side
Followin’ me through all my life
And everything hurts
I was born
Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden
My head dip dip dip dipping, man
All my limbs are disconnected
And everything hurts
I’ve been pursuing the fuel too long
Got a big fat pain in my chest bone
And everything hurts
Everything hurts
[...] man
Cos everything hurts
I got a big fat [slug] on my knee bone
And the back of my [...], zipped up
And everything hurts “