Tod A's band, Firewater, has been around for more than 10 years, however Saturday night's performance at the intimate Art House venue was their live debut in Athens.
My initiation to Tod A's music goes a long way back. In August '92 I had the opportunity to see him live with his first band, the excellent Cop Shoot Cop, at the Marquee in London playing a deafeningly loud mixture of industrial rock and punk. The emphasis back then was on metal percussion, samplers and his mighty bass. After the band dissolved in 1996, he formed Firewater and changed musical direction by adding Eastern European melodies in the punk rock mix. And to complicate things further, the most recent Firewater album, "The Golden Hour", was recorded during Tod A's adventurous 2 year trip in India, Pakistan, Israel and Turkey (more information here) and incorporates the oriental sounds of these places. This exotic music that he recorded on his laptop with the help of local musicians, found its way on the new record and, after a long journey, finally arrived on the stage of Art House in Athens, the last stop of the current tour.
My initiation to Tod A's music goes a long way back. In August '92 I had the opportunity to see him live with his first band, the excellent Cop Shoot Cop, at the Marquee in London playing a deafeningly loud mixture of industrial rock and punk. The emphasis back then was on metal percussion, samplers and his mighty bass. After the band dissolved in 1996, he formed Firewater and changed musical direction by adding Eastern European melodies in the punk rock mix. And to complicate things further, the most recent Firewater album, "The Golden Hour", was recorded during Tod A's adventurous 2 year trip in India, Pakistan, Israel and Turkey (more information here) and incorporates the oriental sounds of these places. This exotic music that he recorded on his laptop with the help of local musicians, found its way on the new record and, after a long journey, finally arrived on the stage of Art House in Athens, the last stop of the current tour.
The oriental musical styles, very familiar to the Greek ears, met with gypsy melodies, latin rhythms, ska and punk energy. For an hour and a half the Balkans came closer to India and Pakistan, by way of New York, through the power of music, with main protagonists various percussive instruments, a manic trombone, sturdy bass and electric guitars played with a different logic to that of western rock. All these heterogeneous elements were mixed to perfection and led the majority of the crowd to crazed dancing - the pogo-tsifteteli was born! As expected, the set list was based on "The Golden Hour", with songs such as "Hey Clown" (dedicated to ex-president Bush), "Electric City", "Three Legged Dog" and "This Is My Life", the absolute highlight of the night. The most notable track from their past was "Another Perfect Catastrophe". The outbreak of the seriously contagious fun was impossible to contain and it soon spread from the stage to the majority of the small but lively audience!
Below you can watch clips of the excellent "This Is My Life" and "Another Perfect Catastrophe" as performed on this night, and we are also taking this opportunity to remember one of the best Cop Shoot Cop tracks, "Any Day Now" from 1994 and the album "Release":
Firewater live@Art House, Athens (May 9)
Cop Shoot Cop - Any Day Now
3 comments:
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