CONCERTREVIEW : HELLVETE, MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE, FAUST (OPWIJK, NIJDROP 23/04/2010)

How would my life be without going to gigs?
Very, very boring and believe me I tried so I know the answer...
Anyway, yesterday was a very special evening as Faust were coming to Belgium.
But before Faust there were two other acts to come.
First act was a Belgian one called Hellvete.
Hellvete is what can be labelled as electro-acoustic dronemusic and the performer, Glenn Steenkiste, used to have a past in the tapescene as Funeral Folk used to be his label.
Anyway, Glenn was doing drone-experiments with a banjo and an electric guitar and it gave us a sound we heard indeed before but it doesn't mean it's bad.
For those who wonder why Glenn ended up on a Krautrockgig...well, he plays in Sylvester Anfang II which is krautrock.
But honest is honest, I was there in the first place for those two other bands.
Master Musicians Of Bukkake (no, we're not going to translate that) are something special.
They make weird psychedelic music and they were born out of bands like Earth, Burning Witch or Asva which are all dronemetalbands while the whole gang is lead by Randal Dunn who used to produce bands like Boris, Kinski and Sun O))).
You can't see their faces and they all wear some weird white hats that seem to come from a set of "Lord Of The Rings" while Randall is totally dressed in black, his face fully covered and above that black camouflage even dark sunglasses.
It's all rather creepy cos if you ever saw that scary scene from Polanski's "Rosemary Baby" I guess you're halfway there, so better not take your kids to some gig by Master Musicians Of Bukkake.
Musicwise it's very difficult to type this band and I don't think there was ever one reviewer who could but let's say they're making a weird mix from psychedelic stuff and tribal beats...not to mention their thousands unusual instruments.
Excellent, no other words than excellent...
The only letdown is after the gig when you notice that those scary men are nothing but old hippies with a beerbelly but that's another thing...
And then there was Faust.
Needless to present Faust to musicmaniacs like you but for those who are not that old (like me), Faust were one of the most important bands from the Krautrockscene along with Neu, Tangerine Dream, Can or Kraftwerk in their early days.
Officialy the band split up in 1975 but since the early nineties two keymembers Jean-Herve Peron and percussionist Zappi Diermaier are touring with a line-up that often changes.
The line up for this evening was something like a dream, not only there was Geraldine Swayne from Geraldine Fibbers but I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw one of my heroes climbing up the stage, James Johnston from Gallon Drunk!
From the very early moment you could see that they were what we can define as children of Mother Nature (a look at their van was enough) but they also, and that made Faust always so special, were pioneers of the industrial scene.
From the moment Jean-Herve picked up his chainsaw and started to saw all kind of metals you knew immediately by which band Einsturzende Neubauten got inspired.
It was not only Blixa's band that came to mind but also many noise-guitarbands like Big Black or even Sonic Youth.
Anyway, it all sounds great when you read it here but all by all there were only about 100 people that have turned up so...and still the band played for more than 2 hours.
Tons of improvisation even when the electricity falls out, the band continues with a laughing smile.
It was difficult not being focused on the several personalities and even if Faust are the kind of band who are not afraid to put some arty things in their set : they were ironing plants (read it again, you read it right!), a man was sitting on a chair during the whole set writing a book or a French monologue from which no one understand a word.
I saw a lot of gigs in my life but this night was special, not to forget!