Review : The Black Lips in Cyprus Avenue
The G-Man Gig Of The Week definitely lived up to its billing as Atlanta Georgians The Black Lips hit Cork’s Cyprus Avenue like a ton of bricks.
The band may have played to far more people in The Button Factory on Wednesday night but, as guitarist Cole Alexander excitedly stated pretty early on, there were way more people dancing on Leeside.
What was most impressive from the start was that all four members sing on nearly every track giving a great spark, energy and bite to the music. This combined with the fact that the rhythm lines for many tracks are pulled from fifties and sixties rock and roll bands makes the band extremely fun to see live. Fun and eventful.
The Black Lips are not really ones for the squeamish. Spitting on the ceiling and catching it again in their mouths before it hits the ground and removing one’s self from one’s trousers before preceeding to urinate on the stage and over a fellow band member were just two occurrences which have by now become expected of the foursome. It did not even some that out of the ordinary to see Jared Swilley tumbling off the stage, bass in hand with a monitor coming straight after him after just one too many crowd invasions. The crowd, still dancing and jumping and hugging and drinking, picked him straight back up and shoved Swilley (who either took the incident very well or was too taken by surprise to react) and monitor back into place. Swilley also recounted a story of how they nearly died before the show as they were driving on the right-hand-side of the road nearly resulting in their van crashing into a truck and ending up with their vehicle ploughing into a ditch!
Track of the night was between “Oh Katrina” from 2007’s Good Bad Not Evil (with Swilley building the tension with an incredibly slow bass slow before the band exploded into one of their most memorable numbers) and “Bad Kids” (which saw drummer Joe Bradley takeover vocal duties) from the same album. If the four from Atlanta ever come back to Cork (hopefully they will survive that long to at least make it a possibility but if they have come this far…) I seriously recommend picking up a ticket.
Arabia Mountain, the bands sixth album, will be released on June 3rd.
I was afraid to read the review as i figured i might be kicking myself bigtime but onstage urination is not high on the list of things I want to witness 😉 Tonight in the Quad is my gig of the week, somehow I don't think it will come close to Black Lips!
Really? You are an oddball altogether! 🙂
They have done a lot worse in their time so Cork possibly got off light. So much happening in Cork these days it is tough to get the time to see everything never mind the financial aspect. Fantastic complaint I may add.
They certainly aren't impressed with this country anyway. facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=1998180267108&id=1021554413¬if_t=feed_comment_reply
It was a very disappointing turn out to be sure… but they was certainly top notch fun times
Link not working. What did they say?
Jared Swilley: "This place sucks sooo bad. Can I not even get a peek at the sun? on top of that I don't even have a jacket!! I look like a fool. Ever heard of summer idiots?"
"I'm so happy my family got hungry and emigrated to Georgia."
"Everyone here makes me a little worried."
"I'm not digging this country. Drinking til I can't remember it."
This morning: "So happy we are driving to Paris and leaving this dreadful island."
"Fuck Ireland. There's a reason everyone left."
Ambiguous.