Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Woerthersee / Austria
Concert date: 13.03.2008
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: 30,00€
What do you get when half of Living Colour joins forces, the rhythm section to be precise, made up of Doug Wimbish (bass) and William E. Calhoun (drums)? Something the two of them call Head>>Fake. The guys visited Maribor, Slovenia two and a half years ago. And now it’s time again to hit the road for a new European tour. To draw more attention, they came up with a brilliant idea and invited Apocalyptica member Max Lilja along for the ride. They named the tour “Head>>Fake and One (Max Lilja) tour 2008”.
Musicians as esteemed and renowned as Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun surely don’t need much of an introduction, or maybe a quick one? Besides the golden catalog with Living Colour, Calhoun has worked in the past with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jaco Pastorious, Harry Belafonte, Dr. John, Carly Simon, Herb Alpert, Run-DMC, Public Enemy and Mos Def, while his buddy Wimbish has worked with Madonna, Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones, Ron Wood, Seal, Mos Def, and the list is far from complete. In May 2008, Wimbish heads off on a new European tour as part of the live band of former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen. And back in February 2008 he was already roaming around Europe with Tack>>Head (Little Axe plus Bernard Fowler’s Bad Dog – RockLine report HERE). Since Max Lilja is the cellist in Tarja Turunen’s band, it’s not hard to guess how Calhoun and Wimbish got in touch with him.
So these two are constantly on concert stages, and they especially love dropping in on the charming Bluesiana whenever they can. In December 2007 alone, Calhoun played here in two different lineups (Aza – RockLine report HERE and Unified Presence – RockLine report HERE), Wimbish as a “one man band” – Doug Wimbish Soundsystem (RockLine report HERE) and a month ago as Tack>>Head, who incidentally also played Bluesiana in March 2007 (RockLine report HERE). Stuff keeps happening (and how).
This time Bluesiana drew a more serious crowd again, and it seems boss lady Gudrun is finally getting the “business” she deserves after more than 20 years of grinding. Four days ago the place nearly burst at the seams, it got so cramped with 200 people packed in for the Richie Kotzen show (RockLine report HERE).
Head>>Fake kicked off the show at exactly 10:00 PM, so an hour later than the official start time announced at Bluesiana for every gig, with shows there usually starting at 9:30 PM. So they squeezed in an extra half hour. Doug Wimbish had the first word on stage: “This is for you!”, he said in a calm tone to those closest to the stage on the right, and started flailing his arms over his two “chaos pads”. A chaotically squealing mix of sound filled the room in an instant, and it took quite a while before Doug stopped messing around with this favorite toy of his. Meanwhile Will and Max were patiently waiting for the moment when Doug would finally pick up the bass. “Head>>Fake is in the area!”, Doug shouts, while his bass fires off salvos of fat chords, carefully harnessed to Will’s famous ride on the drums. Max Lilja got the worst starting position in this combination. As a musician he’s limited simply because he comes from the school of playing the classical giants, not to mention that for long stretches you couldn’t hear him at all when he tried to coax some little solo out of the cello. Doug’s bass completely covered him. Whenever Doug decided to turn his bass into a guitar and started soloing wildly on it, Max was buried under it with his cello. In between Wimbish’s solo excursions, Lilja at times took on the role of providing the riff background, as a stand-in for guitarist Skip McDonalds when it comes to Little Axe (lineup Skip McDonalds/Keith LeBlanc/Doug Wimbish), though Head>>Fake are certainly light years away from any comparison.
Wimbish and Calhoun worked a few of their solo pieces and some Jungle Funk into the set (for example the excellent track Trance). It’s incredible how the songs took on a completely new look. The tracks from Doug Wimbish’s solo work gained an incredible range and a special character once Will’s drums joined in. The level of unpredictability and spontaneity is the main attraction anyway whenever these two guys share a stage, and it’s the most appealing element among all the building blocks of Head>Fake’s music. The trio really did stage pure chaos throughout the show. There was so much music pumped into the room at every moment that it was extremely hard to get a clear grip on what was going on as it happened. The only way was to surrender completely and let it carry you off into its own world. And that’s exactly what happened. Bluesiana is a special place in Austria, and even the proverbially cool Austrians have to switch off somewhere. Why not right at Bluesiana? It didn’t take long before a pretty good number of people were working up a serious sweat to the hellishly mischievous funk/hip-hop rhythms, floating freely past all genre templates. The mass of different sound samples, extra “sub-rhythm” patterns and the constant twisting of the sounds of Doug’s bass, which one moment played guitar solos and the next came close to the sound of a trumpet, found a twin sister in Calhoun’s dexterity on the drums. Despite all the fury, everything worked, at times coming close to a creation of psychedelic transcendence, where you step into some entranced field of the spirit, a sort of hypnotic daze really. Doug and Will sense each other incredibly well. They’ve known each other for years. As musicians they’re sworn brothers, and when they’re on stage together they’re practically unbeatable.
Doug set the tempo. He proved to be an exceptional leader and kept the humor flowing throughout the concert. Take the song Headfake with its hypnotic rhythm, backed by a sample stored on a delay pedal, in the opening part of the show and: “I got my mind in the area”, “Headfake’s in the area” and then come variations on “…Will Calhoun is in the area…”, “…Gundi is in the area…” and “…Max Factor is in the area…” Where Calhoun and Wimbish got the idea to rename Lilja after a brand of women’s mascara (makeup) remains a mystery to this day. Wimbish was totally in his element as he got into the role of soloing. On top of that he was also in charge of the vocals. Of course he didn’t hold back here either, diligently warping the vocal sound with pedal effects. The repeated quote “I am invincible!” came across especially brilliantly, in different tonalities, from that of thunderer Zeus to a proper Lilliputian one.
The concert was very intense. At one point Calhoun’s hi-hat cymbal got seriously loose. During a break between two songs, for example, the following dialogue took place.
Will Calhoun (from the back to Doug Wimbish), while tightening the hi-hat cymbal: “Will you give me 10 seconds?”
Doug Wimbish (from the front to Will Calhoun) while setting up pedal effects for a new song: “Okey I’ll give you ten seconds.”
Will Calhoun, making progress on fixing the hi-hat cymbal: “I’m almost there!”
There was plenty of this kind of banter during the concert, and a lot of it was just pure fun, and both the bassist and the drummer kept the vibe in the room extremely positive throughout. Even the ice-cold Max couldn’t help it, and at Doug’s cheeky provocations his face broke into a wide grin more than once.
Then came the devilish solo spots. The superb Calhoun worked part of the song Native Lands into his, where he also played the flute, and then dove into improvisations on his wave drum. Lilja brilliantly adorned a few numbers with excellent solos that enriched the overall picture of the songs. Besides that, he didn’t fall far behind either Wimbish or Calhoun, since he too was armed with a whole array of pedal effects, which he put to good use for storing samples and creating different harmonies that added to the thick atmospheric vibe. There’s no point wasting words on Doug Wimbish. Master of all masters.
Terrorism, which sharply attacks G.W. Bush, with Doug Wimbish’s solid riff motif at the end, was one of the highlights of the concert. The whole thing lasted a full 2 hours and 45 minutes. Insane. By the end it wasn’t just the musicians who were worn out, we were too. They really gave our ears a proper beating this time. There was truly an abundance going on. The only little problem was the sound, which wasn’t evenly balanced. Max was unfortunately really stuck in a subordinate position because of it.
Every Living Colour fan is obliged to see Head>>Fake, because the energy and the look of the Head>>Fake rhythms don’t hide the fact that the apple didn’t fall (too) far from the tree. And drummers and bass players, pro or amateur, absolutely have to check this out. In short, music connoisseurs and gourmets, as well as girls who love to dance. Head>>Fake is a totally unique experience, and with Max Lilja this time around an especially successful combination. It gave Head>>Fake’s musical identity extra creative room for conquering new musical dimensions, which this kind of free-spirited experimenting desperately needs for its development and survival. Another unforgettable Bluesiana experience is behind us! How many more are still to come? You really don’t know sometimes who to thank for all this. Magical.
Photo Gallery
