An Adventurous Journey With Gruff Rhys

With his band Super Furry Animals, Welsh musician Gruff Rhys already proved to be a versatile and unique musician. This is also showing in his other bands and solo career, where he's exploring different aspects of the musical spectrum. And besides musician and composer he's also an author and film maker. Tonight these things come together in his American Interior show, in support of his latest solo album and book by the same name.

Gruff Rhys at Bitterzoet Amsterdam, October 7 2014



The concept album American Interior has an incredible story as a base. It's the story about Welsh explorer John Evans who in the 18th century travelled to Northern America to track down an Indian tribe that was believed to be of Welsh descendant. There was a story in that time that America was discovered long before Columbus did by a Welsh prince Madog in the 12th century. Evans eventually tracks down the tribe after a perilous journey, but finds out they are not Welsh descendants at all. By then he's backed by the Spanish, annexates a large part of Northern America by accident in the Spanish king's name and has drawn a map of the Missouri river. Tragically on his way back he dies in New Orleans.



Rhys will backtrack the story and journey of Evans tonight with us. Wearing a wolf's head (super furry indeed) he introduces us to the legend of the Welsh indians by showing a short movie. Then, supported by slides starring a puppet representation of John Evans, we see Rhys following in Evans' foot steps. It's a hilarious journey where Rhys proves to be an entertaining story teller, sounding almost a bit confusing, but with a lot of tongue in cheek. I'm sure it has many believing he made the whole story up, but if you google the internet, you'll find it all really happened.



Every time Rhys tells part of the story and follows it up by a song of the record. The songs match that part of the story or at least have a connection to it. Rhys plays an old out of tune guitar while singing and has all kinds of inventive tricks to back him up. He uses a loop station to create harmonies, playing records that he recorded himself with some beats and soundscapes, and sometimes uses an old fashioned metronome for rhythm. He's really skilled at it and you don't miss a band for one minute. On top of that he has a wonderful voice that sounds warm and pleasant. Rhys proves tonight that he's a one of kind artist, a proud Welsh man with many talents and a true entertainer.



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Passionate Show By Future Islands

Besides all the bands and artists who are carefully crafted and shaped by producers and record companies, completely adapted to a certain style or image in order to come up with hit machines (= money machines), there are still bands who are working hard and struggling. A small leap of fate can suddenly alter their careers. Future Islands have been around for ten years and already made three records before this year everything changed. Their new album Singles is definitely a record that sticks out. It landed them a performance in the David Letterman show, which went viral and put the band on the map.





Future Islands at Melkweg Amsterdam, October 3 2014

Of course it are the dance moves of singer Samuel Herring which made the difference. His unorthodox moves and passionate performance make all the difference. But it would be unfair to only focus on that. The band have come up with a wonderful album that is full of smart electro pop songs, including their smash hit 'Seasons'. Tonight they prove there's more about them than silly dance moves, although of course it's impossible to forget about that. But the sold out show in the biggest hall of the Melkweg is more than justified. The band even think this could be their biggest show so far.



Herring apologizes for his voice, that indeed sounds a bit hoarse, although it's only the start of their European tour. It's no wonder, since the way he keeps changing his vocals, asks a lot from his voice. He's singing low, high, everything in between, sometimes belting out phrases or even manages to cough up impressive grunts. Together with his passionate stage performance and the monkey like dance moves, Herring is definitely the one everybody is looking at, although the frontman looks the opposite of your regular rock star. He seems to be completely into the music, raising his hand like a musical star to emphasize his lyrics, feeling up himself, licking his arms or simply almost crawling around stage. It's magnificent to watch while his band buddies are playing their parts almost anonymously, somewhat unwitnessed in the back.



It doesn't matter since they are playing a tight set, that consists mostly of songs from their new record, including my personal favourite 'Sun In The Morning', with older songs scattered throughout. Their big hit 'Seasons' is about halfway the set and gets many cheers. But the crowd loves every song and minute of their show, joining in on the dancing. After an hour the band comes back for an encore and plays a few more songs. The energy level in front of the stage has reached a peak by now and during the last song 'Vireo's Eye' a girl jumps on stage to dance. It triggers a complete stage invasion, where the band looks a bit overwhelmed. Herring finishes up quickly and leaves the stage while rest of the band receive well deserved hugs.



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Cymbals Eat Guitars Are Getting Close And Personal

The New York collective Cymbals Eat Guitars likes to ignore the usual conventions. For every record, the band around Joseph D'Agostino, is getting off the beaten track that they created themselves. For their previous record, Lenses Alien, this resulted in a whirlwind of styles full of unexpected twists and changes. It wasn't easy on the listener, but it definitely was a wonderful journey.

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose

For Lose D'Agostino stays closer to himself and is drawing from his own experiences, with the passing of a dear friend at the end of his teenage years as a common theme. It is somewhat superfluous to state that it turned into his most personal work. You can tell this from the compositions, since the madness from its predecessor is mostly omitted. Lose is much darker, sharper and therefore more intense. This becomes clear especially in 'XR' which sounds like an Irish punk folk song and where D'Agostini is telling about the tragic loss of his buddy: "The songs we never wrote/They float above and below me". 'Warning' is quite a heavy song as well where they are going at it aggressively.

Fortunately this doesn't mean that everything that made Lenses Alien such a pleasant experience has gone overboard. Halfway we find 'Laramie' that starts out slow with falsetto vocals, but then is picking up the tempo and ends in a nice jam. 'Jackson' has the same approach, which makes the song more exuberant with screaming guitar solos and harmonies that will propel the song while D'Agostino sings "I don’t wanna die". The characteristic voice of the singer may not be to everyone's liking, since his shrill vocals may not be appreciated by all. He proves to be a skilled song writer once again though and is opening up completely this time.

It turns Lose into a surprising record once more, that will show yet another side of the band. You do miss the quirkiness of the previous record, the inventive variations and sudden eruptions, that made you play the record over and over again. But this time it is easier on the listener, which could make Cymbals Eat Guitars more appealing to a larger audience.



This review has been published on Festivalinfo in Dutch over here.

Listen to 'Lose' on Spotify.



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