Matching Numbers was Great
I don’t eat leftovers….
I wrote about Matching Numbers this summer. I saw Matching Numbers last week. If it hadn’t been for Matching Numbers, this week would have killed me.
Club Massattraction did a splendid thing; they had Odd the God coming to Lund twice. Well, that was the plan, but Robots had to cancel their gig, so he only came down with his other band, Matching Numbers. Which was fine with me as Matching Numbers is more my kind of ketchup than Robots. And, yup, Odd is the God. Probably the best damn singer we have in Sweden. Live, this fresh-faced man, can outsing anyone. He’s intense, he’s cool, he’s rock. He is God.
Matching Numbers is the pesto of Stockholm, with all good things mixed together; Robots, Nomads, Demons…. and a local wild man on guitar; Bjorne. Never have Mejeriet heard such a roar “Bjorne!Bjorne!Bjorne!”… Let’s just say that Bjorne has fans…so Odd had to take a stroll with the mike, chasing the audience down the stairs. And then thumbling down the stage, hugging a guitarist… all while singing.
Matching Numbers haven’t released anything, the don’t have a website and they don’t show their pretty faces at clubs often…. but on the new “Riot on the Rocks” compilation on Safety Pin records, you should be able to find a song…The sound? They’re like a soulful mix between Humpers and Flaming Sideburns. Supporting for Matching Numbers can’t be easy. This time around, it was Leftovers from Nassjo, Sweden. They have just released their debutalbum, “667 – neighbor of the beast” on Fueled up Records, a sublabel of Necropolis, which also released the Deadbeats.They too appear on the “Riot on the Rocks 2″ compilation.
When they entered the stage, they seemed pretty nervous. The place wasn’t packed and it wasn’t their town…. and they were support for Matching Numbers… Maybe that’s why I didn’t find them too thrilling. I was waiting for Odd to rock my world and I had hit my head against a rock earlier that day… The band wasn’t tight and especially the singer didn’t sound good at all. They were just all too aware of what the audience was doing… and notdoing.
The Leftovers delivers basic “scandinavian” punkrock’n'roll, a bit of tambourine and a lot of dist. It wasn’t my kind but a few friends thought they were great… Maybe the bump on my head was affecting my hearing, I don’t know… I thought that maybe I was judging them too fast, knowing that not many bands can compare to Matching Numbers and no singer can compare to Odd, so I went to their website and checked some songs out. The sound was better, tighter, faster, but the singer still wasn’t too good. The only exception was a song called “Out of Luck”…. Their site is located at http://www.freebox.com/leftovers/
The usual afterparty took place in the laundryroom, but no thumbledrying-ride this time… but it do seem like the preparties start earlier and earlier. The club closes earlier cause people can’t wait another minute for another party… I have never seen so many people anxious to get to the laundryroom… I went home though, my head was hurting and as I was looking as Frankensteins new bride after my little accident, everybody kept asking what had happened…. and most of them didn’t understand that “My teacher beat me up cause I forgot the homework” was a joke…
There are 2 people you should know in Sweden. If you know them, you know everybody. One is our favorite Kalle with his irresistible charm, and the other is Mans P Mansson.. A former member of bands such as Crimson Shadow and Freinds, a frequent DJ and now in bands like Wrecks and Maggots. You don’t get to see Maggots too often around this part, so even as C-Men had a gig in my hometown, Malmo, I went to Lund to see Maggots at Club ElCurado. But, it was week before payday and there weren’t many there. We were about 20…
Unfortunately, people down these parts only come out to see BIG bands and mostly to be seen themselves. Punkrock is all about image to the majority of the kids. Having the right clothes, the cool friends and only getting your tattoos at East Street Tattoo where all the rockers get theirs…They dress up in their little punkrock outfit and they stroll down to the Hellacopters gig, pose in a corner and complain that there’s never any good, new bands playing…Why I Don’t really know. Maybe they don’t know punkrock and don’t want to be exposed as wannabes or they just simply think they’re too cool to be seen at a small club…
But, I do know one thing, I have more respect for the teen girls who came to the Maggots show with their cheap MarilynManson/Kittie-outfit, who paid to get in, were up front row and digging what they heard, than some kid in ACNE-jeans in the corner at a Hellacopters show.
Back to Maggots. Maggots are great. Maggots serve their garage with a little humour as spicening. They have a wild man who twists around the stage with a tambourine. They have a singer/guitarist who do poses more often than my camera can handle. The have a drummer who can beat the hell out of any drum. And, the have the coolest bass player, not moving an inch. I am usually not a garage girl. I don’t dress properly, I can’t name all the obvious influences and I certainly can’t play a farfisa…. But I like Maggots. They have a song called “Grr…”, they claim every song is about sex…so why shouldn’t I like them?! The Maggots should have a record out on Low Impact Records soon. Until then, there are a bunch of 7″s for you to purchase.
I have fallen in love again. Honk is still my mainman, don’t get me wrong… But, I had a dream a few weeks ago and that’s when it all started. Jeff Buckley. I was a big fan a few years back, when his debut “Grace” hit the stores. Not usually my kind of music, but that man had a VOICE! Sweet and strong. Not just a singer, a vocalist. In May this year, almost 3 years after his tragic death, a live album was released, “Mystery White Boy”. 12 songs and a limited edition with an extra cd. I have been glancing at this lovely piece in the record store every time I have passed, but as I believe there is a right time for every record to be purchased. You shouldn’t rush it or you might end up with too many cds just collecting dust on the shelf. But Saturday was the right day, and I bought my cd. And, I was complete again. Hopefully, soon it will be the right time to buy “Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)”, the album Buckley was working on when he died.
Until then I’ll be reading this online photobook :
http://www.merricyr.com/wfs/song_frame.html
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