johngarcia_2014_11

» John Garcia 2014 11 07

Reviewed by Blidmark
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Special guests: Steak, Komatsu
City: Göteborg, Sweden
Venue: Sticky Fingers
Date: 7 November 2014
John Garcia set length: 90 minutes
Steak set length: 30 minutes
Komatsu set length: 30 minutes

Komatsu

First out tonight was Komatsu, from the Netherlands. An impression that stuck with me during their gig was that they seemed to want to do a little bit too much of everything with their music. I'd find myself enjoying some crushingly heavy riffs at one moment and getting bored by modern hardcore passages at the next moment. So there were some components I did enjoy and some that I did not enjoy - all in all, a decent gig, performed by passionate people that really seemed to enjoy themselves.

Performance: 6 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10
Best: The really heavy stuff and the passion
Worst: The more hardcore-sounding songs

(sorry, no setlist)

Steak

Second band out for the evening was British stoner rock band Steak. In general, I can't say that I was very impressed. The riffs, the bass playing, the drumming and the singing all sounded like they were trying too hard to sound like Kyuss - at times it felt like a borderline ripoff. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but the songs were sort of bland and there was all too often little to none own personality. However, their last song Liquid Gold had a distinct and unique touch to it and I really enjoyed that one.

Performance: 5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 7 chalices of 10
Best: The last song
Worst: The bland songs and the sloppy guitar solos

(sorry, no setlist)

John Garcia

After some initial sound problems, where John's monitoring didn't work and the bass was way too low, everything fell into place. John's voice is as good as ever and he really has an impressive stage presence. Although being rather laid back onstage, he somehow owns the entire stage and manages to spellbind everyone in the audience.

I was very impressed with the musicians playing together with John on this tour. Especially the drummer Greg [Saenz, previously in The Dwarves] with his very physical playing style, was a pure joy to watch. At some points, I wished there had been a second guitarist in order to provide a more complete sound in songs where the album versions have beautifully constructed passages with two guitars. However, as far as I know Kyuss never played live with more than one guitarist and neither did Vista Chino or Kyuss Lives so I definitely did not expect anything else.

It's hard to have any complaints whatsoever with regards to the setlist - nine Kyuss songs (two of which were instrumental), two Slo Burn songs and eight songs from the solo record. A great mix that really seemed to work with the rather large crowd - it was not sold out but the venue was still pretty packed. While El Rodeo and Supa Scoopa And Mighty Scoop really worked up the audience, Pilot The Dune was probably the song that fired everyone up the most this evening.

The solo stuff also got a lot of love - especially My Mind, Flower and All These Walls worked fantastically in a live setting. I'm kind of surprised that everyone seemed to really be into both the solo songs and the Slo Burn ones, as I would have expected most of the attendees to be there to hear Kyuss songs. In the interview I conducted before the show, John said that the possibility of another solo record depends on this tour; if the performance and reception of the Gothenburg show is any indication, I'm going to be optimistic.

Performance: 8,5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 9 chalices of 10
Best: John's voice and stage presence
Worst: ---

Setlist:
Caterpillar March (Kyuss song)
One Inch Man (Kyuss song)
Rolling Stoned
My Mind
Demon Cleaner (Kyuss song)
5000 Miles
The Blvd
Tangy Zizzle (Kyuss song)
Gloria Lewis (Kyuss song)
Flower
El Rodeo (Kyuss song)
Argleben
Pilot the Dune (Slo Burn song)
Saddleback
800 (Kyuss song)
July (Slo Burn song)
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Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop (Kyuss song)
All These Walls
Whitewater (Kyuss song)