Stinking Lizaveta
Upstairs at the Garage,
London

AS seen on the recent Clutch/Corrosion Of Conformity dates, Philadelphia art rock trio Stinking Lizaveta - is that the worst band name ever or what? - sneaked in to the UK ahead of the headliners to play a show to a small band of devotees. Like a cargo cult, everyone - a diverse crowd of doomsters, stoners, just plain metallers and the sort of painfully hip folks who normally appreciate music that sounds like a faulty lathe - seems to have been drawn here by and eye-swivelling enthusiasm for their recent album ‘Caught Between Worlds’. Nobody goes home disappointed: the live show is way better than the record. The odd looking trio of American misfits - they have an upright bass, an Amazonian female drummer and looks as though they dress from garbage cans - play with the sort of telepathic energy that engulfs you in their noise and bashes you back and forth like a particularly fragile shuttlecock. It’s like modern jazz as played by early Metallica; the incredibly complex passages give way to barrages of pure heaviness and then they’re off again on some tripped out psychedelic tangent.
It’s never boring, always teetering on the edge of chaos, always pulling back just at the final nanosecond. It’s a dazzling display of instrumental prowess, but more than that, it’s that rare thing, a band whose music is completely indefinable. Yes it’s punk, it’s metal, it’s jazz and you could file it under ’stoner rock’ or ‘doom metal’ if you felt so inclined. But they’re so much more than any label you could ever stick on them. [8]

TOMMY UDO

Friday 6th – London @ Silver Rocket Club
7th - Cardiff @ Le Pub in Newport.
9th- Newcastle @ Dog & Parrot
10th Edinburgh @ Henry’s Cellar
11th - Oxford @ Cellar
12th – Glasgow @ Bar Bloc, 117 Bath Street
Also on this bill and NOT to be missed:
Glasgow’s own Black Sun ripyourselfopen.com
13th - Leeds @ The Fenton
14th (Liverpool - TBC)

SECOND TWO WEEKS WITH CLUTCH AND CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

DATE COUNTRY TOWN CITY VENUE

1/15/06 UK CARDIFF COAL EXCHANGE
1/16/06 UK EXITER LEMON GROVE
1/17/06 UK WOLVES WOLFRUN HALL
1/18/06 UK STOKE SUGARMILLL
1/19/06 UK
1/20/06 UK LIVERPOOL UNI
1/21/06 UK MANCHESTER MDH
1/22/06 UK NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY
1/23/06 UK LEEDS COCKPIT
1/24/06 UK GLASGOW GARAGE
1/25/06 UK
1/26/06 UK PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOODROOMS
1/27/06 UK BRIGHTON CONCORDE 2
1/28/06 UK OXFORD ZODIAC
1/29/06 UK LONDON MEAN FIDDLER/ASTORIA