First up this fortnight is STUCK MOJO, who after initially being booked at the techno club Gorod has been moved to a much more appropriate venue: the teenage metal haven, Tochka (March 24, 19:00). But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re a ball-sucking nu-metal act with a stupid name.
More interesting on the metal front is Seattle’s HIMSA (March 25, Tabula Rasa, 19:00), an aggressive technical metal act. They’re supported by Philly metalheads A LIFE ONCE LOST, whose recent work has drawn comparisons to PANTERA and LAMB OF GOD. Locals NOELANI and MEANING BESIDE round out the lineup.
As March turns into April, the Golden Mask festival is once again upon us, promising two weeks or so thick with decent gigs. The first one worth noting is PROTOTYPES (March 27, Gogol, 22:00), a Parisian electro-pop band drawing on 60s rhythms. Fans of STEREO TOTAL are advised to mark the date in ink.
Next up at Golden Mask is French indie-rock trio RHESUS (March 28, Gogol, 21:00), a supposedly fun little indie rock band that’s been compared to their countrymen HUSHPUPPIES, whose recent gig at Ikra put team eXile to sleep.
A better bet o the 28th might be the ambient electro sounds of Germany’s ANTLERS MULM (March 28, Dom, 20:00). The one-man band makes tense electronic music influenced by KRAFTWERK, minimal electro and dark ambient music. Bizarre-o electro act LLOVESPELL opens.
As a kid I tried hard to like THE TIGER LILLIES (March 29, Apelsin, 20:00), but their avant-garde cabaret vibe just didn’t do it for me. They’ve worked with some cool people—including ALEXANDER HACKE of EINSTURZENDEN NEUBATEN, the KRONOS QUARTET, and even LENINGRAD—so I guess there’s something there, but I still just don’t hear it.
If you’re wondering whether France has gopniks, look no further than Golden Mask’s next offering: R.WAN (March 29, Gogol, 21:00) hails from the French rap group JAVA, who specialize in the sort of chanson that would probably not look out of place on a SERYOGA record. At the very least, he wears a tabletka cap.
Although Russians tend to have a strong suspicion of the Jews, let it not be said that they can’t get down with them if need be. Case in point: Israeli psychedelic trance duo INFECTED MUSHROOM (March 29, B1 Maximum, 23:00). They’re the highest rated psychedelic trance DJs ever by DJ magazine, if that sort of thing means anything to you.
If you’ve been following underground music over the past couple years, saying Berlin-based should be enough to give you an idea of what BARBARA MORGENSTERN (March 30, Ikra, 21:00) sounds like. If not, just think indie electro pop, indietronica, or whatever the buzzword of the moment is. If the names APPARAT, ELLEN ALIEN or CONSOLE mean anything to you, you should be in like Flynn.
It’s only fitting that crappy Italian pop-punk band VANILLA SKY (March 31, Tochka, 19:00) took their name from that horrible Cameron Crowe movie: they became famous for making a "quirky" punk cover of RIHANNA’s megahit "Umbrella," that pales to the original. Kind of like Crowe’s cover version of the movie…
Although post-rock bands are a dime a dozen in Russia, one of the more interesting ones is St. Petersburg’s KLEVER (April 4, Aktovy Zal, 20:00), making a rare visit to the capital. While they have a rather psychedelic vibe, the real thing that differentiates them from all the other meandering vocal-less bands populating the scene is their reliance on Russian folk instruments such as the zhalejka to make interesting noise.
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