So as a birthday tribute here we have some of my favourite cover versions.

Seriously a hard rock song covered in that many different styles, how can it not be a classic?

But just in case your a purist, you can find the original 1979 AC/DC version here. Just make sure to play it loud.

Here’s to many, many more Angus

Since leaving Primus his music has become more and more interesting (and further from the mainstream) with each album, as he explores the far reaches of his musical influences and his (and his bands) musical abilities.

In the end we only went to one of the three nights. Because of the way the festival is run this meant that we could still take in most of the other acts as well. What a great idea two stages and they change the running order of the bands each night of the concert so if you really want to see all the bands you can catch them all over the three days.

For me, seeing Les was the primary objective of the entire trip and he really didn’t disappoint. While a part of me wishes there had been more classic Primus in the set, it was great to hear the newer material live and it brought the material to life for me in the way that a recording simply can’t. The set followed an almost Jazz like format of theme and variations on almost every track.

The band were astounding in their virtuosity and I cannot find the words to describe the performance other than to say that I have seen many great musicians and Virtuosos play live (Vai, Satriani, Ray Charles, Moving Hearts, Springsteen, Jimmy Cliff, Van Morrison, David Byrne, Stu Hamm, Arlo Guthrie and lots lots more) but Les Claypool and the 3 other members of his band blew me away, taking me on a musical Rollercoaster, I can honestly say, no single band has ever done for me in one concert before.

The closest comparable gig in my memory was the Fleadh Mor in 1993 and even then it takes the full range of bands over two days to equal the journey through a single set.

Apart from the music there was a very cool moment towards the end of the set. A fan simply placed their own Bass on the front of the stage, like an offering to the Gods How he managed to get a Bass into the Gig I don’t know but god loves a trier and on this occasion said fan was rewarded.

Not just having his instrument signed by one of the greatest Bassists of all times, not only having it played by one of the greatest Bassists of all time, but also getting slagged off from the stage because on a cold March evening he managed to get a bass into a hot concert venue and have it (only) slightly out of tune. All in good humour and proving that just because your incredible at something it doesn’t mean you have to be an ass about it, there are a lot of second rate popsters that could learn from Les and not just about music.

As for the rest of the evening, I wanted to see The New Mastersounds and Umphreys Magee, but as Les played first everything that came after was an anticlimax and tiredness set in rather quickly, I can’t help but think that if Les had been playing later, both myself and Elly would have lasted longer.

That said we did catch some of the groove stylings of The New Mastersounds and part of Umphreys Magee’s set and on any other night they would have been great gigs, but on the 22nd march 2010 everyone was outclassed and outperformed by the legendary Les Claypool.

To give you a flavour of the gig here’s some video’s from others that attended…

First up a compilation of some of the performers

And what was (for me) the most memorable track of the gig, Hendershot by Les Claypool, check out the “Surf Cello” in particular. Personally I just love the oddly lurching groove to this track

I made up a play-list of a random selection of video’s by the artists & bands (I could find) that are playing.

Finding Les’s work was easy thanks to youtube’s Vevo service so there are a few Primus Video’s and some of his own as well. The other artists (Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder mountain string band, The new Mastersounds & Josh Phillips Folk Festival) seem to only have live recording’s available (on youtube anyway) so I’m going to have to dig a bit further for more on them and the others listed for the show.

One thing I did notice looking through all the search results is that all the bands seem to have one thing in common, they seem to be fond of guest appearances and jamming live. I wonder will there be much of that? here’s hoping anyway

In the meantime here is the playlist I built…

If anyone reading this is planning on making the trip, or has been to a previous Jam in the Dam, leave a comment below.

“So where are myself and Elly off to?” I hear you ask. The city of Amsterdam, one of our favourite cities in the world and the place that we got engaged. We’ve been there a good few times over the years and we’ve seen a lot of the museums before. Thankfully there is a (kind of) new one for us to see this time, Hermitage Amsterdam.

I say kind of because The original Hermitage museum is in St. Petersburg. I have always thought that it was in the Kremlin as that’s what our tour guide told us when I was in Moscow in 1990, but maybe the 20 years have taken there toll on my memory more than I thought.

Either way that Museum tour was one of the most amazing of my life, our guide barely stopped the whole tour and I know there was a lot more to see. I could have stared at the Imperial Faberge eggs all day, such amazing pieces of craftsmanship and pure beauty, I cannot describe and no photo I have ever seen can do them justice. But I’m waffling now. In short, I’m giddy with anticipation

I mentioned we’re going to a music festival, Jam in the Dam to be precise. Two concert halls under one roof and a full set from all the bands each night, which is great because if you miss a band one night, you get to see them the next. I’d love to be able to go to all 3 nights but these days I’m grateful to even get 1 night.

There is only one act on the lineup that I’ve heard of before (I will be getting myself upto speed on the rest of the lineup before we head off so expect some post about them as well) but I’ve been a fan of Les Claypool since I first heard Primus play at the battle of the bands in San Dimas, California… oh wait a minute, that was in a movie… Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Primus were barely even on screen but the music grabbed me and it’s never let go since, they still sound as fresh as the first time I heard them. Bands come and go and over the years Les has moved on to other projects and I have purchased almost all of his albums since.

If ever there was a band that I would travel through time to hear it would be Primus, even over the chance to be at Woodstock, so there was no way I was going to miss the chance to see Les play, especially since it’s his first European gig since I discovered you could use the internet to keep tabs on your favourite bands.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait until March but in the meantime hears the track that grabbed my attention so fiercely 19 years ago…

Yeah, I know Tonios been feedin worms for over 2 century’s so how did David find a new 12 movement piece from a dead composer. Well in short it’s a fake, written by software that David has developed. Essentially, it takes a database of a composers work, analyses the phrasing and then uses that information to create a new piece.

According to the article he has done this with lots of other composers as well as Vivaldi. Now I’m not a huge fan of classical music but this is an incredible creation and what I would love to hear is that David has unleased Emi on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Les Claypool. Yeah Les is still alive but there’s method to this madness.

So once we have all these artists and composers absorbed by Emmy, why not mix and match, Hendrix and Beethoven, Zappa and Ravel, Claypool and Debussy. Or let Bach or Haydn go nuts with a full Philharmonic Orchestra.

There are definatly purests who will say that this is souless and grave robbing etc. I don’t, so long as someone doesn’t try to claim that they wrote it rather than the artist or composers “profile”. Bottom line, if it sounds good then who cares how the music was written.

I guess the times they really are a changing…

Enough about the venue, Arlo Guthrie is quite possibly the last true American folk singer, now that’s a fairly big statement when Bob’s (Dylan) still about but let’s be fair Bob, you’re a pop star that writes in a folk style, where as Arlo grew up with a folk singer for a father (the late Woody Guthrie) knowing what folk singing really is all about, travelling the country bringing stories and news to the people in the form of song.

It would be fair to say that the world may never have heard of Arlo if it wasn’t for the success of one song, Alice’s Restaurant Massacree. I for one think that would have been a terrible loss, Arlo’s singing and song writing have something completely unique about them, and his recorded work has stood the test of time, hell even Alice is starting to sound relevant again. But in order to truly grasp the magnitude of his talent you have to see him live. The man’s talent as a songwriter comes from his story telling ability, which is laced with a wit most stand-ups would do well to equal. This was the third time I have seen Arlo live and it’s not possible to pick a favourite performance from these, the man’s consistency as a performer is staggering.

As a singer Arlo has that special something, yes he’s a storyteller and that helps, but he also has that same empathy with lyrics that made Sinatra so popular. His singing style is what allowed him to take the Steve Goodman song “The City of New Orleans” and make it his own. A song which has gained new meaning in the last twelve months.

As for the performance last Friday, he arrived on stage with 3 others, one of whom I recognised from gigs I had seen before, his son Abe, playing the Keyboard. After the first tune, he introduced the band, Gordon Titcomb on Pedal Steel, Abe on Keyboards and Krishna Milo Guthrie (his Grandson) [edit heard the name wrong on the night, D'oh] on Drums. Three Generations on the one stage!

Of Course Arlo covered all his “classics” (Alice’s Restaurant, City of New Orleans, Coming into Los Angeles) with the only notable exception being “the Pickle song” although he did briefly touch on that during one of his stories as a heckler was screaming for it, possibly why it didn’t get played as punishment for the drunk heckler being so rude as to interrupt the performance. He also played a number of other “classics” interspersed with tall tales and stories.

One such story involved a small man knocking on his door in the early Sixties to see Arlo’s father, who was in hospital at the time, but Arlo invited him in, had a chat and they played Harmonicas for a few hours before Arlo took him along as he went to visit Woody. That small man later changed his name to “Bob Dylan” and the rest we all know. A really touching tale and a fabulous way to introduce “Mr. Tambourine Man”

There were other fine moments in the performance as well, a new song of Arlo’s (which I missed the name of ) documents the Story of The Katrina disaster and is one of the most powerful songs I have heard in a long time, not because it was looking to “cash in” but because it was condemning those that did. Arlo toured the US after the disaster to raise funds as many did, however he took no fee personally and has not commercially released the track that he wrote, to the best of my knowledge.

The last thing I would like to mention about the performance was when the fourth generation of Guthrie arrived on stage. In what can only be described as a bizarre and touching moment Arlo explained that he had recently come into possession of some old wire recordings of Woody and explained that they are currently being cleaned up for release before the end of the year. He played a snip from one of these recordings for the crowd, with head bowed and lights dimmed in respect. After, he joked that his style “was Woody’s fault!” and having heard the recording, the similarities in their storytelling, I have to say it’s eerily true.

There was a man sitting near us at the back of the venue looked very like Christy Moore (I’m certain it was, some of my friends were of the opinion that it was just someone who looked like him). The quality of the gig is best summed up by saying that like everyone else at the end of the gig he was on his feet cheering for more.