PERE UBU ::

PERE UBU / BULBUL
szene / vienna, austria
11th september 2005

who doesn't know PERE UBU? what? you? you don't know PERE UBU? good grief, person, go and read up about this band! very few other bands have been as influential in the post-rock and art-punk scene as PERE UBU were and probably still are. i remember my first contact with a PERE UBU record cleary. it was 1992 and we were hanging around a friend's house. we were rummaging through his records looking for things to hear when one of the older guys fished out 'new picnic time' with the words: 'hey, i haven't heard that one in quite some time!' - and mere seconds later 'the fabulous sequel' (first track of that record) started warbling around my head. it was strange. a bit uncomfortable even. but oddly fascinating and hypnotic. i craved more of that! well, i got more of it eventually, but i never got the chance to see them live... until now.

opening up for PERE UBU were austrian noise-sludge-art-rockers BULBUL. as always, great show, great music, great threads (woman's sommer dresses this time, which looks hilarious on a tall anorexic-looking guy, a shortish, stout guy and an average-built, maniac guy). it's been 5 years now that i can't make up my mind whether or not i should buy a BULBUL record or not... so hard to make up my mind.

what BULBUL had smashed with their brilliant rawness, PERE UBU further devastated with their sublime finesse. mostly they performed songs from their latest record with a few songs from recent outings (mostly from 'pennsylvania' or 'st. arkansas') which are not amongst my favorites, but alone the fact of seeing david thomas on stage, drinkin from his hip flask, smoking one cigarette after the other and directing the band like a depressive maestro... well, that alone was worth it all along. and there were quite a lot of people at the show. i was expecting 200 maybe. there were about 500 people. which was the reason, ultimately, why i left halfway through the show. too hot, too much smoke and too humid. but, no regrets. i have seen PERE UBU live, which makes my life so much richer.