Calling all flunkies, junkies, gentry and punks! Students and suits and parents and chumps! I don’t care who you are or where you’re from. And, for one night only, no one else in Birmingham cared either.
Instead of stereotypes and fancy dress at gigs where everyone comes looking like the band that’s being paid to impress, the crowd at the Birmingham Academy tonight is an eclectic bunch of foot-tapping, body swaying, hand waving lovers of music. And it was a pleasure.
Time to cut to the chase. This gig was fucking great. And it wasn’t because some band jumped off equipment, smashed it up or were notorious for their drug or social abuse offstage. Quite the opposite, the Bedouin Soundclash gig was a landmark event for marrying the essence of music with its physical reality.
The Bedouin Soundclash are a generous band. It comes through in their music. And they were generous with fans after the gig. But they showed an uncompromising spirit of humility and generosity before taking to the stage in their own right by actually playing as the support band for one of their own heroes – Vernon Maytone (aka the legend Vernon Buckley).
Indeed, a Vernon Maytone gig by itself is worthy of the ticket price. But tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we are taken on a Canadian crusade through tales of revolution and inspiration with a unique trio of musicians who, surely, are destined to tip the scales back to reggae/ska/punk this year and beyond.
The Bedouin Soundclash are refreshingly organic – nothing they play or sing has artificial ingredients. And by keeping their music natural, they can experiment with flavours that may have otherwise tasted a little off. The shifting rhythms from Pat Pengelly on bass, the solid fretwork of Eon Sinclair and his Sunburst Jazz Bass and the awesome presence and talent of Jay Malinowski on lead vocals and guitar – all elements have come together to create a unique sound.
The opening chords of their next single “Walls Fall Down” (featuring Money Mark from the Beastie Boys, out in the UK in September we’re told), go way beyond your standard reggae/ska fare. The changes in drum patterns from off beat to disco beat tease the audience into thinking that it is they who are the musical evangelists, just by being there.
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Song after song, the swaying bodies are beckoned to expend just a little more energy, until, with arms in the air, “Jeb Rand” takes the Bedouin Soundclash’s followers to the next level. Strange how a song with no drum beat can be the one to make the crowd feel they have the most rhythm! As with any performance, this may have been due, in no small part, to Jay’s explanation for the song: based on an old Western film, “Pursued”, but brought politically and culturally up-to-date by drawing parallels to America’s loss of identity and Britain’s loss of historical responsibility. It’s true that, with genuine artists and their work, the more that people understand why, the more they make it their own.
Personally, I want to make a big play for “Music My Rock”. To all radio DJs, show producers and fans (oh, and employees/execs at Polydor) – if anything deserves to crash the charts this summer, this does! Brits have a reputation for being fair-weather-listeners of anything reggae/ska tinged. We either fight the (weather) system or go where the wind blows. So, readers, you have a few months to head to their website and buy their “Sounding A Mosaic” album, in preparation for our wonderful summer (whenever that shows up!).
As I mentioned earlier, this gig was made great by the spirit of generosity and the extraordinary musicianship that extended through the Bedouin Soundclash’s whole support team: Chris, the band’s sound man, whose feel for the band and attention to detail was an essential part of the experience; and their UK tour manager, who helped break down the kit at the end of the night.
“Memory is what you know, not what you see,” sang Jay in the song “Jeb rand”. I remember what I saw. But, to pay tribute to them, I know that I will be going to see Bedouin Soundclash again.
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