HR044 - Viktimized Karcass -- Live At Counter Fest 87
C46 — 1987
C46 — 1987
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Side A:
So Long Back On The Trail High Yo You're So Wrong Side B: Got To Be Dark & Dank Sugar All Tracks Recorded Live at 4 A.M. May 30, 1987 |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
The credits note that all tracks on the Live At Counterfest 87 tape were recorded at 4 A.M., May 30, 1987. The sound is pretty decent bootleg quality, making this a tasty live Karcass treat.
The first five songs are the same and in the same order as the tracks on the Violence – A Way Of Life tape (HR043). ‘So Long’ is an industrial New Wave rock ‘n’ roller. The bass stands out and you can faintly hear the guitar soloing. The rest is a spaced out glom of rocking noise and blasts of static.
The cacophony pours out like an anguished howling swirl on ‘Back On The Trail’, anchored by a catchy repetitive melodic guitar riff. ‘High Yo’ has a kind of Peter Gunn theme vibe, though it’s all within a saucy, cool grooving industrial rock ‘n’ roll context.
The crazy efx’d screams from the HR043 tape are present on ‘You’re So Wrong’, though this is a somber melodic New Wave tune with grungy guitar chords and tasty rocking leads and classic 80s synths. Those scream effects are so bizarre.
‘Got To Be’ cranks out a glom of noisy rock with rickety electro percussion, buried vocals, guitar leads, and a cacophony of swirling space effects. The synth melody is prominent, and the songs ends with manic screaming vocals. ‘Dark & Dank’ is one of my favorites of the set. The guitar cranks out rocking leads and a catchy riff, backed by strangely Caribbean electro beats, haunting spacey synths, and cacophonous noise squalls.
‘Sugar’ closes the set, and is (intended to be) a cover of the Archies’ ‘Sugar Sugar’, here being a blend of melodic synths, soloing guitar, and wind rushing noise squalls, the whole being brain fried bubblegum for the industrial set.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: What was Counterfest?
CP: It was a festival organized by Tav Falco of Panther Burns. It was in a warehouse and he invited all the bands. It started at 6 PM and lasted until after our set, which didn't start until 4 AM. It wasn’t supposed to last that long but a lot of the musicians took longer to setup and do soundchecks. There really wasn’t an expert soundman. And the reason ‘Sugar’ is on there is because Falco pissed us off. Everyone was running behind and we were supposed to come on at midnight. But instead he had to have the midnight spot so he made us switch. So we didn’t come on until 4 AM and the fest ended after that!
JK: Listening to the background noise it sounded like a decent crowd there for 4 AM.
CP: We played ‘Back On The Trail’ again.
JK: The first five of the seven songs you played are the same songs and in the same order as appeared on Violence – A Way Of Life tape (HR043). Did the festival take place pretty shortly after you recorded that tape?
CP: Shortly after. And we did use some of the same songs.
JK: And like we talked about for the Violence – A Way Of Life tape, the songs sound very different.
CP: Tav Falco played ‘Sugar Sugar’ as his opening song, so we decided to fuck it all up. And Jackson fucked it up good with the tapes.
JK: So that song was something you guys just came up with on the spot?
CP: Yeah, we just threw it in there.
JK: How many bands played the fest? Was it all different styles of music?
CP: About 10 or 12 bands and all different styles of music.
JK: Being held at a warehouse I gather, it wasn’t a club? Bring your own?
CP: It wasn’t a club. It was a warehouse. This one crazy motherfucker had a chainsaw cutting up shit live on stage.
JK: Like some kind of performance art thing?
CP: Yeah, just for effect. I think it was more shock value than anything.
JK: Did many people show up?
CP: Probably a couple hundred. People always came to anything Falco put together. At 4 AM it wasn’t a couple hundred. It was probably 50. And everybody was about wasted off their ass by then.
JK: One of my favorite songs is ‘Dark & Dank’. The Caribbean electro beats made it sound really different.
CP: We just made that one up. Total improv, just like we did in the studio. We didn’t really have a setlist per se. We pretty much knew what we were going to do.
The credits note that all tracks on the Live At Counterfest 87 tape were recorded at 4 A.M., May 30, 1987. The sound is pretty decent bootleg quality, making this a tasty live Karcass treat.
The first five songs are the same and in the same order as the tracks on the Violence – A Way Of Life tape (HR043). ‘So Long’ is an industrial New Wave rock ‘n’ roller. The bass stands out and you can faintly hear the guitar soloing. The rest is a spaced out glom of rocking noise and blasts of static.
The cacophony pours out like an anguished howling swirl on ‘Back On The Trail’, anchored by a catchy repetitive melodic guitar riff. ‘High Yo’ has a kind of Peter Gunn theme vibe, though it’s all within a saucy, cool grooving industrial rock ‘n’ roll context.
The crazy efx’d screams from the HR043 tape are present on ‘You’re So Wrong’, though this is a somber melodic New Wave tune with grungy guitar chords and tasty rocking leads and classic 80s synths. Those scream effects are so bizarre.
‘Got To Be’ cranks out a glom of noisy rock with rickety electro percussion, buried vocals, guitar leads, and a cacophony of swirling space effects. The synth melody is prominent, and the songs ends with manic screaming vocals. ‘Dark & Dank’ is one of my favorites of the set. The guitar cranks out rocking leads and a catchy riff, backed by strangely Caribbean electro beats, haunting spacey synths, and cacophonous noise squalls.
‘Sugar’ closes the set, and is (intended to be) a cover of the Archies’ ‘Sugar Sugar’, here being a blend of melodic synths, soloing guitar, and wind rushing noise squalls, the whole being brain fried bubblegum for the industrial set.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: What was Counterfest?
CP: It was a festival organized by Tav Falco of Panther Burns. It was in a warehouse and he invited all the bands. It started at 6 PM and lasted until after our set, which didn't start until 4 AM. It wasn’t supposed to last that long but a lot of the musicians took longer to setup and do soundchecks. There really wasn’t an expert soundman. And the reason ‘Sugar’ is on there is because Falco pissed us off. Everyone was running behind and we were supposed to come on at midnight. But instead he had to have the midnight spot so he made us switch. So we didn’t come on until 4 AM and the fest ended after that!
JK: Listening to the background noise it sounded like a decent crowd there for 4 AM.
CP: We played ‘Back On The Trail’ again.
JK: The first five of the seven songs you played are the same songs and in the same order as appeared on Violence – A Way Of Life tape (HR043). Did the festival take place pretty shortly after you recorded that tape?
CP: Shortly after. And we did use some of the same songs.
JK: And like we talked about for the Violence – A Way Of Life tape, the songs sound very different.
CP: Tav Falco played ‘Sugar Sugar’ as his opening song, so we decided to fuck it all up. And Jackson fucked it up good with the tapes.
JK: So that song was something you guys just came up with on the spot?
CP: Yeah, we just threw it in there.
JK: How many bands played the fest? Was it all different styles of music?
CP: About 10 or 12 bands and all different styles of music.
JK: Being held at a warehouse I gather, it wasn’t a club? Bring your own?
CP: It wasn’t a club. It was a warehouse. This one crazy motherfucker had a chainsaw cutting up shit live on stage.
JK: Like some kind of performance art thing?
CP: Yeah, just for effect. I think it was more shock value than anything.
JK: Did many people show up?
CP: Probably a couple hundred. People always came to anything Falco put together. At 4 AM it wasn’t a couple hundred. It was probably 50. And everybody was about wasted off their ass by then.
JK: One of my favorite songs is ‘Dark & Dank’. The Caribbean electro beats made it sound really different.
CP: We just made that one up. Total improv, just like we did in the studio. We didn’t really have a setlist per se. We pretty much knew what we were going to do.