No major concerts to report, but I wanted to give a brief flavour of a few things I’ve seen recently.

Naked Lunch/Universalove, Vienna Arena, 22 August

I think this was the only cold, wet day in the whole of August, so of course it had to be the day on which I chose to attend an open-air concert. Once again Naked Lunch were superb; see here and here for longer reviews of this engrossing film/music experience.

Der Blutharsch, London Camden Underworld, 18 September

Fine performance of dark psychedelic rock from Albin Julius and friends.

Damo Suzuki/Mord, Vienna Arena, 22 September

The former Can man continues on his never-ending tour, picking up “sound carriers” wherever he goes. I actually found this to be mostly uninteresting, lacking in variation and Suzuki’s vocals ultimately tiresome.

Volcano The Bear, Vienna Rhiz, 6 October

Very uneven concert of experimental rock and improv. Some beautiful piano-led instrumental moments, but the vocals and lyrics were largely mannered and inconsequential. And by the end it was clear that the duo had run out of ideas, which for an improvising ensemble is rather worrying.