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Bazar Curieux, Now & Wow, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
September 16th 2006
Shogun Kunitoki, Mauro, Stijn, Cansei de ser Sexy, Liars, Peaches

Sometimes you just by accident stumble upon festivals that have been around for a long time but till now didn't get any of your attention. Bazar Curieux has had it's share of promo this year however. Not only did they get the controversial Peaches as headliner but maybe more important, due to the closure of Nighttown (it's planned venue), they moved to a new location for their 15th aniversary. They selected the big and high class dance club 'Now & Wow' which was offered as a replacement by their very music minded manager Ted Langebach. Industrial elements all around because Now & Wow is inside a former grain silo in the Rotterdam harbour this seemed to be a great place for this bizar event.


Shogun Kunitoki

This band is somewhat different from those highly appreciated metal bands from up north, Finland that is very well-known for its good metal bands, but this band specializes in making movie score like music and looks all but rough. Definitely different from what we normally review on this page, so let’s see if we should see these bands more often.

Music
When it comes to music it is clear these people love using older instruments. Their Commodore 64’s have been replaced by keyboards that at least resemble ancient Hammond organs. The music is hard to capture and manages only slightly to grab the attention of the audience. The sound itself is clear and pleasing and the sound levels are ok but not all instruments are always good on the final mix.

Performance
Just take all band members and put them in a circle, then make sure you appoint one member to face the audience with his back and use projections to cover some 1/4th of the screen. Next you hardly use any lights on stage and instead put them on the audience… hang on, that’s not performance now is it? Well it is according to this band.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 2
Sound: 7
Light: 3
Total: 5




Mauro

The man was back at Bazar Curieux, this time to perform as his solo project. Mauro Pawlowski is also known as bass player of the alternative Belgian rock band dEUS.

Music
Mauro’s music can’t be easily explained, he just seems to do what’s right using recordings or live recorded soundbites combined with keyboards and guitar and a hardly understandable amount of mumbling lyrics. The mix wasn’t bad but technical problems led to a messy piece of music. Combined with apparent insanity of Mauro it wasn’t your ordinary piece of music, nor a very good one.



Performance
What’s happening? With dEUS Mauro never looked this far off the planet. He either gets high on his music or uses some additional help to reach the point where you decide to cut a square hole in a cardboard keyboard box, decorate it, put it over your head and play like that. When the fragile box breaks down Mauro finds it necessary to  pet the box. His weird performance confused the audience and it might be so he’s the only one who really gets this show. Well at least there was enough light to see what happened even though this could lead to even more confusion

Rating
Music: 4
Performance: 6
Sound: 6
Light: 7
Total: 5





Stijn

Introduced as the ‘friendly Belgian’ Stijn entered the stage, not alone but he has brought an entire band with him on stage this time.

Music
Stijn makes laid back electro music with a special twist. Next to him behind his keyboard there’s a trumpetist and a guy on saxophone. At the right side of the stage a man with a double bass and of course some other musicians. These additions make his music interesting  and full. Nice music to relax to but also something to produce a feel good emotion we all need at times. This sound again was again at the right sound levels and both music and vocals were nice and clear. For all those ‘dark’ people out there; just give it a try and you might be surprised and like it.



Performance
With his curly hair and a big smile on his face Stijn looks like a friendly and open guy. He immediately manages to gain sympathy from the crowd. With people sitting on a raised platform in front of the stage it’s easy for him and his band to interact with the audience. The lights were a bit brighter than with Shogun Kunitoki but not a lot. It just seems like there wasn’t enough anyway to see this band enjoy themselves to the max.

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 5
Total: 8





Cansei de Ser Sexy

A group of art devotees who decided that making music was to be their next project. These woman and one man from Sao Paolo, Brazil, never played an instrument before they started and they feel not being sexy on stage was a goal big enough to transform into their band’s name.

Music
What can you expect from a band that had no real musical background? Well; simple music basically. But when you are at a concert the band’s joy can sometimes be enough as long as the music isn’t really bad or out of tune. So no really innovative music nor impressive solos, just people using their music to entertain the audience. Earplugs were needed for those at the first rows, the sound levels were just too high.



Performance
When the band hits the stage the first question to many must have been: where did that singer get that leotard? While the rest of the band is playing without much a do or interaction with the audience (even though amongst each other  they seemed to have fun, even exchanging instruments) most fun came from their singer. She seemed to loose control while dancing, shaking her head violently only to remember bits later she has this dance she prepared. This was no high level performance, no great light show, no projections or pyro or even a real concept, but the enthusiasm and craziness made up for all that. This show was justa  lot of fun, period.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 6
Light: 7
Total: 7





Liars

A band from the USA who have recently released their 3rd album ‘Drum’s Not Dead' where they use soundbites and strange rhythms to follow up their mellow second album.

Music
One singer with a guitar and two guys who use the drums (one alternating as a guitarist) make some rock music that fails to be original or surprising. It seems the goal is to produce as much volume as possible so the audience will not notice the mediocrity of their music. It’s easier to blame it all on the sound engineer, but this band should really wonder if this is the kind of music their audience likes to hear.



Performance
The sound level was was, to compensate for this the lights were very dim. That surely prevented the crowd from seeing the show-off ‘I’m a rock star’ attitude of the singer. He was basically full of unconvincing emotions and cliché moves. Back to the drawing board no matter what they think of themselves. Leaving this show to go to the next stage in order to be in time for Peaches was your best option here. No drummer, nor two, even when one wears a superhero outfit can change that.

Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 1
Light: 4
Total: 4





Peaches

It’s her second time around at Bazar Curieux after her show in 2003. This Canadian former school teacher has recently released her third album ‘Impeach my Bush’ which is definitely full of explicit lyrics. As long as you don’t take it too seriously she sure has enough to offer to many people

Music
Peaches makes music that is rather simple, but it never gets really boring. Actually, it makes you want to sing along and move your body. A piece of live footage on the internet had really bad vocals but tonight her voice was very good, getting close to what you get on the cd. She’s no diva, but it suits the music without being in any way annoying. Drums, computers, keyboards and guitars complete the rest of the music. Most of these are done by her band ‘The Herms’ consisting of people with quite some background: Samantha Maloney (Hole, Eagles of Death Metal), Radio Sloan (ex-Courtney Love) en JD Samson (Le Tigre). Talking of Courtney Love, well this might just be her successor we saw playing at Bazar Curieux, one though who appears to be a nice person instead of the difficult miss Love. Again trhe music was loud but both vocals and music were well balanced. Final conclusion: brilliance in simplicity.



Performance
With two band members carrying Peaches on stage the already hyper enthusiastic first few rows go wild pushing themselves forward nearly crushing the photographers and annoying others around them. Peaches sure got emotions running wild and she’s no less wild herself on stage. She changes her clothes on stage 3 times, peeling off a layer and then adding the appropriate accessories. But there’s more; getting on stage riding a bicycle, a technical error in a giant inflatable dick that needed mouth to mouth resuscitation by a roadie and eventually had to be carried off stage on a stretcher. The rest of the band were wearing cool make-up matching the space cadet outfits. What about changing instruments while playing a song, making the band turn into a music relay team. With the use of on-stage LED light panels there was plenty of light to see the audience, when far enough at the front, could see that after peeling off enough layers, contradictory to her lyrics perhaps, she was still wearing clothes. This lady is ready for more. So if there’s any chance to go and see her show: don’t hesitate. She might be huge before you know it!

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 8




More photos on page 2

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