Giving up the ghost

This is going to be a text heavy post (I'm shamelessly cannibalizing a soon-to-appear pennyblackmusic.com article) because these pictures of the Danish showcase opening act, Kira and the Kindred Spirits, was the last to come out of my camera. She's certainly a photogenic last subject, though, so I guess my Pentax died happy ....

The lovely Kira. She has a forceful style erroneously compared in her press kit to Janis Joplin. She gave a far too modulated performance (and looked far too good in a black velvet catsuit) to really merit it. Anyway, with her voice and looks I can well imagine a lot of (deserved) success on this side of the Atlantic.



And some Kindred Spirits; I particularly appreciated Rune Kjeldsen's Telecaster licks. At right, bassist Nicolai Munch Hansen.



Someone else is going to have to provide the name of their organist.



Rhythm action from Hansen and drummer Jesper Lind.



Looks good in that, doesn't she?



Singalong action.



More spirited action!



Kira and Co. (And mo' co.)



"Come a little closer ..."



"I mean, really, come a little closer!"



And that picture's the last from ye olde Pentax. I did snap one of The Figurines, but it perished when my camera jammed.
And now for that text I threatened: The next band were the highly touted Figurines, whose New York New Wave sound fit in well with the current Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Interpol and Strokes-loving zeitgeist.
Their stage performance was also very energetic, with frontman Christian Hjelm'’s facial expressions and Mick Jaggerish prancing providing quite a bit of extra entertainment value. With his large blond mop, thin mustache and tight jeans he did look a bit like he just stepped out of a 1970s porn movie, though.
The Blue Van finished things off. Musically, the band walks the line between garage rock and The Faces with perhaps a little too much loyalty to their forefathers; as a stage act they'’re pure dynamite. Top marks to bassist Allan Villadsen, who was leaping, shouting, twisting and turning in every spare moment. He even jumped off the organ, albeit with a somewhat low trajectory to avoid braining himself on one of Zaphod's pipes. Guitarist and singer Steffen Westmark has his own rock moves down pat. Even organist Soren Christensen got in the act, actually pushing his hefty instrument around the stage. His fingers stayed on the keys, but the rest of him moved about quite a bit. An awesome stage act.

• Show reminder: The Buttless Chaps, Violet Archers (Tim Vesely of The Rheostatics' new crew) and Rhume play Barrymore's.

Don't make me blue

I've just returned from the Danish showcase at Zaphod's. Fine performances from Kira and Her Kindred Spirits, The Figurines and The Blue Van. The latter in particular put on a wonderfully kinetic show, leaping about with abandon. I don't know if I'd buy a CD, but I'd definitely investigate a live DVD. Unfortunately, you won't see two-thirds of this (unless you were fortunate enough to be there) because my Pentax Super ME died on me after Kira and Co.'s set. I calculate I've taken more than 20,000 pictures with it in the last three years (about six rolls a week) so I can't say it hasn't done journeyman service. I feel fairly certain that at this point it would cost more to fix than replace, so I'm going to hie myself to Ginn sometime in the next week and make the leap to digital. At least now I know where my tax refund is going ...