After a while you can become tired of watching the same old, same old. You get to a certain age having watched a plethora of performances and you are just in the comfort zone. You know what makes things tick, and what does not. Sometimes, though, you stumble upon something that just lifts you from deep within the rabbit’s fur and stimulates your senses. Minute Taker’s set at this year’s Refract:18 festival did exactly that.
The Tiger Lillies are a phenomenon that may have escaped many of you. They label themselves as a cult band mixing “pre-war Berlin cabaret and avant garde music hall in deranged anarchic gypsy style” And that my dear readers is not that far from the truth. Their new show, Corrido de la Sangre, is currently playing at Home Manchester, and is one of the highlights of the ongoing ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival.
“The only thing we will ask of you at our concerts is that you listen. Really listen. And in return, we will create something extraordinary.”
To look at them you’d think they’d not aged a single day. Yes, there’s the odd few wrinkles, and flashes of the odd white hair, but, remarkably, Californian emo outfit, Weezer, look more or less exactly like they did when they first burst onto the scene in 1992. Twenty five years later and they are still going, still touring, still making albums, and still getting the likes of me to buy tickets to their gigs.