I can't believe I have not upped this show already. I *thought* I had. This night was one helluva hassle for me, but it all worked out in the end. My basic technique for seeing shows in cities I have never been to is that you get off the train, find a hotel within eyeshot, ask the first young person you see where the venue is and they tell you - (usually) right around the corner! Sometimes it is a bit more complicated than that, but usually it isn't. So I thought "Gent...can't be that much different from Eindhoven and Groningen," where I had already been that week. Wrong! It was closer to Amsterdam - Gent is fucking HUGE. For some reason I had a hotel booked before I arrived. I got a cab there and then asked about Democrazy. The cabbie had never heard of it. Got checked in and asked at the desk. They had never heard of it. I went walking, found a record store went in and asked about Democrazy (what was with this venue anyway - were they Crazy about Demo's?) - they had heard of it but did not know where it was - at the local independent record store! This was not good and getting worse by the minute - my nerves were shot before I even left the USA, and this was toasting me. I finally found someone (young person walking down the street) who knew the deal - the city had closed the place down and it had moved to a houseboat, but they shut that down too and now it was in a temporary space that I could not get to. I was like, "What do you mean, I can't get there? I'm getting there. I did not come here to NOT get there!" He said no, it was impossible. Needless to say I had already called all the phone numbers I had and did not get anyone. The venue did not have a working phone with alisted number. Could this really be happeneing?!? Finally someone told me that there was a bus that went there - it was at the end of the line. I found the bus, got on, asked the driver if it went to Democrazy and he was clueless - a venue at the end of the line and the driver doesn't know about it? I quickly jumped back off. Long story longer, I finally found a cabbie who knew where it was, but he too got that Oooga Boooga look, like I wanted to go into a firefight. So he finally drives me out there - had to be a good half an hour away in an industrial district with nothing but identical looking wearhouses. (For you Philly folks imagine that my hotel was downtown and the show was in Conshohocken). We looked and looked, but it was not clear that any of them were the place. There was one that had an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper by the door that said Democrazy. On a giant wearhouse - one little piece of paper! To say that I was not in great shape to enjoy the evening at that point was an understatement, but that wore off as I had a sandwich backstage, said hi to folks and told my tale. Soon the Hydrogynists, I mean Hydromatics came on and I was having a blast. (Democrazy had listed them everywhere as such - see ticket) Then it was a great night.
This is seriously hard rock. Scott wanted to do more newer stuff, but Slug and Nicke had always fantasized about having a Sonic's Rendezvous Band tribute band and were not letting this chance to have one - with Scott Morgan singing no less - get away. So you get 6 SRB songs and the certifiable classic from Parts Unknown, Runaway Slaves. "Cash on the barrel-head get out of Dodge Blues" - now THAT is songwriting, but I digress. The Hydromatics were doing a short 7 song set every night of this tour because Nicke had taken on the Herculean task of playing drums in this turbo-charged band BEFORE his lead singer/guitarist/frontman gig with the Copters. The Hellacopters leave nothing in reserve as a live act and they played almost every night. Plus Nicke had to do all the press - everybody wanted HIM. So in order to pull it all off The Hydromatics were kept to a short set. Zen Guerilla was amazing as the middle of the sandwich all three nights I saw them on this tour too. Live sound was a bit muddy at Democrazy, but this is an excellent capture with no issues. This was not as packed as the other shows had been, no doubt because the venue was so inaccesable - to the extent that people even knew where it was. What that meant to me was that I had free range on the floor in front of the stage to find the sweet spot, or at least the sweetest spot. Unfortunately I didn't get the other bands, so don't bother asking.