Mondo Bizarre Magazine

words: Marcos Leal (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

Memorials presented themselves on a Thursday night at Maus Hábitos, Porto. A band that, from two soundtracks challenge Tramps! and Woman Against The Bomb was put together by Electralane’sc singer, guitarist, saxophonist Verity Susman and saxofonista and guitarist Matthew Simms, from WIRE’s late line-up, among other projects running from It Hugs Back dream pop to Better Corners’s noise. . A multi layered musician mirrored in Memorials’ music, that splits himself between handling several instruments, pedals and other sound making mechanisms.

The concert begun with both members behind their musical paraphernalia. Verity, on the left, behind the keyboards and pedals, with the sax by her side. Matthew, on the right,, on the drum kit with laptop, loopstations, anogue tape machine, framed by a guitar and assorted connect pedals. The visual projection already creating the visual ambient to the music to follow. Colourful images of varied hues, misshapen, in repetitive movements. A certain mix of Pollock and Van Gogh.Had already listened to Memorials two albums I was curious how the duo’s performance would unfold.Which turned out the way indicated on the records. A sound exploration through different times of assorted psychedelic sounds, at a time more organic, at a time more electronic. A variety of compositions, some more classic, some more modernist, that seemed to travel in time between the 1970’s and the 1980’s.. Kraut, drone, psychedelia, even indie, were present highlighting the duo’s exploratory side.

With hair and dress leaning towards the 1060’s, Verity Susman represented well the retro-futuristic sound of the band, her voice reminding singers of thar era. Mathew Simms, with his thick, long hair, impressed by how skillfully he took turns between the several instruments and mechanisms, reproducing a range of sounds, loops, and melodies that created the several layers of what was being played. But for a small issue with a pedal, the performance wax fluid, with the audience, a bit shy, showing a good reception to the music. By the end, Memorials asked the audience if it wanted more music to which said audience replied yes with some dancing in a cheerful concert finale.

words: Neno Costa (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Neno Costa

The cozy space of Hard Rock Cafe, in Porto was the stage for Alain Johannes’s acoustic concert. Johannes presented music from throughout his career, during which he was associated with the likes, to name a few os his creative partners, of Mark Lanegan, Chris Cornell, PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl or Josh Homme. Alain Johannes shared music from his reportoire, in an intimate ambient with the cumplicity of the audience.

Equipped with three acoustic guitars, he virtuously extracted the most appropriated sound in a blues-folk-rock mode, garnishing his compelling voice, capable of tamming a rattlesnake. Hope and a certain quiet redemption resonates in Alain’s melodies. We were invited into an existential pilgrimage, in a desert landscape with unlikely flowers.Return To You (Spark, 2010), Kaleidoscope (Fragments And Wholes, Vol. 1, 2014), Free (Hum, 2020) or Hanging Tree (a song composed in partnership with Josh Homme, Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri) where some of the twenty songs played that were well worth the pilgrimage.