Review by Peter Hogfeldt (Stonerrock.com)

GENEROUS MARIA & AstroQueen
@ Club Fuel (Sticky Fingers)
Gothenburg, Sweden
January 16, 2002

When I started the car and drove of to see this gig, I hoped it would cheer me up a bit... been feelin’ like shit lately (mucho backpain and very little sleep). I almost overslept and missed out on this gig... after having been awake for almost 48 hrs I went to bed early this morning and I finally fell asleep... but I forgot to set the alarmclock, woke up just in time to have something to eat and freshen up before it was time to go...

When I got to Sticky Fingers I saw that Tobbe and Christian from Awesome Machine was standing in the DJ booth... at least there would be some good tunes played tonight, which isn’t always the case... some DJ’s play anything but stonerrock as soon as it’s a ”stonerrock night” at any of the Gothenburg clubs. But these guys played everything from classics like Leafhound to stuff from todays stonerrock scene, a good choice of tunes all the way thru...

When Generous Maria entered the stage I was ready with my camera (since Sticky Fingers are a very ”photo friendly” club I was hoping for some cool photos for a possible ”feature” here at StonerRock.com), but whadda ya know... as soon as I started snapping away the camera ran out of power (and I had no new battery with me), usually I also bring my trusty old backup camera but not this time... so I was a little bummed at this point to say the least...

But Generous Maria did their best to get me back in a better mood... and they succeeded as usual. They had the best sound I have ever heard `em have live, it packed more of a punch than usual and yet it was crisp and clear. Just as at their last gig (at Belsepub, October 19-2001), they started their set with ”Ashram Of The Absolute” which has to be one of the coolest instrumentals since Halfman’s ”Two Perverted Men In The Swamp”... I have described it as Duane Eddy gone stoner before, I guess that’s the only way to describe it `til you’ve heard it yourself.

The rest of Generous Maria’s set consisted of songs from their upcoming debut fullength ”Command Of The New Rock”, `cept for ”Strict Nurse” which can be found on last years split with Skua. Generous Maria gets better and better for every gig they play, Göran is a helluva frontman with a great voice (and he doesn’t exactly stand still, which is a good thing in my book... if you wanna get any reaction from the audience you got to own that stage and not just stand around and nod your head like a lot of bands in this genre does). And the rest of the band aren’t to shabby either... it seems like their new guitarist have brought a few cool twists and turns to the table when it comes to both the sound and the delivery... more dueling solos and such... and of course... they also did a smoking version of my favorite Generous Maria tune... the wonderfully trippy ”All Units Are Out”.

After the break it was time for AstroQueen to enter the stage, I hadn’t seen `em on stage since May last year... and their sound had actually changed a bit since that gig... It was more of that sludge sound, with lotsa feedback and another tone in the fuzz sound... not the over the top fuzz-a-thon sound that most stoner bands use. To bad that the soundguy didn’t do a better job this time (which is strange since Generous Maria’s sound was close to perfect), it was way to muddy and it didn’t do AstroQueen any justice...

Most of AstroQueen’s set consisted of songs from their ”Into Submission” album, `cept for ”Rufus The Space Agent” from their first 7”, all of the songs seemed a whole lot heavier than I remember them from the album (or from that Belsepub gig) and that suited me just fine... the heavier the better...

AstroQueen would get the audience going a little more if they’d move around little more, now it’s Danne that moves the most... and you can’t jump all over the stage if you’re gonna both sing and play guitar. But I guess this is the downside of not getting enough gigs, this was their 3rd gig since I saw at Belsepub last year, ‘practice makes perfect’ and if you don’t get enough practice... and there’s a whole lot of good local bands that never gets to play live, so I guess Gothenburg needs one or two more clubs for the heavy rock and metal audience... To many good Swedish bands have packed in just because they never got any gigs...

All in all a damned good gig (`cept for AstroQueen’s sound)... now I’m looking forward to the next good gig in town, which I guess is Sunride. It’ll be the the first time I get to see those guys live (they’re playing at Club Fuel next month).

BACK