Colour Haze Post Full-Set Concert Video; Sept. Live Dates Announced
Posted in Bootleg Theater on August 14th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Dear Colour Haze: Any time you want to go ahead and put this set out as a live album, that’ll be just fine, thank you. Mix it down and make it all nice if you must, but I’d happily take it bootleg-style too. Whatever works. Thanks as always.
Okay, so, what do we learn here? Well, as the Munich-based godfathers of European heavy psychedelia play through a killer and apparently socially-distanced set of classics new and old — yes I mean that — and announce two limited-ticket shows for next month in Germany, they’re also standing on the precipice of beginning a series of catalog reissues through Ripple Music that will give some of their albums proper North American distribution for the first time. That would seem to be plenty. But what we learn here, in this video specifically, is that the band would seem to be back to its trio configuration: bassist Philipp Rasthofer, drummer Manfred Merwald (who got a haircut since last I saw the band) and guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek.
The lesson there is kind of the opposite of what we’ve been learning over the last couple years since the band brought in formerly-part-time organist/synthesist Jan Faszbender in as a full-fledged fourth member. That was seeing what new dynamic emerged as keys of various sorts fleshed out melodies of older songs. Now it’s seeing how they manage a return to their root elements. You’ll note that among the seven songs they play, none are from most recent LP, 2020’s We Are (review here), but instead they launch with the massive jams in “Skydancer” from 2017’s In Her Garden (review here) and “Überall” from the preceding 2014 album To the Highest Gods We Know (review here).
It gets dark magically before they launch into “Labyrinthe,” but the song is plenty warm enough for the assembled, particularly as it moves into “Transformation” from 2012’s She Said (review here) and “Love” from their 2004 self-titled (discussed here) and the title-track of 2006’s Tempel (discussed here) ahead of the finale “Get it On,” which dips even further back, to 2000’s CO2. The video is a single-camera shot, or at least one at a time, since it does move at least once when it gets dark — they play “Labyrinthe” and “Transformation” largely in silhouette, by lamplight — but the sound is fantastic, especially for the instruments, and their jams are perhaps even more hypnotic with the camera holding still as it does, much as one might be awestruck seeing them play live for the first time on a stack. It’s like being slackjawed in virtual reality.
I don’t know where the “show” was, or when, but I know that when Colour Haze did the Freak Valley-sponsored Freak TV stream in June, Faszbender was still with them, so that change would have to be pretty recent. Maybe it’s a permanent thing, or maybe he just had something else to do that day. No idea. But 80 minutes of live Colour Haze is I think probably the best thing that’s going to happen today, so here it is.
Enjoy:
Colour Haze, Live 2020 at sunset
One of the few shows this year.
Color Haze played live like the bands in the 70s.
In addition to the band’s well-known tube amplifiers, there also was an all-tube PA used here.
0:00 Skydancer
17:20 Ueberall
25:17 Labyrinthe
33:40 Transformation
49:09 Love
57:56 Tempel
1:07:42 Get it on
Colour Haze September shows:
26.09 Aschaffenburg DE Colos-Saal
27.09 Dortmund DE Junkyard (Open Air)
Manfred Merwald – Schlagzeug
Philipp Rasthofer – Bass
Stefan Koglek – Gitarre, Gesang
Mario Oberpucher – Live Sound
Martin Zimmermann – Kamera, Schnitt
Elektrohasch Schallplatten website
