A legend rolled into town and proved the metal of it's legacy. Funny how every second, third band will namedrop Can at a hat drop, yet when Japanese singer Damo Suzuki played last week, the gig was far from over populated. Perhaps people underestimate Damo's importance in the Can scheme - I know until this night I did. Violin droned and two guitars pinned it. Damo sauntered on cool as a moustachioed ice fish and stood relaxed behind the mike stand. A short pause, then his consciousness streamed as the drummer picked up a beat or seven all at once and we were flying. After a few minutes I turned to a friend and remarked that I couldn't believe what was happening. Imagine if Damo hadn't reached his 'Future Days' stop when he travelled 'Up the Bakerloo Line with Annie' and Can, but instead just picked up the flow where he'd left it in the hippy dippy daze. It was hard to believe Can had been any better! There were two guitars and no keyboard, and the bassist switched to droning violin every so often, and maybe this gave it more density than Can, but the band were weaving starry voids around the endless scat flow from the diamond jabbergob of Suzuki San. The skittering multidextrous drummer, who is reputedly an able jazz man, seemed to effortlessly fill the shoes of two Liebezeits. It was light but heavy, dark but light and eventually the omniverse opened and my legs buckled from the immense transdimensional overflow flooding the senses. Damo's Network locked and flowed and flowed, gently down the stream, over the wall and out the window. From the ground I lifted up my dazzled eyes to see Damo still in full flow, cool as a cucumber or even a juicy red tomato, the calm in the eye of the provivalist kosmische soundtracks. But my okra was shot, my yasi was ege bammed and I was losing my Vitamin C. Damo melted joyfully into the voidniverse. Afterwards I just sat dazed and oblivious. People spoke but I heard no words. (Brain readers chorus: "Admit it, you were drunk!") I staggered out into the night and went on home in a cosmic ambience.
