Sunday, June 26, 2005
Lev (my friend from Eilat) hopped back north for a visit, which was perfect timing to go to the Hot Fur CD release concert in the Koltura club in Tel-Aviv. And let me tell you, it was the absolute bomb!

We arrived a little early (the show was supposed to start at 22:00 with the doors open at 21:00), the place was still nearly deserted and a Frank Zappa concert played in the background. We went out to grab a bite to eat, and when we came back people were starting to pile up. I don't really have much of an idea how many people were present when the show actually started (half an hour late...) but it was probably 150-200 as the place is supposed to be able to hold 400 people and it wasn't horribly packed.

Audience at large (you can thank Ilya Konstantinov for the pictures)

Hot Fur started by playing their new music video for "Adventure In Space", which was hilarious and got everyone riled up and ready for the concert; they immediately proceeded with "The Letter Vav" and over the next 1.75 hours proceeded to play most of their bread-and-butter repertoiré, including (but not limited) to "Sabres 15003", "I Won't Give Up" and (I think) "Tomatoes". Now what's really great about Hot Fur concerts is that they do not only make and play great music, but they also know how to put on a great show:

Between (and often during) musical segments guys related to the band would put on bizarre costumes and indulge in what must be the greatest fun the world: acting really stupid in front of hundreds of people who appreciate stupidity. I particularly liked this character (the main character in the "Adventures In Space" video), who for lack of a better name I like to call The Dude:

The Dude makes many appearances during the show...

... like this one

Among diverse distractions the band kept throwing roses at the audience, and I finally found myself looking thus:

Roses are red, violets are blue...

And eventually broke down altogether:

... I love Hot Fur, and so should you

At the end of the show, we finally managed to get our hands on our preordered Hot Fur CDs (which we've been eagerly awaiting for for the past year). Besides the great music us preorderers were delighted to find our names in the "thank you" section of the CD...

Hot Fur'll be appearing in Koltura again on July 27th (I think). Don't miss it.

Monday, June 27, 2005 2:54:40 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)
Yes, the show was stupid but still fun.
Isn't it great to see your name in the CD booklet? I wish more bands in Israel would use this marketing gimmick, it's really nice. I'm not sure I'll survive another Parva gig in the future, but it was good spending 50 shekels on those happy fellows.

One rule to remember: never buy a beer/food in a club! it's never worth your money.
:-)
Monday, June 27, 2005 3:01:19 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)
Yeah, I noticed a lot of people said that the Koltura was a bad choice. I'm pretty much used to the Jah-Pan, and Koltura compares pretty well, the qualms I have with it relate mostly to the lackluster air conditioning and the bizarre location for the stage, but they didn't stop me from enjoying the show. I never buy anything but water at these sort of places anyway :-)

I've decided to completely forego the Barby (TA) in the future, though. The last show I've been to at the Barby was the Dream Theater evening a while back (also ProgRock, I think -- IIRC Orpheus played) which was an utter fiasco. The club has absolutely no degree of respect for the artists performing there; it is poorly maintained and the sound man proper yelled at the band when they complained about the set up (in front of an audience, no less). The sound quality has been consistently poor there as well (I particularly remember the awful sound at the Apoptygma Berzerk concert).
Monday, June 27, 2005 7:53:13 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)
i think the next performance is on the 26/7 and not on 27/7.
but i am not sure. so just check it out...
funny site!
the dude
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