RINGNES PUB, JÖNKÖPING - Wednesday, 23:rd of
August, 2000.
RICH HOPKINS & LUMINARIOS
Review
from Finnveden Fredag - By TORBJÖRN ÅKERBLAD.
MIKE
DAVIS, LEGENDARY BASSPLAYER
WITH
MC5 VISITS JÖNKÖPING.
I admit
that I never before heard of Arizona-based
guitarist/singer/songwriter Rich Hopkins. Therefore, I am not
able to tell you much about his musical career other than the
fact that he has been a very active recording artist since the
middle of the 80's with Sidewinders/Sand Rubies and in the last
five years or so with Luminarios on Blue Rose Records.
Anyway, I drove to
Jönköping to see Luminarios' bass-player; Mike Davis was part
of one of Rock-history's most groundbreaking and trendsetting
constellations, The MC5, from "The Motor City",
Detroit. I dare to say that without MC5 and Iggy & The
Stooges, there would have been no british punk-rock as we know it
today. The Grunge-wave would have had problems surfacing and
Swedish undergroundheroes "Union Carbide
Productions"(a.k.a Soundtrack Of Our Lives) would have had
to search for inspiration somewhere else. Knowing all that, it is
a great experience to see Mike handling his Fenderbass, playing
with the same attack as he did more than 30 years ago! Just the
fact that he still lives is amazing when you think of what
happened to MC5 singer, Rob Tyner...
Rich Hopkins &
Luminarios draw a great deal of inspiration from Neil Young, and
a bit to much of that in the guitarplaying, in my opinion. The
first part of the concert was based on soft, somewhat
country/bluesey-songs. Rich writes some really great lyrics and
if you closed your eyes, you could imagine yourself and the
band at some dusty El Paso hotel, or you would see the sad eyes
of one of the song-characters..
But during
the last 30 minutes or so (when someone in the audience had
traded beer for more music), things started rocking. I could hear
70's psychedelic rockers MAN for awhile.
During the
last jam, Rich's playing was getting more "spacey", and
after the show, I just had to buy some Luminarios-records.
Probably spinning in the CD-player right now...
(Translated by Sven
Lagerberg)