Canshaker Pi live with Petersburg. Paradiso Tolhuistuin, Saturday 7 March 2020

Photo: Wo.

What a band! Listening to Canshaker Pi, for half of the time I have the feeling that what I'm hearing can't (co-)exist, really. The free flowing melodies are supported by guitar lines that border on dissonance, without ever being this. Not even close.

It made me realise that bands like Canshaker Pi are so much better than the bands playing music like this circa 40 years ago. The rigid dissonance, bordering on orthodoxy was never accompanied by a good melody. The deadness of Joy Division, The Cure at its darkest, The Comsat Angles, The Gang of Four, The Sound, The Alarm, etc., etc., I couldn't listen to it for even half a song. The band changing this (for me) was on the grunge end, Nirvana and the Punk-funk end, Franz Ferdinand. A band like Canshaker Pi takes this kind of music to another level of integration. Where Franz Ferdinand was obviously out to please, Canshaker Pi explores the extremes where music and rigidity successfully meet. Melodies are disrupted by explosions of notes that do not seem to fit, yet do. Maladjustments are simply repaired in the songs. And the band keeps getting better at it all the time.

Quite predictably the show started with the noise explosion called 'Okay Decay', the opening and title song of the latest (and last?) album. Everything goes full out, one blast of sound and noise, before the song winds down and a lament about having too little money for too much work is shared with the listener. Had they truly listened and not just danced, dozens of people would have queued up at the merch stand.

'Okay Decay' may be a sad song in that sense. Musically it's a triumph. A showcase what a songsmith like Willem Smit can create, without wanting to please, but tickling and irritating, stimulating and pushing away. The song, as most songs of Canshaker Pi, holds inner opposites, that make them so intriguing.

Photo: Wo.

I finally had the chance to go and see the band, as with the previous tours they never seemed to be where I was or could be. Now it worked, and like the show of Palio Superspeed Donkey at Rotown, now five years ago, this show seems to be the end of the road for Canshaker Pi. Which is a very, very bad thing. Why? This band of youngsters is one of the best in this country. Apparently it is impossible to earn enough to make a comfortable living playing in a band. A lot of talent goes to waste because of it. All because young people no longer buy enough records to sustain the artists of their generation (and preferring other music probably).

Like the Palio Superspeed Donkey show this one was totally convincing.

Supertramp was once saved by a Dutch millionaire to come back with 'Crime Of The Century'. Are there any rich folk out there that can assist Canshaker Pi in creating the masterpiece the band undoubtedly has in it? If so, this is the time to do it.

Photo: Wo.

Support act Petersburg was playing some electronic stuff when I walked in that changed into an endless repeat of a lead motif on the guitar. It wasn't hard to get into the groove but to say I liked what I was hearing, mwah. This changed fast. The band got into its stride and the variations in the beats, singing and lead guitar playing became better and more intriguing. There were loads of energy coming off the stage, with songs getting better and better with the same amount of disturbing disruption as Canshaker Pi is good at. With an ex-member in the band it becomes easy to understand where that may be coming from. Having a singing drummer, is an exception and Petersburg has just that. Harmonies often were just shouts until a surprise crept in, sending a song in a different direction. Just like the guitar eruptions could make a song totally explode.

According to Willem Smit Petersburg made the best album of 2019. Certainly not of 2020, as Canshaker Pi is a contender here. I bought the LP, so if convincing on record as well, I will come back to you.

Wo.


You can buy Canshaker Pi's records here:

https://shop.excelsior-recordings.com/products/canshaker-pi-canshaker-pi


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

PS: This is our 3000th post.