When Berry comes to town…

June 23, 2008 - 11:52 PM by

Berry! Berry! Berry! Berry!Seeing 50-year-old Israeli rocker Berry Sakharof in concert is always a treat, even though it usually means squeezing into tight spaces that are packed elbow-to-elbow with teenagers.

One of the godfathers of the Israeli musical export scene, Sakharof started his professional career in Holland with Minimal Compact, an industrial post-glam new wave act he founded with garage punk Rami Fortis. Since the mid-90s, Sakharof has involved himself in a number of musical directions, scoring soundtracks, reuniting here and there with Fortis, and exploring the verses of 11th-century Andalusian Rabbi Solomon ibn Gvirol and the ideas of 20th-century French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. But most of Sakharof’s projects have more or less surrounded his canon of six classic studio albums, some of which were co-arranged by the rhythm-forging sample master Rea Mochiach.

Sakharof creates soundscapes that are ambitious and challenging to the listener but at the same time energetic and infectious. Sakharof gets respect for his rhythms, his Middle Eastern picking and his overall headiness, but he’s primarily a purveyor of guitar rock that’s just plain good – his songs have something to offer everyone from sing-along melody lovers to snobby hipsters.

This past Thursday, Sakharof and band returned for yet another blistering two-hour show at Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine club. Like all Israeli entertainers, Sakharof works hard to make a living, which means that fans have the opportunity to catch him live a few times a year without having to bust out the binoculars. The relaxed showman made some jokes about how Jerusalemites are prone to disrespect towards his home of Tel Aviv, gave away a few guitar picks, and even broke into his patented Turkish cha-cha step more than once.

The Submarine staff had some problems with the sound system (Mochiach threw a tantrum from behind his drum kit at one point), but for the most part, the band was tight and properly vicious, from recent edgy jams like “New Wind” to revamped catalogue favorites like “Sampson” (a Dr. Dre-like synth whine replaced the studio version’s whistling high parts) and “I Don’t Love Her” (somehow transported to Kingston). The 1994 anthem “How Yossi” became a springboard for free-form wall-of-noise jams that evoked Crazy Horse. By the time the band hit the last encore for the night, the sparse Fortis-Sakharof hit “No End to Childhood,” the sweaty room was bouncing agelessly.

Tags: , , , , • Category: Music, Pop Culture 

Comments

Leave a Comment





© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap