And so it goes....Madrugada Live at Tralfamadore

I'm listening to a pretty nice live album from the Norwegian band Madrugada. Live from Tralfamadore is an arena rock album that is actually stitched together from various concerts in 2003 and 2005. It's mixed as though it was played one hot night, and Tralfamadore is not an obscure seaport on the northwest coast of Norway. In reality it is a planet that exists only in the inspired imagination of American author Kurt Vonnegut.

Or at least that is what the Tralfamadorians would want you to believe....

Madrugada is a band that probably most Americans don't know about, but they were pretty huge in Norway, I gather. They remind me of groups like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Catherine Wheel, Mark Lanegan and The Gun Club. Sadly, the band is no more, as guitarist Robert Burås died way too young in 2007. But Live At Tralfamadore is a nice epitaph to a very worthy European rock band.

Sivert Hoyem: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Robert S Burås: Guitar
Frode Jacobsen: Bass and Guitar
Erland Dahlen: Drums (on this album)
Simen Vangen: Drums (2003 tracks)

From the very moment I heard the ringing stinging chords opening the first song Hard to Come Back, I knew this would be good. Sivert Hoyem is an affecting vocalist with a deep rich voice, and a lot of presence. I can only imagine the confidence and ease he exhibits on the ballad Majesty. To get up and sing in front of thousands of people in an arena. It must be exhilarating and also terrifying. Reminiscent to me of Adam and Eve era Catherine Wheel. Burås was simply an excellent guitarist--when I hear him play it sounds like he made everybody else a little better. The sound quality is terrific throughout; in the quietest moments it sounds like the crowd is so rapt, that noone can make a sound.





But the greater body of the music here is in the territory of the Bad Seeds. Songs like Black Mambo and the exemplary bluesy dirge You Better Leave are testaments to this. Most of the music performed here are originals, but they do a nice cover of the Gun Club's cowpunk tune Mother of Earth with Kid Congo Powers guesting, and the old traditional standard Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.

I love the very affecting sad but sarcastic lyrics of Strange Colour Blue.

Oh everybody's sleeping now
An industrial silence singing
And the rain will keep hammering down
from overhead
Now there's a blue, blue strange colour blue
Let me dream of me and you
Oh how the rain keeps hammering down
Pour.

If forced to choose,  my favorite song would be the anthemic The Kids are On High Street--"they take your photograph, you come into existence". The hard rocking Seven Seconds is also a high energy highlight. But all and all this album is quite strong. I managed to pick up the deluxe version that had 4 extra songs on it. The version of Blood Shot Adult Commitment made the purchase worthwhile for me, and the Lift Me single included was a decent duet. I think that the song was a big hit in the Motherland, though not very typical of the band's musical output.

In addition to the studio albums, Robert Burås had a side band called My Midnight Creeps that released two albums. Sivert Hoyim has released a few solos records and in 2010 recorded a song for the Norwegian Refugee Council titled Prisoner of the Road to help raise awareness of the plight of displaced people around the world. Good man.

And the musical ability backs up the humanitarianism. So give Madrugada a listen. If you like these other guys I've compared them to, I'm sure you'll want to hear their entire output.