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Peter Pan Speedrock / Andrew W.K.: Night Of The Neanderthals

Dadaistic statement about the state of rock music or deadly serious?
16 februari 2002, Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)

Tekst: Martÿn ter Haar

Publicatiedatum: 09 maart 2002

Stupidity has always been a big part of hard rock. Traditionally the white working classes' music, the brainlessness of the metalhead served as a "fuck you" to the system, a refusal to co-operate to the advancement of society. In our information society lack of education has become such a sin that the classic Beavis & Butthead style metal-fan has gone nearly extinct, also because the working classes nowadays almost completely consist of immigrants. Undoubtely have their own versions of 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and 'Breaking The Law', but they'll sound completely different.
A post-modern, ironic interpretation of the genre is still among the possibilities of course. And that's exactly what Eindhoven's Peter Pan Speedrock offer. Musically this works out fine, with a solid groove provided by a drummer who looks like a mini version of Arnold Schwarzenegger with a hairy back and the bass player who looks like he just walked out of a rockabilly band. Singer/guitarist Peter van Elderen plays a mean solo and has a good voice. The problem is with the lyrics he sings: he takes the most banal hard rock lyrics and then goes even 5 levels lower. And exactly the one thing you can't parody by giving it a banal twist is banality. A song like 'Megadetitas' might work for a huge drunken crowd, but for a venue filled with people who came for the headliner it fails, where in exactly the same venue the more tongue in cheek Gluecifer was victorious.
Tongue in cheek is also the first impression you get of Andrew W.K. The reason lies in the discrepancy between the brilliant art photo on the cover of his album 'I Get Wet' and the Twisted Sister revisited pop-metal of songs like 'Party Hard' and 'Party 'Til You Puke'. The first conclusion is that it has to be a joke, some dadaistic statement about the state of rock music. Then Andrew W.K. and his band come up and it turns out they are serious: these just are a bunch of metalheads that really want to party hard. W.K. himself does neanderthal dances on stage in his dirty white jeans and t-shirt or shouts his lyrics slightly bent forward into his microphone, his greasy hair covering his face. His signature move has him spinning round, trying to lift his left with his arms. The bass player has spent hours in front of the mirror practicing Gene Simmons moves. The keyboard player goes completely Jerry Lee Lewis on what sounds like Yahama's cheapest model keyboard. Obituary drumgod Donald Tardy creates a gabber-like beat with his double bass drums. And then there's the 3 guitarists. All they do is play the simple chord progressions of W.K.'s songs. No solos. And the keyboards and drums actually contribute more to the overall sound than the guitars. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the guitarists play through Hughes & Kettner amps, a brand no self-respecting metal band would use, or maybe it is just that W.K., who has a past as a keyboard player and drummer, doesn't know what to do with guitars. The overall result is stupid fun the way the metalhead that seems only to come out for festivals, where he drinks beer until he falls asleep in a puddle of mud, garbage and piss, likes it. It is actually more fun that Peter Pan Speedrock, but the sensation that some have made of it, it certainly isn't. Except for that album cover.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/andrew-w-k/peter-pan-speedrock-andrew-w-k-night-of-the-neanderthals/1383/
Meer Andrew W.K. op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/andrew-w-k