Roky Erickson And The Hounds Of Baskerville – Live in Amsterdam

It’s been long wait to see Roky Erickson, it’s over thirty years since I first heard the original 1964 recording of You’re Gonna Miss Me by  The Spades, his first band, on an old Pebbles garage compilation. For those not familiar with Roky Erickson, he was priming the template for punk, initially with The Spades and then with The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, several years before Iggy Pop formed The Stooges, his subsequent solo career was sporadic due to well documented health problems and mental health issues, something which I’m not going to dwell on here as it’s been written about extensively elsewhere. Roky Erickson in now pushing 70 years of age and by all accounts this is very likely to be his last visit to Europe so I’ve abandoned Manchester for the bright lights of Amsterdam in order to catch him live. Roky Erickson and his backing band The Hounds of Baskerville are playing the Paradiso Noord in Amsterdam today, a venue secreted away in an arts complex and a short ferry ride away from the bright lights, bars and coffee shops of Amsterdam’s city centre. A passionate, eccentric and enthusiastic audience slowly fills the venue and by the time it comes for him to take the stage the place is packed.

Roky Erickson is seated for the first section of the concert but any concerns this may have raised considering his age and health are well and truly banished, it’s clear that he still possesses that primal garage scream that characterised The Thirteenth Floor Elevators recordings. The Hounds of Baskerville accompany Roky Erickson perfectly, to add authenticity there’s even an electric jug player in the band, this was the instrument which added a unique and haunting dimension to The Thirteenth Floor Elevators recordings. They open with Fire Engine and run through a powerful and moving set of material from The Thirteenth Floor Elevators three albums and they inevitably close a charged set with the song where his journey started, You’re Gonna Miss Me. Roky Erickson returns standing for a rapturously received encore of two songs from his solo career, If You Have Ghosts and Two Headed Dog.

As he walks from the stage Roky Erickson turns to look out at a packed crowd who are still baying for more and he looks genuinely touched by the warmth of the reception he has received from a packed Paradiso Noord. It’s not often I can say I feel I’ve seen a legend, the term has been watered down somewhat over the years, but I think it is one which genuinely applies in this case. I hope Roky Erickson knows how much his music means to people and if this is the final time he will visit Europe then this has been a hell of  a way to say farewell

You can buy selection of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson solo material from the official site here

http://www.rokyerickson.com/