“Hello, Tepo zt…
Tezol…hello, Mexico!”

Buzzcatcher

UNDER THE RADAR AND BLASTING FROM OUR OFFICES

King Khan and the Shrines WHO: These nine ex-Berliners so hotly evoke Nuggets-era garage rock (plus horns) that a dance party is liable to bust loose anytime their album is played louder than a whisper. And frontman Khan has got the lung power to match his near-namesake—if less chest hair. LATES T: The Supreme Genius Of (Vice) FOR FANS OF: Royal Trux, the Hives

Location, Location, Location

Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez WHO: Anyone who sings gentle folk songs about narwhals over a downy bed of fingerpicking deserves some skepticism. But there’s sturdiness to Alvarez’s melodies and a dignity in his voice that helps this Baltimore nature boy overcome any freak-folk gag reflexes. LATEST: Why Is Bear Billowing? (Carpark) FOR FANS OF: Devendra Banhart, Vetiver

In June, 37 years after Pink Floyd played Pompeii, Sigur Rós
performed before mystic Aztec ruins in Tepoztlán, Mexico.
But this was just the latest in a rash of off-the-grid gigs.

Abe Vigoda

WHO: Abe Vigoda are all wobbly rhythms and jutting guitars, as songs like “Bear Face” and “Gates” find these L.A. live wires tripping over themselves with gangly grace. But the band’s manic songcraft keeps everything on the awesome side of awkward. LATES T: Skeleton (Post Present Medium) FOR FANS OF: Los Campesinos!, Liars

OIL THE WORLD’S
A STAGE
In ²⁰⁰⁶, British pop singer
Katie Melua helped
celebrate the tenth anniver-
sary of gas production on
the Statoil Troll A oil rig in
the North Sea—gosh, has it
been ten years already?—by
descending nearly ¹,⁰⁰⁰
feet below the ocean’s
surface to play two hour-
long sets for workers.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

120 MINUTES:
TO THE EXTREME!
In October ²⁰⁰⁷, members
of the Alarm, Stray Cats,
the Fixx, and Squeeze
performed an acoustic
show at the base of Mount
Everest to raise money for
a local cancer hospital.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

The performers endured
altitude sickness, stomach
viruses, and jokes about
each other’s haircuts as
they made the ¹⁴-day
trek by foot through
snowstorms, from a small
town in Nepal called
Lukla to the concert site.

GET IT?
“HIGHEST”?
Determined to play the
“highest” show on earth
and promote their album
Ladies and Gentlemen
We Are Floating in Space,
druggy British rockers
Spiritualized ascended
two-thirds the way
up Toronto’s CN Tower
to play in ¹⁹⁹⁷.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

“NO, WE SAID, ‘ARE
THERE ANY MINORS
OUT THERE?’”
For reasons beyond
understanding, the
eager-to-please men of
Queens of the Stone Age
descended ²,³⁰⁰ feet into
a German salt mine in late
²⁰⁰⁷, to play a one-off gig
for 300 hard-hatted fans.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

Tiger! S--t! Tiger! Tiger! WHO: The way siblings Nicola (drums) and Giovanna Vedovati (bass) attack their instruments like they’re about to be taken away—and how singer-guitarist Diego Masciotti snarls his punky melodies— is almost enough to make us forgive Italy for Roberto Benigni. Almost. LATEST: Be Yr Own Shit (To Lose La Track) FOR FANS OF: Jay Reatard, Art Brut

Melua had to undergo
medical evaluations and
survival training in Norway
before helicoptering to the
gig. She currently regrets
not being paid in gas.

The biggest danger
the band members faced
were annoyed Canadians.

It’s one thing getting
the band and crew down
a dark, damp, dilapidated
shaft elevator; it’s quite
another getting their bulky,
temperamental gear down.
But, hey, free salt!
DAVID PEISNER