Hanson Brothers - Live in Zagreb, Tvornica 30.03.2012.

I've been lucky to see the Hanson Brothers two nights in a row this weekend, supported by the wonderful Invasives (and, on the show in Osijek, my friends This Day Will Burn). For those who don't know, the Hanson Brothers are an alter ego of the legendary Nomeansno - in this guise, they play stupid, catchy, Ramones-influenced (or rather, Ramones-ripped-off) punk rock dedicated to the celebration of "the hockey game". Although Nomeansno are one of my absolutely favourite bands, up until these shows I haven't really "got" the Hansons, thinking they were just a bit TOO stupid for my taste; turns out there's no such thing as "too stupid". I had great drunken fun at both shows and, revisiting their albums afterwards, found out that there really are tons of great songs in their canon. This morning I went on YouTube to check if there were any videos from the shows, and was pleasantly surprised to see that some kind soul had recorded the whole Zagreb show and uploaded it. So, these mp3's are basically just the audio portion of those videos, separated into individual songs and ever so slightly enhanced by a mild equalizer. So don't expect "Bridges to Babylon" here: this is probably just this side of listenable, but I have heard lots of bootlegs that sound even worse and actually sell for real money, so this is still infinitely better. I think I can even hear myself talk sometime between "Rink Rat" and "Lovesick", and even though I can't really understand what I said, I'm 110% sure it was something very smart and funny. So, if you've been to either of the shows, this might be a nice piece of digital memorabilia, and if not, perhaps you'll be able to get an idea of what the whole shenanigan was like. Too bad the Invasives portion was not recorded, as they really are an amazingly fresh and interesting little band, but I'll try to dig out something else by them to share on the blog in the future. Have fun!

Track listing:

1. Intro (1:24)
2. Total Goombah (2:24)
3. The Hockey Song (2:04)
4. 100 and 10 Per Cent (2:14)
5. Tranquil (2:04)
6. Not for Mary Lou (2:58)
7. Stick Boy (3:01)
8. A Night without You (2:52)
9. Third Man In (2:24)
10. Rink Rat (2:09)
11. (banter) (2:48)
12. Lovesick (2:23)
13. Let's Go Out Tonight (2:10)
14. We're Brewing (1:20)
15. Duke It Out (2:09)
16. Sabrina (2:39)
17. Comatose (2:26)
18. (banter) (2:27)
19. (unknown) (2:48)
20. I've Been There (1:13)
21. No Emotion (1:50)
22. Jack Off (2:56)
23. Bad (2:17)
24. (pause) (1:34)
25. Loudmouth (1:49)
26. Havana Affair (1:39)
27. Everything I Wanted (2:20)
28. Danielle (She Don't Care about Hockey) (2:48)
29. (banter) (0:53)
30. You Can't Hide the Heino (3:25)
31. Sudden Death (5:46)

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