{"id":835,"date":"2013-01-27T01:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T01:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=835"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:49:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:49:25","slug":"camper-van-beethoven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"Camper Van Beethoven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January 2013, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are certain bands that stand the test of time because they are timeless \u2014 and this is easily achieved if you don\u2019t fall into the fold of the sound which defined your era. I\u2019ve always kind of liked Berlin, but it will always and forever be locked into the early and mid 1980s because that\u2019s what the mid 1980s sounded like.<\/p>\n

Camper Van Beethoven is another band from the mid 1980s, but it certainly has never sounded like the mid 1980s. Sure there were elements of punk, albeit with a countrified tinge (cover of Black Flag\u2019s \u201cWasted\u201d), and college radio loves \u201cTake the Skinheads Bowling,\u201d but there were not many bands in the \u201980s carting out fiddles, Eastern European polkas and Middle Eastern meets psychedelia tunes. Some of the best items on Camper\u2019s Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart<\/em> are instrumentals \u2014 it was simply not an album for the time. This, of course, is why it lasts to this day.<\/p>\n

In early 2013 I saw Camper, with Athenian resident David Lowery (and UGA professor, I might add) leading a tight and workmanlike set at the 40 Watt to a smallish but appreciative crowd. The fivesome \u2014 including bassist Victor Krummenacher, multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Segel, guitarist Greg Lisher and drummer Frank Funaro \u2014 ripped through songs spanning the band\u2019s entire career, adding several new songs from its most recent album La Costa Perdida<\/em>, including a tune recorded in Athens with the Futurebirds called \u201cNorthern California Girls\u201d. There was a sharpness to the set, showcasing a band which knows its material through and through.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit, Revolutionary Sweetheart<\/em> is one of my all-time favorites, so hearing \u201cTania,\u201d \u201cWaka,\u201d \u201cOne of These Days\u201d and \u201cEye of Fatima\u201d and \u201cEye of Fatima 2\u201d was all I needed, but there was a subtle strength to the new material as well. Was it great to hear \u201cTake The Skinheads Bowling\u201d? Sure it was, who doesn\u2019t want to hear that one live? But Camper persists because it constantly makes great music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 2013, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. There are certain bands that stand the test of time because they are timeless \u2014 and this is easily achieved if you don\u2019t fall into the fold of the sound which defined your era. I\u2019ve always kind of liked Berlin, but it will always and forever be locked into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,107],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-camper-van-beethoven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}