CHERNOV'S CHOICE

Published: February 18, 2005 (Issue # 1045)

Thin Lizzy will not take part in the Heroes of Rock festival at Ice Palace this week because the band has put all its European dates on hold after a concert in Limerick, Ireland that takes place on Saturday, according to a posting on guitarist John Sykes' official web site, www.johnsykes.com. No reason was given for the pullout.

Meanwhile, another band taking part billed as Sweet is in reality Andy Scott's Sweet since Brian Connolly's Sweet, which existed simultaneously with the Andy Scott version for some years, folded with Connolly's demise in 1997. The old rockers, including Ian Gillan and Ken Hensley, are scheduled to perform at Ice Palace on Wednesday.

Kacheli, one of the best live bands on the local club circuit, will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a series of concerts in February and March, kicking off with a free gig at Tsinik this week. The band, which started out performing the kind of pop rock that many bands played in the city in the early 1990s, has since developed into something entirely different, describing its style as alco drive.

Kacheli will perform at Tsinik on Wednesday and at Platforma on Thursday. The band has asked Leningrad's Sergei Shnurov to appear at the Platforma gig as a guest. Kacheli's most recent album Ne Uchi Otsa... (Don't Teach Your Father...) was released on Shnurov's Shnur'OK label last year.

Now a hot club hit in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Billy's Band, which recently provided the soundtrack to the dark comedy Nochnoi Prodavets (The Night Salesman), will showcase its new album with two shows this week.

Called Otorvyomsya Po-Piterski (Having Fun, Petersburg Style), it is the band's third studio album. The CD's highlights include the Prodavets theme song Ya Ne Vernus (I Won't Return), 32 Rubles described by singer and double bass player Billy Novik as rock and roll on trash cans, and an odd number called Tak Ya Padal (I Was Falling), which, he says, reflects my love of Nirvana and Tatu.

In concert, the original trio will be augmented by members of Billy's Big Band, the band's occasional expanded lineup, Yevgeny Bobrov on drums and Mikhail Zhidkikh on saxophone. Billy's Band will perform at Red Club on Friday and Saturday.

International acts to perform in the city this week include Pascal Parisot. Parisot used to perform in French piano-bars with a repertoire of covers of French chanson hits ranging from Edith Piaf to Serge Gainsbourg, adding some Brazilian classics, until he started to write his own material.

His current set is a mix of chanson, electronica and Latin. Parisot will perform at Platforma on Saturday.

On the more extreme front, Exploited, the veteran U.K. punk band that once proclaimed that Punk's Not Dead and is still a popular subject of graffiti, will return to the city to perform at PORT on Saturday, while the grindcore band Napalm Death will play its local debut at the same place on Wednesday.

- Sergey Chernov