A modern-day Grant-Lee. Photo by Denise Siegel

FRIDAY 5 AUGUST
Paradiso, 19.00, €20 + membership 

Fancy a trip down memory lane this evening? Back to a time when indie (as a genre) was young? When Dave Grohl was still just a ‘rad drummer’ with really long hair? When Michael Stipe had hair? In the 1990s, Grant Lee Buffalo, like most of their college radio peers, took all that was good from the ’80s punk days and expanded this DIY spirit into a glorious musical mosaic that incorporated elements of grunge, country, pop, punk and even psychedelica. With singer Grant Lee Philips’s alternating growl-and-falsetto vocals and the acoustic feedback howl of overdriven 12-string guitars, melodic distorted bass, tribal drum bombast and the old world churn of pump organs and parlor pianos, their first two albums Fuzzy and Mighty Joe Moon established their place in the murky, shifting world that was the record business in the mid ’90s. Supporting such acts as The Smashing Pumpkins and REM on monster tours cemented their reputation as a live band worth catching and the band then graduated to headlining exciting, esoteric tours of their own (most notably with Giant Sand. Can you imagine?!). Two more records – Copperopolis and Jubilee – were recorded before they disbanded at the end of the 1990s and Grant-Lee Phillips embarked upon his fruitful solo recording career. Well, the boys are back together and it seems that the ’90s are in vogue again (1988 is so last month!), so wipe that tear from your eye and let’s all party like it’s 1993.

If you do want to party like it’s 1993, email win@unfoldamsterdam.nl with Fuzzy in the subject, and you and a friend could be going.