Dutch anarcho-punks The Ex celebrated their 33 1/3rd birthday in 2012 with a series of concerts in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London. The new DVD, And So Say All Of Us, covers the three nights at London’s Café Oto as part of this celebration, with performances from The Ex themselves, as well as comedian Stewart Lee, Ethiopian circus troupe Debre Berhan, sound-poet Anne-James Chaton, and a handful of jazz-improvisers.
The 33 1/3rd year of the group held a particular resonance as the group are the owners of their own record label, releasing a steady stream of vinyl set at 33 1/3rd RPM for the past few decades, supporting both themselves and collaborations with friends. Writing about the show for tQ in 2012, Robert Barry said:
“The band that started off releasing shouty, three-chord punk chants with names like ‘Stupid Americans’ have evolved into something like a hyped-up swing-era big band with chronic tourettes; febrile, splenetic bursts of noise interrupting and somehow melting into the jiving, pulsing course of a seemingly unending stream of groovily infectious dance music. Dancers Melak Belay and Zenash Tsegayez leap and whirl like sufi dervishes, guitarists Moor and Hessels charging about the stage amongst them. The crowd is whipped into a mad frenzy." The above trailer teases you with the first five minutes of the DVD, and the rest will be available soon from The Practice Tapes here.
