gigomania 2009

gigomania 2009 has started, I'm having a little break after the first round of gigs. It's time to reconsider and review.



The first one in a long row was Roisin Murphy, seen at Huxley's, Berlin on 13th November 2008. If you've seen her solo or in the old Moloko days, you may know: Roisin is a tiger on stage. she is the only artist I know who does not need a support act to heat up the crowd from the very first moment. she is the only one if seen in years who takes stagediving seriously. And I must admit, for me it was the first time I did not see a gig, but a show - meaning choreography, costumes and video instalments. All of which Roisin would not actually need, because she herself was the most interesting thing to watch, not her clothes and hats.

support act: none

audience: approx. 1000. gay fashionistas (almost exclusively) and lesbians

visuals: video art, costumes, two background singern + a band

performance: singing so incredibly fine that for parts of the gig I was not sure if this was playback or not

movements: from revised dances to stagediving, plus a tiny assistens running up and down the stage to catch the items roisin would have to trough around during her performance

venue: looks like an old theatre, wooden floor on the second made me feel uncomfortable about solidity, drinks price average to high

highlight: I touched Roisin.



next on my list was Oasis, who played the Arena Berlin on Sunday, 18th January 2009. I must admit there is not much to write about. The whole thing was a disappointment for me. I had bought the tickets months before, so I went, even though I had a fever. Now a gig is a good gig if I can dance or jump around, I need interaction, with the band or the crowd and I need to somehow vent my feelings by screaming or singing along. What I do not need is to stand in a corner, high on medicine, unable to move and sipping orange juice.
What happened on that gig? apparently, Liam Gallagher went off stage in the middle of I'm outta time because he could not sing the high notes, apparently Noel Gallagher did barely move at all, apparently they played The Masterplan (which I love) and so on, but I would not swear on that, because I do only vaguely remember.

support act: The Twisted Wheel, who played a smaller (much smaller) gig at the privatclub the day before. That was probably great, because they are a good band, but at the Arena nobody really paid attention.

audience: approx. 5000. From ordinary guys with bad boring haircuts to over-dressed britpop guys with even worse haircuts to young girls with too tight tops to girlfriends who just tagged along.

visuals: four screens only about half of the audience could see because the venue was to large and, and which were not really used to capture what was going on on stage.

performance: a couple of old hits + the good new songs, a high-profile band and a nervous singer

movements: Noel - none, Liam - too much

venue: so large it felt uncomfortable - how can the crowd feel united in the songs when it is that big. in fact it was so big I did not even hear the "so sally could wait"-chants at my end of the venue.

highlight: 5000 people - and Fran Healy walking right past me.



Not much more than a week later I felt way better and had the kind of a gig I am looking for. Little Man Tate played a show at the Magnet Club, Berlin on Monday, 26th January 2009. I was a bit uncertain about how the audience would receive them, because they are such an apparently British band. I never know if this is maybe misunderstood by the Germans. Indeed, the people who made the party were a couple of British fans in the first row. They were eager to shout and interact with the band, so I just mixed with them and danced and sang along.
They played a couple of new songs which I had not heard before. So it took a while until the hits were played, but the new stuff is pretty nice, too. Apart from that, LMT must be one of the nicest bands ever, because they encouraged the whole audience to come and chat with them after the gig and go have a drink with them. They are very much the kind of lads you'd like to be friends with.

support act: I was told it was a terrible Berlin band, but i got no clue because i spent the time drinking beer in a pub near the venue.

audience: approx. 50. the Brits in the first three rows, behind them a mixed crowd, from young girls to old farts.

visuals: all band members wore black leather shoes. you can't miss the little details when there is no light show going on.

performance: Jon Windle kept on insisting his voice was coarse, but really he sang quite well!

movements: me - a lot!

venue: very small, intimate, laid back on a Monday evening

highlights: Fran Healy is a friend of the band and was there. 50 people, but this time I did not see him. lesson learned.



Read the next gig date and calculate why this post is called gigomania - it was only Saturday that I went out again. A lovely bunch of people from Manchester called The Whip performed at Knaack Klub, Berlin on Saturday, 31st January 2009. The last time the played Berlin was about a year ago, and back then, there was virtually no one there. But over the last year, they built up quite a fan base in Germany and I 've read a few articles about them in music mags. The Whip are rising and their time will come.

support act: I think they were the support, or at least the first band in a row of two.

audience: approx. 200. party people.

performance: good singing, good drumming

movements: They really tried this "clap along" thing. It only worked sometimes. The audience was greatin the end but a bit shy at the beginning.

venue: it's got a bar and a pedestal at the side so everyone can see. but there is a pillar in front of the stage.

highlights: Fee drumming and drinking beer at the same time.



The last one so far is Travis. After selling out the Kesselhaus in no time at all, their gig on Friday, 6th February was relocated to the Huxley's, which they eventually sold out, too. We keep in mind: singer moves to Berlin + is married to a German + new record released + he appears in every magazine and radio show talking about berlin = Berlin goes all crazy about him.
Seeing Travis live has been on my list for a long time. When they came back, I felt 16 again, and I was surprised their new songs could touch me as much as the old ones did back then. However, at the gig I realised I did not want to share that with the audience. I mean the band was great. And nice. And they made a good show for the masses. But I did not feel like mass pogo, especially not if you have to explain what pogo is first. So if you got the chance, go and see Travis, they are good. But not for me on that day.

support act: Some boring band who tried to look and sound indie

audience: approx. 1000. secretaries with their boyfriends, who usually never go to gigs , snuggling throughout the show

performance: They know how to play their instruments!

movements: Singer: lots of jumping, bass player: lots of posing, guitar player: lots of bending

venue: The toilet attendant does want you money, but you can get free candy from her, too!

highlights: Fran Healy, and everyone saw him!

The Whip @ Magnet, Berlin

The Whip are a four-piece electro band from Manchester, and one of the sweet memories of my time in the city. I saw them live there about a year ago, at a time when in all of Germany, no one had heard of them yet. Now they are the next big thing (if you wanna call it that way) and you can hear them on the radio and read about them in music mags. With their debut album X Marks Destination released very recently, it was time for them to tour the Continent for the first time ever. I very much looked forward to seeing them, as nostalgic feelings for my time in Manchester keep growing and growing and I think the music is fucking awesome.

I recently started to learn playing the drums and one of the things I learned to play is the thrilling beat of their single Trash. It sounds very simple, but is hard to play because you have to be absolutely exact. I mean, everything has to be in sync, even more than with any other drum pattern I have worked on so far. I decided to make a little research project out of the gig. I wanted to watch the drummer Fiona as much as possible, to learn something from her. It looks like what she does is hard work. She does not seem to stop playing the bass drum at all, and it is all very straight-forward, energetic, like a computer. In fact, she must be a human drum machine!

However, for the first few songs I was not concentrating on watching her drumming at all. Instead, I was dancing wildy, jumping up and down and enjoying the music just as the rest of the audience did (they were not at all as lame and hesitating as a berlin crowd in front of an unknown band is usually). A few years ago I was listening to electronin music extensively and I had thought it was time to go out dancing to electronic music again soon. However, I despise the typically electronic dj sets you usally get, because I know there will always be music I think is absolutely shit, silly and not worth dancing to. Not with The Whip! I was enjoying every single minute, every single beat - the ones I watched carefully and the ones I moved my body to.

The gig was over with no encore after 45 minutes, but what else can a band do than play their reportoire, which naturally isn't that extensive after they've just released one single album. I bought the cd afterwards from their very nice bass player Nathan, and so should you! It was a marvellous evening.

Jens Lekman @ Lido, Berlin

Saturday night and Jens Lekman is in town! How could I dare not going, especially when I got the ticket as a present (thank you!). As expected, Jens got the masses making a pilgrimage to the Lido, the metro to the venue was packed with people speaking in scandinavian tongues. The growing population of Scandinavians in Berlin is no secret, and neither is Jens' fondness of the city. He has been very charmingly building up a song by describing in detail how to get to Berlin when you are coming from Sweden or Denmark (Easyjet takes 45 min, but Saefflebussen costs 5 euro less, and "knowing Berlin I was sure I could make use of that 5 euro somehow". I enjoyed this story very much, as I am familiar with the pleasures of seeing the baltic sea from the sky and 20 hours on the road all through Denmark and over the bridge to Sweden). The crowd, very likely comprising of Scandinavian-enthusiasts like me, screamed with laughter. Jens definitely is one of an entertainer who knows how to grab the audience by the balls. His show was not that long at a first glance, but three encores really did the deal. In fact, he sang until there was "no more song to sing" (I am sure he has got 10 new songs in his mind at any time) and he said he felt like dancing. No dancing for us there, though, as the after show party was not at the Lido, but in a different venue far away. After hanging around at the venue for at least another hour and a quick drop-in at the döner round the corner we decided to go to the party. It took us 45 mins to get there, changing train twice and freezing, just to be turned down at the door: We were told our tickets are not valid for the after show party and it was 6 Euro entry. I had just spend 6 Euro on a Jens Lekman record and the stupid temptation to speak to the gorgeous drummer about my attempts at banging the drums. I guess I made a little fool out of myself with little-girlish talk, but at least I bought the record. Anyway, no fucking Karrera Klub after show party for us, back to the concert: The record I bought, Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo, was the last regular song they played and it had this little showdown built in when all the members of the band put down their instruments and danced up and down the stage. There was still music playing then... No hard feelings here, the band was great and I eat my hat if this talented bunch of girls (plus one boy) was not playing life. However, girls (exxageration for dramatic puposes: it was only just one girl) in front of me were sobbing quite noisily when Jens played Pocketfull Of Money, alone with his acoustic guitar. I had no reason to cry last night, I enjoyed it very much.

9 - Little Man Tate: About What You Know

9
LITTLE MAN TATE: ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW (2007)

This years' list is gonna give a lot of reference to the time I spent in Britain. Being in the country of music for five months, and spending almost all the time in the city of music (I am talking about Manchester) does of course have some nice effects. I had great experiences there and some of them had loosely or tightly to do with Little Man Tate.

The first time I heard about them was last year, in autumn 2006. Back then I went to a Peter, Björn & John gig in Berlin where they were touring with Little Man Tate. But I had no clue who they were and so we missed the show. But things that are destined to happen simply happen! In Manchester I had lots of opportunities to gain as much from the musical atmosphere there as possible. This included going to clubs and record stores (Manchester's Oldham Street has a larger number of record stores than any other street or area in Britain), namely The Roadhouse (venue) and Picadilly Records (store). And one day on myspace I got a bulletin saying the Little Man Tate were doing a few free gigs in Britain to promote the release of their new single. The gig was in the Eastern holidays, and they were giving out tickets in Picadilly Records on a specific date. By then, I had become very interested in the band because of their great rock music and their smart titles like Man I Hate Your Band. So I rushed to shop right in the morning to make sure I got two tickets - as a special surprise for someone special who was gonna spend the holidays with me. The gig was great. And I mean not only the band, who were rather tired (you could tell by the voice of the singer that they had been touring the continent) but still put on a great show. For me it was also fantastic to observe the audience - lots of Brits, weird guys who were into stage diving and partying hard. And they adored the band. The atmosphere was very much alive.

The record, About What You Know, also brings back lots of memories of things that I experienced, which could only have happened in Britain. I went to a big house party, were two hundred people squeezed themselves into a living room to see Foals play for free, and everything I hear House Party At Boothys I can't help but thinking of that. In most party of the album, the lyrics just refer to specific things I have seen that are part of the British culture. I am failing to properly describe this here, let's just say that it's great Britrock, and with this records I feel like I listened to it from a British point-of-view, not as someone who hears it and has to wonder what it is like to know all this. Cause this time I know!

CSS and The Gossip Myspace Secret Show @ Roadhouse, Manchester

This is gonna be a long one, but worth the read! ;)

Some bold facts: Myspace UK has been organising two secret shows so far, this was the second one. I learned about it in a bulletin sent out by the Myspace Secret Show UK page. It announced the date and place, May 18th Manchester, but I only found out about who would play a couple of days before the gig.
To get a ticket I had to befriend the myspace profile (which I had already done ages ago) and CSS's and the Gossip's myspace page. Then put the three in my top eight, print out my profile page, and then, they day before the gig, go to the local book and music store Fopp to queue for my ticket.

My friend and I arrived at the store two hours before they started giving out the tickets, only two be quite surprised that there were people queuing already! So we took our place in the line and waited. Somebody took pictures of us holding the prints of our profiles. I mention this because we were exposed to photographers let loose quite often. They started handing out the tickets on time, and soon, after showing the prints and an ID, we got a wristband, a ticket and some buttons which said things like "you looked better on myspace" or myspace is for losers but you're all f*cking on it.

Holding the tickets in our hands we thought of two things. First: we got the tickets, no more queuing! (how wrong we were...) Second: oh, the tickets say dress code: shock. What are we gonna do about this?
I won't explain what we wore, in case you may read my description too well and then I got no idea if weird pics of me will finally come up on the myspace page...

But we did dress up a bit the next day and went for a nice pint. The tickets said Doors 8:30, so we where there 8:30. Only to have to queue again, for an annoying one and a half hour. Why this was like this, I do not really know, but I got my suspicions: there were cameras again. People handing out flyers, people taking pictures. And a film team that filmed the queue, encouraging everyone to cheer. Of course, if you wanna persuade people who weren't there about how busy it was, you got to make the audience queue. But for one and a half hours?

Nevertheless, we finally got inside, only to wait a bit more. Then CSS played. To be honest, I did not know any of their songs before, and one gossip song only. And to be honest, I was not particularly found of the music. I liked both bands attitude, the singer from CSS with glasses painted on her face and a fake tooth gap. I read about them afterwards that they started the band without knowing how to play any instrument. If that is true, bless them. But to me all the songs sounded the same.

Things were similar with The Gossip. Again, not really an idea what they sound like, yet I was familiar with some of the modern myths surrounding Beth Ditto, and maybe she fulfilled them again this night with her ultra-short dress and her party-attitude which could have resulted from drunkenness. But she does what she wants to (at least I hope she still wants to be like this, and it has not become a necessity to stay popular), and I appreciate this. Plus there was something else about her, which was clearly my highlight of the evening: her voice. Let me tell you, no matter what you think of her and her band, her voice IS amazing. They opened their set with a cover version of George Michael's Careless Whisper, and I as an old George Michael fan say they did it very well.

Here are some pictures my friend took:

CSS

The Gossip

The glowsticks

After these nice impressions, here is what the press said:

First of all, myspace UK still has not managed to put reviews, videos and pictures up on their profile yet. Maybe they will have when you read this, but they certainly did not have when I wrote this. Considering the fact that the gig was friday night, and I am writing this on a monday afternoon, I must say that's pretty lousy and lame of them.

However, the NME was really quick, giving us this story. Do I approve what they wrote there? Frankly, no, not all of it. But first, my congratulations to the author who figured out the setlist. How you can keep all these songs apart and recognise them is a miracle to me. But maybe he just nicked the setlist? Yet I do not remember Beth Ditto shouting for Paris Hilton to be put into prison. I also do not recall her dedicating the gig to Yoko Ono. And I was really sober. The rest seems true, though.

After the gig was over, there was a bit of djing going on, were once more I realised that either my electro time was ten years ago and is over now, or the best electro songs simply were made ten years ago, because what got me (and the crowd) going the most were some old nice tunes such as daft punk's around the world and mr oizo's flat beat. When we left they gave us free posters of both two bands, and we still had these glowsticks they had been throwing into the audience extensivly. Having spent less than five pounds for this night I was quite satisfied with the outcome. lots of annoying things, but who am I to complain when it's a bargain!

Harry And The Potters @ Urbis, Manchester

Seeing Harry and the Potters was one of the most "different" gigs I have ever been to, probably. As you can tell by the name, the group is inspired by the Harry Potter books. In fact, all the song-lyrics are based on characters or episodes from the story.

Don't believe me? Here are some lyrics for you:

From The Human Hosepipe:

so we said there with all the couples kissing
and soon things began deteriorating
and you began turning into the human hosepipe

From Wizard Chess:

I don't want to go home for Christmas this year
I don't wanna see my family
...
I just wana stay at school with my best friends Ron
oh-oh-oh
we'll spend our Christmas playing wizard chess
...
oh-oh-oh
we'll spend our Christmas being invisible
oh-oh-oh
be invisible this Christmas

(my favourite song)

I enjoyed observing every single detail of the gig. Let me give you some facts: The Urbis is a museum. The band played in the entrance hall. Generally, they perform in theaters and libraries rather than concert hall or gig venues. Their audience comprises approximately 13 to 16 years-old kids. And oh, how these kids looked: Black eyeliner on allmost all faces, some in really colourful clothes, socks with different colours, but some dressed in black. Almost all guys with long hair, almost all girls with at least two different hair colours. Spome wore self-made t-shirts with lines from the books. Hard to tell if any dressed up as actual characters, hard to tell for me, at least. But there was no Harry Potter in the audience. And rightly so, because the kids knew there would be two Harry Potters on stage!

Harry and the Potters is actually two brothers (and a drummer), who look very much alike each other, and who did their best to look like Harry Potter. Dark curly hair, glasses, a scar drawn on the forehead. The even wore the Hogwarts school uniform. They looked really nice.

Okay, so what do we have so far: emo-kids going to a gig at three pm, two brothers, I'd say in their late twenties, dressed up as a adolescent wizard and a performance in a museum. What did I save for the end: the music!

Let me tell you, the music simply was a very sweet surprise for me. Listen to the songs the band has on myspace and you'll get no idea of what it is like to see them live. Live they rock! Or, more acuratly, they punkrock! They rarely played a song that was longer than one-and-a-half minute. The two Potters jumped around and screamed, there even was some serious moshing going on in the audience at one point. Lyrics were spit out, microphone stands were broken, the singer ran off-stage to dance and sing and cry with the kids, no reservedness, no timidity at all. And I thought: thanks somebody is saving these emo kids from teenage angst and makes them angry instead!

Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators @ Mint Lounge, Manchester

The evidence of a funky night out! This pic was taken at the Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators gig in Manchester in early May this year. They blew me away with their 2005 record Keep Reachin' Up, which I discovered just very recently. I therefore did not really expect to get a chance to see them touring this record, but there they were, in the Mint Lounge, 8 or so guys on stage, starting the concert with a ten minute long instrumental introduction. In case you have not read about them before, they are a ten-piece finnish band playing music following the tradition of Northern Soul sound.

The intro gave my finnish company a change to admit the band actually really looked finnish, and let my anticipation grow immensly. And it got the audience in the mood, so everybody was already shaking their bits when Nicole Willis finally entered the stage. She has a wonderful stage presence: smiled, danced and enjoyed the music. I am not sure if I actually have to mention that her voice was superb. My finnish friend, usually a follower of Heavy Metal, and a bit of Jazz, was absolutely glad we went and told me he enjoyed the musicd very much. So did I! So did everyone.

some videos with the usual phone camera+youtube-upload-size problems. You do not necessarily have to watch them, just listen while you browse.

Herman Dune @ Roadhouse, Manchester

This cool pic suggests that Herman Dune is another of these multicombo bands, with loads of people that are difficult to keep track of. It's not quite like that.
I am still not really familiar with the band's history or background, but as far as I understood the band actually just comprises two brothers from France or Israel or Sweden or the USA or all four or so?

But what do I care about where they are from when the song I like the most is about "being away". It is called I wish that I could see you soon.



When I saw them live in Manchester about a week after Easter, this song was the first of a row of songs that really caught me.
Maybe I wouldn't have liked them, had I just listened to this song, but seeing a band live of course always makes a difference. The beautiful female voice you can here in the song was provided by a singer from Baby Skins on stage. This woman had a really nice array of percussion instruments that I could never be able to name, yet describe. She used a different one for every single song, to accompany the drums and make things a bit more strange and dreamy.

The audience must have been crazy for Herman Dune's music. They even booed the singer when he didn't sing. When Andre Herman Dune, the singer, came back on stage for an encore, he chatted a bit at first, talking about music distribution, and how much better vinyls are compared to mp3s. He said he didn't have the time to go record shopping in Manchester, which he really regretted, and that he loved the idea of kids wanting records rather than mp3 downloads. This got him a little passionate (aren't we all, when it comes to this subject) and he kept on talking, for so long that people started to shout for a song. In the Roadhouse, there was a club night after the gig, and people feared there might not be time for a song if he went on talking.

But a brand new, very sweet love song was sung, everybody embraced, souls saved. Thank you, Herman Dune!

Midlake @ Sheperd's Bush Empire, London

I have written about Midlake here and here
and you don't have to click on any of these links if you don't want to ;)

So, I went to see the band who won my last year's favourite-record-award for the second time. I thought the fact that they were in the same city as me at the same time was more than coincidence this time. Apart from that I had always wanted to go to the Sheperd's Bush Empire. There was a time in my life when I did not go to gigs (too much money spent on dope), so I would hang around with my friends watching live dvds endlessly. It became sort of a running gag after a while that all these artists we liked released dvds of gigs shot there. The repetition of shots from inside, all these amazing artists I "saw" and the dope made me really really wanna go there for once.

And the venue was perfect for that gig, for that night. We had seating tickets on the balcony. We had been hurrying around all day, travelling from Manchester to London, collecting keys, dropping luggage, making small talk to people we did not know, missing busses...and no time to sit down and relax. Until the gig started.

The atmosphere was great. Midlake's music just sounds so much better in a place like this. Sheperd's Bush Empire is an old theater transformed into a gig venue. They could have performed without any PA at all, I bet we would still have heard every single note.

The music was more psychedelic this time, I felt. Sometimes, the band would literally bend over their keyboards and instruments, soo much into their music. No long breaks between songs this time (that was what made me feel disappointed after seeing them in Berlin last October). I could just sit down and let the music flow through me.

The venue was sold out, and it sold out about six weeks before the gig. Apparently, people in London are really into Midlake. And what an interesting audience it was. Most of them were in their thirties, possibly, but I sat next to an approx. 10 year old boy accompanied by his mum. He seemed to really like the music.

That's why I can't stop blogging about them. One day, I'm gonna convince you all... ;)

Little Man Tate @ Roadhouse, Manchester

To celebrate the release of their latest single this must be love, little man tate played a free set in the roadhouse manchester, my new highly favoured venue in this music city on the 29th march. It is a small place, and it was packed.

Little Man Tate are a party band, obviously. The front half of the venue was packed with very small, rather "wide" people with a lack of hair, excitedly moshing right from the very first song on. They celebrated the band very much, even though the singers voice was a bit fucked up ("I sound like a twat", he said throughout the set). But Little Man Tate had been touring the continent before for quite a while. This left the singer with a weak voice, and the whole band with the excitement of "playing back home". Interestingly, my company had seen them live in Berlin a week before and said the gig was totally different. People had been listening rather politely, and the songs sounded quite different. I guess Little Man Tate just belong to a way different league in their home country.
It sucks, but I'll mention their music only quickly: Very good. very catchy rock songs, with loads of melodies.

this must be love

Discopunk !

I have been at an "Indietronic"-Festival yesterday and had an amazing load of fun. Two bands where especially great:

First "The Plectrons", a band of four 19-year-old schoolkids with some great indie-behaviour, classic rock-setup (drums, bass, two guitars) and alot of kicking funk in the music. Taking the fact that they are yet to finish school I really see a great future for them. Check their myspace page.


The other band was "So So Modern" from New Zealand, cute costumes, live drums, guitars and a huge synth-rig infront of every member, which makes an amazing mix of dirty synthlines and blaring powerchords. I really hope to see them live again sometime in the future. Check their myspace-page.




It was great to get a truckload of this strange music I keep calling "Discopunk" and I am now officially a fan of two rockbands. Who'd h' thought, ey ?

foals house party

Friday, 2nd March, left me with the most packed party I've ever been to so far.

About 70 people squashed into the living room of an ordinary english house, and another 200 or so in the rest of the building, piling up in the hallway and on the stairs. We all came to see foals, an uprising british band who had a very nice idea: Free gigs at house parties. They are on tour around the UK at the moment, and told their myspace friends to let them now if they wanted them to perform in their city when they were there. And in Manchester, it did happen. After playing a gig for the public in the night and day cafe they packed their instruments and headed down to the house party. We all were eagerly awaiting them. Excitement was so high, and I knew that evening was gonna be special when, for the first time in my life, I was offered E. (Amazing, 4 years of clubbing in Berlin and no one ever want to sell me anything, but at my first party in smiley rave city I did not have to wait anz longer than five minutes). I don't do drugs, though, just so you know!

The band arrived around midnight (who knows...) and we all had to make room for them to bring their instruments into the living room. after that, the great pushing began, lots of people wanted to see them. I managed to get instead the room. It was so packed, a pin could not have dropped on the floor. I do not really remember how long their set was, it felt quite short, though, and left everybody so sweaty that people stuck to each other.

A very nice night out!

dj me

i made my debut as a dj last night, when the real dj had to go to the loo. i played three songs. one was a tune by dogdy, the second i dont remember, the third one was cigarettes and alcohol by oasis. i jsimply put the records on the player and faded in when the other one was over. i didnt get the chance to use the headphones because i didnt know how they worked. i counted the people that were in the bar afterwards - there were 21 people listening, bar staff not included. nobody danced, but nobody danced anyway. i think it was mighty sucessful. it was great.

george michael

i am not in this picture.


i got into george michael in 1996, when he released his "comeback" album older. let me just write a brief history of his musical life to let you understand who george michael actually is:
george michael started his career as one part of the 80's boy band duo wham, which actually weren't that much "boy band" at all. the guys were friends from school, not a casted ensemble, even back then george michael wrote all songs, instead of having a producer doing this for them. they even had two girls, shirley and pepsi , as background singers and dancers, and they were friends and regular members of the band.
george michael wrote careless whisper all by himself, being only 18 years old, and it's not a kitsch-ladden love song, but an attempt to express failure in a relationship, with one amazing sax solo in it.
then he grew up and went solo, becoming one of the most mega-selling artists of the early nineties with his album faith. its sucessor listen without prejudice seems like a renunciation to the music business, and after this record, george michael had to deal with personal struggles.
older is like him rising from the ashes of his old past, a grown-up, mature george michael with songs that were both loved by the audience and the critics. although i made myself familiar with his complete bio and discography later, songs from older, songs like jesus to a child, star people or spinning the wheel still are the cream of the crop for me.

older is one of the ten records i would take with me, if i had to go and spend the rest of my life on a deserted island (you know these kind of mind-games..). so naturally i would have wanted to see him perform live at one time or another. then he stated he would not tour anymore. then he announced his greatest hits tour. i bought my ticket on the very first day they were sold. i waited for months.

i didn't go. i skipped one of my favourit artists for going abroad to see a friend and go to a concert that consisted of a movie and three songs sung by one band i've only recently started to admire and have already seen live this year.

maybe i just don't like these grand mega shows and rather chose a cosy concert instead. what's the point in seeing george michael when, at no time during the concert, i get the chance to smile at him to make him see how much i enjoy his show?
i do not at all regret missing his show. but i thought i'd let you know i am thinking about it nevertheless.

robotron and maria's radio

yesterday i went to see a friends' friends' band...nobody in our group really knew what they sounded like and what was to be expected. well, nobody would have expected this.

the mentioned band was called maria's radio, apparently a group of friends from school from a surburban area of berlin. this sounds cliche-ish, but they were in fact very good. one singer wore a chapeau clappe and long hair, looking like he just jumped out of one of the latest replay commercials, the other one wore a furry coat, appearing to be a bit more rebellious. the bass player was a cute, very small girl and the second guitar player the afforementioned friends' friend. (i didn't see the drummer). their music had a kind of psychedelic sixties appeal, they even had long blues-ish guitar parts. definitely a band with the potential to release a record!

it's sad the bad things have to be the highlight of this blog, but i just have to write about the band that preceded maria's radio: robotron were suggested as support act by the guitarist of maria's radio, so i was told, and wondering about what had gotten into him was just one of the many things we wondered about last night.
robotron had two people on stage, a guitar player in normal jeans and t-shirt, with the usual indie kid hair-do and, most importantly, a sane behaviour.
his counterpart on vocals was the exact opposite. this guy wore a brown mechanic's overall, a green scarf and bicycle helmet, and extremly big sunglasses. nothing wrong with that, people in recent tv reports about the latest band from nyc look exactly the same. neither did the fact that he took off the helmet to reveal a mullet with shaved parts in it shock me, not at all the fact that under his overall he wore a dirty old singlet with robotron written on it, plus fishnet stockings with an extremely short glittering mini skirt. i actually do respect that, having the guts to perform like this, in a small bar in front of very few people who were all square in the "we-are-fucking-cool"-way of thinking.
the thing that bothered me, and seemingly everybody else, was that their music was just so bad! every song consisted of guitar sounds, which, would they have been played with a "band", would actually have shown talent. but here we had those guitar sounds alone, without any consistency or change in rhythm, very sporadically accompanied by one or two hits on an electronical drum device (the singer, apparently, had no sense of rhythm). he started his performance with screaming loudly: "aaaaaah". and it was not like he tried to make this fit the melody or rhythm of the music, he simply, monotonously screamed. lyrics, when there were any, were impossible to understand. but i do recall they did a cover version of the kinks' you really got me.
a clever idea it was, actually, to offer figs to make the audience come closer to the stage, but how stupid it was to throw it at them later.
the whole show lasted about 45 minutes and i can't tell how many song they played, because each and every single on of them really sounded exactly the same.

robotron and maria's radio were like different poles last night and it actually is a shame that the second band was very good, but the first one will be subject of a story i can tell for the rest of my life.

Laurent Garnier in my Hometown

Laurent Garnier is DJing in my hometown this saturday and I would love to go there, but ... The club where this is going to happen is not very big and they anticipate alot of possible visitors, which leads to the crazy situation that there is currently a kind of lottery for the sheer possibility to buy tickets. You need to write them an email and then get an answer if you are allowed to come by on saturday and buy a ticket. Which is way too much hassle for me, also this means that the club will be packed with people and the evening will not be too pleasant.

However, this is kinda disappointing for me because I would really love to see him. For years now I did stay away from evenings with "famous" DJs or "famous" musicians DJing in clubs because I had a few rather boring nights which is especially bad if you pay alot of money. The problem is basically that they are mostly not better or different from most other DJs, sometimes they are even worse.
There are only a few people left that I would really pay alot of money to see DJing, those include DJ Koze, DJ Shadow, RJD2, Bad Boy Bill and a few other. Laurent Garnier is on that list too, but it seems I will just pass on that opportunity.

midlake live at mudd club berlin

i think it's been mentioned quite a few times on here that midlake is my current favourite band, and that i can't get enough of their album the trial of van occupanther (released this june). i catched the record right back then after reading a review and have been waiting ever since to hear those great songs performed live - waiting for yesterday, when they performed at the mudd club berlin.

midlake had two support bands with them. the first one was a singer/songwriter called robert gomez, who had a five-piece band with him. physically, they looked a lot like what i expected from midlake on stage: drums, keyboard, bass, guitar - and a violin. their music though wasn't really moving me.

the second support act was fionn regan, one guy with an acoustic guitar and a little help from the drums, and this worked out perfectly. his songs were extremly catchy and the lyrics very smart. one could compare fionn regan with jose gonzales, only with a more beautiful voice and humour and entertainment added.

even before midlake started their gig, they impressed me with all the instruments they brought on stage. five guys on four keyboard stands (with 6 keyboards) and a selection of at least 7 guitars guaranteed the right sound, but had one disadvantage: the atmosphere suffered from that. while it was wonderful to hear the songs and see midlake do their best to make them as atmospheric and eccentric as they are on the album, the pauses between songs, when they plugged out and plugged in guitars, always brought me back into reality.
but of course i'm not gonna blame them for stopping songs once in a while (singer tim smith said this probably was the show with the most technical difficulties ever).

they played all my favourite songs. started with they cannot let it expand, threw in young bride really early, played a fabulous balloon maker and then drifted into songs from their first album bamnan and slivercork, which i think most of the audience (including me) were not that familiar with. everybody except the drummer switched places and the show became more calm then, but kicked back in with the trial of van occupanther songs, which are more energetic than the ones from bamnan and slivercork. it was a collection of my favourite pieces saved for the last minutes of the gig: roscoe, bandits and head home.

chasing after deer, a very laid back acoustic encore closed the set and now i turn back to the record again, one of the most beautiful records i've discovered this year. the live experience added a different perspective to it, and i can't wait for a new record with a tour that brings out all the best of midlake.

tba on tour update

not so many concerts coming up, but i will be here:
**Oct 26th MIDLAKE, Mudd Club, Berlin



--> my momentarily favourites (listen to songs here - click on open menu, then on media)

a texan band that uses lots of nature-like images of hunting and hiking for their beautiful songs.



and:
**Nov 06th GEORGE MICHAEL, Velodrom Berlin



--> all-time fave, and something that's surely gonna be fun!

read comments here after the gigs!

the animal five aka die dummen schweden

wake me up!

That die dummen schweden party on thursday turned out to be just so fine. thanx to the animal five, who are one of the most outstanding live bands i've ever seen. as they were preparing the stage i anticipated what was yet to come, thinking: 'what a funny looking bunch of guys they are!' and it got even better.
the singer martin von inghardt, a very charismatic man, entered the stage just to jump right back into the audience and get the crowd going. throughout the - sadly very short - set he would be the perfect impersonator of a joker, the lonely bachelor on the couch, the stage diver and the impassionate performer. we witnessed him asserting silence among the crowd just to scream even louder. we enjoyed his oversized smiles and his dedication to the band and songs. he even wandered off stage to give me a long hug - unexpected, but yeah, enjoyable.

luckily i purchased their self-titled ep just before the gig, and it has been on constant replay for three days now. not only are their songs highly electrified, they also got perfect song titles like sonic sea, which fits perfectly into this blog as it is a song about - music!

who was the poor fellow who had to leave his workplace during every single song to fix the monitors and microphone stands on stage? the sound technician, honoured with a song called i love myself for hating you. ;-)

their six songs long set left me extraordinarily happy and wanting more. so, instead of coffee, i'd rather listen to the animal five every morning.

i'm wide awake now.


listen
and watch our for live videos of the gig!

the animal five got no record deal outside sweden!help them and buy the record here or here so they can perform in your town and get the change to get the cd released in other countries, as well!

popkomm

you can tell by the increasing amount of young people with chaotic hairstyles in the street that popkomm is happening this week.
popkomm is europe's biggest musical fair and is always a good opportunity to go to amazing parties. over the last few years popkomm gave me the opportunity to see people like goldie or the stereo mc's perform live.

you can tell by my current chaotic hairstyle that i've been lying in bed all week, feeling sick, and therefor missed most of the popkomm events.


nevertheless i went and saw peter, björn & john last thursday. it was a really nice evening, the guys did their best to entertain the crowd. the continued playing even when the lights went off and sweat dropping from the artist is usually a very good indication of dedication to music.

tonight i am going to take my tired body and mashed brain to a party called die dumme schweden. this is something i've been looking forward to going to for a long time. it's a nice party with five swedish bands (at least two of them i already know i'm going to like) and a dj-set by a musician who has been ever-so inspiring when it comes to good underground music and older stuff.

but more on that later. i hope i won't have an aspirine hangover!