www.gehkacken.de

Category: Shows

  • … convinced in 30 minutes: Lost Legion know the trick!

    … convinced in 30 minutes: Lost Legion know the trick!

    Monday night at the Hafenklang – a band, a DJ and table-tennis. And for me and a small number of mates it was a great opportunity to see Lost Legion all the way from the South Side of Chicago.

    They have done something to that little Oi! niche that maybe only ever the French have done recently: They created something unique, something of their own.

    Lost Legion came over for a brief sprint across Germany and neighboring cities. Given the bands initial existence was a mere recording project and their first ever live gig was only in 2023 it was no surprise that they enlisted a local guitar for 2nd guitar – the spot was filled by Valentin (Brutal Bravo, Collaps and many more bands).

    Lost Legion – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 16.06.2025 (c) gehkacken.de)

    Given that they only had like 10 songs rehearsed together and ready, in the end they even tried – forced by the lot – a new one apparently just written on the way from Hanover to Hamburg.

    How did it sound? It sounded reasonable well:

    And great visual, i love when a band dresses for the occasion. Here it was sunglasses. And sure Ian on vocals sports the neatest business casual persona. Perfect!

    From song to song they grooved even better, up to and including some veritable dance hits with a heavy dance rhythm undercurrent.

    Pity only that only two handful of people made it, hence no circle pit.

    Lost Legion (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 16.06.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    That Lost Legion are nowhere near the normal breed of Oi! was somewhat clear at the outset. Ian also runs Foreign Legion Records and has released stuff from Fuerza Bruta, Ultra Razzia, Syndrome 81, Urban Savage, Snake Handler, Rogue Trooper and Brick Assassin next to own stuff.

    His distance to that normal breed of say humpta-Oi! he voice quite neat in an interview:

    I think a lot of Oi! bands claim to be talking about reality, but they all get their model of reality from Hoxton Tom or Mickey Fitz. We got our model of reality from Robert Anton Wilson and Genesis P-Orridge.

    Whilst their appearance was brief, most if not all of the audience smiled big time and had a very happy look on their face.

    They played their songs, they played an extra and the lot still wanted more.

    And got it – here is their final song:

    With that, they exceeded expectations also on the timing: They graced the stage for more than 30 minutes!

    As ever when a band convinces me live i score vinyl and with Lost Legion i went ALL IN.

    “Bridging Electricity” was one of my favorite songs of 2022 and i finally could score the 10″ (anyway the coolest format in the world).

    You can get these beauties from eg. locally Sounds Of Subterrania or direct from Mendeku Diskak. But they run in small quantities!

    Pity though that the turnout was so small, how great would it have been if they had shared the stage with Rancoeur two weeks back. But even the best booker (and trust me, both shows ran through the hands of the best booker this side of the sun) could not do that trick.

    Great evening and i was able to see a band that most likely i will not see again. But hopefully will get even more output to listen to.

    PS: Rancoeur T-Shirt count of the night was three. Even more an argument to get the DeLorean fixed and get us and Lost Legion back to the Hafenklang on 30.05.2025.

  • … pickin’ the best: Bass 1, Guitar 2, Drums 3 – perfect spread at the Hafenklang!

    … pickin’ the best: Bass 1, Guitar 2, Drums 3 – perfect spread at the Hafenklang!

    That was most likely the longest drive i ever did to see a show at the Hafenklang. I spend the morning still up north at our 2nd home in Nørrejyske Ø but then me love and me decided to return early due to heavy winds and rain.

    … up north, Jammerbugten ( (c) gehkacken.de 2025)

    And that little early would open up an opportunity for my humble self to catch Rancoeur, on of the best bands of that French thingy that pairs Oi! with Wave. And, thrown in, i would also get S.u.g.a.r. from sunny Berlin and Blowers from even sunnier Melbourne.

    I almost made it on time though the early start at 20:00 was a wee bit too early. And once i climbed the stairs up to the Goldener Salon i already heard Rancoeur, for me the headliner, already playing. Damn!

    I missed the first 4 songs me mates told me and was lucky that my current favorite featured in the next block … here is their own ode to Gilles Bertin (ex-Camera Silens and 28 years on the run after a bank robbery in Toulouse):

    That’s “Braquage” and it sure means Robbery in English. Great guitar, great drive – simply a great song!

    Having bought their first LP a while back i was not sure what to expect live, as the record ventures between melow & wave-like guitar work and simple hard & fast.

    Rancoeur (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    Live, on stage, the 3 lads from Nancy took it to some surprise almost full throttle on the hard & fast side and boy there was nothing wrong with it.

    All three took vocal duties and whilst it all was uptempo it was still all hand-in-glove and a great sound (just, as often, bad bad lights).

    Rancoeur (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    They not only had their ode to France finest, they also gave Fab from the Hafenklang a Camera Silens cover (as he was as often sporting a Camera Silens shirt) as the finishing touch:

    Suicide from the 1985 Camera Silens masterpiece (though cut short by me).

    I enjoyed it big time, despite missing the first block. The audience in the well filled upstairs somewhat was reserved, in hindsight i guess because by and large they where out for the Australian side of things.

    Rancoeur – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2025 (c) gehkacken.de)

    On top of that Rancoeur had super cheap quality shirts on sale but not yet their new vinyl, only the CD was already available. Damn, i was keen to score it!

    Here is a first glimpse:

    Next S.u.g.a.r. from Berlin and with them more hair. Much more hair. And for me they came across like if Hamburgs own Küken got transformed twice: From Hamburg to Berlin and their mu-sick-al reference from NYC 1975 to Australia 1978.

    S.u.g.a.r. (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    It was not 100% up my liking but at moments they had a real cool sleazy AC/DC sound and at other moments the excellent guitar did throw in some nice surf undercurrent. And, akin Küken, an almost wall of sound presentation.

    They had their fans, they had applause and they got a wee bit more people moving. Not bad, something new for me to dig a wee bit deeper.

    Go and check them out for yerself, they have their stuff on Alien Snatch, a label that definitely is trustworthy!

    Finally Blowers took the stage and where 3/4th was ready within few minutes the lead singer/guitar player took like 15 in-no-hurry minutes extra, up to and including trying to strum and not figuring out why no sound came from the amp.

    Sure the cable was not plugged into his guitar.

    With that start i somewhat feared the worst but was proven wrong on the first chords of the first song:

    Bang! Hard, fast and and in their own words most chaotic and unapologetically loud. And indeed they played at 12 rather than at 10 – it was a very loud set.

    Blowers (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    Their references are most likely all over the place, low-fi garage punk or, as someone on the internet (damn internet, never forgets) pointed out:

    A lo-fi buzz-cutting garage-punk racket with proto-garage sonic-noise hostility.

    Eat that, coward!

    In reality and for me they also had an undercurrent of pop, some harmonies and some interesting twangs at high speed.

    And where Rancoeur covered France finest, Blowers enlisted S.u.g.a.r. to cover Australians finest for their final song.

    Here is New Race from Radio Birdman:

    A friend of mine after the show noted how much he loves them and that he had their stuff on heavy rotation going up to the show.

    I guess i will not go that far but they are worth checking out – cheeky song titles like this one are offensive enough to be checked out:

    Much more than the other two bands their beat undercurrent got the audience moving, i saw plenty of happy faces.

    Was it worth the 550km drive south? Absolutely, also because it was a great spread of music and a relaxed evening. Big fanx to Fab for always being willing to expose such wide spreads in one show, absolutely worthwhile!

    After the show a fellow connoisseur and me even got around to package it all together:

    We choose to take the Bass from Rancoeur, the Guitar from S.u.g.a.r. and the Drummer from the Blowers.

    What would that “best of the best” deliver?

    Yearning!

  • … up, down, up and further up: FCSP Season End and The Spitfires at the Indra!

    … up, down, up and further up: FCSP Season End and The Spitfires at the Indra!

    It was supposed to be a long and glorious day, footie followed by a show, but in fact footie turned out to be a wee bit a downer.

    The magical FCSP had a glorious “run” in the 1st flight following 2nd league championship and promotion. At least when you put it into perspective, give it financial capabilities or value of the player rooster. Or Bundesliga experience of the rooster.

    How ever people looked at it, they came to the conclusion that FCSP will go down again. In reality only the first 4 games FCSP stayed on a relegation place and since November 2024 they did not even were down to the 16th, which would be relegation games vs. someone from the 2nd league.

    Comes May 2025 and with a tough 2:2 away in Frankfurt they cemented the lead to place 16: 3 points, 13 goals. Almost safe.

    FC St. Pauli – VfL Bochum (Millerntor, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    But the final home game vs. VfL Bochum did not turn into a glorious finish of the season, it turned into a sour summer kick without energy, without winning 1:1’s and without a score – like so many other games. 2nd best defense in the league, by far the worst offense (if counted in scored goals only).

    But, ending 14th is a great season result. Lets see what the club is able to do in the transfer season and lets hope that key personnel can be kept, up to and including the coach.

    No clue why many others in the stadium wanted to party directly after the game on the pitch, for me and me mates around me it was a too poor finish to be cheerful.

    So the only way to cheer us up was a quick bite prior to the short stroll over to the Indra. To an extend it did work…

    … and got us early to the Indra, doors still closed. Many others arrived early too, many being fellow FCSP Fans that attended the game.

    It was unfortunately still some time until the reformed Spitfires would take the stage, so it was chatting and sipping. And fortunately the show was a birthday show for Sam (who runs the Indra and the Monkeys), so the sipping part was supported by some gracious free beers.

    The Spitfires took the stage around 21:45 and faced a ready for the action audience. The original band was busy from 2012 to 2022, when they called it a day. It was largely due to Covid and falling out with they record company as this got them deprived of the financials to keep a touring band (not able to tour) afloat.

    Comes 2025 and Billy Sullivan, who kept a solo act running, is back with a new, reformed, 4 piece outfit. And back in Hamburg, where they played and recorded a couple of times.

    The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    It ain’t necessarily my mu-sick-al niche but you can see that Billy (like so many others in the UK) grew up with loads of Mod and Punk references. And taking that into a slick combination of harmonies, storytelling and – my guess – what some people call “Brit Pop“.

    Also throw in some undercurrent of Reggae and Ska and you are bang onto their turf. And that one they delivered with precision, to the point and – to widen the sound – with some organ and brass coming from the computer.

    The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    Specifically the 2nd guitar added some nice soundscapes to their live sound, it gave many songs both depth and something listen up to. Anyway, the overall sound was almost full, perfect and without any sort of miss.

    I guess they played for the length of a full football game (like in 90 minutes) and finished the set of with this one:

    And, frank, they convinced me – that was great entertainment in the purest sense. And whilst i nodded to it, large parts of the audience danced to it. And the Mods in the first row even … had the old classic “We are the Mods, we are the Mods, we are we are we are the Mods” out.

    It definitely did more then cheering the day up, it made it end on a high. I guess Sam got himself a nice Birthday present there, well deserved.

    The other birthday boy, also a Spitfire but of Stevens make, was also happy though now officially can be called an old man. But as much as we love him, he loves us back.

    After the long day i called it a day rather early than late, also because of my ride home nowadays is a wee bit longer.

    But i did that happy and with a smile. As #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic and #thereaintnuthinbetterthanstayinginthetopflight.