I dig bands where girls sing and i do love it when all the Hamburg Oldpunks come to a show just after having returned from Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. The visit by The Avengers was a thus a treat, with an icing that was me old mate Rudi – he now lives in sunny Perth but does the trip to Rebellion and Hamburg more or less every other year.
I guess same logic for The Avengers – being invited to Rebellion meant they could pack some UK shows prior to Blackpool and some German dates after.
I’llness (rumor has it the deadly waters of Blackpool are accountable) did rob the audience of Plastic Propaganda as the support, so it was early doors and late start … and that only ever allowed to talk and talk (and being sweet talked again around “next year, 20 years Rebellion and 40 years Punk – come on, join the pilgramage“).
The Avengers kicked off with what people thought was a mellow version of “Cheap Tragedies” but in real it was the original thing – listen to Rat Music for Rat People Volume 1 (you greedy record collector scum):
They also played lesser known songs – a nod that i do like. Here is “Desperation“:
But sure they provided the audience with some sing-a-long (fist in the air):
Way to quickly it ended and left not only myself behind a wee bit drawn apart. Same as with their last show in Hamburg two or three years ago somehow bass/drums and guitar/vocals are not “as one”. Bass and drums are hitting hard and driving forward, guitar and vocals somehow are mellow – the sum of the two somehow is add odds.
The Avengers (Hafenklang, 13.08.2015 (c) gehkacken.de)
All in all an ok show and a solid stage performance but it was missing some kicks. But then – still big time thanks to The Avengers for coming over and actually being super friendly (whilst on stage and after the show). That had style.
I continued to enjoy talking and i enjoyed a subway ride home with 2/4 of Die Knallschoten (something not done after a show for about 30 odd years – Rudi now lives far away down under and Biber is busy in research and scholarship at Hamburg University).
Der Biber, Rudi Krawall (2/4 of Die Knallschoten in 2015 (c) gehkacken.de)
Fun fact: Another 1/4 of Die Knallschoten was in attendance of the show too – singer Kayan. So what did we miss: Drummer Pizza for sure! Else it might have been a surprise Die Knallschoten reunion…grabbing instruments and trashing out a single song on stage would have been a unique experience!
And The Avengers? Forever icons with me, be it the looks of young Penelope back in 1978 in SF or be it the songs (and that is lyrics and sound). Just class.
This ain’t b/w because this is what me mates got me back from Punk Rock Bowling 2015. Some pictures, some videos. And loads of stories.
All in their pursuit to talk me into doing the pilgrimage too: First on was Blackpool, for years. But this year they savored a new experience in addition – Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas.
So here is their visual account … enjoy!
Schleprock (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Video by Frosch and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
… and if there would have been a reason to go, Schleprock would have been for me. Serious.
Schleprock (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Pic by Markus and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
Long defunct but now every once in a while back for good.
Schleprock (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Pic by Markus and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
Boy – i would indeed give some to see them live…
And the next fun thing at this pool party where Booze & Glory, a quite non-typical Punk Rock Bowling outfit i’d dare to say but nevermind: They are just great!
Booze & Glory (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Video by Frosch and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
I guess it was hard to focus on the band and this zoo of punks and skins was quite a view …
Booze & Glory (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Video by Frosch and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
Killer band with a killer sound. Hymn after hymn i’d dare to say!
Booze & Glory (Punk Rock Bowling 2015, Pic by Markus and (c) gehkacken.de 2015)
And here a small set of pitcures from Markus, enjoy!
So Toni and Markus enjoyed PRB and then a day out in the Grand Canyon before heading back to Europe, Frosch & Natali went on to tour the N/W coast of the US of A and had plenty of fun with and in nature. And all of them taunt me for not being there. Nevermind, i never went to Blackpool in the first place!
And what does me mate Frosch say? Listen up youth:
First of all: I usually hate festivals! I usually hate open air shows! So here’s my summary of Punk Rock Bowling 2015, first and foremost an Open Air festival that took place in Downtown Las Vegas for the 17th time and … the best Punk Rock experience I ever had!!!
It was 4 of us that made the long trip to Las Vegas in the middle of May, me and my wife Natali plus 2 old buddies, Toni and Markus.
If you’ve been to Rebellion in Blackpool you know how it feels when a part of a city is ruled by Punks. So from Friday afternoon until Monday night Downtown Las Vegas was all Mohicans, dyed hair and tattoos (and Turbojugend denim jackets, unfortunately…). One of the best impressions we had was visiting the pool parties on the 7th floor of the Plaza hotel, just great to see a “normal” couple hotel guests being surrounded by up to a thousand wild punks, and I mean wild, much more crazed than in Blackpool.
No big surprise, as US punk rules over British punk since the early 80’s. So you got to see the legendary Schleprock playing some songs as a surprise act before Abrasive Wheels and Infa Riot took the stage at the pool. All for free! Back again on Monday for a pool party with Booze & Glory, so pool parties focused on UK punk this year.
When pool parties finished in the early afternoon you started making your way to the nearby festival grounds. There is only one main stage and you got Anti Flag, Bombshell Rocks, TSOL, Sick Of It All, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid (all on Saturday, so no big surprise that this sold out 1st with approx. 7.000 punks attending ), Jello Biafra & TGSOM, Murder City Devils, Business, Swingin’ Utters, Conflict and the Dropkick Murphys playing across 3 days, just to name a few.
Personal highlight was the Swingin’ Utters set, which was very old school, fast, brilliant punk rock. One of the most important, somehow underrated Punk Bands. Massive circle pits for the Anti Flag and Jello Biafra sets, biggest one when Jello and his band kicked into Nazi Punks Fuck Off. Main disappointment for me was Rancid I suppose, No. 1 all time Punk Rock Band for me, but playing records in it’s entirety, even if it’s such a classic as “And Out Come The Wolves” is somehow tiring, at least for me.
Adding a variety of other tracks at the end of the set helped, but still it was nowhere as good as seeing them 3 years ago on their European Tour in Vienna, Munich, Cologne, Blackpool and London, E-Werk Cologne being my personal fave, what a blast!
Another blast and the highlight of the festival for us was an open air club show at the Bunkhouse with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. What a great night, and where else than in Vegas can you see an open air show at 1 am in the morning?! They also decided to play their 1st record “Devils Night Out” in it’s entirety but somehow that worked better and they continued to play a regular set of hits after. Still one of the best, if not THE best live band in the world.
Late Nite Club Shows are generally great. They usually start after the main festival has finished, so at around 11 pm. Besides the Bosstones show we decided to see the Interrupters, the Aggrocats, Weirdos, Dickies and Rezillos plus the Punk Rock Karaoke band on Monday night to finish it all off. Great to see a band of “Punk Rock Stars”, NoFX Melvin, Steve Soto (Adolescents), Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks/Bad Religion) and Derek O’Brian (Social D. and others), performing as a backing band for some Punk Rock Karaoke volunteers. Sometimes they found it hard to concentrate playing because they had to laugh so hard…
We had a fantastic time with great, peaceful people from all over the world, thanks to the Stern Brothers of Youth Brigade fame and team for making that happen.
We’ll be back for sure!!!
(Text by Frosch, (c) 2015 gehkacken.de
Me mate Frosch complained upfront: You can not see Gerd more than once a year, they are wearing off to quickly. But on Friday, whilst saying goodbye to BU’s home ground, we agreed to go and watch them at St. Pauli’s Reeperbahn Fan Store despite the fact that the Reeperbahn was full of Turboyouth and other crap that weekend.
My desires where simple, so we and about 30 other oldpunks plus normal tourists got see Gerd and boy did Toni and myself enjoy it: Energy, Fun and some sing-a-long tunes. Nothing better for a Saturday.
And that was a hit later covered by Blondie, followed by another hit that was taken to one-hit-wonder fame by David Dundas:
And a song that Glen Danzig did sneak into the Misfits “Beware” 12″:
It was quite entertaining to see normal tourists being lured by the sound into the shop and starting to enjoy the hits that made Gerd famous in the 70s and they most likely know from those who stole the songs off them. And they continued to shop for St. Pauli merch too – fun to see!
We finished the night off the Reeperbahn (too busy) and in the pub. And traded stories about “back then” and fun moments in Hamburg’s musick history until the wee of the morning.
Great night, great band and great friends – and another complaint by me mate Frosch that i did show way too much enjoyment during Gerd’s show. I should rather spend that enjoyment for the next unknown Hardcore band at the Hafenklang. I can’t promise but i’ll do me best mate!
And magic did happen on Sunday: FCSP did an away win! We did our part, Gerd did their part. Priceless!
This ain’t b/w because this is what me mates got me back from Punk Rock Bowling 2015. Some pictures, some videos. And loads of stories.
