Sometimes it is all about correlations. A band hitting a ready audience. A band hitting town on the wrong day. And evening with a thunderstorm, hail and rain. And thus now show on the audience side. And sometimes it is two great party bands for themselves, criss-crossing Europe and having a day to spare before descending down onto Back To The Future in Glaubitz.
The brave folks of the Knust, Wild Wax Shows and Punk Rock Hamburg sized the opportunity and got both into Hamburg, though due to traffic The Spits where quite late in managing the 500 km between the Plan B in Malmö and the Knust in Hamburg, crossing through Denmark.
The Briefs kicked off and an eagle eyed friend provided me with the set list whilst i was still outside and chatting. Here is what they set out to do:
And this is how they stormed into the set with Static:
Yep, that is Briefs territory: Speed, melody and energy. From where i sit the Glam-to-Punk connection from early UK Punk, deeply rooted in a more traditional rock fashion but with all the speed and umpf needed. Power Pop in the widest sense.
Plus a great sing-a-long mentality attached to almost all songs.
The Briefs (Knust, Hamburg, 26.07.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
And, always a bonus, they dressed for the occasion, giving away individual stage personas (whilst not really interacting with the audience a lot). But as they have a lot of good music to give to the audience, that one was not a downside.
They almost rushed through their almost 25 years of mu-sick, spanning also all the way back. Here is Stuck On You, which dates back to a 2005 7″:
The audience loved it, already some dancing was going on but then the party was spoiled a wee bit: As much as i could make out a drink was spilled on stage, on the left side behind the PA and that somewhat not only created a little lake but took out part of the electricity on stage. Amps where off (thanks to the invention of circuit breakers).
And off went the band, to give room for RCA.
The Briefs (Knust, Hamburg, 26.07.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
It took the technical folks of the Knust some minutes to identify the problem, isolate the offending circuit and get it all going again.
The Briefs came back and went on just as if nuthin’ had happened. And also got some real fan favorites out, like Silver Bullet:
This songs gets it condensed in it’s 1:00 and bit glory and this little rhyme from the songs pretty much goes all the way back to their 1976 connection i guess:
When i think of you you know i think of rotten fruit The world would be a better place if you were born a mute
Correlations. It is all about correlations.
And now sing-a-long: Kill Bob Seger right now! Surprisingly Bob Seger is still alive when i last check (though not at best health).
All-in-all a perfect show by The Briefs fueling the audience well and setting a high bar for the further proceedings.
For The Spits it was a wee bit tougher, arriving late they had to do the sound check on the spot, after the stage was changed over for their definitely different setup. That tune in of sound, monitor sound and all the rest took a bit and was in full view of the audience but thanks to the expert sound people of the Knust it went faster than feared.
And once they had changed into their stage uniforms and personas (a robot and three child molesters dressed in trench coats) they kicked off with Remote Control:
And this took the baton offered by The Briefs up and onward. All the way from Power Pop to … actually a splendid mix of rough, dirty and sleazy Garage Punk mated with Synth Punk and, believe it or not, Dance Muzak.
The Spits (Knust, Hamburg, 26.07.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
And besides the mu-sick the stage setup indeed makes them stand-out: The robot on the keyboards stands up on the drum podium, the rest of bass, drum and guitar is lined up to the front of the stage. Lovely and welcome different view point for the audience.
That said, the guitar putting down the trench coat triggered a friend next to me: “This is how a child molester looks, if he stops by on the street i will ruuuuuun” – and indeed she was right. He looked all the way evil with his old school glasses and the fishnet shirt.
But the audience did not run away, in contrast, the short and dance-able bangers of The Spits did creep into large parts of the audience forming a wide sea in front of the stage that moved around, all the way back to the bar area.
And the best was that they attracted all ages, all genders – it was far off from a stereo typical old punk show. Wow.
And i can not even explain what secret ingredient they use to get that effect, in my simple mu-sick-al mind it is the combination of short songs, drum machine like drumming and … voila, the feeling of sing-a-long (whilst actually you can’t).
The Spits (Knust, Hamburg, 26.07.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
It got my feet moving, it got plenty of other feet moving, it got even more bodies moving and – by and large – all people smiling. And frank, it has been a while that i had that feeling (to be exact 3 days). No, honestly, it was a near perfect party soundtrack that converted the Knust – not full enough but ok filled – into a dance hall.
And this is how they closed out the show, with their robot flying into the audience (an earlier and more uncontrolled attempt made him hit the dance floor hard):
Stunning set, topping the already excellent one by The Briefs.
And – frank – i was not aware that so many people in Hamburg actually dig The Spits.
Or was it just coincidence? Very capable bands hitting a very willing audience on a Friday evening? Whatever it was, it was a show that with me qualifies for the short list of show of the year.
Yes, it was that good, yes it was that sorta fun. A real party. Fueled by party bands.
