Moday evenings at the Goldener Salson of the Hafenklang remain a free slot for some free entertainment: Donation only shows followed by a DJ and some table tennis (and sure some booze). For me, living a short walk away, it is always a good slot to check out bands and be home early.
This time it was Negative Gears, from sunny Australia, and two items attracted me:
Number one – this portray of the band:
Rising out of the chaos of another band’s eleventh-hour personnel reshuffle, it’s Negative Gears. ‘Urgent, melodic punk’ that’s producing sweet capital gains thanks to the group’s strong intent.
Number two – a great record cover:
Negetive Gears – cool LP cover indeed!
This was enough to attract me and be donating customer number one for the evening (with some poor 19 more people adding to the pot). By the looks the young Australians seemed friendly chaps and this was confirmed by the folks of the club.
A sturdy backline with drums and bass, a solid guitar and a shy keyboard. Paired with a roaming singer that used some looping stuff for his voice (requiring him to bend down towards a bar stool on stage). How did it sound? At good moments actually quite fine and in an almost perfect post-punk fashion (if i may use that slur):
Other moments were rather lackluster. Still, i believe they would have warranted a slightly bigger audience and a longer set (in order to groove in). Did i buy their record? No, not yet. They did not fully convince me live. But go and check them out for yerself:
What did surprise me yet again was how people react to “Donation only” shows: Regulars did give up to 10€, others, “being with the band” gave…nothing. Even when the landlord tried to explain that they need to be able to have a good feeling to give nothing to their friends.
As with all those young punks from the class of 1979 in Hamburg i went through phases. Initially primed by UK 1977 punk and shows at the Markthalle, i discovered also new German music, just before that part turned all sour by the hands of the Music Industry as “Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW)” and luckily US Hardcore came by in 1983 to save my mu-sick-al mind.
But whilst digging into German post punk i saw a shitload of great stuff, be it D.A.F. prior to fame, be it Malaria or … Der Moderne Man. From Hannover. And a great band with both feet in Punk and their head already way out into what would become the so called New German Wave (aka NDW). I have all their records and their first long player still stands all tests of time.
Check this out, an early early video:
What did stand out was the vocals from Ziggy-XY, who left the band after the first LP to do much stranger stuff with Kosmonautentraum, Whilst being able to get a 2nd long player out by 1984, they called it a day after 5 energetic years, forever.
And now wind to 2019 and a huge surprise: Whilst the annual Hamburg Ramönes show was set the band in passing published that their support would be … Der Moderne Man (thanks to some overlap in Personal). Eager as a beast i got a ticket on the day of pre-sales starting (and thus was lucky) only to realize that changed leave plans would have me 550 KM north of the Hafenklang on that day.
I thus i enlisted a fellow regular by pushing the ticket onto him in exchange for a promise to take pictures and report back. So here is the 2nd hand account of someone who was far too young (actually born 1977) when i saw Der Moderne Man in the early 80s.
And it goes like this:
The pleasure came quite unexpectedly, because my dear friend Dos surprised me with a free ticket because of his holiday. It was an even bigger surprise as he must have been very fast in securing the ticket, because the show was sold out within a few days. Due to great demand from all over Germany it was moved downstairs from the Goldener Salon to the main hall of the Hafenklang, And here, too, the quota was exhausted within a very short time.
Personally, the band said little to nothing to me. So I had no big expectations, which is not the worst thing. Also on board were the Hamburg Ramönes, a local Ramones cover band. As it turned out in retrospect the Hamburg Ramönes were the headliners and Der Moderne Man had the honor of support, thanks to the fact that two members of the Hamburg Ramönes also played in Der Moderne Man, who were reanimated for this event after a 35-year break.
Der Moderne Man (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
Der Moderne Man thus opened the evening in front of a happily attuned audience, who had traveled from all parts of the republic and partly even from abroad for this event. For in addition to the 40th anniversary of the band, it was also to celebrate the 60th birthday of guitarist Ecki.
Der Moderne Man – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019)
The singer announced that the setlist would have been played exactly the same order about 35 years ago and opened the show with the Disco-Lied, which was celebrated by the crowd from the first note onward. And it went on in the same positive spirit.
The performance lasted exactly one hour, with songs like Laut, Das Tier, Dauerlauf, 13, Telefonlied, Gib’ Mir Den Tod and Frau Krause being highlights for me. I am damn sure this band will now find their way onto my record-player (Note to self: Remind Dos that he agreed to sell me his record collection when he moves into the retirement home).
Der Moderne Man (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
After the obligatory encore, the band was duly adopted by the audience and they where visibly moved when the final curtain was coming.
The rest of the evening I spent talking with friends and regulars in front of the venue, so that I did not see much of the Hamburg Ramönes. Still i took a quick look: The hall was no longer packed as during The Modern Man, but those who stayed were enthusiastic about Ecki and the crew still.
Even gifts from friends, who found the exit from the island yonder that wants to Brexit, where presented: caps with the band name and the respective names of the cheerful tuned musicians.
It was a great event and I’m glad to have attended it!
B. like born in motherfucking 1977
Wow – i guess i missed something. Talking to others in the week after the show this was confirmed, though it was also noted to be a strange event: 100 tickets went to Friends of the Hamburg Ramönes and 100 tickets where scooped up by people from all around Germany (with quite some prominent people among them), who were eager to see Der Moderne Man again (or finally).
Kudos and happy birthday to Ecki for making this happen, i appreciate it though i missed it.
nb: The enlisting of an apprentice was a nice first, i think i must try that one again. But with respect to handing him my record collection (including Der Moderne Man records) i need rethink date and price tag!
Knock Off have coined the “Football, Beer and Punk Rock” theme and on this Friday me and 3 mates took it on full steam. First on the most local Derby possible in the Danish part of Hamburg (and the top match to conclude the season in the Oberliga Hamburg): Altonaer FC von 1893 vs. FC Teutonia 1905. The Altona clash. Followed by Wonk Unit at the Monkeys – what a great May evening!
Wonderful warm weather, wonderful surrounding: The good old Adolf Jäger Kampfbahn, one of the oldest football stadiums in Germany, filled with more than 3.000 people eager to congratulate AFC for the Oberliga Titel, allowing them into the play offs for the 4th German division.
The AFC has it’s own contingent of “Football, Beer and Punk Rock” fans for years, many of them locals and some of them disgruntled FCSP Fans (and some of them even more disgruntled HSV fans). But this season both Altona teams were top of the League and AFC did win the season right prior to this last game. As such it was a boring game were only Teutonia put an effort in and rightfully did win.
But nevermind the loss, AFC Fans started the party right after the final whistle:
All-in-all they deserved the league win but as it is with Amateur Footie they will have a hard time in the play offs to enter the 4th league. And once there it will be hard for them to stay up. Money sure is the issue here…
Nevermind future risks, the rather packed stands provided great amateur football feeling (paired with incompetent Beer supply) and gave the team a great cheer when they came around after the final whistle with a large”Hamburger Meister 2019” flag. Kings of the city indeed.
Now it was time to cycle over to the Monkeys, just down the road towards the east. A small sidestep to grab a quick bite and then back through the hundreds of young urban hipsters cornering at the Alma-Wartenberg-Platz (boy, do i hate that lot). We arrived late at the Monkeys and Vomit already had taken the stage.
Vomit started in 1977 and disbanded in 1980, without a career. They phrase it nowadays as “Very lively punk rock band that play classic 70’s style punk songs. BEST SEEN LIVE!!! OR BEST SEEN WHILST STILL ALIVE!!!” and indeed i would not buy a record (but maybe a T-Shirt, they had some cool ones).
Vomit (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
At good times they sounded like early Lurkers, at bad times they sounded like rock but all in all they sounded ok and their singer was a real asset. Also some of the songs seemed to have some fun words, specifically that one with the Iro-sign. Great start into the proceedings and a good reason to ‘ave another one.
The Monkeys was like less than half full in the end when Wonk Unit took the stage and for me it just shows that nowadays folks are too tied to their self-defined or self-set niche. If there is currently a band on the circuit that breaks with tradition in a positive, inspiring and forward looking fashion than it is Wonk Unit. It is Punk, but sure not as you know it mate!
You get all sorts of variation, all sorts of Muzak and definitely you geat a great show with a top notch entertaining front man: Streetwise, funny and to the point when it comes to observing mankind (and fellows).
And they have structured their set to allow for interludes, this time round it was the constant joke and repetition of “Cyclists”. All sorts of variations where put forward and when there was a choice of next song to be made Alex did check back with the audience if not “Cyclists” would make the audience happy.
Wonk Unit (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
Alex is not only a gifted entertainer and artist, he is also a schmoozer. In Hamburg he made sure it is known that he is much in sync with the local female punk contingent and he knows half of the audience by name. And sure he did not let go the chance to chat up ladies onto the stage to sing and dance with him.
Wonk Unit (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
And Wonk Unit Fan extraordinaire Christiane (of Gerd and Razors fame) was invited for her favorite song onto the stage to sing-a-long with Alex and the band. Great fun, great performance and indeed the true test that Wonk Unit are one of us and are much in sync with Hamburg.
They played long, they played longer and then they had an endless series of customer chosen encores (though some song requests where denied as the new drummer was not yet trained on everything). They also constantly declined to perform Bohemian Rhapsody, something that was well noted as a let down.
Following the Wonk Unit set a couple of folks demanded that we would now perform the full Monty: scooting over to the Lobusch and seeing Japanese Noisecore. One of our mates made some loud advertising for it but for the me these toothless grunzcore fellows just would have been a too harsh contrast.
I’d rather had another one in the pub of the Monkeys to round of a great evening with three of the pleasures in life: Football, Beer and Punk Rock.
