Und der nächste Hap & Leonard Knaller, auch wenn ich wieder komplett an der original Reihenfolge der Serie vorbei lese. “Bärenblues” (oder: The Two-Bear Mambo) ist der dritte Teil der Serie, aber das macht nichts.
Diesmal denken die beiden Helden an nichts anderes als die Ex von Hap (die, die er in Mucho Mojo an einen Cop verloren hat) in einem vom Klan beherrschten Provinzkaff zu suchen. Und da die Ex eine schwarze Anwältin ist die den Tod eines Schwarzen im lokalen Gefängnis untersuchen wollte sind sich Hap & Leonard ziemlich sicher was passiert ist.
Und landen voll in der Kacke. Und sind einmal nicht die Helden sondern müssen mit eingezogenem Schwanz und vielen Blessuren zurück nach Hause. Und daran haben die beiden Bären zu knabbern und daher auch ihr Bärenblues.
Das am Ende die Geschichte natürlich aufgeklärt wird ist klar, dennoch ein echter Verliererkrimi – alle beteiligten verlieren (ihr Leben, ein Auge und und und). Und ein Unwetter mit einem Staudammbruch wäscht das Provinzkaff einfach dahin.
Ever since Sick Horse where the surprise winner of the Get Lost Fest IV in 2016 me and others where eager to see them again and put our hand on some vinyl output. Fast forward to May 2017 and both wishes came through.
They paired with Hamburg’s local heroes Küken, who just released their 2nd record and they graced the Komet, a fun location with a stage deep down in a cellar two levels under the street. It is a tiny and dark room and more of an excravation site than a music club.
Küken kicked off first and do not complain about things being dark, that is how dark it is down there. I did capture only one song of them on video as i was just stunned by the set and unfortunately it was one out of 14 songs that had the guitar completely out of tune – so not worth to share.
They blasted through their set with little breaks and at 150 miles an hour, within like 25 minutes they seemed to have played their entire output (one 7″ and two 12″) at almost break-neck speed. Stunning performance!
Within the wider genre of Rock’n’Roll and what is left of Punk Rock this little gem of a band have perfected their own niche, their owns sound. Some people hear Wipers, some people hear Pagans and even others seem to find a scent of Buzzcocks. I just hear a perfect wall of sound, at high speed and with absolute great twin singing (taking full advantage of the fact that both bass and guitar are effectively twins). And after 35 minutes – bang, they stopped. No thanks, no encore. Done!
Next Sick Horse and by now said cellar was almost packed (which would equate to 50 odd people i’d recon) and they had some eager fans waiting. After some initial issues with some effect boards they came on and they took the audience, as expected, by storm.
And a bright smile came through on my face and on the face of me mates – we had the right feel after the Get Lost Fest IV that Sick Horse are actually a mighty force. And they too have nurtured a distinct sound (with a scent of Surf, some Twang! and some speed) that makes them so worthwhile.
The only item down there of worry was the position of the bass player – either standing in front of the stage facing the drums or crouching himself under the loudspeaker and taking care of not hitting his head rather than moving.
I was sold anyway prior to the show but seeing them blasting through their entire LP (go and listen to it here in full and go and buy it here!). What describes them best seems to be this quote from the web:
Big, groovy, polytoxicoman, psychedelic, punk rock nightmare debut long player by Berlins' unpredictable, multi-dysfunctional, multinational boy group. As majestic, tragic, delirious and powerful as...well, a Sick Horse. Buy it.
There is nothing more to add than to just try to capture said beauty again during the sole encore:
They have it. They also seemed to be high on drugs but i guess that made them only play better. And they seem to all come from wide and different backgrounds so there are chances that they just burn out. My hope though is that they see it through and achieve some reasonable success – they have it!
I did score two Sick Horse LP’s (one for me, on for an absent mate) and i was not the only one taking home this great record.
So eager to see them again, on a bigger stage and as headliner!
Robert Brack – Die Morde von St. Pauli (Ullstein, 2017)
Gelesen: 16. – 22.05.2017, netto 421 Seiten
Robert Brack und Hamburg als Spielort eines Krimi ist ja quasi ein Qualitätsmerkmal, wobei die Serie um den Kriminalkommissar Alfred Weber im Hamburg der 1920er angesiedelt ist.
Mir passen solche historischen Romane ja eigentlich nicht so gut, hier jedoch wird die Story der Zeit gerecht langsam erzählt und die Personen verhalten sich durchaus … Zeitgerecht.
Ein Toter in einem reichen Haus, ein Toter auf St. Pauli. Und Kommissar Weber ahnt das es einen Zusammenhang gibt – etwas das seine Vorgesetzten auf keinen Fall haben wollen. Dazu jede Menge verwirrender Neuheiten: Ein Automobil (das die Anreise zum Tatort beschleunigt), eine weibliche Kriminalpolizei (die auf keinen Fall Fälle übernehmen soll) und die Boheme – Kunst und Künstler.
Der Krimi ist spannend, die Beschreibung einer Zeit im Wandel stimmig und die Sprache dem Thema angepasst. Überraschend gut!
