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.
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.
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!
