The beauty of living a short stroll away from your favorite club is that you can make quick decisions like “… i’m up for some live music, let’s stroll down“. And that’s what i did on this Tuesday, lured by the simple fact that one of the bands once graced the Get! Lost! Fest! and both of the bands scheduled would make use of … synthies.
Early start with doors 1900 and first band 2000 – neat for having a work schedule next day that would take me into the office rather than sleepwalking into home office.
First band KILO +++ from sunny Groningen, a male/female duo with very simplistic or better minimalistic electronic music with some guitar additions.
From the start i had a nagging feel of “early 1980s Markthalle” and early “Der Plan“. And indeed in good moments that sounded almost innocent, simple and fresh.
Kilo+++ (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.02.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024
In the long run though it was too simple for me and i also felt the audience, getting larger by the minute, had more sympathy then enthusiasm.
A fun little gimmick was that they recorded the show on stage on a tape recorder off the sound board and offered to sell the live tape for 10€. Real time release, cool.
If this sounds interesting to you then check them out at HANDS OFF or listen to their demo.
Next Powerplant and they kicked off like this:
Hui, that is much more Umpf than the support! And they got the audience (i guess around 100 folks upstairs, so well filled) moving almost instantaneously. Reading about them on the internet (damn internet, never forgets) i get their setting:
Powerplant (UA/UK) occurs somewhere in the shadows of synth and post-punk that produces material both ‘sad & happy’, but always dark in both the music and looks. The kind of dark you get at about 9:30pm on a Summer day. Once a solitary bedroom project of Ukrainian Theo Zhykharyev, that found its footing on the Internet and grew meat around the bone, becoming a full animated live band of London’s best, when joined by members of UK hardcore scene and experimental sound artists.
As said, i had no clue about them and expected little. But they threw a lively show, had speed and some nice soundscapes. Plus the audience moving. And as such i simply enjoyed a live show (of something that was per se not my thingy).
Powerplant (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.02.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024
Nice one and also distinct stage personas: Jackson Irvine double pushing the bass drum forward, Frank Navetta double on strumming chords on the bass, a very agile guitar that also sung and centered … a Beach Boy playing the keyboard.
Neat entertainment, though i did not buy vinyl. Go check them out for yourself – they have a line in their promo material to that extent too:
This could be just your kind of thing! And all, all this to walk with our heads high and hearts light. Or at least try. To better days!
It felt a wee bit strange – none of my regular companions attended the show, so i could spend time augmenting the mostly younger (and sometime on the edge of hipsterism) audience. Boy, i felt definitely old if not the oldest in the room.
Actually i could only complain about those ignoring the “no smoking” signs (surprisingly some), be surprised about the one girl sipping away a bottle of 45% booze smuggled into the venue (alcoholic by 20, congrats) and simply enjoying live music for the sake encountering something new.
And i was home early. Cool.
