Aus dem Englischen von Cornelius Hartz und Stefanie Kremer.
Hui, was hab ich mich durch dieses Buch gequält. Zum einen war ich zu oft zu lang auf Konzerten (und damit weniger Lesezeit), zum anderen verliert man sich beim Lesen in der Geschichte … wie in Treibsand.
Das ganze läuft als Kriminalroman aber der Krimi selbst, der ist nur ganz hinten. Vorne steht Kleinstadt (im ländlichen Nebraska der 80er) und eine arme Sau: Hal, 28, Farmarbeiter mit dem Verstand eines 12 jährigen.
Und dagegen steht eine Gemeinschaft bei der jeder jedes Geheimnis kennt. Kleinstadtmief. Kleinstadtidylle. Take your side. Beobachtet oder Behütet?
Als dann die junge Peggy Ahern verschwindet kommt Hal unter Verdacht. Und das böse in Form von Misstrauen, Angst und alten Wunden schleicht sich in die Gemeinschaft.
Mehr tiefes Sozial-Drama, weniger Krimi. Und für mich schwer zu lesen. Ich denke ich werde das Buch weiterverschenken, das lag mir so gar nicht. Freiwillige?
PS: Warum wird der Titel, der inhaltlich zur Geschichte passt, sowohl als Wort als auch als Cover so abgeändert? Ich bin mal wieder lost warum das im Deutschen so sein muss…
Erin Flanagin – Deer Season (University Of Nebraska Press, 2021)
Me mate Frosch claims that this summer is the best ever summer for live mu-sick and in full consequence he has been following eg. Civic and Rancid throughout Europe, been to Punk Rock Raduno in Bergamo and Rebellion in Blackpool. This week he went to see Devo (Tuesday, Berlin), Beltones (Wednesday, Berlin), Anti Heroes (Thursday, Monkeys), The Prize (Friday, Astra Stube) … only to finally go blatantly local with us on this Saturday.
The Bad Job Boys set this up, mustered fellow locals Slanders to the rooster and got folks upstairs into the Hafenklang.
And they choose to take the stage first:
Bad Job Boys – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de)
They have tidied up the set list, re-arranged the sequence and added brand new songs – a proper approach to win over the local audience.
Within that, they even unintentionally cut short my favorite song:
Fun moment around the 1:00m mark when Frank and Stephane realize that Bodo got carried away and ended up playing his bridge way too early … but as they are fully in sync they master that challenge with ease (and speeding up a 02:30 song to 1:46 – awesome times).
Their set definitely benefited from the new mix of songs and that some of the new songs have more umpf, more drive. Already that evening the ode towards the cooking abilities of Christiane & Luke named “Luke kocht” was an immediate sing-a-long hit.
Bad Job Boys (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Here is another great sing-a-long:
From where i sit a great set, only hampered by insufficient lights. During the set Bodo even complained that on his side of the stage it was way too dark and whilst he can play “blind” a little bit of light would help (that help never came though).
Bad Job Boys (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
On the positive side his massive guitar play was having – at least for my ears – a near perfect sound. Where some found it a wee bit too loud i found it exactly perfect with a wall of sound like experience.
Perfect set, well delivered and taking a willing audience along. Good stuff.
Next Slanders, the other band of Greg from the Haermorrhoids. Almost same territory but slightly different in setup and sound.
This is how they kicked off:
Closing my eyes and having Gregs very unique voice in my head i would almost guess Haermorrhoids but in real it ain’t. Very different songs (though from the same broad genre) and definitely very different twin guitar work.
And whilst stage attire was not aligned at all the stance was: Feet planted wide, neck of the guitar to the left and gentle lowering towards the back. And matching sound to that A stance they delivered for sure, less #ramonescore – more #poppunk.
When the drummer did setup the drums it felt from in front of the stage like ages, me and some mates where already joking (slightly annoyed) that we most like get an amateur setup paired with an amateur delivery. Boy, we were so wrong!
The drumming was outstanding and pounded the Slanders through this set list:
Good set, with loads of applause from the i guess half filled room. The singing though by Greg forever triggers Haermorrhoids with me. I guess i will need to see them Slanders more often to wash that away. And yes, i will!
Now Go! and check them out:
And because it was a pleasant evening with perfect companionship i kept chatting after the show to Tom, Dick and Harry … no, actually to many of the lovely friends around up to and including receipt of personal love message for this blog…
… only to realize that i was almost the last man standing and the bands had perfectly cleaned out the stage of the Goldener Salon at the Hafenklang. A definite first, did not expect that to happen.
And me mate Frosch? He was right almost 100% – the missing % is the Descendents cancellation (and i somehow luckily could not make up my mind in time to get a ticket for Melkweg in Amsterdamned).
I guess Frosch had nowhere to go on Sunday other than out into the sunny weather but i am damn sure he is already getting ready for the Get Lost Fest (that i have to let go for 2 weeks of battery re-charging and reading in Denmark).
You should get ready for that too – the fantastic Split Systems will play twice – on the MS Hedi and at the Hafenklang!
It could have been a great Thursday, the tourist from St. Ingbert yet again in town and visiting the show, the lovely couple self-exiled to Denmark (❤️ 🇩🇰 ❤️) was there and a perfect line up with local heroes Red Bricks, the energetic Antagonizers ATL and the so called “legend” Anti Heroes (who played Hamburg last time 20+ years ago). But it would turn a wee bit sour at the end …
Red⚒Bricks kicked off with a great (at least according to the Blackpool Pilgrimages tales) Rebellion Set under their belt. They where hampered though by the fact that their Bass Player Keith was not available short notice, hence the Bass from Antagonizers ATL jumped in (and did a good job under the circumstances).
Red⚒Bricks (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
The unfortunate thing though is that indeed the signature bass was missing, for my ears it provides that extra that makes them slightly different, slightly better. How did it sound? It sounded like this … though throughout the whole night the sound was not perfect, somehow.
Still, a good set and a fitting start into the evening. For their little niche they bring everything needed and specifically melodies, though they can also do full frontal chants. Check out their new single “They Shall Not Pass” which has just been released .
Next Antagonizers ATL from sunny Atlanta, Georgia, in the US of A. And from the first chord on their main asset towered the center of the stage: Their singer Bodan is large, present and lends into it as if he is commandeering 100s (if non 1000nds) in front of the stage.
I take it that he is also self aware, as sometimes he steps aside and gives space to the others too, great stage movements by all actually making it a really entertaining set. On top they have all ingredients in the music, a well balanced mix of pace, melodies, twin guitars and sing-a-long.
The played for like 45 minutes and had a good grip on the audience, i saw a lot of smiling faces around me and even a couple of folks happily dancing away in front of the stage.
Antagonizers ATL (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
For me and my ears a near perfect set (give or take on the sound, it wasn’t perfect all night) delivered in class (and completely unpretentious). Rock solid work if you ask me, out of the rooster of American Street Punk (what damn stupid cupboard actually) one of the key assets. I will definitely endeavor to see them again, suggest you check them out too if this is down your mu-sick-al alley.
Finally Anti Heroes, if my memory serves me well they played Hamburg last somewhere around 2000 or 2001 at a small youth club in Ahrensburg, a suburb just north of Hamburg.
Here is what they set out to deliver:
Anti Heroes – Setlist (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de)
And this is what we got:
From a musical point full on and absolutely my thingy: hard, fast and short. What quickly caught the eye of some folks though was the shirt of Mark Noah – the slogan “Let’s go Brandon!” is taking a side that was not savored well.
During the show he paired it with the explanation “It means fuck Joe Biden”, after the show when a friend asked about the shirt he responded with a barrage of trash along “… Joe Biden is more bad than Hitler and Stalin together, you in Germany get not told the truth“. My wild bet would be that he also explained the corrupt left press is the reason, i guess the odds are 1:1. My friend turned around and did not want to have anymore of that shit, rightfully.
One part of the audience decided to let go during the set and retreated to the pub, the larger part stayed for the show. I had no clue what the shirt actually referred to during the set and the “Fuck Joe Biden” comment could have meant anything – so i kept watching.
Anti Heroes (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 17.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Luckily he took the shirt off (not sure if told or because it was too wet). On the mu-sick-al side they continued to deliver strong though.
After the show i got tipped off with respect to the shirt and context and somehow that took away large part of the joy the live music provided. I have no clue how much the rest of the excellent band shares Marks views, from where i stand i will sure not take an effort to see them again. I guess they will also not be booked anymore into my favorite clubs and i am fine with that.
Still, great evening with some good chats and great music. I could also walk the tourist home with a bit of sightseeing, explaining the beauties of the Große Bergstrasse emptiness at night. He and his son only ever complained about Beer pricing in Hamburg, one of the key disadvantages of the big city.
But whatever great music, stupidity sometimes ruins it. Well done Mark, now go back and bail out America from the hands of the Un-Americans. Oh my lord …
