Blog

… quand la joie l’emporte sur la musique : Le retour des Bolokos!
Last year The Bolokos delivered the show of the year at the Indra, surprising 30+ people with more than 2 hours of joy. This years return optimistically was moved to the bigger Monkeys … and indeed more than double (but still not enough) turned up.

Support was to be Dead Dates from Düsseldorf, who would have brought the gear. They had to pull out short notice and the Monkeys had to find a local support with Backline. NōōS jumped in to help and thus secured the evening (and a support slot).

Without NōōS there would not have been a show, hence they had my sympathy. Unfortunately they only called debits on that sympathy account, largely for their mu-sick (a bit of everything) but also for the overly self assured (and talkative) singer.
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NōōS (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 15.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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To a different audience and setting they may work, for me they did not work at all (though their Bass was fun – a guitar with Bass strings). For the rest of the audience they also did not work, it turned into the rare occasion that a band literally is emptying the room in front of the stage.

… NōōS really achieved emptying the room, outsch!

Sorry NōōS, with me you need to try again. Or better not, as my mu-sick-al mind is very narrow minded i fear.

Next The Bolokos and they simply followed on from where they left it almost a year ago on 19.08.2022 – childlike joy and emitting fun down from the stage. Yet again with their borrowed drummer (running gag ctd, their drummer could not travel) and in their typical Bolokos gear (did i say that i like uniform stage attire?).
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The Bolokos (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 15.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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Thats energetic Edy Caramello on Guitar, lovely Océ Cheapfret on Bass and the running gag on Drums. Edy joked that the last time they rehearsed was right back on the stage of the Indra – i guess that was a lie, as they where perfectly together.
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The Bolokos (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 15.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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It was nice to note that Edy could remember almost all that attended the show last year but it was even more fun when he realized that the “lalala” replay attack would be levied against them again. His realization and the broad smile that came – priceless.

I guess they did not play as many songs as last year, this time round they limited themselves to “only” ~2 hours. But these two hours where filled with exactly that uplifting joy that makes you feel good.

As me mate Christian noted: Musically there are definitely better bands, but in terms of sympathy and what they have delivered, The Bolokos are way ahead.

As expected the distance between the band and the yearning audience disappeared quickly and as per Bolokos custom their version of “If the kids are united” invited everyone on stage. The only item odd was that it also lured Luke (of Spitfire Stevens fame) on stage with something brewed in his hands that was not … Jever. Wow!
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The Bolokos (Monkeys Music Club, Hamburg, 15.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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They came back for some more and despite that the Bass did not work anymore on the final song they got the lot singing. Indeed The Bolokos know how to deliver and how to take an audience along and thus deliver a worthwhile evening, period. Even with the too small attendance on a Tuesday evening.

The only item i’d love to see next year is that they up their merch to include the famed Bokit sandwich and some local white rum. They they would not only please my ears, my eyes but also my stomach.

How about that Edy?

For the Hamburg lot the gentle reminder that attending a Bolokos show is minimum 2 hours of joy – don’t miss that next year (the only ones excused this year where those seeing DEVO in Berlin on the same evening).
2023/08/19

… sign of times: Monkeys needs help!

As with many venues the post pandemic norm also for the Monkeys is less guests, higher cost and as such a fragile setting at the risk of breaking.

I have been out to the opening of the Monkeys way back in 2014 and have seen many great shows there. And indeed i have noted post-Covid a significant reduction in attendance.

The Monkeys is asking for support, i have joined in to do so. If you value their program and if you want this little niche to continue you may do so too.

Here is what they say:

We need to talk

For those of you who know us well enough, this next part might not contain new information. But we’d like to take a minute, to introduce ourselves and our work.

Our journey starts 8 years back from now. When this whole adventure started, we had to goal to create a space of (sub)-culture and live music in Hamburg. All DIY.

Lots of you awesome people were celebrating, dancing and laughing with us during the last 8 years. But times change. And now we are not really in the mood for a dance through the night.

Since the end of the Corona-pandemic, which on its own is a tough pill to swallow, there has been lots of repayments and rent increases. Nevertheless the higher costs in general when it comes to energy bills, fees, extra costs and many more. With all of this in mind, times are tough and we don’t really see a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, what are WE doing, to develop a new program, with more open offers to new demographics. New events, new discos. And we are still open for bookings. This summer has been highly stressful and even though summer might be gone soon, we still don’t really know, how to survive the winter.

But what can YOU do to help us? As said before you can book us as a location. And even if you don’t want to you can recommend us to other people you know. Privat parties, company parties, birthdays, Live-recordings, shooting music videos, film set, record recording, record-release-parties and many more. We are a great music-venue which is very versatile, when it comes to booking us.

Go see us. Together we’ve had a blast the last 8 years. Your support before, during and after the pandemic has been tremendous and gave is the opportunity to keep going.

And if you’d like to support us even more, then check out our Patreon:

For those wondering: Patreon is an online service which allows you to support us via a certain monthly subscription. In exchange you get some perks like earlier links to buy tickets or livestreams. At the end its important to notice, that we don’t want to get rich with this. Every dime spent by you will directly float into refinancing our costs and battling new and higher costs.

Every support helps us to keep going,

Thank you for being there for us.

Cheers,

Sam, Sandra and the Monkeys’ team.

Their choice of support is via Patreon.com – here is the link:

2023/08/14

… Sloppy Seconds, fallen outta time but not into la-la land!
It has been a while (if my memory serves me well somewhere in the 90s down in the cellar of the old Molotow) and i guess it was only ever down to Rebellion that they put some date in continental Europe left/right of Blackpool. Welcome back, Sloppy Seconds!

Where Sloppy Seconds where a “show”, some of the Rebellion pilgrims where a “no show”, getting stuck on the way home (with some free accommodation in AMS thanks to eg. KLM). With some familiar faces missing in the audience i guess the Hafenklang downstairs was half full (which is not bad for a Monday after Rebellion and after a Turbojugend-Nonsense weekend).

Very early The Hawaiians from sunny Westerkappeln kick off the evening, too early for me as i was outside chatting to a surprise tourist from St. Ingbert of all places.

The Hawaiians somehow where a fit and then not. Why?

Well, Sloppy Seconds mark themselves as Junk Rock but i think they would rather qualify under #ramonescore. And that puts them into Edone territory. And that is where The Hawaiians would have fitted best.

Rather than playing on a rainy, stormy and dark Monday inside the Hafenklang with their sun glasses on they should play the sunny outdoors of Punk Rock Raduno in Bergamo.
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The Hawaiians (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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Stage attire (perfect unified stage attire, always a bonus), stand-up drums and light-weight Pop Punk of the more enjoyable sort. Nice but somehow thrown under the bus on this occasion. The Edone Pilgrims in the audience (i could make out like 6) though where happy and i was too – at the end they got some friendly applause for their short set. Go and check them out yerself!

Sidekick from LA in the US of A followed suit with a less comprehensive stage attire compared to The Hawaiians. But as a travelling band on a shoestring budget you may not waste too much effort and keep it to street attire.
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Sidekick (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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For me they where like a mixed bag: On the positive side they had quite good multi-vocal singing and some of their songs did hit the late 1990s/early 2000s CA Pop/Skate Punk vibes. On the other hand the set somehow lacked inspiration and not all songs really had it.

It wasn’t too long so it wasn’t that painful for my single-minded mu-sick-al ears but if a set of 10 songs includes 3 covers, mmmhhhh – not that great. But they seemed to enjoy on stage and they did not have hick-ups, telling me that they mastered instruments and portfolio. As ever, form your own view!

Finally it was time for Sloppy Seconds, by now more or less eagerly awaited. And here is how they kicked off and how B.A. took the stage:

Rarely a band is able to field such a fitting, such a convincing and such a fan favored kick off song upon entry on a German stage. And because that is a fan sing-a-long almost anywhere, here we go:
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Well I thought
That I meant something to you
But now I see that it's untrue

I guess you must have slept
With every guy you ever met
But I'm gonna get you back
If its the last thing I ever do

The stains on your mattress cannot hide
The fruits of your labor stuffed inside
But, while your in la-la land
Whispering the name of another man
I'm gonna turn my back
And leave your cheating ass behind

I'm gonna run away with your money
And buy a ticket to Germany
I'm gonna sleep with every single slut on the Reeperbahn
And I'll be surfing down the River Rhine (Whoo--oo--ooo)
And you'll be standing in the Welfare line
You're money and you're honey
Are long gone!

It's nothing personal
You saw to that
You're just a person
Who does her best work on her back

But if you're 'wakend
By an obscene call
I sprayed your number on the Berlin wall
I've seen the soldiers as they pass it all around

Imagine all the dick that you once missed
Because you couldn't find the Communists
East or West
Your still the best deal in town

Go!

I'm gonna run away with your money
And buy a ticket to Germany
I'm gonna sleep with every single slut on the Reeperbahn
And I'll be surfing down the River Rhine (Whoo--oo--ooo)
And you'll be standing in the Welfare line
You're money and you're honey
Are long gone!

You're money and you're honey
Are long gone!

You're money and you're honey
Are long gone!
```
Perfect start and it only got better. Against the solid backline of drum & bass you had the guitar as a bouncing ball and B.A.s very typical thin and rather high pitched voice. And from the large rooster of songs (actually, for their length of existence their complete output is rather small) they had a great selection for the lot. And the lot was there, up front and fully into it. It felt like they never had been away…

What made them somewhat fallen outta time was that they still give a damn fuck about political correctness and continue to perform songs like “I Don’t Want to be a Homosexual“. I am damn sure that at some locations nowadays they would be expelled without even trying to reconcile the lyrics.
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Sloppy Seconds (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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I liked it, me mates liked it and specifically i liked the stage attire of B.A.: That “front row chain” (as this is the only other place i have seen such jewelry) worn across both the Descendents shirt and the big belly – nice! I asked a mate who sings in a band too to try that one out, it sure will give him more stage presence!

Nice show for a piss poor Monday and nice surprise that a long time pen pal, record producer/dealer and punk memorabilia collector all the way from St. Ingbert came down to the Hafenklang on his tourist errand through Hamburg.

… a surprise tourist and a happy bunny! ( (c) gehkacken.de 2023)

I only wonder if his daughter liked any of the mu-sick – did she? Nevermind, she was born after Sloppy Seconds disbanded initially and to her they may have sounded like from another planet. For me it was neither La-la-land nor “another girl, another planet” it was simply #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic!

Continued recovery wishes go out to the face still missing, though the hospital he has been transferred to now almost has a view towards the Hafenklang.

Big hugs big man, these evenings are your evenings!
2023/08/09

Blog

… quand la joie l’emporte sur la musique : Le retour des Bolokos!

… sign of times: Monkeys needs help!

… Sloppy Seconds, fallen outta time but not into la-la land!