It is this time of the year: Plenty of bands from the US play Hamburg left and right of Rebellion Festival and plenty (actually many) of the Hamburg lot take the pilgrimage to Blackpool.
The good folks behind Punk Rock Hamburg and the Knust teamed up to provide the two bands from Hamburg playing there this year with a warm-up opportunity. To round off the feeling of Festival they paired them with the mighty Wonk Unit, who are kinda special love affair for the Hamburg lot.
First on and very early the Harbour Rebels. Actually like 20:10 – fitting for the age group expected as the audience, thank you very much. I guess they played their to-be Rebellion set, short and crisp and with their music being more on the mid-tempo melodic side.
Harbour Rebels (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
It is not too much up my alley, in good moments it is catchy, sing-a-long and with great female vocals – in bad moments my brain deducted “Deutsch Rock” rather. I think you got to check them out for yourself, my single minded mu-sick-al mind might not be the best advisor . For Blackpool and the audience there i can see how they fit, they will play on Friday 4th of August 21:30-22:00 After Dark in the Arena.
Back to the Knust and already at 21:00 the Razors entered like this:
I guess they also tested their Rebellion set and this is indeed a perfect and catchy lead into playing for well aged punk connoisseurs (actually Friday 4th of August 18:30 – 19:05 at the Pavilion).
It took a bit of time to lure people from the outside and from the bar towards the front of the stage, i guess around 200+ folks filled the Knust (and that makes it only half-full, unfortuneatly).
Razors (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
With their wide variety of songs it most likely is hard to make a call what fits towards Rebellion, for me they took the right choice to cut out most of the local Hamburg favorites (be it Tommys Gang or Law) and focus a wee bit more international.
Like their redemption of Heroes:
With every word you can feel how much Klaus is into this, how much he loves to pay tribute to David Bowie. And the musical uplift the rest of the band provides makes it more than a worthwhile sing-a-long, it is actually one of the songs that gets the audience going.
Razors (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
But the Razors not only look back and take their inspiration from back then – they also take inspiration from today’s Hardcore scene: “No Brains” form their first LP back in 1980 has been transformed into a less than 30 seconds assault, up to and including fitting new words:
My take: The Razors are well rehearsed and ready for Rebellion, lets hope they got plenty of folks enjoying them – as ever they are worth it!
Once the Razors where done there was a bit more of a setup for Wonk Unit, 6 people and as keyboard needed to fit the stage. Came 22:10 and Alex and his troops where ready … and boy where they ready:
The setlist was 40+ songs and they where not limited, as they did not have to warm-up for Rebellion as they will not play (they got Wonk Fest lined up for 29th of June rather).
And believe it or not, they played – my wild guess – all of these and they would finish up only two hours later, just ahead of midnight.
It was the can’t remember how many time they played Hamburg but they where never that tight, that together and that brilliant. And it was simply like this beauty, all fun, all dancing and all sing-a-long:
Where The Adicts throw a sing-a-long kids party it is Wonk Unit who throw more of an adult party, sans drugs but with plain good clean fun. And in brilliant moments they even sounded like The Dickies (a view a mate levied upon me and i have to say that i agreed on the spot).
Wonk Unit (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
A party they indeed got started, plenty of dancing, plenty of sing-along in the audience and plenty of tongue-in-check banter by Alex between the songs.
His lengthy into to one of the all time faves included a more detailed then needed advise that it was time to piss on your friend or your girlfriend and be pissed on too. Time to enjoy the experience.
Lewisham, of all places:
Just puuuurfect.
They not only played plenty of great songs, they also where incredibly busy on stage – moving around, changing position and trying to guess what song Alex desired next, rarely he gave away more than an indirect clue whilst chatting to the audience.
Wonk Unit (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
They played and played and then came back for plenty of encore, kicking off the add-on part like this:
Even down from the large stage of the Knust they where one with the audience, had people dancing on & off stage. With Alex commandeering the troops on and off stage, even something irrelevant like stage diving was converted into a family thingy providing additional joy.
Wonk Unit & Family (Knust, Hamburg, 21.07.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
After almost two hours of fun, fun and fun they closed it down with a big hats off to the Punk Rock Hamburg Family, to which they most likely by now are adopted from the island yonder.
Thanks Alex, thanks Vez, thanks Max, thanks Pwosion, thanks AJ and thanks Jude. This was the best ever show you gave the Hamburg lot! It felt like a double album, gatefold cover damn fucking Punk Rock Opera without any break.
Simply a perfect evening with perfect companionship on and off the stage. Could i ask for any more?
Yes, Repeat.
