“Dance into May” is an old German tradition dating back to pagan days. It tends to happen in small villages in the countryside and involves too much drinks and fist fights of drunken man at any age. Not my type of fun.
But down south, right across the mighty river Elbe, Marias Ballroom was throwing a “Punk into May” showcase that included the reformed Youth Of Altona and that would lack dancing around a Maypole luckily. A quick train ride south and a short walk got us there, a first for me. Face value a small local pub in an old house named “Bei Maria” that has a secret hidden in the back: A Ballroom, capacity i guess 100 folks, with a professional stage, a professional sound and lightning system. Wow.
This was the 3rd Edition of “Punk into May” and local custom seems to be that The Barrytown Wheelies kick off the proceedings. Old punks of i guess my age covering older and newer songs.
The Barrytown Wheelies (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Their covers ranged actually wide, from Saints to Ramones but also some lesser known stuff thrown in. And a surprise Descendents cover. On all songs they applied their own twist, hard to guess if knowingly or because they just did not get around to get a 1:1 cover done. On few songs that worked for me, on most it did not.
Biggest minus: They did not manage to finish a single song as a team, on a precise stroke. The locals gave them some applause, for me it was falling short of expectation.
Next inPUNKto and quite a drop in years and a change in style. Young lads, upright political stance and fast forward Deutsch Punk.
inPUNKto (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Whilst they had some seconds of nicely bashed out songs structures, largely when the bass was frenetically strumming it down, they where way off my personal liking. It may also have been because they triggered off some cliches in my single-minded grumpy old head.
Go and check them out for yourself, i am almost sure i will let them go should i face them on stage again. One of me mates even went all alone outside of Marias because he could not bare them …
And that gave way to Youth Of Altona: Janny assembled a new crew to emit his love for the Wipers from the stage … here is how they kicked off:
And the new faces are familiar faces: Christiane of Gerd fame on Bass, Lorenz of Blanker Hohn fame on drums … but he will only be able to join live for the support slot for D.I. at the Hafenklang. So for this show Timo from Bond Girl jumped in.
And this what they took on to deliver:
It looked much more like a band (eg. following rule #1 of orchestrated stage attire), it sounded more like a band and – self chosen bonus – the songs are all great stuff (thanks to Greg Sage).
Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Although this was only the 2nd show in this new line up you could already sense how much the solid rhythm section will support Janny. They allow him the freedom to wander off, improvise and making the songs – here Alien Boy – even more worthwhile.
Sure there where parts not really glued together and song parts not yet rehearsed to perfection but where the covers of them Barrytown Wheelies where somehow off Youth Of Altona delivered them spot on.
Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
They got a fair share of applause, plenty of smiles and on hits like Over The Edge they even got loads of sing-a-long:
What was also apparent was that stage, light and sound in that tiny Ballroom where near perfect, looking at the equipment to me i looked like someone simply fulfilled his life long dream to have a cozy small place for live mu-sick.
Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
At the end they were forced to play some extras, tongue-in-check Janny proposed to just play songs from the start again, as they lacked some precision initially (at least according to him). So here is Return Of The Rats again:
For me a perfect set and a neat rescue of the mu-sick-al side of the evening. And as ever when a band convinces me live i did buy some merch, the love of me life now sports a nice black Youth Of Altona T-Shirt – very fitting as a) she is younger than me and b) we live in Altona (Altona-Altstadt to be precise).
Nice place, nice chats with friends from north and south of the river and a quick train ride home with perfect companionship, so all in all still a good night out – remember #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic!
