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.
The Hawaiians (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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.
Sidekick (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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:
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.
Sloppy Seconds (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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.
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!
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