Just back from a lovely battery recharging in sunny Denmark the city greeted us with 30+ degrees … melting point temperature. Still silly me got nothing better to do then drop down to the Hafenklang for a quick slab of H/C (with Night Fever from K-Town headlining).
Local start was with Briefbombe from Kaltenkircher Platz, this is how they kicked off:
I thoroughly like uniform stage attire, as such their postal delivery uniform outfit (matching the postal delivery themed songs) indeed is a bonus. On top choosing to perform Postpunk, Posthardcore and Postviolence as a motto themed band is like the icing on the cake.
Delivery was flawless, with a smile and with every song getting a fitting intro that was … themed too. And with the power to force a smile. Great stuff, check out their output by all means (and i am more than happy to own the EP already).
Briefbombe (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.09.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
They had the laughs, though the singer – roaming the floor – was not fully audible (a problem that would continue throughout the night). They got plenty of cheers, up to and including from the family (i guess mum and dad where present as far as i could make out).
Great start, delivered tongue-in-cheek.
Next XIAO from sunny Stɔ̂kː(h)ɔlm. And they started to set up big, the guitar with two amps playing through two speakers and with a simple understatement on the backdrop: Sweden’s Hardcore Band.
That backdrop statement and the amount of time it took to setup gave me some doubt though (as no band ever will be as great as The Vicious). But hey, they would tune the evening up to some Powerviolenceshit so go!
XIAO (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.09.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Hard, Fast, Loud (and overshadowing the vocals yet again) and with plenty of breaks, beat downs and what have you. Quite complicated stuff on the musical side and indeed you must be well rehearsed to deliver that.
Meaning though went awol, as most of the singing was not really audible.
As with many bands from that sub-genre it went fast, my wild guess is that it took not more than 20 minutes. The though by now almost packed Goldener Salon liked it, a couple of folks even performed the stereotypical power violence … dancing.
For me it was more like an acceptable interlude, whenever they kept pace i liked it, whenever they threw in plenty of breaks, stops and whathaveyou it was less my thingy. Go and check them out, as you sure thing can not trust my silly mu-sick-al tastes.
Finally Night Fever from K-Town and they would turn proceedings into much more of a solid slab of guitar sound. Like in a freight train coming at ya with 130 mph. Though loaded not only with leather and studs but also with some hair and some heavy metallic elements.
It was sometimes on the right side of my boundaries, sometimes though it crossed over and had too much solo, too high pitched voice and an overall metal feel.
On the positive though was that that freight train just would not stop and was completely well rehearsed. Just with a quick look the bass player commanded “Next” or “keep going” and the wall of sound never broke.
Night Fever (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 07.09.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
When it came to my favorite topic of stage attire they somehow got it almost right, drums and strings all black, singer in blue jeans, “No Trend” shirt in white and … black leather gloves with studs. Sight. Poor mans metal dreams? Never mind, he made up with loads of energy and jumping around.
Whilst the mu-sick was not 100% up my alley they are a formidable and energetic live band and with that sound they will please a wide range of audience.
Three bands, three hours and some nice shirts. Was it a must have show? I guess not, there are much more convincing packages still to come.
But it was live, supporting live music in a real club and it was DIY in the widest sense. So in the end, even when i did not like all the mu-sick, it was worth it.
And the city was still fucking hot when i left the Hafenklang. Arrggh!
Leave a Reply