It has been a while. As much as i can recall i did not see the mighty Razors live in 2024 and Knock Off last time graced Hamburg as far back as 2019, when Razors invited them over for the annual year end proceedings.
Came Covid, came other stuff … it took indeed 6 years for them to be paired again.
And whilst a good a number of folks flew over to Glasgow to see the Ex-Pistols and a couple of other bands (some in better shape, some in not so interesting shape) about 100 folks made it to the Monkeys.
Razors kicked it off at 21:30 and at the start … had a couple of sound issues on the guitar side. After some checks and some adjustments from the mixing desk the guitar finally came alive in the wall of sound way desired.
And from there the Razors took off with quite some speed. And broad smiles.
Razors (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
It was a home game, it was a supportive lot and overall everybody felt like being in a good mood.
What was wrong? Absolutely nothing!
That is from their 2008 Dirty Thirty effort and boy, it is already another 18 years further down the road.
Still, it sounds like a fresh song: Umpf, great guitar work, hammering interludes and sing-a-long chorus.
Razors (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
They played an hour and a bit, had fun on stage, Klaus had fun handing out Pogoverbot and Sven was thirsty for some Holsten.
And at the end, as ever, they took the lot for a ride with Because You’re Young / Walk On. And everybody, including the small Danish contingent, chimed in.
Razors (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
Perfect set and showcasing that the Razors are still relevant today, owning a niche (in that little niche we all love so much) and being able to take the audience along.
Almost running late Knock Off took the stage and to my surprise there was a new bass player. I knew that they somewhat parted with their recent one, had to pull out of some gigs and got Lozz out of the mothballs for their UK gigs.
But here i saw a younger face that i could not immediately connect but was reminded that he used to play with The Agitators. As far as i understood Knock Off did not want to pull out of this short run in Europe (Antwerp, Hamburg, Essen) and thus looked for help.
Jelle stepped up, rehearsed at home and joined them in Antwerp (near his home). And came across hand-in-glove.
How did it sound? It sounded like this:
This is what they are, this is what they do: Hard hitting, words with a meaning and great choruses.
On top their recent, self released, album has a just puurfect name (and textbook definition):
lowerarchy (noun)
[lo-err-ark-ee]
1. A series of people or things considered as representing progressively lower levels of a series or whole
2. The ones that don’t fit in, are frowned upon and cast aside.
That is great tongue-in-cheek to frame the position, i guess it is pretty obvious where Knock Off see themselves.
Knock Off (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
And all was delivered with a smile and, as said, surprisingly tight for a band that has a bass player standing in on day two (and already has the audacity to demand “less guitar” on stage).
Goed gedaan Jelle, goed gedaan!
They played old songs, new songs and within that also my lovelisted song, most likely the best song in Punk Rock to remind people to look after themselves:
And it ain’t a love song!
Knock Off got the lot well going, entertained and into it. They skipped the walk-off-come-back for efficiency and played also for about an hour and finished off to a lot of applause.
A pity that the wander across to Hamburg so rarely, in my head they seem to get as much sympathy and love as … let’s say Gimp Fist.
Great evening, albeit too small turnout, and after the show i had a realization of sorts: Whilst Razors and Knock Off are coming from different directions, sporting different sounds a show with them playing back-to-back is like a hand-in-glove feel.
Both work together for the audience like a charm, like they where made for playing together. And i sense that there is also mutual appreciation.
I stayed way much longer than planed with some final pint(s), chats and then the long way home. And grateful for having seen two great bands.
#handinglove
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