The beauty of living a short stroll away from your favorite club is that you can make quick decisions like “… i’m up for some live music, let’s stroll down“. And that’s what i did on this Tuesday, lured by the simple fact that one of the bands once graced the Get! Lost! Fest! and both of the bands scheduled would make use of … synthies.
Early start with doors 1900 and first band 2000 – neat for having a work schedule next day that would take me into the office rather than sleepwalking into home office.
First band KILO +++ from sunny Groningen, a male/female duo with very simplistic or better minimalistic electronic music with some guitar additions.
From the start i had a nagging feel of “early 1980s Markthalle” and early “Der Plan“. And indeed in good moments that sounded almost innocent, simple and fresh.
In the long run though it was too simple for me and i also felt the audience, getting larger by the minute, had more sympathy then enthusiasm.
A fun little gimmick was that they recorded the show on stage on a tape recorder off the sound board and offered to sell the live tape for 10€. Real time release, cool.
If this sounds interesting to you then check them out at HANDS OFF or listen to their demo.
Next Powerplant and they kicked off like this:
Hui, that is much more Umpf than the support! And they got the audience (i guess around 100 folks upstairs, so well filled) moving almost instantaneously. Reading about them on the internet (damn internet, never forgets) i get their setting:
Powerplant (UA/UK) occurs somewhere in the shadows of synth and post-punk that produces material both ‘sad & happy’, but always dark in both the music and looks. The kind of dark you get at about 9:30pm on a Summer day.
Once a solitary bedroom project of Ukrainian Theo Zhykharyev, that found its footing on the Internet and grew meat around the bone, becoming a full animated live band of London’s best, when joined by members of UK hardcore scene and experimental sound artists.
As said, i had no clue about them and expected little. But they threw a lively show, had speed and some nice soundscapes. Plus the audience moving. And as such i simply enjoyed a live show (of something that was per se not my thingy).
Nice one and also distinct stage personas: Jackson Irvine double pushing the bass drum forward, Frank Navetta double on strumming chords on the bass, a very agile guitar that also sung and centered … a Beach Boy playing the keyboard.
Neat entertainment, though i did not buy vinyl. Go check them out for yourself – they have a line in their promo material to that extent too:
This could be just your kind of thing! And all, all this to walk with our heads high and hearts light. Or at least try. To better days!
It felt a wee bit strange – none of my regular companions attended the show, so i could spend time augmenting the mostly younger (and sometime on the edge of hipsterism) audience. Boy, i felt definitely old if not the oldest in the room.
Actually i could only complain about those ignoring the “no smoking” signs (surprisingly some), be surprised about the one girl sipping away a bottle of 45% booze smuggled into the venue (alcoholic by 20, congrats) and simply enjoying live music for the sake encountering something new.
A shitload of folks was eager for this show, Civic to finally return to Hamburg (though they would have ample reasons to continue to bypass Hamburg). A couple of folks went abroad to see them, be it in Gronnigen or following them in the UK. It was to be an early show on a cold and miserable Sunday, i took more time than normally in me warm home prior to strolling down to the Hafenklang. Mainly as i had little interest in the support to be.
But i missed something, somehow Shitshow short notice landed the support slot and when i arrived at the half filled Hafenklang they just entered the stage … out of blue i was luckily spot on with the time.
Shitshow caught my attention with their first EP last year, as this sported a veritable hit:
Great snotty lyrics and a near perfect chorus, delivered with a straight punch into the groin…
There’s a smile on her face
Her brother can´t recognize it
And the sun in this place
He can’t see it
He’s caught in a lie
Time is money
Money’s time
They believe, believe in this crime
Baby, baby
It’s stealing your time
Pay attention, just be mine
Ring, ring, ring
Driving against trees
Bling, bling, bling
What the hell is so funny bout gifs?
And the weather doesn’t matter,
Your best friend
Is just a machine yeah!
As such i was positively surprised and i guess cautiously optimistic. And indeed they delivered a near perfect support stint on the big stage of the Hafenklang.
What did i get? Marta with her out-of-genre Bass, always smiling. Kirschan on Guitar, shredding ahead like no tomorrow. Julia, singing with the right balance between aggressiveness and the full vocal spectrum (howling low, yelling high – but always loud). And Vic on Drums, one of the most forceful drummers in Hamburg i guess.
And all their songs are crisp, fast forward and with umpf. Plenty of umpf actually. Here is “CopPorn” from their new EP, out just now.
A perfect sum of their abilities and these do include that – even when crisp – the songs have structure, build up and repeats. Go listen to the recorded version, go!
And this one has even has more weird lyrics, down to almost being a poem:
I take a knife, you bring a gun
I’ll kill them all, I do it all for good
Don´t need no make-up
Can do without
I am your nightmare
I´m coming from behind
Cause you
You took my life and I’ll leave it all behind
I´d rather be afraid
I´ll leave it all behind
I didn´t love to
I will make it!
You shot the sheriff, I took his gun
We do it all for good
And I´ve seen freedom for all mankind
Can see it with my eyes
I was convinced within a few songs and somehow was angry to myself that i did not try to make an earlier effort to see them (but rather got them now as a by-product). The audience was also happy, plenty of applause and smiles around me.
My wild guess is that they played all they had but as said, that constituted a near perfect set with almost perfect sound. Look out for them, it is worth it.
The only complaint i heard was a faint one, a mate took a small offense in the – as he phased it – metal like frontwomanship of Julia. I guess it was his envy towards her headbanginghairthrowing, something his rather bald (and hatted) head won’t allow.
I ignored the complaint, as i was long set to buy their new EP (as they convinced me live).
Next Civic, after a short changeover on stage. They took the stage completely unpretentious and set the lot the following goals:
That was a lot and within the first block it already gave us their new single Hourglass. Me mate Frosch, a Civic devotee, took a recording:
It nicely sums up the set in totality: Somewhere between what a Music Paper summed up as “an unholy Lo-Fi-Mashup out of Garage Rock, Punk and 1990s Noise-Rock” and simply noise. Loud noise. And, standing on the left of the stage in front of Lewis, a fucking loud guitar i’d say. Overly loud.
Yannick, who drums for The Haermorrhoids and does sound at the Komet, complained already after the first song to Lewis that his guitar was too fucking loud. Jim took a slight offense in that complaint and asked the audience if there where more opinions for them on stage.
For the complaint itself it was justified, the last time a guitar bulldozed the rest of the mu-sick-al delivery that much was when Dave Chandler took his amp to 12. And that felt physically equally painful. But putting aside the level of amplification it was just master class manipulation of the guitar, the pedal board with effects and specifically the wahwah pedal by Lewis.
Horrific loud guitar soundscapes anyone?
Resting on the rock solid backbone of Eli on Drums and Roland on Bass his guitar is the main sound element, specifically live. Frontline delivery by Jim adds the right level of kick, punch and aggression, so that the full mix is almost an art out of noise.
To me Civic are one of the few bands where my normal mantra “see live and only when convinced live buy a record” most likely would not work out for me, as this live delivery 1:1 to record would not suit my listening experience at home or on the move.
But luckily their recorded output is a wee bit more behaved, a wee bit better produced and the recording allows Lewis to record multiple guitar overdubs to make the songs … more polished? More well behaved?
I’d say … more perfect. Like my lovelist sing-a-long (that got slaughtered live too):
But hey, that is the joy of live mu-sick. Though i would have loved a wee bit more craftsmanship on the sound. But maybe my position in front of the stage, surrounded by mates (some with odd footie choices, give and take), was just the wrong one.
Another mate who stood back and near the mixing desk reported a good sound. Maybe the 100something folks in winter attire in front of him worked as a perfect sound barrier …
And how did Frosch like it? Very much … here is his account:
I definitely have to agree with Dirk as regards to Civic’s live performance compared to their recorded output. They surely kick ass on stage, and when I did recommend the band to friends and they did like what they heard, I was always in danger of getting told off, because playing live Civic always deliver a far more heavy, dirty, psyched out fuzz sound.
“Fuzz is a special type of distortion where harmonic overtones dominate the overall sound” the internet says, and maybe I’m completely wrong, being purely a fan not playing the instrument myself, but that might describe it very well.
Yeah, it’s a type of distortion but not for the sake of it or noise, but rather carrying the songs, giving them that special extra, like all the predecessors playing Australian Punk such as Celibate Rifles, Radio Birdman, Cosmic Psychos, just to name a few, did.
And even if Yannick would have tuned Lewis guitar down a little he was still well impressed by Civic’s professional performance just as most of our friends attending the gig.
Plus Civic did start their set with “Selling. Sucking. Blackmail. Bribes”, their most fuzzed out, in your face, almost hardcore punk song, the brutal sounding “7” released by Total Punk in the US.
Just confirms what Wikipedia states: The band's concept was to "do good rock and roll and not to stuff about with it".
Their set at Hafenklang was even a little shorter than usual, but we did get an encore, unfortunately not the possibly too obvious, but nevertheless fantastic “Hollywood Nights In Hamburg” from their Future Forecast album.
As Civic are working on their new album, and their latest song “Hourglass” promises a lot, I hope we’re in for another Civic tour and Hamburg visit in 2024!
Or, simple, it was a great show on a dark Sunday as both bands kicked ass. And as such i had to take vinly home, both in #recordcollectorsarepretentiousareseholes #coloredvinyl (and both #limitededition).
That is Shitshow’s 2023 EP, klick and order it!
Shitshow – -+#?!$ EP (Eierloch Rec, 2023)
And this is the latest from Civic, a collection of their EPs and other old stuff. And as i never bothered to run after their EP’s a nice completion for me. Go and order (by klicking it).
Civic – New Vietnam And Singles (ATO Records, 2023)
And whilst it was an all around nice one, there was something missing. Me mate Frosch (a Civic devotee, did i mention it?) went all the way to try to persuade an Australian with an interest in mu-sick to come down and see fellow Australians (and handing him a CD that Civic gave to him in the UK, to add to that persuasion).
Bonus: Me Mate Frosch did try to persuade Socceroo Captian Jackson Irvine with a Civic CD …
Unfortunately Jackson did not make it (or maybe in disguise, no clue) but plenty of me mates made it (sans those down with Covid (get better mate!) or in NL (enjoying a short break after attending Revolution Calling)) and thus i felt simply home at the Hafenklang.
And Jackson? He will have all forgiveness of the world on Friday, right after the final whistle.
This turned out a bit of surprise combination (at least for those who got a Cyanide Pills only ticket initially): The Power Pop of the lads from Leads, who are a mainstay upstairs at the Hafenklang, paired with the Vancouver Street Punk from Bishops Green (who would grace the Hafenklang for the first time).
But joining two different corners together resulted in a packed and sold out upstairs, to that extend a neat move by the Hafenklang.
The Cyanide Pills kicked off at 21:14 and for me with two surprises: Their Norwegian guitar player no longer is, as such Phil did sling a guitar. And the on bass there was a new recruit too. But that did not change a thing – they kicked off with the same drive as ever. Power Pop, with sufficient speed.
The last time i saw them was prior to Covid and i have to admit that i did not bother to check out their new LP, aptly named Soundtrack To The New Cold War. But as the new setup looked and sounded convincing i guess it is only a matter of time until i get my ears on it.
For the Cyanide Pills it was not only the post-Covid but also post-Brexit return to Europe, they are happy to be back and take the new obstacles as something to just deal with:
How do you think the government are doing, happy with the Tories still?
The government are doing a marvellous job! Encouraging us all to return to old traditions like starvation, destitution, hopelessness, and despair. Let’s hope the guillotine makes a resurgence too.
You finally managed to make it into Europe for your Covid-postponed gigs. What were the best and worse things to happen on the tour?
Touring will always be fun, a bit more bureaucracy and self-inflicted bullshit to deal with but it’s soon forgotten when we get to play for our punk brothers and sisters in Europe.
They played for about 45 minutes, included some fan favorites and had many (and the female contingent in front of the stage specifically) singing along. The only bit that i was missing to a certain extend was audience interaction. There was little audience engagement down from the stage, they choose to let the mu-sick speak for itself.
Great, tight set. And plenty of fun in the audience. Could this be topped?
That indeed was the question for me, as i somehow avoided Bishops Green in the last couple of years, i think it was like 2015 at the Monkeys that i saw them live. So i was not convinced and i have to admit that if it would have been Bishops Green only on this Friday i may have skipped it …
… and that would have been the wrong decision. And here is Another Door to prove it:
I guess i was wrong. Greg and the lot proved it with ease. And as i was sooo wrong (and got taunted by a mate more than once for it) i even did break my custom to only have a beer once the show is over – Bishops Green got me singing-along and drinking along. And right so!
Bishops Green (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 24.11.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023
And as most of their songs are well aged hits known by the audience Greg could command the lot with ease, ever the perfect front man. And the next well aged hit was just around the corner, here is Alone:
All of my fears and perceptions went out of the window, as much as the lot was singing, dancing and throwing fists. It felt indeed great in the packed room and it carried not only me away, smiling. And it was good to see that the female contingent was still up front, the show nicely passed without big bald males making a nuisance.
Bishops Green (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 24.11.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023
One complaint though i heard – with a smile: The drummer dropped his sweaty shirt and a female audience member (coming all the way from Berlin) commented “in Berlin the show now would be stopped” – i asked to stay shut about it, then we could continue to enjoy the show. And that we did!
They played for a bit more than an hour, Greg did steal a beer from me mate Beno (who sported a dodgy t-shirt anyway) and Dead Heroes came last:
Thanks Bishops Green, you surprised me. Well done! I’ll take ya back for good!
Bishops Green did not spend a lot of time mingling, they packed up quickly to hit the road towards Eindhoven, Revolution Calling was to be their next call. Same did some of me mates – the first car left also on Friday, the other one on Saturday morning. And that car was not so lucky, icy conditions on Saturday morning and an odd crash on the motorway.
Luckily no-one but the car was harmed. Puh, close call. And all of the joy of the show would have been gone. Sight.
