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Tag: Youth Of Altona

… down south, over the river: Away day into May!
“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.
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The Barrytown Wheelies (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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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.
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inPUNKto (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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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:

Youth Of Altona – Setlist (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de)

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).
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Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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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.
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Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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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.
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Youth Of Altona (Marias Ballroom, Harburg, 30.04.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
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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!
2023/05/01
… the happiest birthday gift of ALL!
I am writing this on a sunny Sunday and i do sport a neat hangover, so the love of my life concluded that it was an even better night than Friday (and accepted a late late breakfast). It was one of these gentle summer evenings where the full power of the Punk Rock Hamburg family feeling was the perfect undercurrent for a perfect show, in a near perfect (as much as the safety rules allowed) setting.

Youth Of Altona had the pleasure to start the evening with their redemption of Greg Sages œuvre. Sure thing indoors, in the dark club, the doom of the Wipers songs would have been a wee bit better placed but that ain’t possible currently.
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Youth Of Altona (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021)
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YoA where hampered as their drummer was out for the evening and the replacement had only few session to get into the set. They mastered that hurdle well, though you could feel that the audience was up for something different. Something extra. A surprise.

I enjoyed their set, known and lesser known Wipers songs and they really put their heart into it. The longer it went, the better it sounded. Anyway, for some time that will be the norm as real touring bands from abroad, let alone off continent (ie. UK or US of A), will be rare given the rules and regulations.

As such i do hope that the local circuit can flourish a bit more than normal and will get more to do (than just provide a back line for band on a shoestring tour).

Danke Wipers, wie schon Oma Hans sang!

Talking about bands from abroad – here are DeALL!. They came 3/4th all the way from Belgium, picked up their singer on the way and had their first “same room” practice only one day prior to the show. And this show would be their first sold out show. The first show with queues at the entrance.

Actually their first show at all.

It is a typical Corona story: Raf, Koen, Maarten and Manuel meet on the net (damn internet), in a Descendents/ALL! Facebook Group. Locked out from their normal mu-sick-al business they hit off for fun and remotely, trying to master treasured music by Descendents and All.

Fast forward and they have recorded 15 songs remotely and shared the outcome with the community. Never intending to become a real band with real shows they caught the eye of the Punk Rock Hamburg Descendents connoisseurs. Given that the top Descendents devotee of the lot just had a birthday … an idea was formed.

DeALL! – Setlist (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021 (c) gehkacken.de)

And, surprise surprise, it was made real. Thus the 4 guys ended up on the outdoor stage of the Knust, with 20 songs on the rooster – some rehearsed to perfection, some open for improvement. The set list was a perfect mix of old and new, Descendents and All.

How did it sound? Here is an All song, a classic hit if you ask me.

It sounded great. And those in the know quickly realized that these are gifted musicians, all with their own gigs in different mu-sick-al styles. Whilst they were a bit nervous prior to the show because of 220 sold tickets they took all the cheering in and used that to carry themselves on and through the set.
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DeALL! (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021)
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The total output from Descendents and All must be around an equal number 220 songs, so a song per audience member. From that vast list they took some great choices and I really did dig that they took on Stephen Egertons solo effort “She’s Got Everything“:

Cudos for getting that into the mix.

How did it feel? It gave a warm feeling, a feeling of joint appreciation. For me specifically it was sheer joy to see Maarten on bass with his energy, broad smile and jumping around. As far as i understood this little venture was his idea and he puts it All! in.
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DeALL! (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021)
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DeALL! also gave a large thank you to that happy birthday girl, here is When I Get Old for Christiane:

By and large doing a cover band is a risky enterprise: You can get all hooked up with perfection, trying to hit every chord, every break, every drum roll as it has been recorded. Or you can take it with charm, a smile and know that eventually you just get the audience to enjoy stuff that you enjoy anyhow. Thats what DeALL! did.
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DeALL! (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021)
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And thus DeALL! finished their first ever show to much applause, sold all shirts they did for that show and gave the lot … Hope. Hope that the clubs will be able to open, will be able to break even and that musicians, bands, promoters, labels et all will regain their share.

Wow, that was stunning and a perfect setting for the family get together this actually was. I do hope that DeALL! enjoyed that too.

DeALL! – First ever encore done! (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021 (c) gehkacken.de)

It carried on with chatting, booze, more chatting and eventually … more booze. And some nice background tracks by DJ’s Frank and Matthias.

It was a happy family all around us. Splendid!
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DeALL! & Happiness (Knust, Hamburg, 26.06.2021)
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Big thanks to Dirk (Knust) and Arne/Perry (Punk Rock Hamburg) for pulling this and other shows through (the lot owes you!) and thus giving us back some of the stuff we lost the last whatever months. I do treasure this and I got to know on this lovely evening that other do too.

… trust the Hamburg lot: All 40 DeALL! Shirts got sold at the show!
2021/06/27
… finally shows come back!

Finally shows are coming back! And our friends over at Punk Rock Hamburg start this off with a real bender: De/ALL, a Belgium/German Descendents & ALL cover band that never planned to perform live will grace Hamburg and team up with Youth Of Altona! Now that is a near perfect outlook!

Tickets over here and watch out for the Covid rules that come with it!

2021/06/03