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Tag: Hafenklang

… opvarmning til K-Town Hardcore fest: DIY H/C regler!
I was happy as a fuck that the K-Town warm-up tradition this year was revived in a bigger setting, with bands from both Americas (North and South) and bands from the grim North (Sweden and Finland) making a short detour via sunny Hamburg en-route to the K-Town H/C Fest at Ungdomshuset in K-Town.

K-Town warm-up (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019)

The Hafenklang was able to use both stages, so that even with 6 Bands it should be a swift changeover and not too much waiting time between the fun.

Downstairs Abuso from Bogota kicked off the proceeding. The poster dubbed them UK82 but i guess that was even correct on some of the songs…

Great that both string workers did sing, though they did not move a lot. But energy came down from the stage but unfortunately due to an early start to an rather empty main room.
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Abuso (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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They had little interaction with the audience but seemed to take what they do serious. My thingy? No quite but check them out for yerself.

Upstairs Machine Gun continued with much more modern sounds from much more north in the Americas:

I am not sure if the label Straight H/C Punk was a fitting one but they added speed, speed and … speed. Great fast guitar and a solid back line.
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Machine Gun (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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They got something and on top the best dressed person in the audience and on stage, here he was drumming and sporting a Huvudtvätt T-Shirt. Great Philly Hardcore and a short but very crisp set.

Downstairs the southern part of the Americas continued, Amenazas took the main stage and emptied their weapons onto the audience, leaving bullets on stage…

… bullet belt galore!

… ups, there went my fantasy astray. They pushed their Noisy D-Beat Galore up on the audience and they did that very convincingly. The powerful singer remained in the pit and occasionally was joined by the bass.

They claim “Nuestro ruido es Memoria” (Our noise is memory) and what does stick is both the energetic singing and the guitar, that actually provides the noisy soundscapes.
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Amenazas (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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Yet again not my thingy buth thanks to the short and powerful bursts absolutely worthwhile.

Loose Nukes continued upstairs and they where the secret stars, at least by some friends of mine and some people who where going to go to K-Town on the weekend. So let’s check them out:

On bass the best dressed person in the audience and on stage again, redressed to sport a Swart Framtid T-Shirt. Not sure on what budget these guys travel but if he continues to sport 3-4 cool bands every day he must have a large back pack!
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Loose Nukes (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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He got some competition though from his guitar player, a Social Unrest T-Shirt for sure is also quality. The where fast (boy where they fast) and the singer provided high pitch singing (without the little chances to make out lyrics). Chatting to him after the show he seemed a cool bloke and well into strange Japanese H/C like me mate Frosch: They traded tales on said mu-sick for hours…

Go and check them out, my friends did not lie! It was dubbed HC Punk-as-Fuck and that may well be the right thing:

Fast Forward To Extinction by Loose Nukes

By now the Hafenklang was filled a wee bit better but far from packed, which actually is a low moment: There most likely will not be another setting like this within the year, with a great variety of DIY Hardcore. Really sad that so few actually did go for it.

Fredag Den 13:e continued downstairs and from the first visuals and the first chords i knew i was up for something different:

ScandiCrustPunk from sunny Gothenburg, capital of the beautiful Västra Götaland County. Yet a new label for my mu-sick-al cupboard. They not only came with full control on they instruments and a near perfect sound but also … with hair. Plenty of hair. And then facial hair (note: if you are regular reader than you know that this results normally into downgrading).
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Fredag Den 13:e (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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For my humble self that hair paired with a metal undertow of the sound was both offending and perfect fit in one go. What they do they do extremely well and their sound – like or not – was indeed pushing the audience (and by now the floor was well filled) like nothing else this evening.

Would i buy a record of them? Nope. Would i see them again: Yes. Would i go an extra mile to see them – most likely not. But here and now, it worked for me (much to my surprise). For my accompanying friends it was too much of a metal experience.

Back upstairs and against the running order a wee bit late some Helsingforce took the stage (after battling on the drive with their battered little car taking 4 guys and equipment to Hamburg):

Rest In Piss hail from Helsinki, capital of the reigning Hockey World Champion. The poster for the show had them down as Hardcore Punk’n’Roll and from all the style nicks handed down via that poster it was the one most off. To me there was not H/C at all.
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Rest In Poss (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 13.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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To much hair again and guitars strapped a little bit high to the waist. But sound wise they mimic’ed them Swedes: Very professional use of the instruments and very tight together. And given that it should have had a wee bit of dirty rock’n’roll sleaze it was just a wee bit too nice, to polished. Their 2015 EP sounds much more dirty!

And whoops – 6 bands done with only little breaks in between. Perfect setting and a great kaleidoscope into current DIY H/C. It is most likely time that i do a pilgrimage to K-Town Hardcore Fest. Some of this years line up you can check out here:

K-Town 2019 by K-Town Hardcore Fest

For this Thursday evening it was the best thing to happen – no more but also no less. Now make an effort for 2020 Hamburg!
2019/06/15
… donation only Monday: A slot to check out new bands!
Moday evenings at the Goldener Salson of the Hafenklang remain a free slot for some free entertainment: Donation only shows followed by a DJ and some table tennis (and sure some booze). For me, living a short walk away, it is always a good slot to check out bands and be home early.

This time it was Negative Gears, from sunny Australia, and two items attracted me:

Number one – this portray of the band:
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Rising out of the chaos of another band’s eleventh-hour personnel reshuffle, it’s Negative Gears. ‘Urgent, melodic punk’ that’s producing sweet capital gains thanks to the group’s strong intent.
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Number two – a great record cover:

Negetive Gears – cool LP cover indeed!

This was enough to attract me and be donating customer number one for the evening (with some poor 19 more people adding to the pot). By the looks the young Australians seemed friendly chaps and this was confirmed by the folks of the club.
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Negative Gears (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 03.06.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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A sturdy backline with drums and bass, a solid guitar and a shy keyboard. Paired with a roaming singer that used some looping stuff for his voice (requiring him to bend down towards a bar stool on stage). How did it sound? At good moments actually quite fine and in an almost perfect post-punk fashion (if i may use that slur):

Other moments were rather lackluster. Still, i believe they would have warranted a slightly bigger audience and a longer set (in order to groove in). Did i buy their record? No, not yet. They did not fully convince me live. But go and check them out for yerself:

<a href="http://staticshockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/negative-gears">Negative Gears by Negative Gears</a>

What did surprise me yet again was how people react to “Donation only” shows: Regulars did give up to 10€, others, “being with the band” gave…nothing. Even when the landlord tried to explain that they need to be able to have a good feeling to give nothing to their friends.

Still, great short enjoyment and much better than watching TV. Remember: #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic!
2019/06/05
… the surprise return of Der Moderne Man!
As with all those young punks from the class of 1979 in Hamburg i went through phases. Initially primed by UK 1977 punk and shows at the Markthalle, i discovered also new German music, just before that part turned all sour by the hands of the Music Industry as “Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW)” and luckily US Hardcore came by in 1983 to save my mu-sick-al mind.

But whilst digging into German post punk i saw a shitload of great stuff, be it D.A.F. prior to fame, be it Malaria or … Der Moderne Man. From Hannover. And a great band with both feet in Punk and their head already way out into what would become the so called New German Wave (aka NDW). I have all their records and their first long player still stands all tests of time.

Check this out, an early early video:

What did stand out was the vocals from Ziggy-XY, who left the band after the first LP to do much stranger stuff with Kosmonautentraum, Whilst being able to get a 2nd long player out by 1984, they called it a day after 5 energetic years, forever.

And now wind to 2019 and a huge surprise: Whilst the annual Hamburg Ramönes show was set the band in passing published that their support would be … Der Moderne Man (thanks to some overlap in Personal). Eager as a beast i got a ticket on the day of pre-sales starting (and thus was lucky) only to realize that changed leave plans would have me 550 KM north of the Hafenklang on that day.

I thus i enlisted a fellow regular by pushing the ticket onto him in exchange for a promise to take pictures and report back. So here is the 2nd hand account of someone who was far too young (actually born 1977) when i saw Der Moderne Man in the early 80s.

And it goes like this:

The pleasure came quite unexpectedly, because my dear friend Dos surprised me with a free ticket because of his holiday. It was an even bigger surprise as he must have been very fast in securing the ticket, because the show was sold out within a few days. Due to great demand from all over Germany it was moved downstairs from the Goldener Salon to the main hall of the Hafenklang, And here, too, the quota was exhausted within a very short time.

Personally, the band said little to nothing to me. So I had no big expectations, which is not the worst thing. Also on board were the Hamburg Ramönes, a local Ramones cover band. As it turned out in retrospect the Hamburg Ramönes were the headliners and Der Moderne Man had the honor of support, thanks to the fact that two members of the Hamburg Ramönes also played in Der Moderne Man, who were reanimated for this event after a 35-year break.
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Der Moderne Man (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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Der Moderne Man thus opened the evening in front of a happily attuned audience, who had traveled from all parts of the republic and partly even from abroad for this event. For in addition to the 40th anniversary of the band, it was also to celebrate the 60th birthday of guitarist Ecki.

Der Moderne Man – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019)

The singer announced that the setlist would have been played exactly the same order about 35 years ago and opened the show with the Disco-Lied, which was celebrated by the crowd from the first note onward. And it went on in the same positive spirit.

The performance lasted exactly one hour, with songs like Laut, Das Tier, Dauerlauf, 13, Telefonlied, Gib’ Mir Den Tod and Frau Krause being highlights for me. I am damn sure this band will now find their way onto my record-player (Note to self: Remind Dos that he agreed to sell me his record collection when he moves into the retirement home).
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Der Moderne Man (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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After the obligatory encore, the band was duly adopted by the audience and they where visibly moved when the final curtain was coming.

The rest of the evening I spent talking with friends and regulars in front of the venue, so that I did not see much of the Hamburg Ramönes. Still i took a quick look: The hall was no longer packed as during The Modern Man, but those who stayed were enthusiastic about Ecki and the crew still.
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Hamburg Ramönes (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019 (c) gehkacken.de)
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Even gifts from friends, who found the exit from the island yonder that wants to Brexit, where presented: caps with the band name and the respective names of the cheerful tuned musicians.

Hamburg Ramönes – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 30.05.2019)

It was a great event and I’m glad to have attended it!

B. like born in motherfucking 1977

Wow – i guess i missed something. Talking to others in the week after the show this was confirmed, though it was also noted to be a strange event: 100 tickets went to Friends of the Hamburg Ramönes and 100 tickets where scooped up by people from all around Germany (with quite some prominent people among them), who were eager to see Der Moderne Man again (or finally).

Kudos and happy birthday to Ecki for making this happen, i appreciate it though i missed it.

nb: The enlisting of an apprentice was a nice first, i think i must try that one again. But with respect to handing him my record collection (including Der Moderne Man records) i need rethink date and price tag!
2019/06/05