First off, i hope it wasn’t me! I sincerely hope that me was not the jinx, as i have been pestering me mate at the Knust for ages to put more Surf onto the rooster and i specifically named The Razorblades as a great addition for such an event. I am sure though that i also asked also for some other highlights, if my memory serves me well it was like Phantom Surfers, Huevos Rancheros, Satan’s Pilgrims, The Vulcanos and sure Man or Astro-Man? that i was suggesting.
So much to my fright i was hit with a particular empty Knust on a cold Friday evening and right away i had the feeling this will be an empty show. When i paid i think i was paying guest number four.
And it stayed like that, the Knust has a capacity of 450 if it stretches and i think barely 14 people paid and at max there where like 30something people in front of the big stage. So it was for Los Apollos from Berlin to kick it off against a large nothing.
They do traditional Surf i’d say (and i am far from an expert) and at times the guitar sound reminded me of Mark Broadie & The Beaver Patrol. They where relaxed and grooved themselves into it, despite the empty void in front of them.
Yes, i did dig them but in that large setting on that large stage it sure just did not work out. The one fun thing though was that the empty hall (paired with the excellent PA) created a perfect echo chamber for the guitar reverb to gain on. So something bad turned into a bonus – you always got to see the positive things in life!
Next on The Splashdowns from Hamburg and they where easy to make out: They are Sci-Fi Astro-Surf. And that not only because they had the story of the flight to the moon on the backdrop behind the stage as a mix of animation and real movie snipets but they also gave away some great astro infos between the songs.
They had a wee bit more twang and they had a different kind of charm in their songs. And they had a guitar player who kept standing on his heels and moving around on them – with a strange grin on the face. And, as all other bands of the evening, they had a stage uniform, something that i forever dig.
They had by far the most people in front of the stage, sure thing as they are local plus mathematically it will always work out like that if you play in the middle. The most though is an euphemism, as it was still less than 10% of the capacity. Bugger.
And that finally got us The Razorblades and they kicked off like that (following a short intro song):
I am actually sold on them, especially when they venture into “hard & fast” territory and i have to admit that i am blown away by the sounds that Rob Razorblade get’s out of his guitar. And the speed by which he moves from one sound to the other – just stunning.
The Razorblades (knust, Hamburg, 17.11.2017) (c) gehkacken.de)
They had to face a declining audience and they had to play every entertainment trick to get remaining people further to the front. Still, whilst all the effort, they did not get a front row together for the set. But i think they loved the big stage for being able to move around a lot and they did also benefit from the empty hall in terms of the acoustics. Loose some, win some – eh?
And they finished their set with speed and a nod off to where the sun is warm, the water is cold and the surf is up:
And in the end i think they even sold a T-Shirt and a record, poor fellas. I’d love to see them as support for say Descendents. Or play the Hafengeburtstag in bright sunshine. But never again lure them to Hamburg on a cold November Friday please!
So something did not work out, if i created a share of that misery then i am so sorry – i was obviously completely wrong in assuming that Hamburg would be ready for some reverb and some surf. Damn was i wrong!
