Ross Thomas hat es einfach drauf. Trocken, humorlos lustig und mit dem notwendigen Übeln von Sex und Gewalt durchsetzt erklärt er uns in Dornbusch wie das so funktioniert in den US of A mit der Politik. Was Senatoren so machen. Was Untersuchungsauschüsse so machen. Und wer eigentlich wie Geld verdient. Und behält. Und vererbt.
Und, natürlich, alles frei erfunden. Eine Klasse Story über Betrüger, die Betrüger betrügen und Korruption. Und jeder sucht seinen Vorteil. Auch Held Ben Dill, der seine Schwester – Detektiv im Morddezernat – durch eine Autobombe verliert.
Und am Ende erfährt das alles, aber auch alles, an der gleichen Stelle zusammenläuft. Nämlich an dem Dornbusch, dem Dornbusch der so stachelig und böse ist das niemand dorthin kommt um ihn zu holen.
Klasse Geschichte, wie immer heute ehr so aus der Zeit gefallen, aber spannend. Absolut spannend.
Jerry only got it by a couple of days off – almost a year ago Poison Idea where in Europe and graced the Hafenklang. This time round they are on a month long trip through out Europe, from Rotterdamn across mainland Europe, Scandinavia and back to Amsterdamned. A tough ride i’d say with plenty of shows.
Sort Of Sober (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 06.04.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
First on Sort Of Sober who stepped in for Restmensch (and are actually 1/5th Restmensch, nevermind). Female fronted punk rock with some subtle elements of … all sort of other things. What worked well was when the singer and the guitar player traded vocals back/forth and when the other guitar did throw in a tiny scent of surf-style guitar. And when they did sing in spanish, of all languages.
Some other things did not work for me at all, namely their ABBA cover (and some of the bumpier mu-sick). But overall not a bad impression and if they do more of scream, growl and back/forth and pair that with versatile mu-sick they will make my day!
“Hello and good evening ladies and gents…aaahhhh” from Jerry A (slimmed down again), Eric Olson (flying V not polished), Brandon Bentley (hair not spiked), Chris Carey (bass not well connected) and a new kid on the drums: Mickey Widmer (with gloves). And off it went – with Poison Idea’s massive list of songs that actually rarely sucks we thus were on the road to some great entertainment.
Poison Idea (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 06.04.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
There was a wee bit of a slow start, at least in my ears they where not glued together initially and the typical massive PI-Heavydutytruck-blasting-over-you Sound only came through over the course of the set. Did they party too much the day before in Berlin? Tired? Under the influence? Cold? No clue and it also did not matter much!
What did matter though was the fact that someone actually tried to tell Jerry that Jever was a good beer. Scandal! It might be a good free beer but for me it ain’t the right choice. But hey, they sponsor somehow the Hafenklang and the bands (and put that high quality expensive deluxe sign on the stage,there, back in the right far corner), so let’s be friendly and un-punk … for once.
But it did not stop them to throw more slabs of killer songs onto the well packed Hafenklang (for a rainy Wednesday it was quite some turnout) and get the crowd going. There where some misses though, if i had commandment over the set list i’d love to see some more songs from especially “We must burn” but that again is selfish me. With 11 Albums, 24 EP’s and some contributions to compilations they have a rooster way too big to be condensed into a single set.
Poison Idea (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 06.04.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
And because of that huge rooster the final song was to be … not from Poison Idea. But from history. So with some smoke from the machinery, the standard tour joke (“It’s our drummers birthday, give him some weed“) they kicked into a longtime standard – for the very last time Jerry claimed. We took note of that, mate, we took note!
So was it something special? No. Was it something new? No. Was it something that will stand out? No. It was plain good entertainment and music savored in they way it should be: Live, from a touring band and paying for band and club to keep them going. It’s time for retirement, i may then do that every single day.
Es gibt ja diese bretonischen Reiseführerkrimis – ich habe fast das Gefühl das die von Michael Dibdin und seiner Krimi-Serie zwischen 1988 und 2007 entstandenen Serie rund um Vize-Questore Aurelio Zen inspiriert worden sind.
“Himmelfahrt” (1992) brachte dem Leser (eine lange vergangenes) Rom nahe, “Tödliche Lagune” (1994) zeigt ein Venedig im Niedergang und abseits der Touristen. Alles ist grau, nass und ehr elendig. Dazu “dreckige” Politik, “schmutzige” Liebe, “durchgeknallte” Adelige und ein guter Schuss Egoismus des Protagonisten: Er weilt nämlich nicht wirklich im Auftrag in Venedig sondern kocht sein eigenes Süppchen, das nur ihm Geld einbringen soll.
Das ganze gerät langatmig, mit vieeeeel Atmosphäre (zu viel!) und zwei leidlich gelungenen Krimi-Kniffen. Das ganze ist immer gut wenn Zen sich durchmogelt und seine eigentliche Aufgabe voranbringt und immer schlecht wenn sein Liebes- und Familienleben eine Rolle spielt.
