Seeing bands live enables me to make final judgement if i do like them or not and that sure thing requires to go out and see bands, sometimes by word of mouth. The Pears from New Orleans are currently traded by some as hot shit and even Mr. Milo Aukerman praised them – so on a hot Sunday evening it was just the right thing to close down the weekend.
Slam Harder (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 24.07.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
The support slot named themselves after that bloke who runs that other club in Hamburg and they must have thrown an additional letter in not to get sued (or beaten up). And they are from Hannover and their T-Shirts stated “Han. Hardcore”. Outsch. [Warning: The section you have just read contains ironic statements only making sense to people in the know and from Hamburg. If you are neither, then they do not make sense to you!]
Nope, i did not dig them. Neither sound (actually specifically sound) nor stage presence. Sorry – in my ears weak copycats with no own ideas (and being old i tend to cast harsh rulings). Luckily i was not alone with my judgement, so me mate and i left to savour a beer outside, watch them ships and warn the Pears guitarist of the health dangers of smoking (by telling him he would die: he would not believe us though).
No clue how the rest of the audience (less than 50 to much disappointment) liked Slam Harder – we only came back in once the stage had been handed over.
Yep, that is how Pears kicked off. And it provided the intro what the audience would be getting: Some stop start, fast, slow and all of that packed into 2:00 smashers delivered by the very extrovert stage persona of the singer.
Doing a bit of an Sméagol-crawl from the stage into the audience (and the rathere open space in front of the stage) he even managed to scare off a young lady that came to see the Pears!
Ok, you can see how someone with a Descendents mind could like them and that without even a scent of copycat style. It was no surprise to see a Milo-Tattoo on the guitarist and see at least 5 people with Descendents shirts in the audience.
The one thing though that stood out for me was that whilst they had all of these variations and also from a mu-sick-al style not a singular sound (which on the one side is a positive rating) they also felt somehow undecided or at least instilled that thinking in me (which is the non-positive side of that same coin). In the end that back-and-forth between Hardcore and melodic Punk Rock somehow gave an itchy feeling.
The other odd thing was that it was damn fuckin hot, a rather small audience downstairs (they would have worked better upstairs on the smaller stage and with the smaller room) and a band that seemed exhausted – thus it never clicked between those on stage and the few in front of the stage.
And that is how the finished, no encore. No more than 40 minutes.
I give them credit and i will try to see them again, if i then still have that itchy feeling than they are not for me – not a fail yet!
And that is indeed why you have to go out and see bands – sometimes it is for that itch!
Now, that somehow was an odd setting: M.D.C. had been on hiatus after 1995 for some time, with small come back tours – but largely disappeared from the radar. D.O.A. conducted their farewell tour in 2013 and Joey did some acoustic follow up but wanted to concentrate on his ambitions to turn politics to the better in his home community.
That said he was not elected in the 2016 by-election for his local district:
Coquitlam-Burke Mountain By-Election 2016
Tough it was quoted as a success (+8% vs. the previous election for the BC Green Party) but seem to have led him to reconsider how he may marry politics and mu-sick:
And thus a packed Hafenklang awaited old heroes paired with some young guns and – whisper, whisper – a load of rather old songs.
First off where M.D.C. with two old men and two young guns … and indeed they picked up where they left it ca. early 80s: bumpy and hectic hardcore, short and to the point on the lyrics.
From a mu-sick-al perspective sure neither polished nor puuuurfect but hey – that is grass roots punk rock and M.D.C. have been exactly that for of all their existence.
What did strike though was the power that radiated from the songs and the delivery: Simple, honest and true.
And after the show Dave was by no means short to praise Hamburg and say thank you to the audience (which included some who did sing to almost every song) and to step down from the stage to thank a punk in a wheelchair for coming out to the show.
Next on D.O.A. and they took the stage like this:
Yes, indeed D.O.A.: Joey (sturdy frame and 60 years of age) with two young fellows (bearded Canadians with a body like a seal as the bass player pointed out). Extra bonus to the drummer for the Adam & The Ants shirt – he already caught our eyes when we walked up the Hafenklang).
Where M.D.C. pushed out 30something songs in 45 minutes D.O.A. where up for a smaller sample of lengthier old stuff:
D.O.A. – Set List (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 20.07.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
Some of my favourite songs where omitted on first glance but i did not lodge a complaint, D.O.A. returning to the early 80s was great in itself.
And they took it hard and fast, less melodic than other shows i had seen before.
And they not only hate me, they also told me to fuck myself (as i am employed by a big corporation).
D.O.A. in best style and definitely back in early 80s territory by all counts. And what seemed a rather short set was just a short set list. They had fun for more, though sweat was already dripping from the ceiling (no surprise given 30+ degrees outside which are indeed rare in Hamburg, down at the harbour).
And to put icing on the cake (or, in D.O.A. terms, to put icing into the rink) they added just another encore with one of the all time faves: “Full Metal Jackoff” was served in a shortened version. Well done. I do prefer the longer version though and with Jello – so here it is:
It is just a class effort that forever will stand the test of time (from “wall street or crack dealer avenue” to “On the Washington D.C. Beltway around and around I go, In a black van with no windows and a chimney puffing smoke”) and deserves it’s 14 minutes!
And with that D.O.A. waved goodbye and resorted to selling merch and chit-chat with the audience. I did the same until i was summoned into a cab for a ride home. Great night, great people around but let’s be frank: Average age of the audience was near 50, only 10 years younger than eg. Dave MDC or Joey DOA. The sheer lack of young folks was very very apparent that night – are M.D.C. and D.O.A. already obscure old farts?
And the politics of Joey? He now nicely combines green politics and music as in D.O.A. and puts out meaningful (as in for his local community) stuff like this:
The good folks at the Hafenklang are just good folks – not only the opportunity for a K-Town warm up is being used year-on-year but this year they also got a bit of a wind down show together, initially themed more “Oi!” – from France Rixe and from the US No Time (a current favourite with some fellow folks in Hamburg and big time with my humble self).
Ahead of the show the Hafenklang announced that Protester and Red Death where to join too (without raising the bargain ticket price of 7€) because of them needing to travel through Hamburg anyway to finish their EU tour.
And Protester gave it a go: Wow, just another change – They lost their bass player en-route from K-Town and the singer took bass duties. Some in the audience made jokes like “… he needed to fly home, school restarts” but these where odd jokes actually! Or?
They kicked off like this:
Ok, also sans that bass player quite some neat sound. They looked no way tired and the guy on guitar yet again did a stunning job. They played a handful of songs and where quite thankful for yet another stage time at the Hafenklang. They also lowered the price tag for their LP from 15€ to 12€ and that was just another bargain on that day.
And as Protester where there sure that other band with 2/4th of Protester was there too and with little change Red Death kicked off:
A wee bit more to the metal side of things compared to Thursday but still a tight set and with some great enjoyment on stage – less so in front of said stage as a) not too many people did show up on this lovely Sunday evening and b) the OI! contingent present was rather waiting outside to see Rixe and No Time (and maybe c) even where taken by surprise by the two late additions). Never mind, that combination of Protester and Red Death being almost one touring band is a neat idea indeed.
Red Death (Hamburg, Hafenklang, 19.06.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
And that did lead into the proposed setting, Rixe from France (with Wattie from Lions Law on bass) and No Time from Pittsburgh, PA (as in the US of A) were to kick some ass! And it was for Rixe to kick the audience into a complete reset of sound:
Old style Oi! with french vocals, so hard to make out what the actually sing about (as i just do not speak no fucking french). No to bad but also not too driving – think “Chaos en France” 1984ish – and in stark contrast to the two predecessors on stage. But sturdy, indeed sturdy.
They got their fair share of applause from the now more crowed space in front of the stage and they sure set a great marker in the more traditional Oi! sphere.
Them having played K-Town H/C Fest is just a cool confirmation that people do love and accept the wide range of good music in our little genre of the overall genre of rock mu-sick.
And then it was time for No Time, eagerly awaited by many. Me mates Frosch and Markus where so eager that they actually did drive up to Kiel to see them on the previous Tuesday (in front of less than 30 people, though tally of the number people at the Schaubude in Kiel is not fully confirmed). Other members of the audience went as far as ensuring to wear Blitz gear, something that the singer of No Time did mimic.
And they blasted into their set as follows:
Wow – from the first chords we where in a different league. Melodic but hard, tight and full front assault on the audience! One of the quotes if saw on them was “This stomp-feast is loaded with constant power-chords, rock-fused guitar leads, driving bass and drums and throaty vocal grunts.” Oh boy, that is indeed so true!
No Time (Hamburg, Hafenklang, 19.06.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
And a great setting on stage: Left a beard and long hair on guitar, next a bald bass player, a normal dude on drums and a guitar on the right again bold and tattooed to the max. And fronted by someone who prior (and after) to the show is mild mannered normal guy and with the first chord turns into an aggressive beast and bellows out the quite harsh lyrics.
Stunning, just stunning. And really delivered on a high level of mu-sick-al quality. And you could also sense that some in the audience where already in possession of their LP, as many did sing-a-long with No Time and had their fists in the air.
When they entered into their secret hit “Anti-Social” there was no more holding back – just listen to the folks getting aroused:
Hit, Hit, Hit! Now listen and repeat!
I'm giving up on today
Aint nothing gonna go my way
Damned if I do, damned if I don't
You say it's gonna get better, it fucking won't
I just wanna be left alone
I'd be better off just staying at home
Even the simplest things seem so involved
I just wanna say fuck it all
I'm anti-social
Just stay away
I'm anti-social
Anti-social today
Can't get this monkey off my back
I'm a loose cannon, about to snap
There's too much pressure, too much stress
My life's in shambles, my heads a mess
Got no hope, I'm at the end of my rope
The week just started and I'm already broke
Walk down the street with violent thoughts in my head
Today the only thing I'm seeing is red
I'm anti-social today
Just puuuuurfect!
No Time (Hamburg, Hafenklang, 19.06.2016 (c) gehkacken.de)
The only odd thing was that they only perfected like 13 (or 14) songs for the tour (and i wonder if they have more) and where done quite quickly. People would have loved more, and then some. So what they got was a nice “Fuck You”:
… and sure thing a Blitz cover to finish the set off:
Did the kids feel alright? Yes they did! Did some one die that night? Nope. Was it razor sharp? Indeed! So all in all a perfect Sunday that closed off what started on Thursday and what gave Hamburg as much exposure to the content of the K-Town H/C Festival as possible. Next we will see all US bands that play Rebellion in Blackpool, also playing left and right of that date in Hamburg (if only JFA would do the same).
K-TOWN WIND DOWN SHOPPING SPREE (c) gehkacken.de
And for many folks the night ended with some serious shopping, No Time LP’s went the bucket full and also Protester did sell some more. T-Shirts did not sell that well as the designs where – in my and some other views – imperfect.
But hey, yet again we are complaining on a first world problem i guess. We got perfect life music delivered by bands who love it, live it and enjoy it – what else do we want? Thanks again to Hafenklang for making it happen twice this year, much appreciated!
