Ach Meno – bei Jonathan Lethem schaffe ich einfach keine Lesegeschwindigkeit. Das ist schade, den wie schon bei Motherless Brooklyn steht am Ende des Lesevergnügens eine gute Geschichte.
124 Blicke durch ein Kaleidoskop machen diese Buch aus, das Visier dieses Kaleidoskops steht dabei in der Dean Street, Brooklyn, NYC. Und Jonathan Lethem gibt dem Leser ein Kaleidoskop das auch Zeitreisen kann.
Das ganze ließt sich teilweise wir eine soziologische Untersuchung. Lethem untersucht, was mit dem Viertel passiert ist, in dem er aufgewachsen ist.
Fast bildlich kann man das kollektive Gemurmel auf der Straße hören, alltägliche Vergehen und Verbrechen (zB das ritualisierte Abziehen von weißen Jugendlichen durch schwarze Kids aus den umliegenden Vierteln) kommen aufs Tablet.
Und im Hintergrund lauert ein einziger Ankläger: Brooklyn selbst.
Gentrification.
Der “Krimi” ist hier eher eine rhetorisches Setting (die offensichtliche Antwort: Eigentum ist Diebstahl).
Das Vorgehens einer Generation weißer Liberaler, die ab den späten 60er Jahren in das heruntergekommene Brooklyn zogen, wird kritisch dokumentiert. Die Motive der „Brownstoners“ schienen wohl positiv: Sie wollten den Trend der „weißen Flucht“ aus den Innenstädten umkehren, baufällige Häuser renovieren, ihre Kinder auf örtliche Schulen schicken und von einer integrierten Gemeinschaft träumen.
Wo ist das alles schiefgelaufen?
Joanthan Lethem hat eine Antwort darauf, die erschließt sich aber erst wenn der Leser durch ist und sich alle 124 Kaleidiskopbilder zu einem Blick formen.
Fiktion? Oder nur über die Jahre gut beobachtet und dann anonymisiert?
It has been a while. As much as i can recall i did not see the mighty Razors live in 2024 and Knock Off last time graced Hamburg as far back as 2019, when Razors invited them over for the annual year end proceedings.
Came Covid, came other stuff … it took indeed 6 years for them to be paired again.
And whilst a good a number of folks flew over to Glasgow to see the Ex-Pistols and a couple of other bands (some in better shape, some in not so interesting shape) about 100 folks made it to the Monkeys.
Razors kicked it off at 21:30 and at the start … had a couple of sound issues on the guitar side. After some checks and some adjustments from the mixing desk the guitar finally came alive in the wall of sound way desired.
And from there the Razors took off with quite some speed. And broad smiles.
They played an hour and a bit, had fun on stage, Klaus had fun handing out Pogoverbot and Sven was thirsty for some Holsten.
And at the end, as ever, they took the lot for a ride with Because You’re Young / Walk On. And everybody, including the small Danish contingent, chimed in.
Perfect set and showcasing that the Razors are still relevant today, owning a niche (in that little niche we all love so much) and being able to take the audience along.
Almost running late Knock Off took the stage and to my surprise there was a new bass player. I knew that they somewhat parted with their recent one, had to pull out of some gigs and got Lozz out of the mothballs for their UK gigs.
But here i saw a younger face that i could not immediately connect but was reminded that he used to play with The Agitators. As far as i understood Knock Off did not want to pull out of this short run in Europe (Antwerp, Hamburg, Essen) and thus looked for help.
Jelle stepped up, rehearsed at home and joined them in Antwerp (near his home). And came across hand-in-glove.
How did it sound? It sounded like this:
This is what they are, this is what they do: Hard hitting, words with a meaning and great choruses.
On top their recent, self released, album has a just puurfect name (and textbook definition):
lowerarchy (noun) [lo-err-ark-ee] 1. A series of people or things considered as representing progressively lower levels of a series or whole
2. The ones that don’t fit in, are frowned upon and cast aside.
That is great tongue-in-cheek to frame the position, i guess it is pretty obvious where Knock Off see themselves.
Knock Off (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025) (c) gehkacken.de 2025
And all was delivered with a smile and, as said, surprisingly tight for a band that has a bass player standing in on day two (and already has the audacity to demand “less guitar” on stage).
Goed gedaan Jelle, goed gedaan!
They played old songs, new songs and within that also my lovelisted song, most likely the best song in Punk Rock to remind people to look after themselves:
And it ain’t a love song!
Knock Off got the lot well going, entertained and into it. They skipped the walk-off-come-back for efficiency and played also for about an hour and finished off to a lot of applause.
A pity that the wander across to Hamburg so rarely, in my head they seem to get as much sympathy and love as … let’s say Gimp Fist.
Great evening, albeit too small turnout, and after the show i had a realization of sorts: Whilst Razors and Knock Off are coming from different directions, sporting different sounds a show with them playing back-to-back is like a hand-in-glove feel.
Both work together for the audience like a charm, like they where made for playing together. And i sense that there is also mutual appreciation.
Razors & Knock Off (Monkeys, Hamburg, 20.06.2025 (c) Knock Off)
I stayed way much longer than planed with some final pint(s), chats and then the long way home. And grateful for having seen two great bands.
Monday night at the Hafenklang – a band, a DJ and table-tennis. And for me and a small number of mates it was a great opportunity to see Lost Legion all the way from the South Side of Chicago.
They have done something to that little Oi! niche that maybe only ever the French have done recently: They created something unique, something of their own.
Lost Legion came over for a brief sprint across Germany and neighboring cities. Given the bands initial existence was a mere recording project and their first ever live gig was only in 2023 it was no surprise that they enlisted a local guitar for 2nd guitar – the spot was filled by Valentin (Brutal Bravo, Collaps and many more bands).
Lost Legion – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 16.06.2025 (c) gehkacken.de)
Given that they only had like 10 songs rehearsed together and ready, in the end they even tried – forced by the lot – a new one apparently just written on the way from Hanover to Hamburg.
How did it sound? It sounded reasonable well:
And great visual, i love when a band dresses for the occasion. Here it was sunglasses. And sure Ian on vocals sports the neatest business casual persona. Perfect!
From song to song they grooved even better, up to and including some veritable dance hits with a heavy dance rhythm undercurrent.
Pity only that only two handful of people made it, hence no circle pit.
Lost Legion (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 16.06.2025) (c) gehkacken.de 2025
That Lost Legion are nowhere near the normal breed of Oi! was somewhat clear at the outset. Ian also runs Foreign Legion Records and has released stuff from Fuerza Bruta, Ultra Razzia, Syndrome 81, Urban Savage, Snake Handler, Rogue Trooper and Brick Assassin next to own stuff.
His distance to that normal breed of say humpta-Oi! he voice quite neat in an interview:
I think a lot of Oi! bands claim to be talking about reality, but they all get their model of reality from Hoxton Tom or Mickey Fitz. We got our model of reality from Robert Anton Wilson and Genesis P-Orridge.
Whilst their appearance was brief, most if not all of the audience smiled big time and had a very happy look on their face.
They played their songs, they played an extra and the lot still wanted more.
And got it – here is their final song:
With that, they exceeded expectations also on the timing: They graced the stage for more than 30 minutes!
As ever when a band convinces me live i score vinyl and with Lost Legion i went ALL IN.
“Bridging Electricity” was one of my favorite songs of 2022 and i finally could score the 10″ (anyway the coolest format in the world).
Pity though that the turnout was so small, how great would it have been if they had shared the stage with Rancoeur two weeks back. But even the best booker (and trust me, both shows ran through the hands of the best booker this side of the sun) could not do that trick.
Great evening and i was able to see a band that most likely i will not see again. But hopefully will get even more output to listen to.
PS: Rancoeur T-Shirt count of the night was three. Even more an argument to get the DeLorean fixed and get us and Lost Legion back to the Hafenklang on 30.05.2025.
