It had been a shitty last week (being off with a severe cold, luckily not Covid) and it had been an even more shitty start of the week with two loved ones being admitted to hospital. In order to get my mind focused elsewhere i decided for a full-on blast by Hellshock, despite their sound not being a 100% up my mu-sick-al alley.
Support was to be A.F.K. but they had too pull out due to an even more tragic event, Atom Atom jumped in to provide support. I was somewhat happy, as ever since i saw them supporting Nightfeeder in June i took a liking in them.
Atom Atom (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 15.10.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
They kicked off to about 60odd folks upstairs at the Hafenklang and initially it sounded … shite. Bass too loud, Guitar too silent, vocals somewhat working … it took a while until both the band and the sound guy had a better sound worked out.
But from there they took it exactly into the territory that made me dig them: Speed, umpf and some neat variations away from hammering H/C and/or D-Beat. And their biggest assets remains to be the vocals: Growls from the Guitar, anything from Screams to Opera from the Bass. Cool, ctd.
Atom Atom (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 15.10.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
By all means, check them out yourself – they are definitely worth it. On record they sound like this:
Go, see them live and buy one of these beauties!
Next Hellshock and something completely different. Hailing from Portland (OR) in the US of A aka Stumptown they have been around a while, i guess 25 odd years or so.
And what do the experts say (as i never saw them nor heard them prior)?
But what made Hellshock special then? Not unlike Atrocious Madness, Hellshock took the sense of Japanese intertextuality and applied it to vintage late 80's crust while keeping that PDX punk sound. What did i get in real?
A 5 piece, Drums/Bass centered and setting the pace, twin guitar and a singer that only ever sings with one fist in the air. To my single-minded mu-sick-al mind it sounded like mid tempo crust–doom–metal most of the time, though there where songs where they flirted with guitar overcasts (great!) and speed (nice!).
Hellshock (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 15.10.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024)
Their main asset to me was exactly in the middle, the Drummer and the Bass expertly kept it together and defined direction and pace, the Bass even throwing in a few chorus lines and – even better – some great Bass lines up and down the neck.
Most of the audience liked it, had their fist in the air and hammered down on the sound. I have to admit that they won’t convince me down their path but what they do they do very good.
And it gave my stomach the right push to overcome sorrow.
If you are into this niche, then by all means check them out:
Nice little show, perfect surrounding but all of it under the continued overshadow of the nightmare i would call “Blackmail on the Hafenklang”.
It is frustrating to see and hear people i trust, when it come to mu-sick-al choices and in running shows, spending their time on … accusations. On blackmail. On … being asked to take side in a fucking monstrosity.
Late pullouts due to … the damn internet spinning a high speed, because someone believes he/she needs to support a cause. At all cost.
At the cost of others, sure thing.
That frustration somewhat eats away parts of a good show. Damn.
Here is what the Hafenklang has to say on the matter:
Hafenklang’s comments on concert cancellations, boycotts and red lines Our stage has been used by so many artists who condemn totalitarian regimes, nationalism and fascism, and we want it to stay that way! Because all the people who work in this club stand firmly behind these ideas. We condemn war and the militarisation of society and call for a ceasefire and an end to the senseless killing of civilians. We stand in solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza and Lebanon. We also strongly criticise the right-wing government and Israeli settlement policy, naming human rights violations and war crimes committed in violation of international law, while at the same time not questioning the right of the state of Israel to exist! Emancipatory politics means to us that we have to practice what we preach and therefore, of course, we allow different opinions and endure things. „IF YOU ARE NOT WITH US, YOU ARE AGAINST US…“ HOWEVER, WE SEE THIS AS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE! Until a few weeks ago, we would not have thought it possible that we would have to publicly respond to such accusations. After all, we have just received appreciation, respect and recognition for decades of independent cultural work in the form of over 200,000 euros from 3,500 donors in just a few days. Instead of dealing with the sensible use of the money, we are currently spending immeasurable energy and measurable time dealing with hostility, ultimatums and calls for boycotts. Which are related to the war in the Middle East. Hafenklang is already on blacklists, being labelled almost simultaneously as racist, Zionist, anti-German, anti-Semitic, left-wing extremist or even fascist. BDS or its sympathisers contact booked acts and demand cancellations. A lot of pressure is being exerted in an aggressive dynamic. In the last week alone, we have received four cancellations of upcoming concerts. The Hafenklang music club is run by an association of about 60 people. In May 2024, there was an extraordinary general meeting to discuss and vote on the publication of a statement regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fully aware of the self-destructive explosivenees, especially in subcultural structures, and in view of the fact that there are a wide range of opinions and definitions internally, we decided by a majority not to publish a statement. The conflict and its history are really too complex for us to take a clear, striking and, above all, collective stand. This is blowing up in our faces now. So what is going on? First of all, the following information: a total of five bookers with their own decision-making authority worked for the club last year. So far, not a single show has been cancelled by our side. In a single case, it was decided during the planning process not to book a band that had not yet been confirmed, let alone publicly announced, due to differences in content. There is no and never has been any „instruction“ or similar from the club side that pro-Palestinian artists are not allowed to perform at Hafenklang! We do not perceive it as censorship to tell an act in advance, when asked, that we do not want anti-Semitism, undifferentiated hatred of Israel, national flags or Hamas propaganda on our stage. We do not want our stage to be used to deepen the conflicts between people. We also know that our personal opinions would make no difference in the resolution of the conflict, which is completely beyond our control. We believe that support and solidarity for the people who suffer from this conflict should not be expressed by discriminating against other people. There is no person whose life has a higher value than that of others. We want you to keep this in mind when you enter the Hafenklang From: Hafenklang Website From where i sit, they have my full support. I have spend the best part of the last 45 years now sucking up what was called Punk Rock back then and if there was one thing i learned, then it is if someone tries to force me to decide to take his standpoint ... most likely i won't.
As the saying goes:
A circle whose center is you has such a small radius that the rest of the world practically doesn't notice it.
This is also called a point of view.
The radius actually has to be exactly zero, but in practice a sufficiently small value works.
