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Tag: Hard-Ons

  • … back in time to be blasted: Yard Bomb, Guitar Wolf and Hard-Ons w/ Jerry A!

    … back in time to be blasted: Yard Bomb, Guitar Wolf and Hard-Ons w/ Jerry A!

    When the show was announced i was a wee bit in tears, as i was to be up North in our 2nd home. But the love of me life, knowing my desires all too well, agreed to scoot home a day earlier, despite the great weather up there.

    Yard Bomb kicked it off to an already well attended (but not yet filled in front of the stage) Hafenklang. Why the heck they choose to give the smoke machine a full bloom i have no clue but it completely ruined the visual for me.

    Yard Bomb (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 02.06.2026)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2026

    Still, their American, Californican and Olschooligan approach to H/C is very relevant and i guess there is no other band from say … Schleswig-Holstein, that does it that good.

    They choose to bite the audience a wee bit, wasted a bit of time with banter and finished their short & crisp set like this:

    Always great too see & listen to, always a bit different (this time round i would have loved the guitar to sound more heavy, more distorted) but by and large simply a great band.

    Why there are still people without their 12″ is beyond believe to me, whilst online sold out the last few copies are sold at gigs – do it like me mate Frank, get this beauty without hesitation!

    Next the leather clad jet rockers from 東京都. Another visit from Japan at the Hafenklang, only a couple of days after The 50 Kaitenz took it by storm (and made a shitload of folks happy & fans).

    Guitar Wolf had the room packed and … nuthin’ happened. They needed their Intro mu-sick and somewhat playing that through the PA was a problem. Once on stage, it took the guitar plenty of time to get the amp going. And then they bursted into … a lengthy and chaotic intro themselves.

    I take it was show and their approach to showmanship but for me it was rather just that … show.

    When they finally kicked into their first song it sounded like this:

    Sure they where wild, sure they where loud (the young rhythm section rather than the guitar) and sure they can blast. And, yes, they did not make use of the smoke machine thankfully!

    In good moments it was fast forward garage trash rock with a capital R, in bad moments it was too much show and too little substance to me, including ritualized stage dive and a lengthy feedback orgy with a “surprise” select from the audience.

    Guitar Wolf (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 02.06.2026)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2026

    For me it simply did not make click in the same way as with the lads from Osaka, within the audience though was a large fan base who all seemed to enjoy it right-away. As perfect contrast point to both Yard Bomb and the Hard-Ons it was though spot on, so i will not complain at all.

    The headliner was much awaited … and finally came about, though apparently a bit jet lagged as this was the first show in their North-European and Scandinavian run.

    Last year Hard-Ons and Jerry already collaborated and created quite some interest with the resulting 7″:

    It sound almost as good as the collaboration Jerry did with them Spaniards under the moniker Black Bacon, and outlook of more like that with the Hard-Ons both gave hope and, frank, also some doubts. How would this work live?

    Other than the jet rockers from Tokyo sticking to their leather the Hard-Ons quickly dropped the shirts after their Intro and … took the lot (and i take Jerry too to an extend) by storm.

    Hard-Ons w/ Jerry A (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 02.06.2026)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2026

    I am not sure if they where able to rehearse together in person prior to the Hamburg show, my guess would be that they only did it remote. To that extend they asked for forgiving, as most of the songs played where played live & on stage for the first time.

    My high hopes rather than doubts where matched and my feeling was that both the packed Hafenklang and me mates around did dig it.

    It is a pity that the LP that should come out of this collaboration is not yet available and the band itself has not real clue when pressing & distribution will happen. Some of these songs indeed have something special, be it more on the pop side (like Radio ready) or even almost spherical.

    They are sure way off the earlier treasured Hard-Ons singles that we greedy #recordcollectorsarepretentiousarseholes all collected in the later part of the 1980’s but boy, they are now venturing much broader than what i would have guessed (but it still offers the chance to refer back to one of me lovelist Hard-Ons songs anyway).

    Great set, almost 100% together and giving indeed an urge to score that LP once it is out. The audience was seemingly enthusiastic too and dancing a lot, quite a surprise to me.

    Great evening again at the trusted Hafenklang and that Hard-Ons-with-Jerry-A thingy was in hindsight a positive surprise (as they matched my hopes indeed).

    As it was late and i was already somewhat tired i scooted home and within that made sure that a mate gets home safely too, though our conversation about stage uniforms and Douglas Adams must have irritated the other passengers on public transport somewhat.

    But hey, do we care? Off course we do!

  • … surf pop the metal way: Welcome back Hard-Ons!

    … surf pop the metal way: Welcome back Hard-Ons!

    It has been a while that the Hard-Ons graced these shores, i can’t even recall when and where i did see them in the 90s the last time. But they stayed forever in my books as one of the bands that had an almost endless stream of great singles with excellent covers. Still, sometime after Yummy (their 1990 effort) they somehow lost me from a record perspective (i still got more than 10 records by them though) and some time later also from a live perspective.

    Nevertheless it was worth it to give them yet another chance, specifically as they now are a 4 piece and they have Keish solely on vocal duties whilst new recruit Murray on drums.

    The support slot on this warm and sunny Wednesday (that had Germany exiting the pretty useless 2018 FIFA WC vs. South-Korea) was for locals Bolanow Brawl and they took it with pride.

    Bolanow Brawl (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 27.06.2018) (c) gehkacken.de)

    I do not necessarily dig them but they have grown  quite a bit: They have a very tight sound and absolute excellent dual guitar play (and on top great whoooa-background vocals). But the thing that keeps me off is something like an undercurrent and that keeps being both that they sound like something i heard before and that their songs tend to be too complex and too long.

    That second thing was actually a shared observation with a fellow friend in the audience who has a sufficiently successful career in a band so seems to be in the know much more than me when it comes to debunking mu-sick. But what they do they do very well, so i stayed on through the set (whilst many others enjoyed beer and sun outside).

    Next on the Hard-Ons, now fronting about 75 people in a rather empty Hafenklang. I observed some initial surprised faces and heard some comments about the 4-piece thing, by the looks many people did not keep up to date with the ins- and outs of the Hard-Ons (breakup 1994, return 1998 without Keish and then 2016 the final return of Keish to from the 4-piece). But down-under is far away so that somehow comes natural.

    Hard-Ons (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 27.06.2018) (c) gehkacken.de)

    And the Hard-Ons gave all that you would expect: Loads of power, loads of metal infused whatever (someone on the internet (damn internet, never forgets) called it once “… a mix of punk, pop, and metal with dashes of power pop, psychedelic rock, thrashy metal, and a healthy dose of humor“). In the initial part of the set it was a wee bit too much of that long haired guitar work (though Peter Black is a terrible great guitar player and Murray/Ray are a terrible great driving backline).

    There where also some fun moments, specifically as the well intended bad joke about Germany going out was met with sheer ignorance by the audience. On top i also liked that after 3 songs everyone but Keish uniformly took their shirt off to sweat it really out. And sweating they did.

    And then came overtime and they gave the audience the choice. Some requests where denied (“Sorry Mate, we did not practice that one…“) others where met with a smile (and a quick on-stage rehearsal of the chords). And within that, they also played one of my loveliest songs:

    And yes, for me they still have it and as a 4 piece they actually have it even more. The only item to complain about was that guitar, bass and drum where quite loud and Keish was quite not loud enough. But i guess that comes natural when the dominant force is the strings.

    And how did that one sound in the 90s – here is some MTV history for ya:

    In the end they played like 90 minutes i guess and they put in all i want from a touring band: Energy, humor, humbleness and both listening to the audience and playing for themselves. No complaint here. I think i will now check out they more recent records too.

    Perfect Wednesday out at my local club down the road and more to come in July (let’s see what happens to the Adolescents show given the sad news of Steve Soto having passed away).