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Tag: Indra

  • … a trail of scorched earth? No, CMI simply ticked off all of my favorite places!

    … a trail of scorched earth? No, CMI simply ticked off all of my favorite places!

    CMI have been criss-crossing central Europe for a month now and already played in support for Slapshot at the Knust (a show i choose to let go, for various reasons). They had a couple of days free prior to a little festival and a final show, i believe that one was moved to Düsseldorf.

    Sam offered a matching evening at the Indra and CMI took it, within that managing to grace Hamburg 4 times between October 23 and July 25 at 4 different places:

    First Monkeys (surprising everyone), then Hafenklang (bringing the danger back into Punk), followed by the Knust (conquering a larger stage) and finally now at the Indra.

    For a peaceful and quiet Thursday evening.

    And peaceful it was, ask Oliver fucking Kahn:

    Bäm! All the ingredients i was looking for, hard, heavy and offensive. And whilst the twin guitar, bass and drums almost remained fixed and in the backdrop it was Adam who roamed back and forth and engaged (as opposed to confronted) the lot.

    CMI (Indra, Hamburg, 10.07.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    From the start they had people dancing and it was without the big male macho style (though lacking the female contingent) – just absorbing the energy down from the stage and transforming it.

    A mate noted: “I love when they play love songs“. And right he was!

    The delivery and the sound was near perfect and their almost unique style has sharped over the last two years. And for whats it worth, they are a peoples band, interacting with the lot, loving to the feedback and act as one.

    CMI (Indra, Hamburg, 10.07.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    Bonus: Adam offered non-nonsense advisory between the songs and definitely was not talking cloudy bullshit but with street credibility.

    At the end Adam was all sweaty (as much as the lot) and lifted his lovely Blueberry shirt and they finished the set off with this banger:

    Summing it up i guess for me this was the tightest (and longest) CMI set i saw in Hamburg so far. A wee bit of salt in it was that only ~120 folks attended and thus it was not a full house.

    Somewhat understandable, as they just had a much bigger audience at the Knust weeks before. But audience reception was positive, the pit was present and pit movements where violently peaceful.

    At the merch there was no sign of fresh vinyl, if you are still lacking CMI records remember that you can score some from our local trusted dealer Sounds Of Subterrania!

    On top of that we got to learn that the drummer on this tour also plays in Skinhead and that they aim to come to Europe next year – that’ll be a class one.

    Check Skinhead out yerself – i am desperately waiting for that LP to physically appear:

    Beautiful guitar and same onslaught like CMI. And same great style of non-nonsense lyrics.

    Perfect evening, perfect show in a cozy setting. Surrounded by friendly folks. This can be repeated anytime soon, though i would believe i got to wait for next summer.

    I’ll be waiting in awe now to learn what location in Hamburg CMI will grace next year.

    Most likely i’ll be there. Will you? Will a local band be brave enough to play support?

    Will the burn bridges with another club?

    Spread yer bets!

  • … up, down, up and further up: FCSP Season End and The Spitfires at the Indra!

    … up, down, up and further up: FCSP Season End and The Spitfires at the Indra!

    It was supposed to be a long and glorious day, footie followed by a show, but in fact footie turned out to be a wee bit a downer.

    The magical FCSP had a glorious “run” in the 1st flight following 2nd league championship and promotion. At least when you put it into perspective, give it financial capabilities or value of the player rooster. Or Bundesliga experience of the rooster.

    How ever people looked at it, they came to the conclusion that FCSP will go down again. In reality only the first 4 games FCSP stayed on a relegation place and since November 2024 they did not even were down to the 16th, which would be relegation games vs. someone from the 2nd league.

    Comes May 2025 and with a tough 2:2 away in Frankfurt they cemented the lead to place 16: 3 points, 13 goals. Almost safe.

    FC St. Pauli – VfL Bochum (Millerntor, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    But the final home game vs. VfL Bochum did not turn into a glorious finish of the season, it turned into a sour summer kick without energy, without winning 1:1’s and without a score – like so many other games. 2nd best defense in the league, by far the worst offense (if counted in scored goals only).

    But, ending 14th is a great season result. Lets see what the club is able to do in the transfer season and lets hope that key personnel can be kept, up to and including the coach.

    No clue why many others in the stadium wanted to party directly after the game on the pitch, for me and me mates around me it was a too poor finish to be cheerful.

    So the only way to cheer us up was a quick bite prior to the short stroll over to the Indra. To an extend it did work…

    … and got us early to the Indra, doors still closed. Many others arrived early too, many being fellow FCSP Fans that attended the game.

    It was unfortunately still some time until the reformed Spitfires would take the stage, so it was chatting and sipping. And fortunately the show was a birthday show for Sam (who runs the Indra and the Monkeys), so the sipping part was supported by some gracious free beers.

    The Spitfires took the stage around 21:45 and faced a ready for the action audience. The original band was busy from 2012 to 2022, when they called it a day. It was largely due to Covid and falling out with they record company as this got them deprived of the financials to keep a touring band (not able to tour) afloat.

    Comes 2025 and Billy Sullivan, who kept a solo act running, is back with a new, reformed, 4 piece outfit. And back in Hamburg, where they played and recorded a couple of times.

    The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    It ain’t necessarily my mu-sick-al niche but you can see that Billy (like so many others in the UK) grew up with loads of Mod and Punk references. And taking that into a slick combination of harmonies, storytelling and – my guess – what some people call “Brit Pop“.

    Also throw in some undercurrent of Reggae and Ska and you are bang onto their turf. And that one they delivered with precision, to the point and – to widen the sound – with some organ and brass coming from the computer.

    The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
    (c) gehkacken.de 2025

    Specifically the 2nd guitar added some nice soundscapes to their live sound, it gave many songs both depth and something listen up to. Anyway, the overall sound was almost full, perfect and without any sort of miss.

    I guess they played for the length of a full football game (like in 90 minutes) and finished the set of with this one:

    And, frank, they convinced me – that was great entertainment in the purest sense. And whilst i nodded to it, large parts of the audience danced to it. And the Mods in the first row even … had the old classic “We are the Mods, we are the Mods, we are we are we are the Mods” out.

    It definitely did more then cheering the day up, it made it end on a high. I guess Sam got himself a nice Birthday present there, well deserved.

    The other birthday boy, also a Spitfire but of Stevens make, was also happy though now officially can be called an old man. But as much as we love him, he loves us back.

    After the long day i called it a day rather early than late, also because of my ride home nowadays is a wee bit longer.

    But i did that happy and with a smile. As #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic and #thereaintnuthinbetterthanstayinginthetopflight.

  • … Spitfire Stevens & Nasser Hund: All local, all in!

    … Spitfire Stevens & Nasser Hund: All local, all in!

    This was to happen ages ago at the Molotow but was pulled during the end of Covid due to lack of advanced tickets sold if i am not mistaken. So both bands took it down the Große Freiheit to the Indra where they double headlined a “local for the locals” show.

    First on Spitfire Stevens with their unique Spit Punk. I somehow sensed they where somewhat nervous and frank the first couple of songs where not fully on the mark. Here is one example, Here And Back Again from their 2017 10″ (still the coolest format around):

    The more they played, the more self assured they got – also because they got their share of support from the audience (that was anyway 100% local friends). Still, at some times i had the feeling that especially the drummer drifted away (either into his own world or into sleep).

    Spitfire Stevens (Indra, Hamburg, 31.03.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)

    Towards the 2nd half of the set they where in full swing, only the sound and light was not fully optimal (light actually was not ok at all but as far as i understood nobody was really looking after it anyway).

    They also inserted something untypical that was meant as a nod to Sonny Vincent – much appreciated actually:

    Whilst Spitfire Stevens are sure not the most customer (consumer?) engaging entity and their sound is also not too much ear pleasing for the average Tom, Dick or Harry i stay by the fact that they have something. On this occasion though it did not shine through all the time, but i was more than happy to see Luke and his comrades again on stage.

    With a quick changeover Nasser Hund took the stage and Arne strummed them with his signature bass sound into Alle Erbsen Sind Gezählt:

    Is your view blurry? Get new glasses… Not. My bad, i somehow de-focused that song.

    From the start their songs where more upbeat and had more speed than Spitfire Stevens. And where Spitfire Stevens cover a wide spectrum, Nasser Hund nail it down as perfect Power Pop with a deep grounding in Punk Rock.

    Plus: Almost all of their songs feature great storytelling and all of their lyrics are worth to listen into.

    Nasser Hund (Indra, Hamburg, 31.03.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)

    In addition all three are near perfect musicians on their instruments, allowing them to also throw in random differences (licks, breaks, chords – you name it) that give the songs so much more life on stage.

    Here a perfect live version of Sie Lächeln Nur Auf Fotos:

    Throughout the set they even enlisted the big voice of Barbro (Demolition Girls) to give two songs some extra Chorus-umpf, not sure if it was rehearsed or an on the spot idea. But it gave the whole presentation some additional and welcome strength – maybe an idea that can be extend further?

    They got loads of applause and had many smiling faces in front of the stage, though further back the Indra felt a wee bit empty.

    But good to see that local bands still get locals out and that it does not always have to be a support slot. Around midnight it was over and thus time for gentle stroll home, as #nineinarow was waiting around noon on Saturday.

    Great entertainment surrounded by friends. Perfect setting and another show where i stayed away from booze – works!