To be honest I was a little hesitant when being asked by my mate Frank, singer of the Bad Job Boys, if I want one of the exclusive tickets to their after game show at St. Pauli’s Millerntor stadium.
I’d already got my ticket for St. Pauli’s quarter final cup game vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf in the regular seating area Gegengerade next to Dirk, Anja and all the other friends I’m visiting home games of our FC with for the last couple of decades. Football fans are superstitious people who don’t like to change routines as this could bring bad luck…
And it was a BIG game for our FCSP: quarter final cup game against another 2nd division team they had just beaten away a couple of days ago and with a bit of luck of the draw a really good chance to play another 2nd division team in the semi-final, dream of a cup final for the very 1st time sounding pretty realistic.
Millerntor (DFB Pokal, Hamburg, 03.02.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024
Sold out stadium (as usual) and high expectations, we were in for a magic night of football. Unfortunately the team wasn’t, and instead of showing the wonderful football they’ve been playing for the majority of the last year and the first 2 games of 2024, which they had both won in a great way, they had big issues finding their way into the game.
It really didn’t help that our coach had changed the team on 3 positions including the goalie. Never change a winning team…? Let’s not get into this too much, it was just an awfully bad, boring game, and it still hurts going out on penalties after overtime in the end.
But as much as I like football I love music even more!
It got really late coming up to midnight (extra time, penalties) but despite of all the disappointment and misery on the pitch the Bad Job Boys were getting ready for their show at Separee 31.
The setlist included all songs of their debut album “Direkt Ins Gesicht” minus one plus a lot of new, more recent songs.
Generally I’m not very keen on using elitist advantages, be it fast lanes, 1st class seating, access to backstage at shows and business seats respectively VIP boxes when it comes to football.
Invitation for the cup game and Bad Job Boys after show came from Frank Otto for his Separee 31 at Millerntor stadium. Surprisingly guests at his lounge right under the stadium roof were pretty cool and down to earth, no snobs around.
That goes especially for the host himself, Frank Otto, or “the other Frank” as my mate Frank saluted him. A billionaire and his family ranked in the Top 10 of the richest families in Germany he doesn’t show off at all, instead standing outside on a winter night watching 120+ minutes of (very dull) football with a bottle of Astra beer in his hand.
He also played a big part in saving our club in 2004 providing a guarantee of €600.000 to secure the 3rd division license as well as sponsoring Viva Con Agua along with lots of others social projects.
Now it was up to the host to introduce the band and of course the band’s name Bad Job Boys summarized the game and performance of our team on this night perfectly.
The band kicked into the set with a favorite from their first album:
Other as the title suggests the song is sung in German, same as the majority of the Bad Job Boys songs. Most probably I should be very ashamed but in general I’m not the biggest fan when it comes to using the German language in music. Frank is a very close friend and he knows about my dislike. But there are quite a few exceptions to this rule and if language and words are used in a good way I’m all up for it and count some German records among my favorites.
As for the Bad Job Boys and songs like Into The Future, Nostalgie, Wahrheit or Delfine, the songwriting and Frank’s lyrics work so well that I quite often find myself humming these catchy tunes at night lately when I try to get back to sleep, they really stuck in your head.
Bad Job Boys (Separee 31, Hamburg, 03.02.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024
With their 1st live show happening a little more than 2 years ago at 1910 Weinbar at the Millerntor stadium, a friends and family gig in Covid restriction times, they’ve come quite a long way, getting better and better with every gig.
Their last shows at Goldener Salon/Hafenklang, MS Hedi (see Dirk’s review) or Astra Stube already went really well, but tonight’s gig is close to perfection from my point of view.
Frank has become a lot more confident with his singing and the band sports, very experienced musicians: Stephane on the drums and Bodo, guitar, having more than 45 years of playing in various punk bands (Buttocks, Channel Rats to name a few) under their belt are a well-oiled machine at this point in time. New Bad Job Boy Piotr on bass is fitting the band perfectly.
Here’s one of the few English songs, admittedly my absolute favorite and the fastest song of theirs:
A perfect punk song, Frank’s vocals very reminiscent of the Damned, his favorite punk band of all times.
Bad Job Boys really did a fantastic job rocking the Separee 31, all the hours of practicing are paying off. Especially as it wasn’t an easy task playing at this very late hour, following that dreadful football game.
Smiles all around, not only the handful of friends allowed to join having fun, but also Separee 31 guests who weren’t aware of them before and the “other Frank” really enjoying themselves, staying until the end of the show.
Here’s the absolute crowd fave Delfine, once again from their 1st album “Direkt ins Gesicht”:
And here’s some more pictures to prove it, the Bad Job Boys joined by the host.
Bad Job Boys (Separee 31, Hamburg, 03.02.2024 (c) gehkacken.de 2024
That wasn’t the end of the night yet as we were allowed to stay in Separee 31 until 2 am. From what I’ve heard Frank Otto likes to party on until the early hours of the morning at times, but apparently he had to catch a flight in the morning.
Some experience for sure, being one of the last leaving the stadium. We continued for a last drink at guitarist Bodo’s flat just opposite the stadium, home at 4 am, not bad for a Tuesday night.
To close this out here’s a photo of the empty Gegengerade stand looking slightly scarry with rain and fog shining in the floodlights. I love the declaration of war on the fascists. “No Football For Fascists“, ever so important in these crazy times of right wing populism, where Neo Fascists threaten to come back to power.
Standing up against fascists is something that is taken very serious at FCSP for the last 4 decades now, making us the perfect target for right wing football supporters from Rostock or Dresden e.g.
Back to the Bad Job Boys: They’re looking at a very busy 2024 ahead, with lots more shows planned, Hamburg and away, culminating in another “BJB and friends” gig on MS Hedi in October 2024.
(Report by Frosch)
PS: Thanks to me mate Frosch for this review and i agree – the game was jinxed because he did not sit next to me. Proof? Next Game vs. Fürth with him next to me was a triumphant … win!
PPS: For those who like to experience the pain … here you are