On the mu-sick-al side 2023 was back to normal, the live circuit does work again, though clubs still suffer – namely from the cost side (be it staff cost, tour cost or heating/electricity/rent).
And how many shows did i get to?
| # of shows | # of bands | averange bands per show | |
| Hafenklang | 16 | 35 | 2 |
| Monkeys | 8 | 18 | 2 |
| Knust | 3 | 8 | 3 |
| MS Hedi | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Indra | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Marias Ballroom | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Logo | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Komet | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 34 | 74 | 2 |
34 Shows with 74 Bands, so on average 2 Bands per night and 3 shows a month. And the places i prefer are clearly visible, eh? Biggest holiday driven misses where the Sounds Of Subterrania 25th anniversary end of May at the Hafenklang and sure – as almost every year – the Get Lost Fest 2023 with great bands like Split System. Both collided with time out at our 2nd home up north.
And the best set?
The French contingent definitely made the shortlist: Be it Claimed Choice in an almost empty Monkeys, be it Cran again at the Monkeys, be it Oi! Boys upstairs at the Hafenklang or 1984 supporting the Rejects at the Monkeys. Throw Home Front into it too, they are sort of French being from Canaduh.
The biggest surprises?
Kahuna Surfers from sunny Sweden, playing Hamburg back-to-back in miserable weather. Dead Years and their support stint for Red Dons. And sure Shitshow and their support for Civic. All Hafenklang (with the exception of the boat ride on the MS Hedi with the Kahuna Surfers). And, late in the year, the surprise return of the Rubbermaids at the Knust.
So – Show of the year? The following shows for me where near perfect, for a variety of reasons:
Finally i got to see the Travoltas at the Monkey, i was yearning for that one for years. Youth Of Altona and D.I. at the Hafenklang kept me glued in the club with me friends until the wee of the night. The Razors warming up for Rebellion at the Knust was paired with the best, tightest, longest, funniest etc set Wonk Unit ever delivered in Hamburg:
This was the best ever show you gave the Hamburg lot! It felt like a double album, gatefold cover damn fucking Punk Rock Opera without any break.
Sailing the mighty river Elbe on the tiny vessel M/S Hedi and experiencing … almost a Buttocks return thanks to Bad Job Boys. And sure Hola Ghost from sunny Denmark setting the Knust on fire.
Loads of words. Whats does it condense to? Best set/surprise: Home Front. Best show: Youth Of Altona and D.I.
On the book front i managed to slightly up the reading:
| # of books | # of pages | #of days | |
| Crime | 52 | 19.053 | 323 |
| Music | 4 | 1.827 | 14 |
| History | 1 | 463 | 9 |
| SciFi | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 | 21.343 |
That is more books (and pages) read than in 2022, the average page count per day in 2023 is up towards 89 pages.
Yet again the list is topped by the Crime series of the Polar Verlag (10 books), followed by the stuff that Thomas Wörtche orchestrates for Suhrkamp (6 books) and beyond that a wide spread.
Book of the year 2023? Easy, that was James Kestrel – Fünf Winter (Suhrkamp, 2023) and a book that painfully reminded me how much i miss the Hard Case Crime Series of Rotbuch these days. Runner up just by a short margin was the Jack Laidlaw Trilogy by William McIlvanney (that i finally got in and read in sequence, actually not new books published in 2023).
Also these books provided definite reading and brain cinema pleasure: J. Todd Scott – Weisse Sonne (Polar Verlag, 2023), Walter Mosley – Blood Groove (Ars Vivendi, 2022), S.A. Cosby – My Darkest Prayer (Ars Vivendi, 2023) and William Boyle – Shoot The Moonlight Out (Polar Verlag, 2023). Highly recommended if your are into my genre.
And on the side of buying vinyl and listening pleasure? Discogs tells me i added 69 records in 2023, so let’s go by that list:
Top 5, in no particular order:
1991 (Man … or Astro-Man?): Surf is my other love, next to Hardcore & Punk Rock. And MoAM are one of the coolest shits around. And it is quite hopeless to get all of their stuff (and variants). Discogs lists 66 releases and tells me i have 38 of them, not too bad.
This basically was their return 7″, it came out in 2021 but i only ever got it in 2023. It’s from Chunklet Industries and hopefully marks the return of MoAM (and hopefully to Europe too). Check out 1991, a beauty of a song that has all the ingredients i yearn for.
Taken by Force (Civic): A killer LP from down under, no more no less. On heavy rotation in the household. Carrying most likely the most played song on my stereo with Born In The Heat. This is how modern Punk Rock should sound, eh?
And a band that makes me mate Frosch travelling Europe … that one must be a good one!
S/T (Complete Loss): Now this is funny – they convinced me with their set at MOi!n It’s Hamburg 2022 and had the record fresh of the press. Still i did not buy it on the spot but only in 2023. And it is a mighty slab, more H/C than Oi! if you ask me and right up the alley so many bands from the US are now looking to master.
Complete Loss out of Dülmen have done so, a while ago! Best song: Needle Park!
At The Earth’s Core (The Haermorrhoids): Home town heroes that should hit it big. Instead they still dwell in tiny cellars. This is the most grown up, out of country record from Hamburg by far and by many many years.
If this would be on Fat Wreck it would sell … a lot more. They will do an Easter Tour in 2024, do not miss them. Try Captain Isolation for a start!
Games Of Power (Home Front): There once was a time where music was not sliced’n’diced into zillions of cupboards. Home Front nicely remind of it to the extend that is may be blatant obvious. Sure do i have Joy Division, New Order and other more electronic stuff in my collection – all next to Punk, New Wave and Neue Musik. All seemed possible at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s.
This time around they have manifested a collection of Post Punk anthems that act as a sonic looking-glass reflecting all of the textures of this genre. Case in point, not too many bands nowadays remember when Post Punk 12 inches were the go-to dance music for the 80s club kids in the UK. Straight up, their title track “Games of Power” shows us all that Dance Music comes in many forms, and that’s why this is one of my favorite songs of the year. (CVLT Nation) Home Front have managed to fix truth to the beautiful and borderline mythical thread-needle moment in which punk, new wave, pop, indie and rock and roll all descend upon a single source. We may have only dreamed that Tears for Fears might have been going to see GBH at the weekend or that Annie Lennox spent her evening sewing Crass patches to her Wrangler Blue Bell jacket, but Home Front have rang the dinner triangle for us all to feast. (J. Falco)
I guess both Graeme of No Problem fame and La Vida Es un Mus (one of the most relevant, most innovative labels these days) simply sensed a void and perfectly filled it. Games Of Power has a wide range, check End Transmission or Nation out! And the best`? Live it worked even better, so much better. Stunning!
You can get your La Vida Es Un Mus or Home Front stuff at Sounds Of Subterrania, our trusted local dealer.
Whilst 2022 resulted in 3 (three!) Playlists i kept my promise and created only one, getting the numbering to match the year finally. So here are 214 songs, many new. Some old. But all hit material. Now. Or then. And most never made it big. Damn.