Showreviews galore – today I have to write about at least some of the shows I saw last week cause I feel like I haven’t yet digested them, like not really savouring the great bands I’ve seen.
Oh – and thanks for liking my “Too fucked to drink” mix so much, you’re almost exceeding my bandwidth!
After having a great night djing at SOPHISTICATED BOOM BOOM on Friday, a week ago – although we missed our fellow dj Discobert 🙁 – I went late to the Radio Z Fest that was on Saturday. It’s an annual benefit party for that independent radio station. I arrived just in time to chat a little and then see HANIN ELIAS, the cool diva of ATARI TEENAGE RIOT. I had seen her a couple of times before, and what was new this time was that she had two huge bass and guitar players with her, both pretty much the rock macho cliche with which they only broke when the guitar player kind of smooched the bass player. Well, there’s a thin line for me if it comes to fetish style but actually I liked the bass guy with his latex gauntlet and lipstick letters smeared over his bare torso. Hanin of course was the sexy queen of the night. She wore a white dress, deconstructing the innocence (which usually is associated with that) pretty well – after a wild show with pouring liters of water over herself and wallowing on the floor that dress sure was anything but clean and her tights were torn and all. Musically it was too quiet through half of the set, but when the sound was turned up, it was cool. I hadn’t listened to her new album yet, but live she sounds more dark wave now. (Absolutely no surprise that THE VANISHING ended up on her label, FATAL.) It’s hard with these halfplayback shows, especially if you haven’t someone doing the sound who knows your music, but it worked. I like Hanins strong women sex show that you might compare with Peaches’ – but Hanin doesn’t need plastic dildos on stage, she uses whatever is there, like bottles ‘ejaculating’ water when she sticks them between her thighs to open them one-handed.
Next day, Sunday, DAT POLITICS played at K4 and it was pretty disappointing that only nine people showed up. It’s so rare that we get the chance to have one of those Tigerbeat6-style punky electronic bands in town, and it might be even more rare that electronic artists are pushing boundaries AND are fun to watch. DAT Politics destroyed any cliche of the boring laptop artist, they are an awesome live band although they even had three laptops. They also played some drum pad thing, sang a lot, and I loved that shoulder strap keyboard. Cutest cruelest music ever. Soundwise they are the equivalent to Happy Tree Friends, cute pets being slaughtered with chainsaws or something.
On Monday I also stopped by at a show, Durango 95 and Dean Dirg, but I missed Dean Dirg and was too tired to give Durangos old school hardcorepunk more than a rhythmical nodding from back at the bar where I sat with a friend, feeling tired and old. Still it was a nice night.
Tuesday was a pretty busy day for me because some details about the Fall show on Monday had to be sorted out, and I still try to make a Hidden Camera + Sluts Of Trust show possible in December, and having to clear out half of a room to fit enough matresses for the DAUGHTERS in, didn’t make it less stressful. What really got on my nerves then was that my bass amp was gone when we wanted to practice one last time that evening (next day Cris and me played support for Lightning Bolt in Munich). That’s what sucks about shared practising rooms. After calling a couple of people a couple of times I found out who had it and he promised to bring it back before we had to leave for Munich on the next day. Grrrrh!
THE PHANTOM LIMBS and the DAUGHTERS played at K4 that night, a show I was really looking forward to, cause it combined what I expected to be two excellent show bands. Phantom Limbs arrived pretty late because of heavy traffic and a bad routing: they came from Budapest that day. I hate it if bands don’t have the time to really arrive, get calm, get something to eat and all. Nevertheless they played a nice gig. The singer herded the kind of coy audience back with his wild gesturing and dancing. His snotty way of singing reminded me a bit of Jesus Lizard’s David Yow. Maybe it’s due to that association that I felt like at some point of the show the instrumental part of the music lacked drive. They played a bit too long. Although I really like their organ, the music somehow was too wall-of-sound-ish for my taste; there could have been more diversity – but don’t get me wrong: only to watch their singer was worth every minute of the show! I love these Feederz-Blurt-oh-classic-gentlemen-going-wild shows!
I stop here and destroy all possible thoughts about how cool it must be to put up shows by telling you about the other side: on this nice Sunday afternoon I have to meet with some friends now to clean up our venue, scrub floors and all. 😛
More about DAUGHTERS, LIGHTNING BOLT and TREND tonight.