I have a major in philosophy and I am working on getting a doctoral degree.
I go to a lot of punkrock/rock/hardcore/indie concerts and I take a lot of live photos. I've done this in 10 European countries and half a dozen American states. I love it.
The first thing I was looking forward to on Friday was the arrival of the new mini camcorder I bought from Amazon. I read some reviews on the internet and decided to buy a Vado HD. Especially cause it was cheaper and smaller than the competitor model Flip Ultra. Why do I need a camcorder? And one of these small models? Well, to film on tour e.g., and the thing literally fits into your pocket! Its fist use was to happen the same night.
A couple months ago I had a really bad mood going on and was looking for some totally mindless entertainment and so I started watching wrestling. Last time I did this must have been about 15+ years ago when I was watching TV all night during the holidays. And wrestling is happening on the level of a teenagers brain in the summer holidays anyway. All I ever heard about the Rock’n'Roll Wrestling Bash was great and I had seen a bunch of nice photos, so I decided that its time to go now. And I knew people that play in the band. So I bought a ticket and went to Cologne.
I’m shocked at my arrival at Gloria: There is a huge line waiting to get in. And by huge I mean all the way down the block and almost around the corner. 150 meters easily, in double lines! So first I went to a story (with a line or course!) and got a Red Bull and some chocolate cookies before I went on to enqueue myself. And then noting happened. The line moved extremely slow. I have no idea why. Oh: And on top of everything it was snowing! Waiting is just more fun that way. I didn’t look on my watch, but it must have been about 45 minutes! Towards the end all of a sudden the line moved fast, but I still don’t get what took so long. There weren’t any special security checks or anything. Well I got in finally.
I secured myself a spot right on the ringside, which also meant near the stage. I stayed there for the entire show. Opening act were Hello Bomb who put on a rocking show. After that there was a changeover and then the guys from Nitrovolt and the Wrestlingshow were alternating for the rest of the night. So we got live music and wrestling. The GTWA isn’t called Galactic Trash Wrestling Association without reason – the trash-level is really extremely high! Everything is totally over the top, the costumes, the characters, the “storylines” and so on. But its also entertaining and funny. The wrestling itself isn’t quite on WWE level, but there were some decent moves none the less. I really enjoyed that pretty much all music was played live. Including e.g. the entrance music of the wrestlers and music that was played during the matches. Well its the Rock’n'Roll Wrestling Bash after all! The sound was really good and Nitrovolt kicked ass. Rock is just built for big stages and fat sounds. It was awesome to stand directly at the ring and so see everything so close. To cite a commentary “that was the best trash I have seen in a while” – nothing else to add!
Oh: I took the Vado with me and just shot some video. Yesterday I patched this together with Windows Movie Maker. My pc doesn’t handle HD video well (its a 2 year old laptop) and I know nothing about video. so the quality is only okayis, but it will give you a good impression what the even was about:
I’m gonna join the Accelerators for two and a half weeks on their European tour! Already booked my flight to Berlin and my train ride back from Rotterdam. There are still a few days off to fill. And there is one show with Stiff little Fingers and one with Suicidal Tendencies! So far its like 7000 kilometers!
03.17: Berlin (DE) @ Wild At Heart
03.18: Opava (CZ) @ Musicjam Bar
03.19: Fulnek (CZ) @ Bar u Boba
03.20: Belgrade (SRB) @ TBA
03.21: Novi Sad (SBR) @ Crna Kuca
03.24: Bresso (MI) (IT) @ Blue Rose
03.25: Latina (IT) @ Sottoscala 9
03.26: Roma (IT) @ Mads Club
03.27: La Spezia (IT) @ Skaletta Rock Club
03.28: Vicenza (IT) @ Sabotage
03.29: Pianello Val Tidone (Piacenza) (IT) Oste Allegro
03.30: Torino (IT) @ United Club
03.31: Innsbruck (AUS) @ PMK
04.02: Tongeren (BE) @ Sodom
04.03: Schijndel (NL) @ Paaspop Festival
04.04: Zaandam (NL) @ De Kade
As you can see, there is no time noted on the flyer, so I thought 9pm is a good time. It came as a surprise when I was welcomed as the first guest of the night! It was my first visit to Club Scheisse, even though I had walked past it quite often as it is located literally just around the corner of Sonic Ballroom. It’s some kind of improvised location, but I liked it right away cause it has this basement show character I know from the US. There is no better thing for punk shows. Negative was the fact that there was no Cola and I had to switch to orange juice. I blame it for todays headache. I can’t take that stuff.
Besides the fact that I had nothing else to do the main reason to go was the show of Underparts. Its the new band with members of Deny Everything and The Dimensions. They have some pop punk elements and so they will support Dear Landlord at the show in Bonn in May. And judging from yesterdays show I can say that I am really looking forward to see them at Bla cause they put on an amazing show! The band is fueled by the singers energy. He charged into the audience, rolled around on the floor and was all out on attack! Between the songs you could hear and see that he was out of breath. There might be people that can sing better but most are not that entertaining! Maybe he should do some endurance training and eat more food! They also covered the Descendents “Suburban home” and it was over in less than 20 minutes. I liked it! You can download the bands demo here.
Up next were Burn Alaska – announced as New Modern Oldschool. I don’t really get modern hardcore. Often its just mid-temopo hard music with somebody screaming or growling over it. And thats what I got here. But the singer said he had a cold and was sounding more metal than he wanted to. Lets excuse him. Especially the guys from Cutting Class are having a good time in the front row. Cutting Class were the last band. At the beginning some people start pogo dancing but it stopped eventually. The band is playing fast forward and not only the guys from Burn Alaska sang along. There were the usual hardcore scenes: holding the mic into the audience, the guitar player stagediving. Between the songs the bands thanks pretty much everybody and they seem like cool people.
After the show I left quite early and spent my last money on some late night food. Pretty good night all together!
I don’t really know what made the last weekend so great, but I found myself having a really good mood at its end. And so I drove back to Bonn late last Sunday: Full speed ahead, music blasting and singing along loudly to Copyrights songs! I fed my hunger at the restaurant with the big golden M and might have been the best fries I’ve ever had at a McDonalds. I went to bed happy.
Monday continued the same. First I took it easy and spent a lot of time in bed, later I got myself together and went running. After all the weather had gotten so warm that “but its winter time” was no longer a valid excuse. I have not been running for months and so it was really hard. I didn’t last longer than ~22 minutes plus some breaks. Well – its always tough at the beginning. That also put an end to the good mood cause afterwards I went to my night shift and thats no fun. I also felt like this the week before. I toiled with the work at the hotel. There weren’t any special events that triggered it, I just didn’t feel well. Sleeping at nights didn’t work out well neither. So the bad mood carried on into Tuesday. In the evening I met with Immi who had made a bunch of posters for the show on March 6th and we put them up at Bla. Before I had met Robert to do the accounting for the ski-weekend. Then I went back to the hotel. The second night went unexpectedly well. Especially considering we were completely booked that night. It was astonishingly quiet.
Wednesday was okay and I even went back to running. This time it went a lot better than the first time. I didn’t take a break during the running and I didn’t feel like dropping dead any minute. Yet I had intended to stop listening to nothing but the new Hextalls album non stop, but its really a great record to listen to while running (just like the album before)! Damn! I’ll never stop like that. Work was alright, even though sleeping didn’t work out well again. So it took most of Thursday to recover.
Friday saw a completely different schedule. Last year I worked taking the minutes at some workshop for Staatskanzlei (thats like the office of the state premier) at the Posttower. This was pretty much the same event, but it took place at the Schalke-Arena. As fellow workers I had recruited Martin, Thomas, Nile, Björn and Dominik and so we went to Schalke early on Friday. Once we got there we had breakfast, got our instructions and the main job was to keep the minutes on two 90 minute workshops. We’ll need to write it down eventually. There was food and drinks and the total amount of work is okay. Good thing. There will be a follow up on this in two weeks, this time again in Bonn. Friday night I was tired but a phone call kept me from sleeping early. At least I could watch Maria Riesch winning the Olympics on live TV that way.
Posted: February 28th, 2010
Categories: Personal
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It’s really time to update this page. I haven’t even written a show report from last week. Well this might mess up the chronological order now, but I’ll start with yesterdays concert:
Cobretti / Tackleberry @ Limes, Cologne 19/2/2010
Huh? After years of not going to Limes this is already the second time this year? Whats going on? Well – a bunch of interesting shows. Plus its really easy to visit the venue while traveling by car and coming from my parents place. And going to see two hardcore bands is much superior than spending a Friday night hanging out at home. I had seen both bands on last years Heartcoretage Festival (photos) and had some positive memories.
I expected an early start, at least I thought the “8 pm” on the flyer with a big exclamation mark would indicate that. That was a wrong interpretation as the bands started around 9.15pm. The time in between was filled with some conversation. At the beginning the venue was filled to a good level but at the end of the night it was really packed. So the waiting had some good effects.
Tackleberry started the show. I can’t really point my finger at it, but the band doesn’t really do it for me. The musics fine but the four guys from Kiel don’t get me excited. I had the same feeling when I listened to their latest record. The rest of the audience seems to think alike. There is some applause but also some awkward silence between the songs. So the highlight of the show was the moment when the singer was spinning the mic through the air, hit me and the guy next to me so that the mic went off the cable and into some corner. I picked it up and re-attached it to the cable and handed it over back to him. That was a stupid-funny moment.
Cobretti do everything just fine! Their show is fun. It doesn’t matter that the bass players strap doesn’t work or that the jumping people push you into the PA and mic stands. The stage is just a few inches high, but still there are stagedivers hanging from the ceiling. The 20% I was missing during the Tackleberry show are no present – and another 20% on top! Cause its so crowded it got really warm too. So its a sweaty show! There is an encore at the end just like its supposed to be.
Here’s a list of shows I plan on attending. But No liability assumed! Sometimes I’ll have something better to do and sometimes my lazy ass will stay in bed. If you think you know some other show I need to go to, please tell me about it!
05.03. Rock’n'Roll Wrestling Bash – Gloria Köln
06.03. Rock’n'Royal + Another Day + Blatant in Transit – Bla Bonn
Accelerators Tour:
17.03. Accelerators: Berlin (DE) @ Wild At Heart
18.03. Accelerators: Opava (CZ) @ Musicjam Bar
19.03. Accelerators: Fulnek (CZ) @ Bar u Boba
20.03. Accelerators: Belgrade (SRB) @ TBA
21.03. Accelerators: Novi Sad (SBR) @ Crna Kuca
24.03. Accelerators: Bresso (MI) (IT) @ Blue Rose
25.03. Accelerators: Latina (IT) @ Sottoscala 9
26.03. Accelerators: Roma (IT) @ Mads Club
27.03. Accelerators: La Spezia (IT) @ Skaletta Rock Club
28.03. Accelerators: Vicenza (IT) @ Sabotage
29.03. Accelerators: Pianello Val Tidone (Piacenza) (IT) Oste Allegro
30.03. Accelerators: Torino (IT) @ United Club
31.03. Accelerators: Innsbruck (AUS) @ PMK
02.04. Accelerators: Tongeren (BE) @ Sodom
03.04. Accelerators: Schijndel (NL) @ Paaspop Festival
04.04. Accelerators: Zaandam (NL) @ De Kade
I failed two weeks ago yet Thursday night I gave the taking some nightshots another try. In order not to get distracted by the radio talk show again I listened to it before I went our. I’m that smart! After that I headed out into the city.
First I just drove around. I don’t know exactly how long, 30 minutes – 45 – one hour? Some places seemed good, others not so much. Anyway I drove too many kilometers and through too many parts of the town. Well the only guideline I had was “empty roads, at night, wet (if possible)”. At some point I decided its enough now and started to actually take photos. That worked well. Get the tripod, put it on the middle of the road when no car is in sight, long exposure, repeat. I could not deny the fact that you feel weird if you walk around at night with a hat, hood, gloves, just driving around, stopping, loading out gear, take a photo, load in. On my second tour I even got to even more remote areas of Bonn (partly on purpose, partly accidental). I could have taken a lot more photos, but I stopped and just kept driving for no purpose. It had become quite late and so I felt like getting some breakfast. I ended up getting it at a gas station at the big round abound of Bonn. Must have been about 5am? 2 Croissants, 2 bread rolls. Being able to have flexible sleep schedule might be a great advantage of having a night job after all.
I went to see the last few Hammerhead shows in Trier and Munich. So when I was asked to ride along to the concert in Leisnig I said yes. Reason for this date was the release party of Growing Movement whose singer Loll is an old friend of Hammerhead. Also on the bill: Rawside and two local bands. It all took place at AJZ Leisnig, in the middle of nowhere about 40 kilometers from Leipzig.
Getting there was the biggest problem, as some nasty winter weather is expected. And thats how it started. The road to the rehearsal space is steep and thanks to the rear wheel drive of the car, going reverse uphill is the only way to get out of there. Between Bonn and Cologne the Autobahn is covered with snow, its snowing like hell. We go 60 km/h. If it goes on like this… A few kilometers further the sky clears.. thats a surprise. We pick up the rest of the band. It stopped snowing and even a traffic jam that was reported is nowhere to be seen. And it stays like this for the rest of the day. No traffic jam, no handicap caused by the Winter. Only the windscreen washer freezes.
The AJZ is hidden behind a tennis hall, around one corner, around the next corner and down some hill. How are you supposed to find this? As we get there we see Hammerhead-Phil. Wearing a T-Shirt, shorts and shoes without socks, running around in the snow at temperatures below 0°C! Does not compute! We set up, get the first drinks, meet the drummer, talk to people, wait for the ordered pizza – times passing by until the show starts. I don’t get to see a lot of the first two bands as I sit at the merch table most of the time. The first band sounds like its only influence are Sick of it all. They also dress up weird – bandanna, shorts, socks up to the knees. I miss the second band entirely. But the venue is really filling up. Thats surprising considering how remote it is located. Pretty much everybody rigorously disobeys the smoking ban so the room fills up with some thick layer of smoke. And there is no way to open the windows! I’m not the only person to notice the bad air quality.
Hammerhead are next. I get to see a bunch of songs of their set and start taking photos. I like the show, yet I rather focus on taking images and do the settings on the camera. The audience enjoys them too. The set gets cut short and a few songs get skipped, so the show is over quite fast. Osche likes this. Although the band members don’t agree how good or bad this show was.
The forth band of this night are Growing movement. The special thing about them is that singer Loll is suffering from MS and can only perform sitting in a wheel chair. This takes a lot of energy out of a hardcore band. I don’t know the band from past times, but I was told that his voice suffered too. Anyway I still like them.
I don’t get to see a lof of Rawside either. I don’t think I missed much though. My trip started at 9.30h and so I don’t mind that we leave to the place where we are staying. The guest house is fine. The hostess is nice and the rooms are good. Talking for an hour before I go to the next room to sleep.
The morning after we get served an excellent breakfast, the sun is shining, we rile the house cat and shake our heads about the alcoholic-annecdotes of the night. The ride back home is even more boring than the day before. The sun keeps shining and even the windshield washer defrosts.
Bottom line?
Don’t trust the weather forecast or traffic reports.
Even child abusers deserve a fair treatment.
Hostess: “How do you practice if all the band members live in different places?” – “We solve this problem by not practicing!”
Selling merch is a lot more fun when a good looking young girl is hanging around at the next table. Especially if she is showing some great cleavage!
Street Rovers Union / Mastodontti / Team Kleffbotze
@ Limes, Cologne – 29. Januar 2010
For a bunch of reasons and excuses I went to see the same show I saw yesterday in Bonn in Cologne again. Limes is a nice punkrock bar I had never went to before, thats a shame cause I know Lars who is running it. In addition to the two Finnish bands also Team Kleffbotze from Bonn was playing and I wanted to check them out. Limes is located in Mülheim which is remote for Cologne standards. Yet I was coming from the Bergisches Land area and it was on my way. At my arrival the people were in a good mood, cause the St. Pauli Football team had won its match and they are dedicated fans.
There isn’t a stage at Limes. An area in the back works as the stage, and there is only one half-lit chandelier creating a dim light. Team Kleffbotze are first. Thats a stupid band name, even after somebody explained me the meaning. This is the first show of the four guys and you can see it. There is no flow in the performance. The fact that you cannot understand the lyrics is the PA’s fault though. They play melodic punkrock even though I am not sure what exactly their influences are. According to their tshirs it would be Dean Dirg, Hot Water Music and Ultimate Fighting. Well.. In accordance with their motto “this is Bonn not Gainesville” they have beards and flannel shirts. So if you get a haircut for your bass player and trade in the five string bass and you should be good!
I have no idea what Roland put into the breakfast, lunch or dinner of Mastodontti but the band plays at least three times better than the day before. From start to finish they rock hard. I heard “snotty punk” yesterday and today they blast perfect hardcore into my ears. The lead guitar player turns into a real energetic frontman who jumps around and runs into the audience and has a great stage presence (even without a stage). Its a fun show. Street Rovers Union still sound like Youth Brigade and they too kicked it up a notch. The audience starts dancing and that is all you need to tell.
Yet I’m leaving early before the show ends, cause I wanted to see another show at Sonic Ballroom. That didn’t exactly work out. First I got lost in Cologne and when I finally arrived the venue was soo packed that they did not let anymore people in. More than sold out. I don’t really mind, so I get to bed a little earlier. On my way back to Bonn it starts snowing like promised. I end the two days like I started them: eating fries at Frittebud.
Street Rovers Union / Mastodotti @ Bla Bonn, 28/01/2010
On my way from Frittebud to Bla I saw Björn sitting at the window. Nights with Björn never disappoint! So I joined him and his Canadian friends table. Both had witnessed the soundcheck and told me about it, only to strengthen my uncertainty about what to expect from the show. None of us was familiar with the bands. Ro told that he saw them play in Finland and so he somehow organized two shows in Germany. Well done!
Mastodontti open the night. Well – Punkrock, snotty at times, sung in Finnish, all together quite okay. The songs are a bit too long for this style of music. But the four guys are still young – estimated 20 years old – so there is chance of improvement.
Street Rovers Union are up next. Before they start the drummer asks something like “Is everybody having a good time?” – Björns companion comments “They already talk too much!” – good laugh – I add: “And too slow!” But the band was enjoyable. It took me 1.5 songs to realize what other band they remind me of. And there is only one answer: Youth Brigade! Not only is the voice similar but also the vocal melody and the general rhythm of the music. The band sounds completely like Youth brigade except for the fact that Youth Brigade is a three piece without a second guitar and without a keyboard, und they usually have clear understandable singing with political lyrics, while you could barely understand this guy. This might have been coming from the PA though, he was singing English! The most fun part about the band is the keyboarder – why you might ask? Cause he was the guy who seemed to have the most fun too! They covered Turbonegro (Sailor Man) and the Damned (New Rose) and the rest was mainly uptempo punkrock in the vain of Youth Brigade. I like Youth Brigade, so I like that band. Did I mention Youth Brigade yet? You shouldn’t write about this band without making the Youth Brigade comparison!
I. If you are asked to get the Box with the blueberries and morello cherries (German: Brombeere & Schattenmorelle) from the deep freezer, it means to get the box labeled “h&k” – Himbeere & Kirsche (raspberry and cherry)!
II. If you ask whether the sentence “Do you want to vacuum the floor” is meant as a question, a request or an order -then it means “both”!
Recently I mentioned that this version 6.0 of my website. It has been around in different incarnations since circa 2001? I actively wrote a blog from 2002 until 2007. In 2006 the photos came and they eventually more or less took over the site, instead of new blog entries there were new galleries. Yet the old blog should not be forgotten, therefore I uploaded no less than 669 old entries last night! These cover the time from January 2002 until October 2007. I’ll try to dig up the few texts I wrote until the end of 2009 to add them as well.
I doubt anybody wants to read through these, some links are no longer working, images neither, there are no tags or categories. But its all in the database now and if you do a search it will show up. So if you happen to have the need to stalk me and have some days to spare, feel free to read it anyway.
Note: All these were written in German only and you don’t really expect me to translate 700 entries, do you?
Posted: January 25th, 2010
Categories: Personal
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Comments: 1 Comment.
I knew that everything would be alright when at 6. pm not only the first band (with the backline) but also the mixer were on location. That meant all would run smoothly. It might sound banal but timeliness and reliability aren’t exactly punkrocks strongholds and that can be a huge pain in the promoters neck. The guys energetically helped to clear the stage so this was done in no time. We set up, said hello to the second band, ordered food and even the first guests arrived early. Why it took so long until the soundcheck was done – I have no idea. But it didn’t matter – state of timetable: non critical.
The step from “alright” to “very good” happened when I was at the door. More and more people showed up and they all brought a friend with em! Bla is not actually that big, so we moved another table out of the room to have more space. We needed it. At some point I realized: thats enough! Sold out! Of course then the people you could not send away showed up, the people that would be added to the guestlist too and Dirk and me still had to tell some people that they could not get in. How many exactly were in the room – I don’t know, I lost the count in between. But we had 141 people paying! Unbelieveable! When did I let all of them in?
Missed Mähthräsher entirely – other than hearing it from the entrance. Before Dean Dirg started I went upfront. And then the real surprise happed, and we went from “very good” to “great!” From the first song on the crowd went wild. Pogo, stagediving, finger pointing, sing alongs, party! Usually the audience in Bonn keeps standing around with their arms crossed for half an hour. Then somebody might make one step to the left. And during the encore there might be some guy dancing. Not yesterday – Super! There is no need to talk about the live qualities of Dean Dirg. At the end they covered “Nervous breakdown” as the last song. There is no better way to close a night!
Afterwards everybody was happy! Both bands enjoyed it a lot, the venue was energetic, the people were in a good mood, there was enough money to pay everybody a good amount, loading out was done quickly and overall this was the best show I have ever put together! I want to thank Mähthräsher and Dean Dirg, Silvie and the Bla-Crew, Immi, Martin, Dennis, Andi, Dirk, Claus for the sound, Frittebud for food and everybody who came out and rocked with us!
