Kunstlose Wut von schockierenden Idioten

Konzert vom 04. März 2016 im Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum
The Idiots, Artless, Die Wut & Shock Out

Den Weg zum Bahnhof Langendreer finde ich schon fast im Blindflug. Auf dem Weg vom Parkplatz zur Halle fielen mir zwei Punks mit Irokesen Haarschnitt und bunten Haaren auf, die aus einem silbernen Mercedes der S-Klasse ausstiegen und ich habe mir nur gedacht: „Meine Güte haben sich die Zeiten geändert, früher fuhren die Punks mit dem Bus zum Konzert und heute steht der Mercedes vor der Tür.“

An diesem Abend waren The Idiots im Langendreer zu Besuch und ich hatte mir schon länger beim Sir Hannes Schmidt die Erlaubnis geholt, dort fotografieren zu können. Wieder so eine Band, die ich aus meinen Jugendjahren kenne und die nun wiedersehen werde. Ich habe meine Erinnerung ausgewrungen, ob ich sie schon in der Mitte der 90’er Jahre einmal live gesehen habe, aber ich kam auf keine bewusste Begegnung. Vielleicht ist ein Konzert der Idiots auch in Vergessenheit geraten in dem Nebel der Erinnerung oder aufgrund des konsumierten Alkohols.

Ich betrat gerade die Halle, als die erste Vorband Shock Out auf der Bühne stand. Vier junge Männer, die sich 2012 zusammen gefunden haben, um gemeinsam Musik zu machen. Heute brachten sie ihre erste EP mit dem Titel Beast heraus. Also eigentlich eine Release Show. Als Vorband von den Idiots.

Diese EP mit ihren vier Liedern spielten sie auch vollständig durch und legten noch ein paar Songs drauf. Als Zugabe gab es dann noch Blitzkrieg Bop von den Ramones. Der Sänger erinnerte mich irgendwie an Dustin Kensrue von Thrice, aber nur visuell.
Die Band hatte sogar einen Startblock mitgebracht, um den Leuten das Stagediven zu erleichtern, aber er wurde irgendwie nicht genutzt. Bevor ich den Sound der Band so richtig erfassen konnte, war ihre Spielzeit auch leider vorbei.

Shock Out – Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum – 04.03.2016

Als zweite von den insgesamt vier Bands heute Abend spielten Die Wut. Sie haben sich bereits 1980 gegründet und zwischen 1983 und 2007 hatte sich die Band aufgelöst. Nun touren sie wieder und spielen vereinzelte Konzerte. Vor kurzem haben ihren Gitarristen verloren, sodass der Sänger diesen Part übernehmen musste und nicht wirklich zufrieden schien mit dieser Aufgabe. Er beschwerte sich nicht nur einmal über den Verstärker in seinem Rücken. Aber ihr Sound klang wie in den 80’ern, rau, punkig und kantig mit viel politischer Botschaft.

Die Wut – Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum – 04.03.2016

Als dritte Band im Bunde trat ein ganzer Trupp an Musikern auf die Bühne: Artless aus Duisburg. Drei Gitarren, ein Bass, ein Schlagzeug und ein Sänger. Einer der Gitarristen spielte sogar noch Orgel, die bei der lärmenden Wand der Gitarren leider vollständig unterging und nicht zu hören war.

Artless existieren auch schon etwas länger, die bereits 1981 ihren legendären Single Mein Bruder ist ein Popper aufgelegt haben. Dieses Lied spielten sie auch heute Abend, was einen frenetischen Applaus und tanzwütige Teenager auf das Parkett rief. Bei der Band sind heute noch Sänger Hank Sinatra und Gitarrist/Keyboarder Willi Solid als einzige verbliebene Originalmitglieder der 1979 gegründeten Band aktiv. Auch diese Band löste sich 1981 auf und formierte sich 2007 neu.

Ihre Wand aus Gitarren und der schnelle Sound mit manchmal etwas skurrilen Lieder (Unrasiert??) haut mich um, daß bald meine Ohren schmerzen und ich für die Idiots meine Ohrstöpsel einlege.

Artless – Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum – 04.03.2016

Zu guter Letzt und der Hauptakt des Abends sind The Idiots aus Dortmund, wo sie auch ihren gleichnamigen Laden und ihr Plattenlabel haben. Ich bin auf die Band Anfang der 90’er aufmerksam geworden, als sie ein paar Lieder auf dem 1989 erschienen Das waren noch Zeiten Sampler veröffentlichten.

Die Idioten haben sich schon 1978 als frühe Punkband gegründet, die den Deutschpunk massgeblich beeinflussten. Ihr Gründungsmitglied Sir Hannes ist heute das einzig verbleibende Mitglied der Gruppe. Er ist positiv exzentrisch und hat eine sehr starke Bühnenpräsenz, die an Jello Biafra heranreicht und seine eigene Klasse besitzt.

Sie sind seit jeher bekannt dafür, Aktionen auf der Bühne zu machen und auch heute legte sich Sir Hannes eine Fleischwurst und ein Schinkenstück auf den Kopf, während er das Lied Fleischwolf sang. Seine Mimik und Gestik ist ausdrucksstark und der treibende, trashige Punksound mit seiner manchmal kreischenden Stimme nimmt das Publikum mit. Es wird gepogt, Bierfontänen sprühen auf die Bühne und irgendwann zerbricht eine Glasflasche am Bühnenrand.

Das gehört dazu und ist beabsichtigt und gegen Ende des Konzertes verteilt die Band Hansa Bierdosen ins Publikum, sodaß der Boden nass und glitschig ist. Ein echtes Punkkonzert hat so zu enden. Es ist 1:30, ich kann nicht mehr und schleppe mich zum Auto zurück.

The Idiots – Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum – 04.03.2016

Setlist Die Wut:
Blinde Wut
Raus
Punk
Kirche
Giftgas
Armutsstaat
Überwachung
Wahrheit oder Pflicht
Jetzt oder Nie
Drecksland
Zu Still
Morgen
Leben
Zugabe:
Freiheit

Setlist Artless:
Erleuchtung
Alkohol
Herdentiere
Großstadt
Urlaub
Peace & Anarchie
Alles Geht
Jenny
Punk 80
Das Leben
Unrasiert
Komm Gib Mir
Wozu
Mein Bruder
Donnerwetter
Mach’s Gut
Zugaben:
Diese Stadt
White Riot
Were Only

Setlist The Idiots:
Deathbrains
Der Tod
Selbstmord
Gott Sei Punk
Alter Schwede
Fleischwolf
Nuclear War
Der Idiot
Verseucht
Bayrischer Wald
Mädchen mit den roten Haaren
Der Säufer
Samstag Nacht
Schweine ins Weltall
Emmi oh Emmi – Idioten ficken besser
Der S04 und der BVB
Heavy Metal Psycho Punk
Kill Him
Amok
Edeka
Zugaben:
Now I Wanna Be Your Dog
Tage ohne Alkohol
Destroy My Body
Pechvogel bei den Frauen

Of spider gods and cheaters

I still did not fully recover from my cold, but I needed to go out and see some music. Maybe music can be healing as well? Of course it does.

Today’s programme was about to see Spidergawd and The Cheaters in Gebäude 9 in Cologne. The last time I had been at that place was 2006 to see Sleater-Kinney before they split. It is a little complicated to get there as far as I remembered, because you needed to make a u-turn to get to the street, where the club was.
Hmm, with my modern-day navigation system it was easy to find. But after I left my car, I still had some problems to find the venue, because it was in a backyard.

Inside, everything looked different than 10 years ago and the bathroom was over and over covered with stickers. The concert hall was not open yet, so we all were squatting inside the entrance hall, drank our beers or other liquids and I could get a good overview on the merchandise of Spidergawd to make my coice for later.

DJ Friese, a long-bearded man was putting up some records with fine rock music on the turntable and someone threw a full bottle of beer on the ground. What a mess! Finally, about 8pm, we were allowed to enter the main concert hall. It took some time until it was completely full, but at the end, the whole room was packed and an estimated 200 to 250 people.

The first trio – The Cheaters – I never heard before. They should not be confused with The Cheaters, that were playing during 1979 to 1987 and coming from New York. There is another Cheaters band from Baltimore, but we are meeting here the three-piece cheaters from Oslo, Norway. They started playing in 2006 and won the Norwegian Grammy Award (The Spellemann) for the best rock album in 2014. They call their music punk rock n roll.

One guitar, a bass and a drumset, split apart due to the massive drumset of Spidergawd’s Kenneth Kapstadt and the guitar player Henrik Width Kristiansen had to stay alone on one side with his equipment.

Their sound was driving, loud and noisy. But it is very hard to play as first band before another great band, that everyone expects.
Their songs were a lot about girls and I sometimes felt like being back in the 1960’s, when the people looked like guitar player Henrik and the sound was a bit similar too. At the end they did a good job, but were not really my cup of tea.

Their last song „She’s a Spider“ they dedicated to the following gods of spiders.

The Cheaters playing live in Gebäude 9, Cologne, Germany on 17. February 2016.

The first disapointment when Spidergawd entered the stage was, that Motororpsycho’s Bent was replaced by an unknown, but similar looking long-haired young man. Later it became clear, that it was Hallvard Gaardløsn named „The Kid“, because Bent had some duties to carry out with new projects of his main band Motorpsycho. Motorpsycho is my most favourite band since I saw them the first time in 1996 in Cologne.

But with the first note they plaid, it was clear, that they will crush the hall to the ground. The most amazing thing about this band is, that they place the drum kit right in the front of the stage and with the first hit, that Kenneth did on the drums, I felt the music in every single cell of my entire body. The amplifiers were turned on loud and everything vibrated and shook with every note they plaid.

Which is good, because you feel and go with every song and at the end you are deaf. Unless you don’t wear any earplugs. It was so loud, that I can’t even upload the video I recoreded with my cellphone, because it is far too overdriven and not nice to listen anymore. So this time, no video. I am sorry.

They plaid songs from all three albums and they were much better than the recorded ones. The bariton saxophone player is one of the best additions, that this band has included in their portfolio and Kenneth is one of the most energetic drum players I have ever seen. They even plaid an encore, that seemed to be unusual for them.

After a long and exhausting concert that was satisfying everyone who had been there, I bought my shirt and a vinyl and left the place on my way back home. Still very paralyzed from the loud sound, I listened to the new Motorpsycho album in my car on my way back, that I just bought this morning.

Altogether a great night with amazing music. I later discovered, that music is not this much healing a cold and the next day my nose was even more clocked and running than the day before.

Spidergawd playing live in Gebäude 9, Cologne, Germany on 17. February 2016.

Setlist Spidergawd:
No Man’s Land
El Carazon Del Dol
The Best Kept Secrets
Get Physical
Crossroad’s
The Funeral
Tourniquet
Into Tomorrow
Lighthouse
Picture Perfect Package
… Is all She Wants
Caerulean Caribou
Master of Disguise
Blauer Jubel

Setlist The Cheaters:
Just Like U
20,000 Miles An Hour Girl
Stay On Your Mind
Voodoo
Everybody Must
Keep Walking
Hooked
She’s A Spider

Still fucking angry

Yesterday, my work stopped at 8:15pm and I knew my time would be tight tonight. Right at finishing time, I just jumped out of my working clothes, entered my car and drove as fast as my small and slow car could get me to Bergisch Gladbach, a small town nearby Cologne.

Arriving in darkness is always a struggle for me, because I am night-blind, have a problem with left and right and surely I first missed the spot.
After parking the car, I entered the youth centre and wow, I felt young again. My first punkrock show was 1991, where I saw the German punk-band Molotow Soda from the former German capital Bonn. Today, almost 15 years later, I was about to see another band from the same city F*cking Angry.

The evening was supposed to be the record release gig for another band Pogendroblem (something like prugdroblem in English), who is a local act and who had organised the whole thing.
When I arrived, the first band was suprisingly sitting almost entirely on the stage and I felt like being transported back in the beginning of the 90’s, when punks were still punks and I was younger and with more energy and less worries in my mind.

They were called Unterstaat and the singer had a police hat on his head and the guitar player looked like he came from this other dimension, which I call „back in the punk-days“. This was the way punk-bands looked like back in the days. And still are like this, which always brings a smile into my face. Unterstaat plaid rough German punk and I took a few photos.
The audience was pretty young and me in my old age (hahaha) felt younger too. In the corner, some people older than me were obviously waiting for their maybe teenaged kids in the crowd to bring them back home. Or something similar, I was just guessing.

The first band just plaid a few songs and then finished. So, I did not get much of what they plaid and they rushed from stage.
Time for me to discover the room and the audience. It was a wide and long, but properly equitted concert room, typically for youth centres. Three doors, where people could enter and the audience consisted of many punk clothed people and some ordinary styled. A great mixture.

Unterstaat at Ufo in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany playing live on 30. January 2016.

The second band Pogendroblem changed the equipment and I was a little confused, because it was their release gig and they did not play as main act.
Their music was German punkrock and had good lyrics and the singer was full of high energy.
One of their songs was against the rascist party AfD (Alternative for Germany), who is unfortunately getting a great support during these days full of fears and anger against the arriving refugees from countries, where our very own government delivered the weapons to: „You are in the fist of fear, you have no perspective, because you can not go alone, you are looking convulsively for an alternative.“

Another song was rather more explicit: „Milk products make you dumb!“

Pogendroblem at Ufo in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany playing live on 30. January 2016.

The last band this evening, I had seen almost two weeks ago. This time, the location was nicer and not a dangerous former swimming pool, where people hit their back on the stairs. F*cking Angry plaid their angry and high energy punk-hardcore again and this time I was better prepared, because I had their vinyl in home since two weeks and knew many of the songs.

Their energy was sheerly hitting in my back and stomach and my legs started to move uncontrollable. Gabo, the drummer had to work a lot, I can see the hard parts of the songs in his face, but this gave a rather stronger energy to the already existing wall of guitar, the grumbling bass and the deep and straight voice of Beckx.

Unfortuntely the people had decreased since the last band and the place to dance was now huge and the guys could pogo and jump as hell. They all knew the band very well and could sing their lyrics.
As usual, they started off with their title song Fucking Angry and they finished their set with the song Born Angry. Does this say enough?

Thanks to all the bands for the nice evening and also the lovely audience. Hope to see you all again soon.

F.cking Angry – live at Ufo in Bergisch Gladbach on 30. January 2016

A video of F*cking Angry during that show:

And a video of Pogendroblem during that show:

Setlist Pogendroblem
Moschen für Groschen
Schnöselpunx
Viktoria
AfD Motherfucker
Öffis
Kotzen
Milchprodukte
Nipster
Putin
Flucht
Schales Bier
Steiner Kids are Stoner Kids

Setlist F*cking Angry
Intro & F.cking Angry
Unterwegs
Lone Wolf
Destroy
Doin‘ Alright
Hashtag
Myanmar
Blackout
Hardcore
Battle the Bottle
Bad Neuenahr
Fuck Off
Atomstrom
Skatesong
Born Angry
………………
Was übrig bleibt

District and Vageenas – 19. December 2015

Oldschool punk reminds me of my own youth, when I still had blue hair and clothes, that I stitched together from old clothes and fabric. The outlook is different today, even though the inside and mind still remains the same (yes, I still have the same two kidneys and lungs). There is so much to learn and take from punkrock and you sohuld always keep this spirit alive in this mad world.
Some bands still keep this spirit alife and this makes me feel confident that something did not die out.
On 19. December, a few days before silent Christmas, the two loud punkbands District and The Vageenas invited for an anniversary show at the Trompete in Bochum.
The venue was located in the city centre of Bochum and the most funny thing was, that you had all these black-clothed punks standing outside before they were let in and next to the Trompete was a fancy restaurant with a very expensive looking furniture and more expensive looking people inside. A great contrast, that I loved a lot.
The venue was located in a basement, so the place was greatly chosen for a show that is called „Going Underground“.
District invited to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Even though this band has gone through a couple of changes not only with their name, but also with some band-members. Today, they are standing on the stage with some members from the original line-up and some new ones.
At first, the band Vageenas rocked as hell and the sticky air filled with swet. This band is as old as District and was founded in 1994 by punk-heroine Babette V. A pink-clothed and fully tattoed lady, that burst with energy. She was jumping, running to the counter of the bar, sang from there, ran back, jumped again, ran to the other side of the room, where she was standing in the middle of the crowd. What energy she had and this energy was reflected in their music as well. Sometimes the musicians were alone on stage for some time, because Babette was with the people in the crowd.
The main act of the night, District, shared the same drummer as The Vageenas and it must have been an intense night, playing for two powerful punk bands.
The band and especially the look of the singer Marc De Burgh reminded me about a time, that reminded me of the 90’s and felt a little younger. Maybe?
Their music was intense, loud, some songs were so familiar to me and it was great to hear them again. The crowd was active to every single note and sang many lyrics and made a great choir. It was hot and sweaty and worth being there. Thanks to both bands for an amazing night of good old punkrock and raw energy.

The Vageenas – Trompete – Bochum, Germany – 19.12.2015

District – Trompete – Bochum, Germany – 19.12.2015

And a little video, the quality is not so good, because of the lack of good light in this place: