Review: Float Riverer

Sometimes you simply heap too much food on your plate. You want it all and you want it now. That was me the past few weeks and it all came crashing down on me the evening Float Riverer played.

Events at Monarch have started extremely early lately, we're talking 9pm sharp or earlier on occasion. So there was me at the door well early, wondering why there weren't many people at Monarch yet. It turned out Float Riverer had played in Stuttgart the night before and had arrived late in Berlin that afternoon. I was to wait for a while before the gig would start. Too little time to head back home, so I hung around. And while I was watching the hustle and bustle on Kottbusser Tor from the window, I drifted into sleep. I am not kidding you, I fell asleep and was rudely woken by the tuning of the guitars onstage. 

Wow, going from sleeping straight into a loud lo-fi rock gig. Way to go girl! To my surprise, I was wide awake instantly and taking in what was going on on- and offstage. The audience was smallish but into the band, with friends of the band dancing elaborately to get the mood going. The band, consisting of a drummer and a guitar player, displayed a cool sense of humour and came across real nice. 

Musically however, while I was enjoying the concert, my expectations weren't met. I was expecting more garage rock and less lo-fi indie rock, if that makes sense. The band was very loud but energy was lacking for me at times. They played "Night on the Void" last; clearly their hit song, which the audience appreciated the most, singing along and dancing. They could do with a couple of more hits in this vein.

I enjoyed Float Riverer, I really did. The sweet persona, the lo-fi set-up, the humour, the songs. But maybe I was hoping for more sweat, grime and energy. Overall, an enjoyable night out at one of our favourite bars.

Having barely made it through the evening until now, being as tired as one of my cats at 2pm in the afternoon, I quickly made my way home after the concert. There was another band to follow, which had been moved over from West Germany, but there was no way I could muster the wait.

PS: I had left my phone at home, thus no pictures. Nevermind, eh. To make up for it, I'm giving you the video to "Night on the Void" again, because it's addictive as hell.