Review: Kid Congo Powers

Your reviewer found himself in a car with legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers in Austin a few months back during SXSW, and was able to ask a few of those questions about his time with The Cramps and The Gun Club that you never to get ask… The dapper and genial Mr Powers, now approaching his mid-fifties, is a link to one of the last ages of rock and roll mythology, with both Lux Interior and Jeffrey Lee Pierce having left this earth. And tonight’s show at White Trash embraced that mythology, and celebrated the songs of that era, whilst moving forward with a modern take on classic garage and its gonzo subject matter.

Coming through to Berlin with his band the Pink Monkey Birds on the occasion of his actual birthday, it seemed fitting that he revisited songs from his youth. Of the three Gun Glub numbers introduced as ‘songs that Jeffrey taught me’, ‘Jack On Fire’ had a stunning ferocity that was the highlight of the set, with ‘She’s Like Heroin to Me’ getting this crowd singing and dancing and a finale of ‘For The Love of Ivy’ on the verge of falling apart in its intensity.

Inevitably, the Kid lacks JLP’s anguish howl of a voice, with lively interpretations of ‘I’m Cramped’, ‘Green Fuz’ and “Lose Your Mind’ complementing his own new material more. With each of these song introduced with a snappy one liner and references to cult figures like Susan Tyrell, songs like “What if the Killer was Phyllis Diller?” motor along without the pace dropping thanks to the superbly tight musicianship of Kiki, Ron and Jesse. A song about “Floor Length Hair” echoed The Fall’s own take on 60s gonzo riffs and and the driving instrumental ‘Double Trouble’ had a groove that brought the basement club alive.

Ultimately, in an age of endless and unsatisfying reunions of classic groups, this was a nostalgia free show, as Powers continues to write songs and play them with an engaging zeal, keeping those old songs as fresh as the new ones, the audience for which will therefore hopefully never decline.

Quick review: Wild Nothing + Grey Television

I successfully gig hopped again the other night, going to see Wild Nothing at White Trash before heading to Festsaal for Zombie Zombie. This seems to become a regular occurence in my life. This town can really kill you.

White Trash was packed, I mean absolutely rammed. It may have been the fullest I have seen it for a gig. There is clearly a buzz surrounding Wild Nothing, and as I have previously mentioned, I believe it's deserved. 

But first things first: Grey Television, locals to Berlins with an ambition, played a full set of Notwist and Radiohead inspired music, accompanied by seaside projections. It was a very relaxing affair, which got the audience excited and at ease at the same time. During the crescendos of some of their songs, it did get a little close to melodramatic bands like Coldplay for me. However, this makes them more commercially digestible and might just work in their favour. It is interesting to see where they will head with this.

Note to DJ: AC/DC absolutely rocks but an entire album is not the appropriate soundtrack for a packed Wild Nothing gig. 

Wild Nothing, a name so often mentioned in music nerd circles, is actually a relatively young man, who looks like your typical college lecture attendant. You would never guess that this young gentleman writes the most encompassing pop songs, heavily influenced by independent wave music of the 80s and indie pop music of the 90s. Every song is instantly recognisable yet not boring and draws you in. The record has been a firm favourite of mine of over a year now - I just cannot get enough of it. Live, a band in tow, it sounded exactly like the record but maybe lacked energy a little. I attribute this to a packed White Trash, which is the perfect setting for Wavves or Thee Oh Sees but definitely struggled to paint the adequate setting for dream pop à la Wild Nothing. Still, I really enjoyed his voice, as I always do. 

I made my exit early to get to Festsaal, just in time for Zombie Zombie...

Quick review: Thee Oh Sees + La Sera

Some bands are really good on record but never quite live up to it live. With others, the records are okayish but the live experience is unmissable. La Sera are the former. Thee Oh Sees are the latter.

Hot and steamy - Thee Oh Sees

La Sera's songs are very well crafted pop pearls, influenced by girl groups and garage music. Live however, this just doesn't quite carry in the same way. It's good, but not as good as one would wish for. Highlight: a beautiful cover of Nirvana's Lithium.

Thee Oh Sees are the best live band on the planet right now. There is no other band around that gets the crowd moving this much from the moment of the first chord played. There is currently no other band where the venue gets trashed at every single gig. There is no band that brings with them this much fun and mayhem without contributing much to it themselves. They play and people go insane. Those boys just rock those songs live, period.

What a night. Fistfights in the audience, storming of the stage, girls shaking their hair wildly, boys jumping up and down, stage-diving when there is no real stage at White Trash, walking on the ceiling (for real), ripping pieces off the walls. You name it, we had it. 

If you want to get an idea of a Thee Oh Sees concert, read my review from last time, and watch this video from their gig in London last year.

Last night

...was a let-down. I actually didn't get to see Strange Boys because when I left at half past midnight, they hadn't even started playing and I was sick of the smoke and people that crowded White Trash. I did see ZHOD (who could not decide whether to play surf rock or HC - Surf Core = new genre?) and Jimmy Trash doing his usual thing. I had a great time with my date, catching up and joking and things, but brother, why does White Trash let me down every time, huh? Or in the words of my date: "You won't go to anything that's not at least excellent - you are a snob". So I am. And proud of it.

Review: JEFF The Brotherhood pt. II

I have been to some crazy gigs in my time. Punk rock gigs in a small-town library, in a front yard facing the sea, in various churches, in my friends' living room, in a hay shed, in the back room of a Greek snack bar. And crazy shit has happened. The band and audience going naked, the band throwing up on stage, nazis being beaten out of the venue while the band was playing, the performer getting pissed off at the audience, all sorts. But there is always something new to add to the list. After weeks, months really, of anticipation for JEFF The Brotherhood's return to Berlin, this evening turned out to be super weird and, really, a bit of a joke.



I had actually bought tickets in advance. Yeah, yeah, laugh at me. But I had. West Germany had been packed at the start of the year when JTB played one of the best gigs Berlin has seen this year and their best gig of that tour, according to insider sources. So I assumed all those people would show up again at White Trash Fast Food, and maybe more. The album was released in September, they have continuously toured and they're about to tour the US with The Kills in the new year. They've been busy and I thought this could pay off with a packed gig.



I don't learn, do I? This was White Trash, and I have not yet seen a packed gig there. They do little in terms of promotion it seems and people just don't show up there. I remind you about The Strange Boys and about Wavves, two gigs that should have been absolutely rammed but weren't. We arrived at 9:20pm, which was ridiculously early since White Trash shows traditionally start late. The ticket read 9pm and we just wanted to be on the safe side, Sunday night and all. But, apart from one couple at the bar, we were the only guests thus far. And here is the first curiosity of the night: we were told that the gig had started at 8:30pm, that the support band had already played, and that JTB were about to go onstage. With no audience?!

We made ourselves comfortable and anticipated what would happen, certain that there was going to be a delay while everyone was waiting for more guests. Instead, after a 10 minute wait, the lights onstage went off and the cold lights in the main room were switched on, without an explanation. Confused, we approached the tour manager of the band, who was able to inform us that the band had been offered to play upstairs in the restaurant instead. Their reservation at playing to a dining audience was answered with the promise of an Arte film crew. What?!

So we moved to the restaurant, where the cover for the gig was now a mere € 3 instead of the € 13 I had originally forked out, and seated ourselves at one of the tables at the back, where we ordered drinks and food to help us get through the originally booked local band that was to play for the following hour. They wanted to be the Foo Fighters but they didn't quite manage, if you know what I mean. It was atrocious. When finally, near midnight, JTB took the stage, spirits were low. The set up was poor, with no effort having been made to remove the tables right in front of the stage. The band was very drunk by now, having sat around for six hours. The tour manager had no opportunity to sell merchandise, sure to make a loss that night. And the dining audience couldn't care less whether one of America's best current rock groups was about to blast them away with the loudest gig that restaurant had probably ever seen. What a shambles.

So imagine this: Those that had actually showed up for JTB were about 20 people, which were now scrambled in a very small space between dining tables and the entrance door. Between the audience and the small, low stage was a camera crew of three people with big TV cameras and lights. And the band was not able to play half their songs because they were simply too wasted. Could this possible work out OK?!

The surprising answer is: Yes! Of course JTB could not show how great they actually are, not to the audience and not to the filming cameras. They simply weren't given the chance. And of course the guests couldn't show how much they loved JTB. We also weren't given the chance. But somehow we all made it work. The band gave their best to get the rest of the restaurant involved, with loudness and direct address; the small crowd gave their best to dance and ignore the cameras, despite the fact that I got nearly knocked over three times by one of the camera crew. And somehow it all worked into a very rock'n'roll kind of affair. We actually enjoyed ourselves, and I think to some degree, so did the band. It was all absurdity at its strangest and JTB made sure to play as loud and as rebelliously as they could. Good on them!

I did complain to White Trash and asked for at least a refund of the difference in entrance price. They laughed at me. I have since written to the promoter Trinity. Yes, we did have fun and laughed at the absurdity of life. But really, from the perspective of the band and the audience, this night was a shambles. I'll add it to my list of crazy gigs I've attended and look forward to seeing JEFF The Brotherhood again in a more appropriate setting.

Review: The Strange Boys

Cute Cute Cute!
I know this is not how you should describe a serious artistic project. And yet, I want to take this group home with me and keep them as pets. They could play for me when I wake up in the mornings and when I go to bed at night.

Seriously though, what a night! The Strange boys didn't actually start playing until quarter to mignight, on a Wednesday. Spirits were a bit low by the time they began their set and there was actually nobody in front of the stage. People had kind of gone half asleep at that point. One song played, everybody was clapping, dancing, shouting, excited. It was that easy for the Texans to kick off a party at White Trash's.

And that party lasted until over an hour later when after the last song people refused to let the band go without an encore even though they had explained beforehand that no encores were to be played since they had already extended the set and "we just turn very bad if we keep playing and we want to look good". And good they looked.

So what was it about The Strange Boys that everybody fell in love with them the instance they hit the stage? How did they seduce us despite having a blue harp and a saxophone as part of their instrumentation? (As an anecdote: Some saxophone player on the radio the other day commented that he himself doesn't actually like the sound of the saxophone. That tells you something). The secret lies in a) their personalities - you just want to be best friends with them, b) in singer Ryan Sambol's voice and technique (how does he do that?) and c) in the saxophone player, yes, the saxophone. Jenna Thornhill-DeWitt, a former member of Mika Miko (yum!) knows to use her instrument to enhance the music, give it a je-ne-sais-quoi without doing that show off solo saxophone business that so many saxophone players tend to do.

The Strange Boys basically play garage rock, strongly influenced by blues and country as well as punk, but add those little above mentioned features to give it a twist. This sounds good on record but really comes into effect live when you feel transported into the 1960s and the energy people used to feel when listing to new exciting young American sounds. Wonderful and all-consuming. I expected a chilled evening, I got a dance party.

Are you still listening to the first Kings Of Leon album? Stuck on The Thrills? Start living, start listening to The Strange Boys!