Competition: Orchestra of Spheres + High Wolf

Another week, another competition. Don't you love it?!

This time, we give you the chance to take yourself and a friend to the sought after experimental electronica gig by Orchestra of Spheres and High Wolf at Urban Spree this Thursday, giving your autumn bones some booty shaking.

Tell us by email to win at thecraze dot de by 9 am Thursday, 7 November 2013, a song or band you like that has got wolves, hounds, or dogs in it. There must be a million out there!

Then, dance the night away to this:

Preview: the week ahead (4th Nov - 10th Nov)

Whoa!! It is November, it is busy in our calendar. Get the party clothes on, it’s going to be a wild week. 

Tuesday

• Body/Head at Bi Nuu: XNormanX was a little disgruntled after their last show in Berlin. But we are convinced: it’s Kim Gordon with a guitar and it can only be good. See a legend do experimental guitar music.

Wednesday

• Holograms at Monarch: Holograms delivered one of the best albums of 2012, in C*’s view, and they played one of Berlin’s worst gigs of 2012, in C*’s view. Smaller venue, same great songs - this could be great if they try harder this time.
• Warpaint at Heimathafen Neukölln: C* has got her ticket at the ready. A special treat that gets her tingling. Meet her indie dancing at Heimathafen this Wednesday.
• Molly Nilsson and Beaver Sheppard at SHIFT: C*’s firm favourite giving one of her legendary Berlin performances. You really should not miss out.

Thursday

• Cassie Ramone & O.J. Xray Eyeballs at Grüner Salon: A Vivian Girl on a solo tour, O.J. of Xray Eyeballs in tow. I bet this is going to be special. Cannot wait!!
• Orchestra of Spheres and High Wolf at Urban Spree: We have praised both experimental electronic dance outfits on this blog before. This is going to be a high quality evening of mind-blowness. Play along.

Friday

• Baths + Dam Mantle + Freddy Knop at about blank: Baths plays very nice experimental beat based indie hip hop and recently released his second record on Anticon records. His music is the perfect combination of weirdness and pop and his live performances are supposedly spectacular. Support will be Dam Mantle, playing poppy electronic music and Berlin based Freddy Knop who used to play under his moniker pOnk before.
• Scout Niblett at Privatclub: Many indie fans will have waited for this for a long time. Scout Niblett in a venue the size of my living room. What a treat for fans of the singer’s wonderful tunes. 

Saturday

• Gary War and Purple Pilgrims at Team Titanic: Gary War makes an appearance in Berlin once a year and it’s always a nice rencontre. Read our review from the time when he supported John Maus.

Sunday

• Dent May at Monarch (Matinée show): If you gladly miss out on Hurts and Glasvegas at Velodrom (and we gladly do), then a sweet dance afternoon at Monarch must be your dream (it is ours). Dent May may have shed his Ukulele but he still sings a sweet tune. Read our last review of Dent May at Monarch and join us for afternoon tea this Sunday at 4 pm.

Review: No Age + Sun And The Wolf

There are times when you need reminding how much and why you loved a band, heck - even a genre, in the first place. And there are times when you need a really good kick-in-the-ass rock out dance session. Last night, we got both. 

When Sun And The Wolf came on, I was happy to note that the sound was rather good, which couldn't be said for my previous two visits to Privatclub. I was also surprised to find that SATW came across rather forceful and energetic. Unfortunately, after a few songs, I got bored again. It might be my well-documented short attention span or the lack of a charismatic front person, but they lost me after a couple of numbers and by the end I was exhausted from their guitar doodling. This I noticed when the DJ played a nice poppy tune afterwards and my brain got a well-deserved break.

No Age, on the other hand, had my full attention from the word go. This, however, was delayed by a live played intro of ambient sounds before the drum would kick in and eventually guitar-drum-rock-out-mayhem would take over. The crowd was not shy. And No Age were not holding back either. There was dancing, there was shouting, the band were telling jokes, pointing out people's taste in t-shirts, were laughing.

While musically, the duo delivered exactly what was expected of them, bar a couple of numbers with bass-guitar-combination, which broke up the set a bit, it was their persona that made the evening special. The music was great, the energy was fantastic, the dancing was fun. It was all spurred on by two smiling musicians on stage, who would not take themselves so darn serious, despite obviously having grown up somewhat since their humble beginnings as "the new indie punk thing" years ago. The tales they told, the smiles they gave - it was all that was needed for the audience to go wild with joy. Dance was their reward.

No Age thanked the audience by playing extra long, exhausting the club curfew. And nobody complained. Instead, there was the silent wish that we could do it all again tomorrow. A hot favourite in my top of the year list.

Halloween Competition: Total Heels + The Fingers

Don't know what to do on Halloween's night yet? Here we have a little something for you: 

Send us an e-mail to win@thecraze.de until Wednesday 6pm and tell us what your favorite costume is. The winner will get a guestlist spot +1 for Total Heels and The Fingers at bei Ruth on Thursday (see the facebook event here). Listen to some Total Heels tunes below.

Preview: the week ahead (28th Oct - 3rd Nov)

It's nearly November but still nice enough to walk around the park without your winter jacket. It's also another week full of nice and diverse live music.

Monday

Sabar - A night of West-African drumming: Well this sounds interesting, another night based on drums and percussions. There will be six artists performing on different drum instruments such as the Saba ‘a single-skin drum and the ruling instrument in Senegalese traditional and popular music’. Have a look at the facebook event page for more info about the artists.

No Age at Privatclub: It’s been exactly three years since No Age graced our town with the presence last and, yes, we have been missing them very much. The hype might be over but a brilliant band is a brilliant band. C* may have enjoyed them at Festsaal back in the day (read our review here), but nothing beats this group in a small venue. Alright! Here is that infamous Letterman performance again. Watch it twice in a row and get revved up:

Tuesday

Hard Skin and Bite the Bullet at Cortina Bob: Read our last review of these London Oi! boys and prepare for mayhem at Cortina Bob this seemingly quiet Tuesday night.

Austra at Heimathafen: Another season, another Austra show. In fact Monday’s performance of the Canadian talent has been sold out long ago. But Tuesday can still be yours. Gary and C* will be there. Of course they will!

Wednesday

Classic Muscle and Delta Love at Monarch: Classic Muscle are a new group on the scene, a little shoegazey, a little pop, a little rock’n’roll. C* is intrigued and you can buy her a drink at Monarch this Wednesday. Delta Love headline btw and we have previewed them before, too.

Thursday

Total Heels and The Fingers at bei Ruth: Total Heels is an american/danish band featuring Jason Orlovich, the singer and guitarist of Polite Sleeper plus people from Lack. They play something completely different than their other bands and take a turn to a more garage-punk approach. Their music sound full of energy and will definitely make you dance. Support will be the Berlin based minimalistic lo-fi punk band The Fingers. This is their second show but the song samples on their soundcloud page sound pretty interesting. Seems like a nice way to spend your Halloween night! We'll also start a competition tomorrow so keep your eyes open.

Anklepants, Föllakzoid and Günther Schickert at NK: Another nice Halloween party with an interesting mix of experimental music. Anklepants is a guy with a controllable penis mask, playing and performing to dark electronic music. Check out the videos on NKs event info site, his performance is pretty interesting and unique. Föllakzoid is a band from Chile which released a new record on Sacred Bones recently. They play repetitive and minimalistic krautrock and post-rock influenced music. Think of current bands like Maserati but less dancy. Günther Schickert is the third act of the night. You may know him for supporting already mentioned Maserati live or as a Krautrock original - his 1974 released Samtvogel record is still pretty well-known.

Lovers at Südblock: Did we not love their show at West Germany last time? Yes, we did. Another chance for you with and to this lady pop trio.

Julian Sartorious: Beat Diary at Monarch: Got really hyped up about drumming on Monday? Julian Sartorious is sure keep you moving then at cosy Monarch this Thursday. Danceable and inspirational.

Friday
Juana Molina at HAU1: Juana Molina plays psychedelic folk oriented fluffy music that sounds a bit like a mixture of Cat Power and Eels. If you’re in for a dreamy concert experience in a beautiful theater setting, this is for you.

Review: Colin Stetson + Holger Hiller

Despite its reputation as a techno/electro venue, Berghain to me is the perfect location for certain bands and artists. Colin Stetson playing there a few days ago was one of them and his performance was deeply impressive and inspiring.

Holger Hiller started to play just moments after I entered the rather sparsely filled room. He and his supporting bandmate stood behind a table and besides the two musicians, their laptops and an analog synthesizer there was not much to be seen. Their set sounded pretty interesting in the beginning. Musically it was a mixture of minimalistic electronic beats and distinctive 80s elements combined with Hiller's characteristic vocals. What I liked about their set was that he managed to keep many influences of his band Palais Schaumburg vividly alive in his current music without simply sounding "retro". What I didn't like though was their performance itself. I just find looking at two people 'hiding' behind their laptops so boring to look at that I couldn't watch their whole set and went to look for some friends.

We stayed around the bar until there were first signs of Colin Stetson's show to start soon. It didn't take that much time to carry the table away and Stetson's huge bass saxophone was already on stage during Holger Hiller's set, reminding everyone of what was going to happen next. Colin Stetson came on stage, buckled his saxophone harness on and put a sort of collar with built-in throat microphone around his neck. Without any further soundchecking or intermissions he started to play and right from the beginning this was truly amazing.