Late Review: Chain and The Gang

As it was an entertaining and well-received show, I thought I should do a quick late review.

One of the warmest nights in June, this was another sweaty gig in cosy little Privatclub, which was quite packed that night.

The Opener was Skiing. A Berlin-based trio very much influenced by 50s rock'n'roll. You may be familiar with them as they seem to play frequently around town. Their rather dreamy and tame poppy sound rather reminded me of some good '77 power pop on record. Live, however, it was sped up and a lot of the songs turned into fast punk rock numbers. The very high and juvenile vocals by the singer/guitarist as well as of the backing drummer are quite impressive. I do not think many grown-ups manage to sing that boyish. It can even be a little intimidating. At the end of the show, an audience member entered the stage and played some sing-a-longs with one band member. I have no clue whether this was spontaneous or planned and what exact covers they played. My bottom line: Entertaining yes, musically okayish.

More people filled the small room when Chain and the Gang entered the stage. Nicely uniformed all dressed in the same silver glitter rock jackets, I pittied them immediately as they must have sweated heavily (hope the tour money pays for some extra dry-cleaning). Ian Svenonimus, mastermind behind the group, reminded me of Jerry Lewis as the nutty professor. Like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Ian was and is a polarizing person, a love or hate figure. He was dancing and jumping on the stage, but it all goes along with the music, which is energetic rock'n'roll infused by bluesy parts and gospel-like backround choirs. Overall a convincing concept that worked out very well.

Like a soul or gospel singer, Ian is an entertainer who communicates with the audience to lead over to the next song. And even this communication worked well with tonight's audience, which was rather cosmopolitan, as well as willign to follow the master of the ceremony. Most songs started low with spoken word parts and sparse instrumentation. Then the guitars and keyboards would enter the mix, and it would climax in a soul explosion. People would dance wildly, enjoyment all over their faces. Well done!

I left early but right at time before the nice shower-gel smell of my frontman vanished and the thin air was filled with some more unpleasant smells. It was a quite extra-ordinary performance, I think they convince with a cool retro-rock'n'roll sound which is not dusted and highly entertaining.

Quick review: INVSN (+ Against Me!)

A few weeks back, INVSN invited me to their show at Lido in support of Against Me!. Naturally, I complied.

In my Refused review I have elaborated on my relationship to and love for those Northern Swedes, so need to go into detail here again. INVSN is a multiple reincarnation of Dennis Lyxzén's (Refused, International Noise Conspiracy) original solo project The Lost Patrol Band -> Invasionen -> INVSN. Since 1999, the project has gone from singer-songerwriter melancholy to punky pop to Swedish indie to wavey rock'n'roll, the current sound. It's evidently an outlet for Mr. Lyxzén to showcase whatever he feels like and with whomever he feels like at a particular moment in time.

I have always enjoyed this project and its many forms but the current line-up and sound is by far the best yet. Not only that, it is also refreshingly current and well-written. The album is an absolute favourite of mine at the moment. However, this was not so until I saw them perform the songs live the other day. With six people on stage, a lot more raw rock'n'roll, and an extrovert frontman performance, this was one of the best live shows I have seen so far this year. I was thoroughly enjoying myself and so were the two teenagers I had with me that evening. Since then, INVSN is played on my record player rather frequently.

It goes to show that live music is still the way to discover music. The emotion it evokes can make you feel so much closer to the music and its performers. It's the way I discovered punk and hc, the way I discovered garage rock.

The best part of the evening was seeing my friends of course and seeing the very positive response they got from the Against Me! crowd, many of whom were turned to fans that night, no doubt.

If you want to know what the Against Me! gig was like, read my review from last time - though some band members have changed (incidentally, the former bass player of International Noise Conspiracy is now the bass player for Against Me!), the show was pretty much the same.

Competition: Ratttengold + Safi at SO36

If you are remotely into Deutschpunk, the name Jens Rachut will ring a bell. If not so, the names of his numerous bands from the last 30 years will makes things clearer: Angeschissen, Blumen am Arsch der Hölle, Dackelblut, Oma Hans, Kommando Sonne-nmilch, N.R.F.B. The earlier of these bands definitely gave direction to many many following bands and remain to be important reference points to many people. 

Unfortunately though, most of these bands only existed for a relatively limited stretch of time, Rachut has a habit of breaking up bands just to start new ones with slightly different line-ups. Now after he played a great one-time reunion show with Oma Hans at SO36 this year, he'll return to the same location this Saturday (June 28th) to do something pretty neat. He's going to perform songs from most of his former bands together with Ratttengold, a line-up of people who used to play in these exact bands: Andreas Ness, Armin Nagel and Wieland Krämer.

Thanks to SO36, we're giving away two guest list spots for you +1. All you have to do to win one of these is send us an e-mail to win@thecraze.de until Friday (June 27th, 6pm) and tell us your name. We'll randomly select two winners and let them know via e-mail.

3 Points Review: Pink Mountaintops

1) Reminded me of The Rolling Stones, minus Mick Jagger, but with J. Mascis and his distortion. Not necessarily what I expected, with many hippie-ish acoustic videos to watch online. But it was good, no doubt, albeit a little middle-of-the-road sounding.

2) Third-best bassplayer dance moves I have seen, the first two winners of course being the bassplayers of PTTRNS and Health.

3) It was way too hot to stay for more than 5 songs. Considering this, the turnup was not bad at all.

Competition: Tragedy + PISS + Mülltüte at SO36

Presale tickets for this show are already running short so if you're planning on seeing Tragedy, PISS and Mülltüte at SO36 on June 18th you've got two options: Hurry up and buy a ticket or take part in our competition and win 2x2 spots on the guest list!

All you have to do to win is send us an e-mail to win@thecraze.de until next Tuesday, June 17th at 6pm and make up one (in the best case scenario funny or creative) sentence that contains the words Tragedy, Piss and Mülltüte. 

Preview addition I: Lower + UV Glaze

A quick treat for you: This Thursday, Monarch is turning into a punk den with Danish quartet Lower gracing Berlin with its presence. These guys are punk, but you know, accessible. Think late 70s, early 80s punk à la Joy Division. Intense stuff. They are signed to prestigious indie label Matador, which has proven good taste and taken a chance on punk and HC music for a while now. UV Glaze supporting and these regulars seldomly disappoint. An all-round promising night at Monarch and the perfect opportunity to avoid the football madness. See you there!