Review: Berlin Festival Day 1

When the price for the +1 VIP ticket that I had been promised was doubled, I should have guessed that something was up. And as soon as I arrived onsite, it was apparent that not enough tickets had been sold to really fill up the festival. To my surprise, this didn't impair the energy of the festival. 

Berlin Festival is the only festival I actually like. It's independent from weather, you don't need wellington boots (although some girls chose to wear those anyway), it's eco-friendly compared to a lot of festivals, the food is amazing and the line-up is always great. And only bands that have played Berlin Festival can say they've performed in Hitler's airport. That's some claim to fame I guess.

But really, the whole setting of a listed airport building and the crowd that shows up (few drunk people, lots of dancing) just make this an experience I enjoy.

the craze affiliate G. Walker photographing live art

When I arrived in the late afternoon, I first stumbled into the Yelle gig, which is basically two drumming session musicians and a French girl singing / dancing. It was OK but kind of too average pop for me, so we ventured to see The Rapture. Now, I remember when they were on Gravity records and released an album that sounded exactly like The Cure, from start to finish. These days, they do a funky dance thing with percussion, similar to Radio 4. I have seen Radio 4 live and they are an amazing live band, with a lot of energy. The Rapture didn't impress me nearly as much. I can see this working in a club setting, but on a big festival stage, this just didn't really catch my attention enough. We went for a cup of tea instead, after we had caught a little bit of Rainbow Arabia (drummer, keyboard player and American girl singing / dancing) and Oh Land (drummer, keyboard player and Danish girl singing / dancing). By that point I had kind of given up on independent music: was this all this was - backing tracked pop music?

Luckily, there are indie pop gems like The Drums out there. They are too sweet and pop for some, but I appreciate them. While they had already delivered the goods at Lovebox festival (see my review), they really convinced at Berlin Festival. I thoroughly enjoyed their performance, which was attended by a large crowd. The sound was better and the energy and humour of the band really carried across. I almost didn't want to leave the set half-way through but I basically didn't have a choice because my favourite band was about to play...

Health

Remember how I referred to Lightning Bolt as a band that makes me emotional? Well, it goes even a little further with HEALTH. It's almost a physical feeling. And after all that dance pop, their noise intro really shook not just me but the entire crowd I think. We all needed some serious guitar noise, in your face rock. And as an added bonus, Health are more danceable than most of the dance bands that had played so far that day. The beauty of a Health gig is their ability to build up from song to song. It starts OK but by the 5th song, people are going insane, almost trancelike. Health played 40 minutes instead of the allocated hour (not that anyone expected them to play a full hour) and I left exhausted but happy. I made my way across to catch the last two songs of CSS, only to be disappointed. CSS had blown my mind in Pomona but this time round, the sound was weak and the performance mediocre. I suspect that CSS are just not a festival band, or maybe it was an unlucky day. I needed dinner - chips "Schranke".

Battles

Chips in hand, we checked out Battles, who were playing the main stage. I hadn't expected that and wondered whether they could pull it off. Could they! Battles' performance was a lot stronger than the one at Festsaal. Eccentrics that they are, a big crowd probably suits them just fine. The reception was good and a lot of dancing was the result. The only shame was that the light show onstage clashed with the video projections that Battles use instead of a live singer these days. Oh well.

We skipped Primal Scream (I saw them perform Screamadelica when it came out and it didn't impress me then) and hung out with our friends in Austra and some very bony fish backstage instead. But we made sure not to miss Suede, because, let's face it, who didn't dance to Beautiful People in 1996? But some things are better left alone. Brett Anderson could not hit the notes this time round and killed all the hits, while the rest of the band was lifeless. We left after three songs, which is totally unlike me.

Highlights of the day: Health, The Drums, Battles. Chai tea lounge. Live art. Mobile Disco (a disco on a movable platform that goes around the festival, being followed by dancers. Brilliant).

A photo exhibition onsite adding the Berlin's tourism debate

Review: Battles

This was the first gig I went to without a jacket on this year. And I saw a fox cross the street on my way to the venue. Kids, spring is here. 

I arrived a little late for the gig and missed Oval (which played first, to my surprise). Because of the mild weather, the courtyard of Festsaal was so crowded I could hardly get into the venue. To my surprise it didn't feel nearly as crowded inside when the band played. It was pretty easy to get to a good viewing position, so I situated myself in front of the stage, and the speakers. The latter had a serious effect on my gig experience because the sound was very deep and drony and my body vibrated from the bass.

"You know when you watched Star Wars as a kid and thought that the band playing those weird sounds was absolutely preposterous? That's kind of what Battles do." 

My friend is clever. Even Zitty failed to describe Battles' sound and my friend hit the nail on the head when he drew that comparison. While Battles' music is still pretty suitable for the masses, it's also such a mix of styles and ideas that it's challenging the listener to think outside of his known categories. And although the first few recordings were very experimental, they have by now evolved into a dance music band. It's as if you mixed early !!! tunes with the drums of Shellac and threw in some world music. Then, on the newest record, they've added different guest vocalists, thus giving each song its own character through that, too.

Live, the band performed as the three-piece as we expected (having recently parted ways with their fourth member): A bass player, a legendary drummer and an IT-freak who uses his laptop as an effect machine on various pieces of electronic equipment as well as his guitar. Just watching the band play is amazing because it's so unconventional. Because they currently don't have a set singer, they used video panels which showed films of the guest vocalists singing. And that made me realise that the songs are not nearly as spontaneous and improvised as they appear, or the filmed vocals wouldn't fit the songs so well that you could imagine they were sung live. For a short period of the set, a singer did actually appear on stage but I wasn't too impressed. He somehow seemed out of place.
 
The set was fairly short and only featured new songs. They played none of the old hits, possibly because of the departure of the singer of those, and in my eyes that was a shame. The new songs lack some of the energy and weirdness of previous recordings, but I did enjoy myself and I danced. And although in my eyes, this gig wasn't nearly as good as the one at Berghain, I'm still glad I went. And who knows, once they find a new singer, this trio might take their music to yet another level and we might all flock out to see them again next time and be amazed. It may just be possible when the three geniuses that are Battles do their magic.

Fake to Real

When I woke up this morning, glad that I have finally started this blog, I suddenly remembered that I once got a guest list space at Berghain by pretending to be a freelance journalist. I really badly wanted to see Battles play and had no money and figured that it might as well start off my career as a music journalist. Needless to say the career never took off but the gig was truly amazing. Berghain's Panorama Bar makes for a wonderful concert venue, I was in awe at its beauty, and Battles didn't disappoint. They could have skipped the bad jokes in favour of a song or two more but musically, their performances are inspiring, to say the least. And incredibly good to dance to.

Well, who would have guessed that a year on I do indeed write about music, even if it's in a slightly less sophisticated manner than I had imagined, and not in print.

c*