Preview addition: Civil Civic

Dear friends of The Craze. If you are a regular follower, you will know my undying love for Civil Civic. Well, I found out yesterday (!) that they are playing Urban Spree this Thursday (!!). Read my review from last time they hit Berlin at Kantine and meet me at Urban Spree on Thursday. Bring your best friend and your best dance moves!

Late review: Civil Civic + Slow Steve

Honest to god, I was absolutely convinced that I had written this review forever ago. Going through my open drafts, I realise that this has been left unwritten to this point. So here goes something.

Since his support gig for PTTRNS, Rémi "Fenster" had doubled the members of his project Slow Steve. It was now a two-piece. Musically, things remained the same though, with atmospheric dancable pop being the product and a sense of humour lighting up the vocal performance. Enjoyable and appealing to a wide audience, I reckon this neat little project could go somewhere far, although I have been told that the grouping was only temporary and that it's back to a one-piece now.


For Civil Civic I had high hopes. Their album is an absolute all-time favourite mine. It is my most listened to record in the car and one that always picks me up when my energy is low. It is what I like to dance to in my living room, too. Having been gravely disappointed by their previous performance at Marie-Antoinette due to sound troubles, the excitement for this show was mounting as I was expecting to finally receive my just and proper Civil Civic dance extravaganza.

Disappointed I was not. The duo and their instrumental bass-drum-machine-guitar numbers got people moving and shouting, made my heart jump. And we laughed, too. For all I know, this evening could have lasted forever but Civil Civic had to end their set at some point and we had another gig to attend - Dat Politics and Otto von Schirach were not going to wait for us. That's another story.

May my beloved Civil Civic return at their earliest convience, ideally with a new album in tow please.

Competition: Civil Civic + Slow Steve = wonderful Thursday

Two-piece bands have a certain magic, an electricity between band members, that other projects can't ever match, even when they try. This Thursday sees two such duos hit Kantine am Berghain: Civil Civic and Slow Steve. The latter play first, getting you dancing, the former will continue the jigging energy but throw in some loud rock.

Whoa, we are so excited! So much so, we are sharing the love: Write to us by end of day Wednesday (win@thecraze.de), telling us the coolest band duo you can think of, and you could win two tickets to this Thursday's event. And you know you want it, you need it!

Win and rock out with C* to something like this:

Review: Civil Civic + Camera

There was me telling you how I will not leave reviews for long after the gig in future. And here is me writing a review two weeks past the show date. What happened? Basically, I've been avoiding this review because it's hard to write reviews that are not entirely positive, especially when you are writing about one of your favourite bands.

I was ever so excited to see Civil Civic in concert. Literally months of anticipated led up the night. On our way to Marie-Antoinette early, we wanted to attempt the near impossible and see two shows in one night - one in Friedrichshain, one in Neukölln. We're ambitious like that but chips and burgers came between setting a personal best for gig attendance and being slackers.

Marie-Antoinette was filled nicely at the relatively early hour that we arrived. It looked like people were looking forward to seeing local outfit Camera play. It's always nice to see local bands getting the audience's support and indeed Camera received appreciation and cheers. Now, they weren't all my thing, so I won't go in to that too much, but they are basically a post rock outfit with repetitive melodies and long songs that build sound scapes. 

Civil Civic are one of the best contemporary bands, hands down, and their album, released this month, is a gem not to be missed. I listen to this album at least 3 times a week, often more. I can't grow sick of it. If you are not familiar with Civil Civic, let me tell you that on paper, it sounds odd, in reality the concept works remarkably. They use a drum machine and play bass lines and guitar riffs over this and stay entirely instrumental at that. No vocals. It's extremely dancable but at the same time rocking and experimental at times. Just go get the album. You won't regret it and you'll thank me for nagging you.

Now, what I didn't realise before this show, was the dependency by such a band on the sound they were getting out of the PA. How would I? I know little about these things. Apart from a mixing desk work shop at AZ Aachen, I have no experience or knowledge of sound set ups or outputs. However, I do know when the sound is bad or inappropriate for the music that's being played. I simply spend too much time in venues, listening to live music. I'm not fussy but I know what's wrong. And I guess you figured it out by now: I wasn't happy with the sound Civil Civic were getting that night. It turns out, if you rely that heavily on a good drum machine sound and if the bass needs to be dominant and the guitar needs to be perfect, a venue with the kind of set up that Marie-Anoinette has won't cut it. Civil Civic didn't sound like Civil Civic. Civil Civic weren't powerful. Civil Civic gave their all, being as wonderful as they are, but they just couldn't deliver the goods that we were promised from the record.

The crowd wasn't getting into it. The power was lacking. Our built up excitment was being deflated with a big pop from the moment the show started.

And I can't help but believe that this was not Civil Civic's, or actually anybody's, fault. Maybe Marie-Antoinette was simply the wrong venue for this group. I like Marie-Antoinette, the size, the atmosphere, and usually the sound. But this just didn't work. The cute boys in Civil Civic are still my favourites and I still listen to the album every week and I cannot wait until they return and we all get a second chance!

We left early, disheartened, and hurried to make our way to bei Roy to catch Digger Barnes doing his magic, but as mentioned before, we got distracted by a craving for the Burgermeister and ended up arrving at bei Roy the minute Digger played his very last chord. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Overall, the night was exciting and fun in its own way, but it wasn't the night we were looking forward to.