Competition: Thee Oh Sees

Oh yeah, less than a week to go, oh yeah. Are we excited! We are? Yes, we are! 27 August, Berghain, Thee Oh Sees, Dance.

You (and your friend, lover, precious enemy you cannot stay away from) could be lucky and join us for this show with the highest gig-of-the-year-potential, and little chance of a let down, by entering our stunning competition.

Easy as pie: Tell us by Tuesday midday (that's 12 pm), 26 August 2014, the most wildest and possibly destructive show you have ever been to. Sure, you can back this up with evidence, too. Why not. It might get you browny points. But it's not really necessary, we believe you and all.The competition email address is still win at thecraze dot de

Let the rubmle begin!

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.

Review: Thee Oh Sees

Oh wow! Just oh wow!

Once again, there was too much going on in Berlin on a single night. For me, the question was Marie-Antoinette or West Germany? Eric Copeland and Prince Rama or Thee Oh Sees? A friend who called decided it for me. With a date and no expectations whatsoever I made my way to West Germany, passing by Festsaal and people who were there to see Anika (see J.'s review).

When you hang out at the same venues a lot, you sort of get to know most faces that attend every event the way you do. And you notice the unfamiliar ones. When I arrived at the packed venue, I immediately noticed a couple of heavily tatooed guys that I had never seen before and that looked different to the rest of the crowd and very interesting to me. They turned out to be 50% of Thee Oh Sees. I didn't give it much more thought until the band hit the stage later on and I made the connection. But it underlines the charisma of this group. 

I missed most of Admiral Black and what I heard didn't sound like I would get into it too much, it being too much standard rock for me. But from what I gathered some people were into it.

Let's have another one of those moments of honesty at this stage. For the first couple of songs I wasn't getting into Thee Oh Sees really. It kind of sounded like ordinary garage rock and I couldn't figure out what the fuss was about. But wow, each song that the band played it got better and better. By the time we got half-way through the set the entire room was dancing. And sweating. I don't think it's ever been this hot at West Germany. And I'm sure this helped the overall atmosphere, in an uncomfortable way. Thee Oh Sees played the 60s influenced stripped down garage songs with such a power and furiousity, it was so very wild. The band didn't go crazy on stage or anything, the high-pitched singing wasn't ferocious, it was simply the music carrying a power I have not experienced in this way before. And pair this with a very hot sweaty room in which everyone is dancing and what you get is a wild party. 

I stood on a beer crate to see anything. Being small in a full venue limits your view somehow.

I left before an encore, finally needing fresh air, and before parts of the ceiling were falling down. I got a chill outside in the breeze with my wet clothes on. It felt as if I'd just been thrown this very hot moment, just to be dipped into a bucket of ice straight after. On my way home I tried to remember how all of this came about being such a crazy evening in the end. But I couldn't remember. It must have been the magic of Thee Oh Sees.