Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts - Willie Nelson & Family - Live 2026.09.24 Highmark Mann, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I missed Neil Young in Berlin last year, although I happened to be on the Teufelsberg that evening and could hear it wafting over. When I listened to a bootleg recording, his voice seemed rough and the band seemed a bit worn out. I was still sad I missed it. It’s usually better in person.

This show was opportune given previously-made travel arrangements. I got lucky, as Neil hasn’t toured in a year, and this was just one of two warm-up shows leading up to Farm Aid. I arrived too late to see any of the opening set from 19-year-old viral country pop star Ty Myers, but I don’t think I missed much. I did have the pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson & Family. Willie is 93 years old and looks and sounds it, but he was still warm and vibrant.

The name of the backing group can be taken literally, in that Nelson’s son Micah now plays guitar and provides backing and even some lead vocals. Waylon Payne, son of longtime Family member Jody Payne, also does the same. The group also includes longstanding members Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Billy English (drums), and Kevin Smith (double bass).

The band did a lot of work to lift up Willie, who is clearly aging, although he still tours regularly. He’s frail, a bit like Johnny Cash on his last albums. His voice is thin but still works. He’s given up on rhythm guitar, but still plays leads on his acoustic. His style has become clipped and loose, but it was still great to see him go for it. Micah and Payne filled in a lot of the gaps. Payne sang lead on two covers and Micah played three songs, one of which he’d cowritten with his dad (“Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven)”), a humorous but heartfelt song about Willie’s well-known habit. Another was “Everything Is Bullshit”, a solo song with a darker, heavier edge that still retained a touch of humor, particularly in Willie’s “bullshit” echoes.

The band rolled through songs at an incredible pace. They packed in 21 songs in just over an hour. Micah’s were highlights, but so was the Tom Waits cover “Last Leaf”, a touching song about aging. “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” made for a rousing crowd singalong. Neil Young came out for his duet part on “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” (changing a lyric to reference data centers), and Myers and Philly native Kurt Vile came out to sing along on the medley of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away”.

I loved the collaborative nature of the set, particularly that the band traded parts and seemed genuinely comfortable and fluid with one another on stage. I wish I’d seen Willie when he was younger and sprier, but this was a noble path for him to take. He’s still the star, but he’s graceful about his band’s support.

[Willie Nelson & Family.]

Neil Young appeared with his recent touring band The Chrome Hearts, which is basically old hand Spooner Oldham and half of Promise of the Real. Ironically that included Micah but not his older brother Lukas, who founded and led POTR. For most of the set, Neil played acoustic guitar or piano, and with Spooner on keys and Micah also frequently on acoustic guitar or piano, they were less intense than when I saw Young with POTR in 2019. They had more of a country rock feel, and at least initially stuck to that side of the back catalog. (When I first saw Neil in Dallas in 2014, he played solo acoustic, so I was happy to witness a different configuration.) Bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo rounded out the band.

“Long May You Run” was a beautiful opener, and “Human Highway” is also one of my favorites. “Comes a Time” was yet another solid classic that I’d not yet seen him do. “Casting Me Away from You” from Neil’s brand-new album Second Songs was written in the 60s well before even Buffalo Springfield, and while it wasn’t too sophisticated, hearing the line “we found things to do in stormy weather” that he later reused in “Long May You Run” was cute. “Earth Girl”, a new song from the new album, was somewhat bland and by-the-numbers.

After some greatest hits, we were treated to a fantastic, rare, full-band version of “After the Gold Rush”, with Neil playing the solo on harmonica. Then he finally picked up his electric guitar (Old Black) and tore into “Powderfinger”. It rocked. Neil played lengthy solos for an extended, roaring rendition. “Roll Another Number” was a delight, with the crowd singing along about as much as they had for “Heart of Gold”. The encore opened with the brooding but still relevant “Living with War”, but Neil lifted the mood by closing on “Rockin’ in the Free World”, this time without multiple fakeout endings.

This was a great show. “Old Man” was just a bit sloppy, and Neil’s voice on “Living with War” was rough, although that kind of fit. Otherwise, they were in strong form. I was worried they’d be out of practice, but they sounded fresh. We also got a longer set than the prior show, and both bands had shorter sets at Farm Aid a couple days later. Willie might be a little worn down, but I appreciated his easygoing charm. And Neil isn’t slowing down at all!

[Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts. Not the best picture, I know.]

Willie Nelson & Family’s setlist:
01. Whiskey River [Johnny Bush cover]
02. Stay a Little Longer [Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys cover]
03. Still Is Still Moving to Me
04. Bloody Mary Morning
05. I Never Cared for You
06. Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven) [cowritten and lead vocals by Micah]
07. Workin’ Man Blues [Merle Haggard cover, lead vocals by Waylon Payne]
08. Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys [Ed Bruce cover]
09. Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
10. On the Road Again
11. You Were Always on My Mind [Gwen McCrae cover]
12. Good Hearted Woman [Waylon Jennings cover]
13. Georgia on My Mind [Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra cover]
14. Help Me Make It Through the Night [Kris Kristofferson cover, lead vocals by Waylon Payne]
15. Everything Is Bullshit [Particle Kid cover, lead vocals by Micah]
16. Last Leaf [Tom Waits cover]
17. Are There Any More Real Cowboys? [Neil Young cover, with Neil Young]
18. I Thought About You, Lord [lead vocals by Micah]
19. Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die
20. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? [Ada R. Habershon/Charles H. Gabriel cover] → I’ll Fly Away [Albert E. Brumley cover, with Kurt Vile and Ty Myers]
21. I Saw the Light [instrumental outro; Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys cover]

Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts’ setlist:
01. Long May You Run
02. Human Highway
03. Comes a Time
04. Casting Me Away from You
05. Earth Girl
06. Old Man
07. Heart of Gold
08. Daddy Went Walkin’
09. Harvest Moon
10. After the Gold Rush
11. Powderfinger
12. Roll Another Number (For the Road)

Encore:
13. Living with War
14. Rockin’ in the Free World

Scores:
Willie Nelson & Family: B
Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts: A

P.S. This was the first time I’ve ever seen the line to the men’s bathroom far outstretching the one for the women.

P.P.S. Thanks to the Hammons-Murphy family!

Buzz Kull / Kontravoid / Normal Bias - Live 2026.09.20 Saint Vitus, Brooklyn, New York

A friend recommended this show while I was in town and it sounded like a good time. The beloved metal bar has recently reopened in a new space, although this was more of a darkwave night. I failed to pack black and felt conspicuous in a pink top.

Normal Bias opened. I liked their synth-goth atmosphere even if it leaned a little too hard on Depeche Mode. The singer was good and even had Gahan’s powerful baritone. The one other member, less stylish, handled the electronics in the back. I wished there was a little more complexity in their music, but I could move to it.

[Normal Bias.]

After a lengthy DJ break came Kontravoid, a solo synth performer. In a haze of fog machines and delirious strobe lights, he barely touched his desk and mostly just harshly shouted into his mic. The intensity only picked up as he went along. A few songs had hints of pop that were consistently crushed by the aggression. Friends told me this was not what they expected given his studio recordings. I found his industrial jungle too abrasive, although I still could dance to it. What else was there to do? I couldn’t understand the words.

The headliner was Buzz Kull, the solo act of Marc Dwyer. He had a little more personality and balanced the beats better with texture. I heard a bit of Skinny Puppy. Dwyer was more involved in his synth rig and used thick effects on his vocals. I wished I could’ve understood him better, too, but he played the best set of the night. The venue has clearly invested in a good sound (and light) setup, but the perennial problem of unclear vocals was still an issue. Or is that just the genre?

[Buzz Kull.]

Scores:
Normal Bias: B-
Kontravoid: D
Buzz Kull: B

P.S. Thanks to Keagan and Chris!

Emotional Alcemy: An Interview with Laurentius the Profit

I saw Laurentius the Profit perform on a rooftop bar in Tempelhof in May and was immediately stunned by her dexterous, luminous voice. She spoke of an album recorded while living in a cave church in Turkey, and she also had written a book. Both are titled FUCK LIFE — When On High and are available on Bandcamp here. I listened to the album first, and the sound of the cave pulled me in. The beautiful, long reverb rings out her bitter, wandering, entrancing melodies. Listening closer and then reading the book, I could feel pain seeping from her words. I heard a need to escape, to feel real freedom, to find new meanings and a new place in life after a long stretch of darkness. Her work is metaphysical and mysterious, like being caught in a labyrinth you don’t understand any of the rules to, but it searches for patterns and past wisdom to make sense of the world after emerging from a dungeon. I had so many questions, so I reached out for an interview. You can read some of our conversation on Bandcamp Daily here.

International Music / Gregor - Live 2026.08.22 Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

When International Music announced a new show in Berlin without a larger tour announcement, I wondered if this was going to be something special, perhaps a way to introduce new material to gear up for a tour. The former wasn’t the case, and the latter doesn’t appear to be; but it was Peter’s birthday, which received significant musical attention from Pedro and the crowd.

I saw the band last year at Immergut when their 2024 album Endless Rüttenscheid was a little fresher, and they unsurprisingly played quite a bit of the album then. To my surprise, at this show it was just a few songs, about as much as from Ententraum (2021). The real focus was on the debut, Die besten Jahre (2018), from which they played almost the entire album. I suppose that is still the crowd favorite, but I missed the psychedelia of Rüttenscheid.

By and large, the songs they chose were great, so it’s hard to complain. The only real dud was “Tür”, a harder and more aggressive song, although it was apparently specifically requested by email. A few others like “Du Hund” and “Mama warum” didn’t speak to me much and felt a bit indulgent, but “Farbiges Licht”, “Metallmädchen”, and the Rüttenscheid songs were all bangers. I enjoyed the harmonies, particularly on “Country Girl” and “Immer mehr”. The latter also had a great open, jammy feeling that let the musicians explore the space, as did “Lass es ziehen”. I was (naturally) entranced by Pedro’s bass, particularly the great tone he got with just fuzz and chorus pedals.

I could tell the band hadn’t played much lately; they were just a bit loose. That said, it kind of worked. They were clearly having fun and were in an upbeat, playful mood. Even when they missed a line or had to restart “Lass es ziehen”, it didn’t feel like a problem, but rather just part of the spontaneity that kept it lively and engaging. They also acknowledged that a certain Ludwig was adding a tape delay effect to the vocals and guitar from the mixing board. It was really well done and never overpowered the mix or went awry. That was a small thing but it added a little extra spice to the songs.

There was an opener, Gregor, but I didn’t like his simple muzak backing tracks or his half-baked melodies. I struggled to keep my focus. He certainly provided a contrast to International Music’s spark!

[International Music.]

Approximate setlist:
01. Pfeffer
02. Fehler
03. Country Girl
04. Mont St. Michel
05. Cool bleiben
06. Nebel
07. Raus ausm Zoo
08. Du Hund
09. Misery
10. Tür
11. Immer mehr
12. Farbiges Licht
13. Daddy Is Rich
14. Lass es ziehen

Encore 1:
15. Kneipe
16. Liebesformular
17. Metallmädchen

Encore 2:
18. Mama warum
19. Für alles

Scores:
Gregor: D
International Music: A-

P.S. Thanks to Tim!

John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt - 17th Klangwechsel 2026.08.05

In Halberstadt, a sleepy but pretty town in eastern Germany, an organ is playing a 639-year-long rendition of a John Cage composition. It’s not in the big cathedral in the center of town, nor in the other big churches nearby, almost all of which have mighty organs. It’s a little walk further, past the splendid half-timbered houses, in a former Cistercian cloister that was secularized in Napoleon’s wake in 1810. On August 5th, among election campaign posters that spoke of deportation in openly racist terms, most of the sparse pedestrian population appeared to be tourists. Some were there to admire the parts of the city that weren’t bombed to bits in 1945 when the surrounded Nazis wouldn’t surrender, but most came for the same reason I was there: a Klangwechsel, a chord change. The last one was in February 2024. They don’t happen often. The name of the piece is ORGAN²/ASLSP, where “ASLSP” stands for “as slow as possible”, and that instruction is taken quite literally.

[The Burchardi-Kirche.]

I came early with a couple friends who were there for the last one. The night before, we caught the free concert put on by the John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt, the volunteer-led organization that keeps the organ running. The last time around, they did a similar event in the cathedral featuring a shorter version of ORGAN²/ASLSP. This time they assembled a myriad cast of musicians and dancers to “set the mood”, as the flyer announced.

First up was Loré Lixenberg, a mezzo-soprano who performed excerpts from Cage’s Song Books along with a backing track. It was highly unpredictable, ranging from dissonant noise to Lixenberg gurgling water and opening a bag of chips on mic to waving a black flag and chanting “the best form of government is no government at all”. She also did a piece of her own, Bird, which started as her explaining birdsong. She gradually sped up her speech and interspersed it with wild flights of whoops and trills, and a backing track of actual birdsong gradually similarly built up to an ecstatic cacophony.

[Sarah Maria Sun and Clara Hyerim Byun.]

The other highlight was soprano Sarah Maria Sun and pianist Clara Hyerim Byun. First, they used found objects, harmonica, synth, and voice to perform selections from Benjamin Scheuer’s Fragwürdige Fragmente, which was arrhythmic, almost atonal, and very silly. They came back later for a straight piano and voice version of “Meine Stadt”, written by local composer Hans Auenmüller, but then veered back hard left into György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. The text was described as “half-nonsense”, but that could be said about almost everything I saw on stage. This piece was more physical and theatrical, including Byun ranting while Sun held her hand over Byun’s mouth, and Byun ripping up her sheet music.

Tanz Harz, a local dance company, performed Moving Silence accompanied by a soundtrack of prepared piano pieces by Cage. They danced with a digital timer on stage, which they frequently stared at in fascination or glanced at in curiosity, although the majority of the choreography was constant fluid motion. They seemed to be expressing tension and anxiety about the passage of time.

Otherwise, Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson performed parts 3 and 4 of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate in an expressive display of human vocal sounds. Moderator Christoph Ogiermann broke the avant-garde flow to sing a set of traditional political songs (Franz Josef Degenhardt, Wolf Biermann, Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht), accompanying himself on piano. The night closed with PSON (Dietmar Gubin), performing a blend of live electronics and pre-recorded material.

[Tanz Harz.]

When I came back the next day for the Klangwechsel, there was excitement in the air. Hours before it opened, there were already people lined up by the entrance to the church, and plenty lounging around the courtyard of the cloister, trying to escape the heat. I could feel the anticipation. Inside the church, video teams set up their rigs, photographers angled for good spots, and I could see I wasn’t the only one recording audio. I could sense something stirring within me, but I was distracted by all the people and activity. The foundation had a little ceremony and thankfully asked everyone to be quiet and just listen for a few moments. I could finally focus and started to feel at peace. Eventually, an elderly organist inserted the new pipe, an A4 (a’). There were already seven pipes in use, including the adjacent A♯4, so the tone was richly complex and mildly dissonant.

[The organ with the pipe to be added.]

After a few more moments, the crowd cheered. I saw lightness, giddiness, and a buzz among the people. Something mystical and strange had happened, and we had witnessed it. Gradually, people filtered out. I stuck around for a while, but there was still too much commotion to fully relax and enjoy it. I sat outside with my friends for a couple hours, listening to the amplified chord projected into the courtyard while we talked to volunteers and other attendees. I heard multiple comparisons to witnessing a total eclipse. Some described it as a religious or spiritual experience.

Eventually, I went back in the church. It was thankfully much quieter. I was immediately transfixed. I was mesmerized. The sound wasn’t particularly loud, but omnipresent and warmly inviting. I stayed inside for about an hour, meditating on the flow of time and the relative insignificance of my existence. For once, I was in no hurry. I didn’t want to leave.

[An installation inside the Cage-Haus.]

I was struck by the playfulness of the entire experience: Cage’s approach to composition, the performances the night before, and the hubris of performing an organ piece for as long as the modern 12-tone keyboard organ has existed. At face value, it’s all comical and absurd. Simultaneously, I found it profound. How slow is “as slow as possible”? Why do we take the passage of time so seriously? What does the future hold? Will humanity even exist in 2640 to see the performance to the end? Isn’t climate catastrophe basically inevitable at this point? Can anarchism (or socialism, or any other ideology) defeat the stranglehold capitalism has on the distribution of wealth and welfare? Why aren’t more disused churches used for fun art projects? What is the meaning of property? What happens if the extremists win the state election?

Okay, you can see how the mind can wander. But one’s environment influences thought. And when I was enveloped by an unceasing, discordant pipe organ drone, I felt on one hand relaxed and deeply connected to the world around me, and on the other starkly at odds and ready to fight. I want to live in a world full of strange and idiosyncratic art. It’s part of human experience, and everyone should have the opportunity to create and witness it. I’m not sure I understood all the music I heard the night before the Klangwechsel, but I don’t care. I think most of the performances would’ve benefited from being about 30% shorter, but can I really complain? It was fun. I laughed. It felt like a set of instructions on how to take things less seriously, while still fighting for what you know is right. Will they still be holding pre-celebratory concerts in a couple hundred years? I hope so. I hope the world isn’t on fire, or underwater, or a nuclear wasteland by then. What other ridiculous things can we get up to in the meantime?

Further Reading and Listening:
My friend Gabe’s piece for The World on PRX
A longer piece by Gabe from the last Klangwechsel
Homepage of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt

The Cure / The Twilight Sad - Live 2026.07.11 Parkbühne Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany

This was my fourth time seeing The Cure, and my first time since moving to Germany. I missed their 2022 show but decided I couldn’t dare miss another opportunity, even though all three nights sold out before I even caught wind of it. Thankfully I managed to get a ticket from the approved reseller with only a slight upcharge!

I biked the whole 19 kilometers to the venue and arrived just as the first band, Just Mustard, was wrapping up. I liked what I could hear, but based on reports from friends, I didn’t miss much. I did catch The Twilight Sad’s set. They’d also opened the last time I saw the Cure in 2016. Unfortunately, they were a bit drowned out by the crowd. The snare was just loud enough that I needed earplugs, but that rendered them quiet and indistinct. I liked the style of noisy rock but couldn’t quite get into it. I enjoyed seeing them last time around more, but it seemed like it wasn’t their fault.

The Cure appeared without bassist Simon Gallup, who was ill. In his stead was his son, Eden Gallup. If you didn’t look too closely, you wouldn’t have known the difference. He might not have had his father’s exuberance, but he could play all the riffs with finesse! They started strong with the wondrous “Plainsong” and then just started charging through the hits. I was surprised that they didn’t play a single song from their last album, Songs of a Lost World (2024), which I really enjoyed. I was looking forward to seeing how it would translate to the stage and disappointed that they didn’t even try.

[The Cure, with Eden Gallup on bass.]

They did play “The Last Day of Summer” from Bloodflowers (2000), which was a welcome deep cut, but otherwise there weren’t a lot of surprises. I mean, they did give us a trio from Pornography (1982), but that was never my favorite album. “Play for Today” with the traditional audience singalong (to the keyboard part!) was fun to finally participate in. There are always plenty of minor setlist variations, but it generally felt like the same show I saw ten years ago, but more predictable. That time around I got two new (still unreleased!) songs and two great b-sides.

While the mix was generally quite good, Reeves Gabrels was oddly low in the mix when he wasn’t playing his annoyingly flashy solos. I still don’t really like his style, so I wasn’t particularly upset, but I felt like some of the songs were missing something. “High”, “Never Enough”, and “Just Like Heaven” in particular were conspicuously missing riffs that really help to make those songs. “High” and “Heaven” were superb anyway, but at some point I realized that the band has arranged their material for six musicians, and they were making do with just five. Perry Bamonte had rejoined the band in 2022, making the band a six-piece for the first time since 1989, but he sadly died last year. Eden had actually joined to fill his position, and he can be seen on the video of their performance at Primavera Barcelona and others. Impressive that he can fill two very different roles, but unfortunate that one was left unfilled for this night!

Regardless, most of the songs fared just fine. Everything recorded before The Top (1984) was performed with just three or four members, so on some songs, I wasn’t even sure how much all the members were really contributing. And as far as the set goes, it’s hard to complain about two and a quarter hours of 27 bangers. They didn’t play a bad song. They might not be the most exciting band, but they’re still a lot of fun, and I’m glad they’re not done.

[The Cure, with green lighting for “A Forest”.]

The Twilight Sad’s setlist (thanks to here):
1. Dead Flowers
2. Designed to Lose
3. VTr
4. Attempt a Crash Landing – Theme
5. Last January
6. There’s a Girl in the Corner
7. And She Would Darken the Memory
8. Waiting for the Phone Call

The Cure’s setlist:
01. Plainsong
02. Pictures of You
03. High
04. Lovesong
05. Burn
06. Fascination Street
07. Never Enough
08. Push
09. In Between Days
10. Just Like Heaven
11. The Last Day of Summer
12. A Strange Day
13. One Hundred Years
14. Cold
15. A Night Like This
16. Play for Today
17. A Forest
18. Shake Dog Shake
19. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
20. Disintegration

Encore 1:
21. Lullaby
22. The Walk
23. The Lovecats
24. Friday I’m in Love
25. Close to Me
26. Why Can’t I Be You?
27. Boys Don’t Cry

Scores:
The Twilight Sad: C
The Cure: B

Transchor Plänterwald 2022 @ Casino for Social Medicine

Transchor Plänterwald 2022 will be performing at this fundraiser on July 23! The fun starts at 6pm and we'll sing around 7:30pm. It's at the Casino for Social Medicine, Sonnenallee 100, Berlin-Neukölln.

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 3

On Saturday, day 3, I was feeling a bit more alive than I had the day before. I made it to the first musical act of the day, Peki Momés, who played a chill, smooth brand of Turkish pop psychedelia. I thought of Khruangbin but with a different language and a few cultural touchstones swapped out. I wasn’t blown away, but it made for great listening while lying on a blanket.

[Peki Momés.]

The next band was La Sécurité from Montreal. I loved what I’d heard in advance, and on stage it was even better. They played off-kilter, fun, ecstatic art punk. The drums and vocals were both strong, I liked the synth touches and the fuzz bass, and I loved that the two guitarists twisted around each other and the other instruments but rarely played chords. I thoroughly enjoyed their set from start to finish. I managed to snag a setlist and then went to the merch booth to buy their album, which they graciously signed for me.

[La Sécurité.]

I caught some of Dressed Like Boys on the Birkenhain stage while I was getting food and visiting the merch booth. They sounded too tame and soft for my taste, so I didn’t stick around. I returned soon enough for quickly, quickly, but they also failed to impress me. They were just three dudes sitting down with a drum machine. They had no passion and nothing to help them stand out. The singer/keyboardist drove most of the sound, including covering the bass parts, but his voice was mellow and plain and the lyrics were generic. The two guitarists played restrained background parts, with the exception of one decent solo that briefly got my hopes up. In the right mood, they might’ve been chill and pleasant, but as it was, it was bland and boring. I left early.

[quickly, quickly.]

I took a break and came back for Brockhoff. They played very mainstream pop rock with a hint of Americana. They had some drive, and I could almost groove to it, but the lyrics were really bad and the vocal style was all breathy pop cliché. When she spoke of her love of Hannah Montana and rom-com stereotypes, I knew it was my time to leave.

Next up was Sprints, who finally offered some relief. Their garage punk was full of fuzz bass, great riffs, and political rage. The drummer and second guitarist were both excellent, and together they kept up a feverous pace. They played a cover of Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” that was quite a thrill. Their penultimate song changed the mood and started slow and acoustic with spindly lead guitar, with something like a Bauhaus vibe. They slowly built it up and sped it up and it ended up as another thrasher, but with all the tension released, it went even harder than the rest. Naturally, there was plenty of moshing and circle running.

[Sprints.]

After an hour of dancing to Sprints, I was feeling psyched but losing steam. I decided I still had energy for Jehnny Beth, erstwhile singer of Savages, who I’ve been sorely missing. She appeared with her longtime collaborator and partner Johnny Hostile on guitar as well as a bassist and a drummer. I’d wondered how she would translate the intense electronic industrial sound of her solo albums to the stage, but they pulled it off without much in the way of backing tracks. They were really hard, heavy, and aggressive. It might’ve been too much if I hadn’t been in the right mood, but I was well-primed, again got a great spot at the front, and was just barely able to keep up. Instrumentally I didn’t find the set as compelling or complex as I’d hoped, but it still rocked. It was more focused on noise and pulsing, seething rhythm. I’m trying not to be disappointed that she didn’t play any Savages songs, but I can understand if she wants to establish herself as a solo artist independent of that band. That said, she covered “In Heaven”, the deranged classic from the Eraserhead soundtrack, notably covered by The Pixies (but also Bauhaus and plenty of others), as well as Björk’s “Army of Me”. That idiosyncratic bassline was immediately recognizable! She ran into the crowd and sang atop them at some point, and did some push-ups (in heels!) during the titular song and invited a woman from the crowd up to the stage to do some as well. First time I’ve seen that. She also explained that “Reality” is about growing up queer and not understanding it. Relatable.

[Jehnny Beth.]

I was thoroughly beat by that point, and it was two in the morning. I caught a bit of Valentino Vivace on my way out, and I liked their sweet Italian disco pop, but it was too thin and insubstantial. It was pleasant to hear drifting through the trees while brushing my teeth and admiring the full moon, though.

Scores:
Peki Momés: B
La Sécurité: A+
quickly, quickly: D+
Brockhoff: C-
Sprints: A
Jehnny Beth: B+

P.S.: A big thank you to my festival crew!

P.P.S.: Here are the setlists for the best three shows of the day. I got the printed sheets from the stage for all three.

La Sécurité:
01. Le Kick
02. Detour
03. Power Snoozer
04. Bingo
05. Waiting for Kenny
06. Deny
07. Trixie
08. Anyway
09. Hot Topic
10. Try Again
11. Dis-Moi
12. Suspens
13. Snack City

Sprints:
01. Descartes
02. Feast
03. Beg
04. Literary Mind
05. How Does the Story Go?
06. Shadow of Doubt
07. Something’s Gonna Happen
08. Heavy
09. Cathedral
10. Up and Comer
11. Pieces
12. Need
13. Deceptacon [Le Tigre cover]
14. Desire
15. Little Fix

Jehnny Beth:
01. Broken Rib
02. High Resolution Sadness
03. I Still Believe
04. No Good for People
05. Innocence
06. In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) [David Lynch/Peter Ivers cover]
07. Push-Ups
08. Reality
09. Stop Me Now
10. Army of Me [Björk cover]
11. Out of My Reach
12. Obsession
13. How Could You
14. I’m the Man
15. I See Your Pain

[Karla Chubb of Sprints with the audience.]

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 2

After a good start on the first day, I slept in late and went to the store for more food and drinks. I wasn’t feeling the talks or the first band (Future Franz), but I was excited for RIP Magic and they did not disappoint. They only have five songs out, but their mix of sampled and synthesized sounds and their hypnotic energy had me curious. Their set was incredibly loud and the mix was dominated by their synths. Their bassist played with thick fuzz and lots of chords, but his parts were mere texture under the heavy low end of the synths. The drummer even seemed bored, which was understandable since they also played with programmed beats that had more complex rhythmic layers. Despite that, I admired their lack of guitar. The whole thing was intense and propulsive. I was fully carried away by it. I later realized the singer is also the keyboardist of Sorry, who played the next day.

[RIP Magic.]

I was feeling charged up by that point and stuck around for Kapa Tult even though I found their recordings somewhat half-baked. I kept thinking I was about ready to leave in search of food or friends, but every song won me over and left me wanting more. They played a fun mix of punky indie pop á la Die Braut haut ins Auge or Ideal, and the lyrics were clever, relatable tales of modernity and relationships, even if they were a bit straight for my taste. I liked the Moe Tucker-style drums and that the drummer got to sing lead on one song. This may have been the first time I’ve seen a band composed of three people I read as women and one man, and the man played bass!

[Kapa Tult.]

The weather forecast had predicted a warm and sunny day, but it started to get overcast, windy, and ultimately rainy, which dampened my mood. I checked out Ebbb but found them contentless and boring. They were dancey but too pop. There was no style, no depth.

There was also a change in schedule announced around then, as Mine dropped out due to sudden sickness. Hence, Kabeaushé played earlier and once we realized it, we rushed to the Zeltbühne to catch his set. It was just the singer, a drummer, and a lot of prerecorded tracks. The drummer was great, and Kabeaushé himself was fully charged up, but the intensity was overwhelming. If his set had been at the originally scheduled time after midnight, I might’ve been better prepared for that level of energy, but as it was, I just couldn’t get into it. The lack of live instrumentation also left me wanting some more variety. I couldn’t hang.

I was also interested in Fuffifufzich and particularly Chloe Slater, but the rain had really picked up and I just wasn’t in the mood to venture back out. Of course, the rain stopped once I’d given up, and I caught a bit of Slater while I was brushing my teeth. She closed her set with a cover of Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag”. Kind of a weird choice, right? I have to admit I do like the song, but I think that’s just because it got stuck in some corner of my adolescent brain. I once saw Wheatus back in 2005 because my freshman year college roommate’s band was opening for them at the Creepy Crawl in St. Louis. Too bad I wasn’t writing reviews back then. I don’t think it was a good one. Anyway…

Scores:
RIP Magic: A
Kapa Tult: B+
Ebbb: D
Kabeaushé: C-

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 1

I had such a good time at Immergut last year that I knew I wanted to come back this year. This time I came better prepared and with an even larger crew.

After arriving early-ish on Thursday and setting up the campsite, I made it to the first show of the festival: Snuggle on the Birkenhain stage. They played a very chill sort of slowcore shoegaze, a bit in the vein of Slowdive or Low. The lack of a bassist struck me as odd at first, but then I realized the drummer had pads for the bass parts and other samples, and I was impressed by how well he held it all down. I liked the guitars and the vocals were fine, but they were just plain too mellow. I like that vibe but I wanted a little more energy.

[Snuggle.]

My wish was granted with the next act, Ellis D. As a five-piece with two guitars, keyboard, bass, and drums, they had plenty of capacity to turn it up and get the crowd going. They started playing fairly heavy psychedelic rock, somewhere between punk and post-punk. In particular, the singer’s androgynous, wild, ebullient energy reminded me of The Cramps. It turns out that he also drums with Fat Dog, who performed last year (although I unfortunately missed them). Their set gradually involved more extended jams including multiple keyboard noise solos. The singer jumped into the crowd three times. I appreciated that they were going hard, but I started to feel a bit repetition. It seemed like every song had a fakeout break that went just long enough for people to start clapping before the band struck it back up. And the second guitarist made quite a contradiction with his stony lack of expression.

[Ellis D.]

They were followed by Gelée, a Pet Shop Boys/Erasure-style synthpop duo in which a man played keyboards and ran the drum machine while a woman sang and danced. Confusingly, their Bandcamp page shows three people, but I only saw the two. I liked the idea, and while the instrumentation and vocals were fairly good, I found the execution rather cheesy. The bad lyrics drove me off. I needed a bit of a break anyway.

[Gelée.]

I came back before long to see Heidi Curtis. What I’d heard before gave me big Neko Case vibes, and while her voice was quite strong and indeed reminiscent of Case, the music was mostly stereotypical pop. Although she hails from northern England, the band sounded like Americana. I liked that the bassist played some keyboard, and then that Curtis moved to the keys herself for a couple songs, including a cover of Patti Smith’s “Because the Night”. I like that song, but I’m continually surprised by how well Germans, even ones younger than me, seem to know and love it too. I got bored not long after that, though. The music was just too predictable.

[Heidi Curtis.]

I was originally going to skip Waving the Guns, but my crew was enthusiastic so I joined them. I’m glad I did. I often struggle to get into Deutschrap (too many cis white guys trying to act hard) but I appreciated the unrepentantly leftist lyrics. I mean, I almost felt like the singer’s requests for FLINTA* moshpits were a little over the top. The beats were solid and I loved the live drums. The three performers were a great match for each other and the whole set worked great in that environment. They brought Martha, the singer of Gelée, up on stage to sing with them as well, which was an excellent addition. I enjoyed myself quite a bit more than I’d expected.

I caught a bit of Die Höchste Eisenbahn immediately afterwards as they were on the way to the camping area anyway. They had a bunch of interesting-looking keyboards on stage, but weren’t making a lot of use of them. Their indie pop was too clean and plain for my taste. I left early and called it a night.

[Die Höchste Eisenbahn.]

Scores:
Snuggle: B-
Ellis D: B+
Gelée: C-
Heidi Curtis: C+
Waving the Guns: A-
Die Höchste Eisenbahn: C-

Bone Caster - Romance the Serpent (2026)

Friend of the blog Brad Schumacher is back with a new project and a new album. After three albums of noise and post-industrial as Night Grinder and numerous contributions to a variety of other projects (including The Man and the Scientist and Low Forest), he is now Bone Caster. Romance the Serpent comes out on May 15, accompanied by custom video game levels for Wizordum that align with the music. He’s hosting a play-through on the day of release at 6:00pm MST here.

The new album explores dungeon synth, much in the vein of his recent collaborative projects Journey to the Ruin of Xilmys by Dweller and Carapace by Keepers of Kozamir (both 2024), but that’s just the start. The primary instrument is synthesizer, but there is plenty of guitar riffing, drum machine, and fuzz bass. The production is detailed and enveloping, in which each song is a new level, leading the listener into new worlds of torments and treasures.

Opener “Bioluminescent Butterfly” suitably begins with inviting introductory music, but the path soon leads into darker hellscapes. “A Tremulous Draught” has some Night Grinder-style noise, and “Cognitive Drift” recalls the anguished throes of The Cure’s The Top (1984) or the spookier corners of Siouxsie & the Banshees. “The Warlock” starts with pastoral fingerpicked guitar from Jim Fitzpatrick (Cup Collector, Falsetto Boy), but then goes metal.

For most of the album, Brad’s vocals are heavily treated and transformed into a goblinesque growl, recalling Skinny Puppy. Near the end, in “Tower to the Moon” and “Smoke and Mud”, the vocals start to clear (and Josh King (Low Forest, Joshua and the Ruins) joins the fray), as our troubled narrator reaches closer to relief and resolution. The closing “Epilogue: Moss-covered Stone” returns to the ethereal peace of the opening moments.

Romance the Serpent mystically invokes the feeling of playing D&D or an old fantasy RPG. It’s an intense ride. Take the journey yourself on May 15 at Bandcamp.

Dry Cleaning / The Tubs - Live 2026.04.07 Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

I went back once more to the Festsaal Kreuzberg. After being a bit uncomfortable with crowding at the sold-out Godspeed show I saw there just a few weeks ago, I was relieved to go with friends and that it wasn’t as packed. We got a great spot.

First up were The Tubs, who I knew nothing about. I’ve since read that two of the four members (plus one that has since left) once played with Joanna Gruesome, who I saw once upon a time and rather enjoyed. Unfortunately, the Tubs were less exciting and more mainstream. Instead of noise rock and punk influences, I heard a good dose of U2 and R.E.M.-style jangle rock. The Scottish drummer, Taylor Stewart, stole the show, even if most of the crowd couldn’t understand him. This might be the first time I’ve seen a drummer with more presence and humor than the rest of the band. I wanted more of his energy and less of frontman Owen Williams’ fairly standard-issue lyrics and vocals. Lead guitarist Dan Lucas and bassist Max Warren were quite adept, though.

[The Tubs.]

But the reason I was there was Dry Cleaning, who my partner and friends saw at Immergut in 2024 and became enamored with. I missed seeing them open for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds because I didn’t want to deal with the detestable Uber Arena. Finally, I got my chance.

This was the opening night of the tour for Secret Love, which came out in January, and hence we saw the debut performance of several songs from the album. They opened with the debut performance of the new non-album single “Sliced by a Fingernail” as well. They ended up playing the entire album as well as several older songs, but it felt like they were rushing through the set to play as many songs as possible. I wish they’d slowed down and let the songs breathe a bit more. The closer of the main set, “Conversation”, was the only one where they really cut loose and let the song develop into a heavy jam, and it was awesome. That was the highlight of the show.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t appreciate Florence Shaw’s vocals. Her deadpan, ironic spoken word performances elevate these musical workouts into something more. Independently, the music would feel formless and the words would seem unhinged and contextless. Together, they form a space where you can enter into visions of modern life and get comfortable with tearing it apart. Some of the backing vocals from her bandmates made me think of Gang of Four, which certainly makes sense given the socio-political angles and the punk influence. Guitarist Tom Dowse in particular had a hardcore punk aesthetic about him, although his guitarwork was all over the place, ranging from precise, melodic lead lines to heavily-effected swells of sound. Bassist Lewis Maynard spent almost the entire show headbanging, but he had a funky percussiveness and fluidity that endeared him to me. Drummer Nick Buxton surprised me by playing a brief sax part on one song before returning to his kit. The four core members were joined by Josh Eggerton on keyboards and acoustic guitar to further expand their sound.

My other critique is a classic one: the mix could’ve been better. The last couple shows I saw at the Festsaal sounded great, so I was disappointed that the mix was poorly defined in the high end. Shaw’s vocals are what suffered most. I could only understand her vocals about a third of the time. That wasn’t an ideal balance.

But beyond that, they really deliver a punch. Some songs were a bit tame and restrained, but most were full of life and energy. I would’ve loved for them to have more space to develop and flow, but maybe they’re trying a different approach. Although if they were trying to foreground the words, the mix undercut that effort. Nonetheless, it was easy to get into step with them.

[Dry Cleaning.]

Setlist (borrowed from here):
01. Sliced by a Fingernail
02. Blood
03. Gary Ashby
04. The Cute Things
05. Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy)
06. Strong Feelings
07. Anna Calls From the Arctic
08. Her Hippo
09. My Soul/Half Pint
10. Cruise Ship Designer
11. Scratchcard Lanyard
12. Evil Evil Idiot
13. I Need You
14. Don’t Press Me
15. Rocks
16. Magic of Meghan
17. Joy
18. Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit
19. Conversation

Encore:
20. Hit My Head All Day

Scores:
The Tubs: B-
Dry Cleaning: B+

Thanks to Alyssa and the rest of our crew!

Transchor Plänterwald 2022 @ Die Weiße Rose

This is a public service announcement that my choir, Transchor Plänterwald 2022, will be joining with another local Berlin choir, Queen Bees & the Beat, for a concert at Die Weiße Rose in Berlin (Martin-Luther-Str. 77, 10825 Berlin) on May 8! Doors open at 18:30 19:30 and the show will start at 19:30 20:15. It's pay what you can, 10€ recommended. This will be a fun one; we've got a couple surprises and this is a rarity for us to be (co-)headliners as opposed to part of another event!

Please reserve a spot here, please come covid tested, and please get in touch if you are interested in being part of the photography or awareness teams.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Kristof Hahn - Live 2026.03.16 Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

The night opened with Kristof Hahn, a solo lap-steel guitarist that also plays in Swans. His first number built slowly with layers of effects to create a heavy and engaging soundscape. That was cool and my interest was piqued. After that, most of his songs featured his gravely baritone voice, but they were also so sparse and minimal that there was hardly anything to hold on to. The most notable song was a cover of “Heartbreak Hotel” done in the style of John Cale, but his version rather suffered by comparison. Hahn was fairly reserved, but did at least address the crowd (unlike the headliners). I wish he’d done more pieces like the first one.

At this point, I find Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s staunch refusal to play by the standard rules of rock shows to be endearing. They tuned their own instruments and did not take long to start their performance. Of course, they have their own rituals, among them starting each show with their “Hope Drone”. This one was pleasant, mild, and relatively brief. It transitioned into “Sun Is a Hole Sun Is Vapors” from No Title As of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (2024) and from there into the next two tracks from the same album. This trilogy covered quite a lot of dynamic ground and already had the band reaching tremendous heights.

When they finally paused to breathe and tune while the familiar Murray Ostril tape played, the audience was dearly enthused. “Monheim” was as great as it could be. They returned their focus to the last album, skipping only “Broken Spires at Dead Kapital”. “Pale Spectator Takes Photographs” was devastating and haunting, but it led into “Grey Rubble – Green Shoots” with its triumphal peaks led by Sophie Trudeau’s violin. “Mladic”, from the first reunion album ’Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (2012) but originally performed on the last tour before their breakup in 2003, was incredible. I’d never seen it played live and it was such a powerful, enthralling rush of extremes. The fact that I caught a bit of misalignment in the latter half did not take anything away from the experience. It went hard.

I assumed that after a 20-minute epic that would be the end, but then I heard the “Gathering Storm” sample from “Kicking Horse on Brokenhill” (originally performed by Hazel Dickens for the Matewan soundtrack). However, it led into the beautiful guitar and glockenspiel of “Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven…” and its usual successor, “Gathering Storm”. (I only now realized the guitar melody of the latter is based on the melody of the sample of Dicken.) Again, it was a masterful performance. The band led it into an extended drone, similar to how they ended the show the last time I saw them. The band manipulated their pedals to get it going and then just walked off one by one. It went on for a good while before some of the loops or feedback or whatever wound down and then someone finally turned the rest off.

I can’t say much about the slideshow because I got crowded out of my spot with a view before even the “Hope Drone” was over. I don’t know why I bother showing up early and sitting through openers that bore me just to get edged out by people who don’t care in the slightest about the needs of others around them. I protested people wedging themselves into my space on both sides such that we were in constant contact and I could not adjust my position whatsoever, but they did not care. I got overwhelmed and gave up. I found a chair, closed my eyes, and enjoyed the show in a relaxed, listen-only mode for about an hour. Then I realized some people (including some of the very ones who had squeezed me out!) were slowly departing, so I got up and found a decent spot where I could actually move freely. That was great.

In the end they played for two hours with just the two brief breaks with the samples. They have no real stage presence and just let the slides and music speak for themselves. And that it did. This was another great show, even with my interpersonal frustrations. Amazingly, I hadn’t yet seen them perform a single one of the songs they played.

Setlist:
1. Hope Drone →
2. Sun Is a Hole Sun Is Vapors →
3. Babys in a Thundercloud →
4. Raindrops Cast in Lead
5. Murray Ostril: “…They Don’t Sleep Anymore on the Beach…” [Tape] → Monheim
6. Pale Spectator Takes Photographs →
7. Grey Rubble – Green Shoots
8. Mladic
9. [sample from Kicking Horse on Brokenhill] → Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven… → Gathering Storm

Scores:
Kristof Hahn: C-
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: A

Belle & Sebastian / Music for Your Heart - Live 2026.03.06 Metropol, Berlin, Germany

This was night 2 of 2; I won’t repeat what I’ve already described from the first. This time I wanted to be on the floor, so I showed up earlier. Music for Your Heart again opened and played practically the same set. If she deviated at all, I didn’t notice; the songs again all sounded the same. Raymond McGinley again essentially just doubled her parts with restrained flourishes.

Belle & Sebastian came out this time to a video of If You’re Feeling Sinister cover star Ciara MacLaverty describing her interactions with the band as it formed. Now, this is one of my all-time favorite albums; I once made a tentative top-ten list in 2008 and this was on it. It still would be. Seeing the whole thing on stage was practically transcendent. Or well, it would’ve been if my perfect spot on the floor hadn’t been so encroached upon that I was deeply physically uncomfortable the whole time. I know I’m the weird one, but I don’t understand how anyone can be comfortable in such a densely packed crowd! I did my best not to let it distract me, but I wasn’t able to let the music flow through my body the way I wanted.

[Belle & Sebastian.]

It also seemed like the band was just a bit loose. It was still a great performance, but it wasn’t as tight as the Tigermilk performance, and they didn’t really embellish it or change it up much. I mean, with such a beloved album, I can understand why they didn’t. I wouldn’t have wanted them to. Sarah’s violin felt more at home (it was her first work with the band) and she again sang Isobel’s parts wonderfully. I was disappointed, though, that she played the stylophone solo from “Mayfly” on her synth, but I can forgive that. I particularly enjoyed Chris Geddes’s keyboard parts and the unnamed cellist and trumpeter’s performances. The whole crowd was singing along and it was quite a collective experience, even despite my physical distress. “Fox in the Snow” hit me particularly hard, as it always does, but the highlight was at the end of “Judy and the Dream of Horses”. Just like with the false ending of “Mayfly”, the band picked right back up after the end and went all-out for a big, extended jam. Stuart put on a horse head and danced around while everyone rocked out. It was bizarre and wonderful.

At that point I had to bail from my position and I ended up in the back where the view was worse and I could actually move around a bit. The second set was less hit-filled than the previous night, but I appreciated that the only repeat was “The Boy with the Arab Strap”. This time they drew it out while Stuart ad-libbed, leaned down to the crowd, and asked “the original catastrophe waitress” Alexandra Klobouk (cover star of Books EP (2004) and The Life Pursuit (2006)) how she was doing. “Piazza, New York Catcher” was done in the now-standard low-key band arrangement, and during “If You Find Yourself Caught in Love”, Stuart ran through the crowd, including right past me. “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” was the only song from after Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003), and Sarah took Norah Jones’s lead vocal, again quite successfully. “Sleep the Clock Around” and fan request “Lazy Line Painter Jane” were the real highlights. Both were ecstatic rave-ups.

I was so excited about this show that I didn’t put one thought into whether it was a gimmick. But despite my preference for Sinister, I just barely preferred the Tigermilk show. It might’ve just been my sensitivity to the jostling, or that my expectations were even higher for this show, but I think the band performed just a touch better the prior night. It was still excellent regardless. The band seemed cramped on the small stage, but the mix was great, which is quite impressive for a touring band of nine people. I really wish they’d chosen a larger venue; both nights had sold out quickly and the Metropol’s unusual, long shape made the competition for a decent spot even worse. I wish I’d been able to have a less distracted experience, but it was worth it anyway.

[Stuart with the horse head.]

Set 1 (If You’re Feeling Sinister):
01. The Stars of Track and Field
02. Seeing Other People
03. Me and the Major
04. Like Dylan in the Movies
05. The Fox in the Snow
06. Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying
07. If You’re Feeling Sinister
08. Mayfly
09. The Boy Done Wrong Again
10. Judy and the Dream of Horses

Set 2:
11. Dog on Wheels
12. Chickfactor
13. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John
14. If You Find Yourself Caught in Love
15. Piazza, New York Catcher
16. The Boy with the Arab Strap
17. Sleep the Clock Around

Encore:
18. Lazy Line Painter Jane

Scores:
Music for Your Heart: D-
Belle & Sebastian: A-
If You’re Feeling Sinister: A+

Bonus scores:
The Boy with the Arab Strap: A-
Push Barman to Open Old Wounds: A
Dog on Wheels EP: B
Lazy Line Painter Jane EP: A-
3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light EP: A+
This Is Just a Modern Rock Song EP: A+
“Legal Man” single: A+
“Jonathan David” single: B
“I’m Waking Up to Us” single: B

P.S. Yes, I’m aware I gave the “Legal Man” single just an A back in 2008. I was wrong. The C+ for Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant was correct, though.

P.P.S. Thanks to Alyssa!

Belle & Sebastian / Music for Your Heart - Live 2026.03.05 Metropol, Berlin, Germany

Belle & Sebastian are doing a tour with two nights in most cities visited, in which the first show centers around Tigermilk (1996) and the second on If You’re Feeling Sinister (also 1996). I often find full-album shows gimmicky and pandering (see here or here for egregious examples), but I have also seen a few that were fun. And I mean, these are two great albums! Plus, Belle & Sebastian’s shows never disappoint.

Music for Your Heart, the solo project of Sandra Zettpunkt, was the opening act. She appeared with Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub, who was also involved with her only solo record to date, Turning Marvel (2009). She sang and played electric guitar, and he mostly played similar parts on guitar, adding some embellishments and on rare occasion a lead line. Before a few previous nights on the tour, she said she hadn’t been on stage in 18 years, and this was her first time playing with McGinley. Once a drummer in a variety of 90s Hamburg bands (and briefly a bassist in Parole Trixi), she said she used to play with a drum machine, but it stopped keeping time and she gave up on it. With these credentials, I was surprised by how tame and placid her set was. She was sweet and her plaintive melodies had some charm, but there were no dynamics whatsoever, and audience chatter competed with her for volume. I wanted to like her, but I found myself bored.

[Music for Your Heart with Raymond McGinley.]

Belle & Sebastian came out to a recording of Stuart David reciting a description of the recording sessions for Tigermilk, a nice way to include a touch of the founding member who left the band in 2000, and then, as expected, the band played the album straight through. They did a fantastic job of it. “The State I Am In” is such a classic that I was fully into it right from the first note. “Electronic Renaissance” has become such a banger with the higher production values they can afford to give it on stage these days, and I love that five people were playing keyboards (including Stevie Jackson on keytar!), not even counting Stuart Murdoch playing the melodica solo. “I Could Be Dreaming” featured a recording of Isobel Campbell (the other absent founding member; she left in 2002) reciting the lines of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” as heard on the original recording. “We Rule the School” nearly had me crying, it was so beautiful.

[Belle & Sebastian.]

Naturally, the two missing members were sorely missed, as was Mick Cooke, the band’s trumpeter who was initially a guest performer before joining full-time and eventually leaving in 2013 (right before the first time I saw the band live). Of course, in the meantime the band has been joined by bassist/guitarists Bobby Kildea and Dave McGowan (coincidentally also a member of Teenage Fanclub), and Sarah Martin has grown more confident in her voice. She sang Isobel’s parts while also playing an array of instruments (violin, keyboard, flute, shaker, tambourine), despite that she wasn’t present for the first album and only joined in time for Sinister. The band were also augmented by an unnamed cellist/keyboardist/flutist and an unnamed trumpeter, and since I was up in the second balcony, I couldn’t get a good enough view to discern if they were the same people I’d seen before in those roles.

The band left the stage for a break but came back quickly for the advertised second set of favorites. Other than “Simple Things”, they indeed played several of their best singles and regulars, including “The Boy with the Arab Strap” with the standard tradition of inviting a bunch of people to come up and dance on stage. As it drew towards the end, Stuart jumped into the pit and ran around the crowd. For once they even managed to end the song in a fitting way instead of letting die an awkward death. I could complain about predictability in the setlist, but that feels a bit on the nose. For the encore, Stuart made a show of asking for suggestions, ultimately accepting the one from a Polish guy he’d met before the show, but I could see he’d already pulled up the lyrics for “Lord Anthony” on a screen. “Another Sunny Day” might’ve actually been somewhat more spontaneous.

[Audience members on stage for “The Boy with the Arab Strap”. I love that Dave was drinking a beer while playing the keyboard and that a stage hand had to keep Stevie’s mic stand stable while the stage shook from the dancers.]

Naturally, a full-album performance of a great album is well-primed to go over well (as opposed to a newly released album, for example), but it helps even more when the band can bring something extra to it. The songs were all played in similar arrangements to their recordings, but the additional members and better instruments made for a fuller sound and more proficient performance. And it seemed like they were having fun. That makes a big difference. Stuart told some stories and explained a few songs, most notably that “My Wandering Days Are Over” was about the formation of the band and “I Don’t Love Anyone” was born out of a period of frustration and loneliness, but no longer represents how he feels. I still love the hyperbole of it. I guess that’s the whole deal with this band, or at least their early work: I know some people cringe at this sort of earnestness and playfulness, but I find it charming and welcoming. I want to hang out with the characters in the songs. And tomorrow, I will do it again.

Set 1 (Tigermilk):
01. The State I Am In
02. Expectations
03. She’s Losing It
04. You’re Just a Baby
05. Electronic Renaissance
06. I Could Be Dreaming
07. We Rule the School
08. My Wandering Days Are Over
09. I Don’t Love Anyone
10. Mary Jo

Set 2 (“Favorites”):
11. Simple Things
12. I’m a Cuckoo
13. Seymour Stein
14. A Century of Fakers
15. I Want the World to Stop
16. The Boy With the Arab Strap
17. I Didn’t See It Coming

Encore:
18. Lord Anthony
19. Another Sunny Day

Scores:
Music for Your Heart: D+
Belle & Sebastian: A
Tigermilk: A-

The Last Dinner Party / Sunday (1994) - Live 2026.02.22 UFO im Velodrom, Berlin, Germany

The Last Dinner Party had one of my favorite albums of last year (even if their debut was even better), so when a friend expressed interest in going to this show, I was sold. That said, it was a tough choice considering that Magdalena Bay, one of my 2024 faves, were playing the same night at the Columbiahalle.

Sunday (1994) opened the night. Despite the name, they are not a tribute act for The Sundays, although they do make a version of dream pop. However, they unfortunately leaned a little harder on the pop than the dreamy side. Paige Duddy’s vocals were excellent (as was her dress), but the music was a bit cheesy and uninspired. Despite having four performers on stage, they relied heavily on backing tracks for acoustic guitar, keyboards, and even vocals. That sapped a lot of the energy from the performance. The one heavier song they played was a marked improvement.

The Last Dinner Party took their time coming out but launched right into a strong set. With a sizeable stage setup, they deftly tore through most of their catalog, pausing only for two security incidents until the encore break. They played every song from last year’s From the Pyre, nine from Prelude to Ecstasy, and the unreleased but regularly performed “Big Dog”. With all five members contributing vocals and all but Abigail playing a variety of instruments, they regularly moved around in different configurations to highlight various instrumental and harmony arrangements.

[The Last Dinner Party in peak witchy vocal formation.]

The vocals might be the band’s strongest point, and all five contributed flawless parts. Abigail’s voice may be the centerpiece, but when Lizzie and Aurora sang lead, I was impressed by just how strong and nuanced their voices were as well. I’m a sucker for intricate harmonies, and they provided them in spades. On top of that, their musicianship shone. Aurora moved between piano, synth, keytar, and sax; Emily played mandolin and flute in addition to a variety of guitars; Georgia added some synth bass; and Abigail even sat down at the piano, although I don’t know that she actually played. I saw a stage hand playing acoustic guitar off to the side for one song (I think it was “I Hold Your Anger”), but there was also what sounded like a violin sample. Otherwise I didn’t hear any backing tracks. The drums were played by Dave Adsett, who seemed somewhat relegated to the background. I was pleased to notice that among Emily’s guitars was a St. Vincent signature model.

When the band came out for the encore, they were accompanied by a large choir, who it turned out were the D-Dur Dykes*! They’re Europe’s largest FLINTA* choir and conspicuously more visible than the trans choir I sing in, but I also know them because a friend sings with them, although she wasn’t there that night. They added an especially dramatic flair to “Beautiful Boy” and a brief closing reprise of “Agnus Dei”. That was quite a surprise and a very cool enhancement to the set.

[The Last Dinner Party with the D-Dur Dykes*.]

As a major label band, I expect a certain level of professionalism, budget, tightness, and show. Without a doubt, The Last Dinner Party delivered. I wouldn’t say the same for the openers, but they were pleasant enough. I’m still thrilled by the bonus feature of the choir! Apparently “Beautiful Boy” has not been a regular feature of the sets this year. (They’ve even been debuting new songs on other nights, too!) It’s great to see a relatively young band still at the height of their powers, not yet thoroughly disillusioned by a corrupt industry or cashing in without putting in any effort. I’m excited to see them continue to grow.

Setlist:
01. Agnus Dei
02. Count the Ways
03. The Feminine Urge
04. Caesar on a TV Screen
05. On Your Side
06. Second Best [with false start]
07. I Hold Your Anger
08. Woman Is a Tree
09. Gjuha
10. Rifle
11. Big Dog
12. The Scythe
13. Sail Away
14. Sinner
15. My Lady of Mercy
16. Inferno
17. Nothing Matters

Encore:
18. Beautiful Boy [with D-Dur Dykes*]
19. This Is the Killer Speaking
20. Agnus Dei (Reprise) [with D-Dur Dykes*]

Scores:
Sunday (1994): C+
The Last Dinner Party: A

P.S. Thanks to Ali!