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-