The Chameleons / White Rose Transmission - Live 2025.10.31 Lido, Berlin, Germany

The Chameleons have been back for a few years now. And by “The Chameleons”, I mean singer/bassist Mark Burgess (who strangely is going just by “Vox” lately) and guitarist Reg Smithies. Drummer John Lever died in 2017 and guitarist Dave Fielding has been apparently uninterested in rejoining. ChameleonsVox, which initially included Lever in addition to Burgess, seems to have fluidly become the “real” thing just by getting Reg back in the fold.

I saw ChameleonsVox twice in Berlin before the pandemic in 2017 and 2019 and enjoyed both shows. The Chameleons have played here twice in the last two years, but I missed both. I was excited for this show, all the more so when I saw that White Rose Transmission would be opening. That band was originally a collaboration between Carlo van Putten of The Convent and Adrian Borland of The Sound, another magnificent oft-overlooked 80s band. Burgess had produced the first two Convent albums and performed on a couple WRT albums, so I was kinda hoping I might see something special. Alas, there were no guest appearances. It was just van Putton on lead vocals and Thomas Marcin on acoustic guitar and occasional backing vocals. They mostly performed songs written by Borland. Marcin’s style was dynamic and emotive, and with van Putton’s full voice, they had a sort of acoustic gothic vibe. I loved the EQ on the guitar. The bottom end sounded heavy and haunting. They made a lot out of their minimal arrangements.

[White Rose Transmission.]

The Chameleons did not take long to hit the stage. They opened with the lead single of their new album Arctic Moon, “Where Are You?”, the best song they’ve put out since reforming. Their poetic politics are just as alive as ever. And while several of the songs in their set relate more to affairs of the heart, their socio-political side stood out the most. It’s amazing how brilliant songs like “Soul in Isolation” and “Swamp Thing” are still as relevant now as when they were written, and they rock. They ultimately played five of the seven songs from the new album, wisely skipping two of the more meandering tracks. “David Bowie Takes My Hand” wasn’t my favorite of the bunch, but Burgess said it was the Chameleons song that saved his life (providing no further explanation, other than that it helped him understand when fans tell him that this or that song saved theirs), which is certainly a way to hype a piece of art.

The setlist was a dream, including many of my favorites, even including “Paradiso”, which I’d specifically lamented not seeing when ChameleonsVox did their Strange Times (1986) set in 2019. In fact, it seemed like we got an especially long set, certainly longer than the shows I’d seen before and I think even longer than most other shows on the current tour so far. I’d wondered why they started so early, and it turns out it was probably that they wanted to play for nearly two hours before the local 10pm noise restrictions would go into effect. As is typical, several songs at the end of the show were extended considerably and included a number of teases of other classic rock songs.

[The Chameleons.]

It was great to see Reg playing these songs, and he was in good form. Truth be told, I preferred Dave’s parts, as they tend to be the more astral, sparkling, transcendent ones, but I always liked how they traded parts, and that dual-guitar interplay still defines the new songs. Stephen Rice played Dave’s parts note-for-note and proved himself just as skilled on guitar as he was on drums when I saw him at the 2019 show. Todd Demma’s drumming was great, and while Danny Ashberry mostly hid in the back to play relatively simple keyboard parts, he played acoustic guitar on the first half of “Feels Like the End of the World” (while a superfluous backing track played the string parts) and took Mark’s bass for the second half of “Second Skin” and all of “Don’t Fall”. Mark himself played the acoustic on “David Bowie Takes My Hand” while Ashberry played the bass part on his keyboard. While everyone played well and the show generally sounded great, the bass was oddly low in the mix. As a result, several times when I expected the beat to drop or the energy to kick up a notch, it didn’t really happen.

The Chameleons also released two EPs last year, although neither was especially notable. Of the songs that didn’t also appear on the album, they only played “The Fan and the Bellows”, which isn’t a new song. Tomorrow Remember Yesterday is five rerecordings of some of their earliest songs with slight updates, better production, and reduced tempos, but none are actual improvements over the originals. Where Are You? consists of another redone oldie, an early, alternate but similar version of the title track, and one other unremarkable, low-key new song.

It’s great to have them back at any rate, even if the difference between ChameleonsVox and The Chameleons seems to just be Reg. The new album is pretty good; it starts and ends strongly with their typical shimmering guitars and incisive lyrics, although too many of the songs go on way too long. I’m still happy to have it, and I’m happy that the band still feels alive and relevant. The crowd still skewed older, but there were plenty of people even younger than me. Mark appeared genuinely happy to still be doing it and grateful that we were still coming. If they continue to perform with this level of energy and their genre-defining sound, it won’t be hard to keep drawing a crowd.

Here’s the setlist:
01. Where Are You?
02. The Fan and the Bellows
03. Pleasure and Pain
04. Lady Strange
05. Perfume Garden
06. Looking Inwardly
07. Paradiso
08. In Answer
09. David Bowie Takes My Hand
10. Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing
11. Soul in Isolation [including teases of Buffalo Springfield‘s “For What It’s Worth”, The Doors’ “The End”, David Bowie‘s “Be My Wife”, The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”, and The Smiths’ “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”]
12. Swamp Thing [including a tease of The Beatles’ “Rain”]
13. Feels Like the End of the World

Encore:
14. Indiana
15. Monkeyland
16. Second Skin [including teases of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” and Bowie’s “Be My Wife” (again)]
17. Don’t Fall [including teases of The Doors’ “Light My Fire”, Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel”, and something else I didn’t catch]

Scores:
White Rose Transmission: B
The Chameleons: A-
Arctic Moon: B-
Where Are You? EP: C+
Tomorrow Remember Yesterday EP: C

Nala Sinephro - Live 2025.10.28 Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany

Nala Sinephro put out one of my favorite albums last year, and considering how rarely I see live jazz, this show was an immediate priority for me. On top of that, she played in the Kammermusiksaal of the Philharmonie, a well-designed, modern venue with nice seats.

[Pictures were not allowed during the performance, so here’s the harp tuner.]

Despite my enthusiasm, I had no idea what to expect. After some delays, Sinephro and three bandmates came out. She went straight to her harp and played solo at length. I was already captivated; she played flawlessly and beautifully. Eventually she looked up and nodded to Lyle Barton (operating a synth bass rig) and a drummer who’s name I didn’t catch. I think it was Moses Boyd but might’ve been either of the drummers who played on the album (Natcyet Wakili or Morgan Simpson) or someone else entirely. They started playing simple parts at a low level and I could feel the energy slowly building. Eventually Nubya Garcia started some slow blows on her sax, more breathy air than harmony, and around the same time Sinephro pushed away the harp, got up, and sat down at her synth rig (a Prophet ’08 with a modular bay on the side). And from there, things really picked up.

They improvised in total for around 45 minutes without a break. It was transcendent. Sinephro stayed at the synth for the rest of the jam, modulating an arpeggiator just about the entire time. She was a deft manipulator of the knobs and kept introducing subtle shifts in tempo, tone, pitch, and effects, guiding us gently but firmly on an expansive journey. The drummer underpinned the rises and falls of the mood, heavily resting on beds of cymbals with shocks of snare for intermittent energetic bursts. Garcia’s sax started as merely texture, but she gradually warmed up to greater and more aggressive attacks as well. She also used effects pedals to wash her instrument’s rough edges out and grant it shimmering trails. Barton’s synth mostly faded into the background, merely underpinning the others’ more expressive performances. But near the end, as Sinephro cut back some of her layers and signaled to Garcia and the drummer to fade out, Barton’s synth stepped up and took a leading role, wildly oscillating in higher registers. I recognized the tone and style from several of the songs on Endlessness. And then, ever so slowly, they too faded out.

After just a brief pause for applause, they started over, again with Sinephro alone at the harp. In fact, they followed almost the exact same pattern. The order of the instrumentation was about the same, as was the general arc of the energy levels. They again improvised for around 45 minutes. The second jam was just as good as the first, only losing some marks due to the familiarity of the format. And after that, Sinephro said thanks, and they left.

I loved the juxtaposition of the serene harp with the wilder, freer synth exploration. I thought I recognized a few motifs from the album, but the structure was much looser and more open than those individual songs. I was amused to see Sinephro occasionally give direction to her bandmates, to which the drummer typically responded rather abruptly. I would’ve expected a more gradual transition, but it wasn’t exactly jarring. There were just a few moments where Sinephro’s synth had some rough transitions where the effects misaligned and caused a brief dropout or a nasty noise, but those were infrequent and quickly recovered from. Otherwise, they performed at an impressively high level.

Score: A

Thanks to Alyssa!

Soltero @ Schokoladen on Sept 9

 

We just back from playing at a festival in France and we're getting right back to it in Berlin. Come see us play with Balm at Schokoladen on September 9 at 8pm!

Patti Smith - Live 2025.07.11 Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin, Germany

I’ve seen Patti Smith twice before, both times at the same venue as this time. While the first was a bit tame, I was rewarded for giving her a second shot, as the second show in 2022 was superb. I wasn’t gonna resist another chance to see this aging star, even if she was touring with just one guitarist.

But strangely enough, when the announced quartet appeared on stage, a fifth member was present on keyboards! It turned out to be Oisin Murray, mostly known as a live audio technician. He also played a bit of bass and guitar on a couple songs at the start and end of the show. For the rest, it really was a quartet. However, her longest-serving bandmates Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty were absent without explanation. Her other regular collaborators, Tony Shanahan (bass, keyboards, and backing vocals) and her son Jackson Smith (guitar), were still in tow. New to the fold was drummer Sebastian Rochford.

They opened with “Redondo Beach”, which certainly would’ve suffered if Shanahan had had to pick between bass or keyboards; the song is built on the interplay of both. That was followed by a cover of Steve Earle’s “Transcendental Blues”, which is new to this tour. I didn’t know the song before, but I thoroughly enjoyed their take on it. It was droning yet still had motion, and Jackson’s open tuning served it well. Murray left the stage after that while the rest did a run of Patti’s standard favorites. I particularly enjoyed “Spell”. Last time I saw her, she read the footnote to Howl, but this was a full-band rendition. They built it up to a really high energy (and volume) level, far beyond the original studio version, similar to the live take on Land (2002). She ad-libbed some extra holy places, including Palestine and Gaza (and Berlin). The crowd seemed into it. They also cheered for the extra line declaring immigrants as holy. This might be basic-level rock star activism, but I’d rather have it than not.

“Nine” isn’t my favorite of hers, but she also built that into a much longer and more dynamic piece than originally recorded. And then she said she wanted to try something new but wasn’t quite sure she had it. Finally she sang the opening words: “The world is a vampire sent to drain”. What!? She forgot how it continued and had to check a lyric sheet, but sure enough, they played a weirdly classic-rock rendition of The Smashing Pumpkins’s “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”! It was a strange arrangement with a different melody and lacking most of the aggression and dynamics of the original. It’s not exactly my favorite SP song, but I mean, it was still pretty cool. And this was the debut of her take on it! 17-year-old me might’ve fainted.

The rest of the set was pretty similar to her usual setlists, albeit with the Charlotte Day Wilson cover “Work” (new to this tour) and a reading of “Cry Humanity”. The rest are all good songs, so I can’t complain, but it was a bit predictable. Patti forgot how to do the guitar rhythm at the start of “Beneath the Southern Cross”, but once she got going and the band joined in, it made for another powerful song as it peaked. The “Within You Without You” interpolation by Jackson and Tony was once again really cool. It rained off an on through the night, and I wondered if they played “Pissing in a River” as a bit of a joke in reference to that, but they have been playing it regularly on the tour. Murray came back out for that one and stayed through the end. “Because the Night” and “People Have the Power” predictably got the largest audience response, but I was sad to leave without “Gloria”. She hasn’t been doing it on this tour for some reason. That’s probably the one song I wanna hear every time. Oh well.

Despite the different membership, this show wasn’t particularly different than the past shows I’ve seen. I felt like the performance was a bit tame and Patti wasn’t at the top of her game, but it was still fun. The band was tight regardless, albeit a bit thin when it was just four people. The tempos felt a bit slow and I wish they’d rock out more, but when they did, it was great. I’m glad she still gets political with and between her songs, and I still find her pretty inspiring. I like that she always tries to see the best in people while speaking plainly and directly of injustice. She brings a great energy, even if she is getting old and maybe not quite as sharp as she used to be.

Here’s the setlist:
01. Redondo Beach
02. Transcendental Blues [Steve Earle cover]
03. Ghost Dance
04. 1959
05. Cash
06. Spell [Allen Ginsberg adaptation]
07. Nine
08. Bullet with Butterfly Wings [The Smashing Pumpkins cover]
09. Dancing Barefoot
10. Beneath the Southern Cross / Within You Without You [The Beatles cover tease]
11. Work [Charlotte Day Wilson cover]
12. Cry Humanity [poem]
13. Peaceable Kingdom → People Have the Power [partial]
14. Pissing in a River
15. Because the Night

Encore:
16. People Have the Power

Score: B

P.S. There is a bootleg of this concert, although not of the highest quality. The Hamburg show from two nights prior was also bootlegged, and it’s not only higher quality, but Patti also performed a little better.

P.P.S. Thanks to Mirah!

St. Vincent / Cult of Venus - Live 2025.07.05 Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany

I’ve seen St. Vincent twice. First was at ACL in 2014 on the tour for her self-titled album with a full band, and then in Berlin in 2017 on the Masseduction tour, where she appeared solo. Her only other scheduled show in the meantime in Berlin in 2021 was canceled, so that’s been it. I was a big fan of her latest album, All Born Screaming from last year, so I was looking forward to this show.

Cult of Venus appeared first, alone on stage with just a guitar, a keyboard, and a powerful smoke machine. The highlight was her strong voice. She also produced quite a bit of sound, but I wondered if all the layers were being controlled by her via her synth setup or if it was handled offstage. Regardless, the sum total was very clean and produced, which limited her opportunities to engage and explore. Her songs were fairly short and so was her set. The beats were good and the music was fine, but there was no life to it. It felt too staged and manufactured. Her aesthetic definitely fit the St. Vincent mold, and it felt like Venus had drawn quite a bit from St. Vincent’s solo setup.

But when St. Vincent came out, I was relieved that she was touring with a full band. I wasn’t a fan of the highly programmed solo show in 2017 and much preferred the rawer band performance from 2014. This time she had an even larger band, very much in the rock mode. Notably, the band included guitarist Jason Falkner and drummer Mark Guiliana. Falkner is perhaps best known for playing with Beck and Air; I saw him on stage with Beck on that same day I saw St. Vincent in 2014. Guiliana has a long resume in the jazz world but got a lot of attention for playing on Bowie’s Blackstar (2016). The others were Rachel Eckroth on synth and vocals and Robert Ellis on bass and keyboards. All together, they were a formidable team, and it’s cool that St. Vincent can get some big names to back her up.

[St. Vincent.]

The setlist was great. She played a bunch of songs from the new(-ish) album and a wide selection from across her back catalog. I would’ve gladly taken more from her self-titled album, but even the songs from Masseduction, which wasn’t my favorite when it came out, turned out great on stage and had all the energy I missed when she tried them solo. The sound could’ve been better (the vocals were hard to hear and the bass was muddy) but it still came over really well. I loved the guitar interplay and was happy to have that back. St. Vincent also used a Soma Pipe and a Stylophone Theremin for some extra little effects. And of course she handed her guitar into the crowd during “Cheerleader” and then stage dove during “New York” while continuing to sing as if it were no big deal. During the latter, another woman came out to play Ellis’ synth. She had been bringing St. Vincent her guitars, and she looked a bit like Cult of Venus, which made me wonder if it was the same person.

[At the fence. Note the extra synth player.]

I hadn’t peeked at setlists in advance, but I was hoping she’d play “Candy Darling”. The definitive song about the actress is of course “Candy Says” by The Velvet Underground, but nonetheless, I appreciated St. Vincent’s homage to the trans icon. Sure enough, she played it as the encore, but she played it rather loose and coy. She interrupted it and talked through it in a way that made it feel insincere. I was happy to have any version of it, but I would’ve preferred a straighter (lol) performance or a different arrangement. And then she left. I was hoping for just one or two more bangers to end on a high note, but instead it was just this formless rendition of a short, slow, sentimental song. It wasn’t the best way to end a show. I think I’m picky about this sort of thing. Regardless, the rest of the show was a delight, so I can forgive it!

[Singing while crowdsurfing.]

Here’s the setlist:
01. Reckless
02. Fear the Future
03. Los Ageless
04. Broken Man
05. I Wanna Be Your Dog [Stooges cover tease] → Birth in Reverse
06. Dilettante
07. Pay Your Way in Pain
08. Flea
09. Cheerleader
10. Big Time Nothing
11. Marrow
12. Violent Times
13. New York
14. Sugarboy (with “Los Ageless” lyric tease)
15. All Born Screaming

Encore:
16. Candy Darling

Scores:
Cult of Venus: B-
St. Vincent: A-

Thanks to Keagan!

Nine Inch Nails / Boys Noize - Live 2025.07.01 Uber Arena, Berlin, Germany

Yes, I saw Nine Inch Nails twice in the span of a week. To make a long story short, Keagan and I bought tickets for this show first, and when his friends wanted to see the Vienna show, we weren’t gonna turn down the opportunity to join them. The last time I saw a band twice on the same tour was The Faint back in 2008, for similar reasons. At any rate, I won’t repeat what I already described there and will focus on what made this show different than the last.

[Trent, Atticus, and Alessandro on the second stage for “Ruiner”.]

I skipped most of the Boys Noize set because I wasn’t particularly interested in a second round. No hate, it just felt a bit stifling to be in the seats for a techno set, and I again wasn’t really feeling that vibe. The sudden shift to Trent Reznor at the keyboard was still just as cool, and this time he started with “A Minute to Breathe” from the Before the Flood (2016) soundtrack. The rest of the first half of the show was the same, which had me a bit nervous that there wouldn’t be much further variation. Regardless, it was still just as good, and I had even better seats, so the view was great and I was able to get up and move a bit, which made up for the lack of variety.

[Copies of Trent for “Copy of A”.]

But when Trent and Atticus joined Boys Noize on the second stage, after repeating “Vessel”, they started switching things up. “Only” was on par with the other mid-period remixes, but “I Do Not Want This” was a total surprise. It was certainly a strange choice, but the radical reinterpretation worked. And then “Sin”! That was a delight. The techno version didn’t even feel that far off from the original, and they kept a lot of the original samples and sounds.

[Trent, Atticus, and Boys Noize on the second stage.]

And back with the full band on the main stage, the deviations continued. “Somewhat Damaged” finally filled my desire for something from The Fragile (1999), and it rocked harder than “1,000,000” did at the last show. And while I missed “I’m Afraid of Americans”, “Burn” was a welcome addition, and the live performance was perhaps even more intense. It went hard. The rest of the final set was the same, but also had the same level of focused yet free energy.

[The band on the main stage, with Robin projected in the background.]

In terms of both performance and staging, this show matched the Vienna show, which is to say it was excellent. I was again transported to another place full of memories and associations I don’t always want to access, yet it felt comfortable, safe, and catharctic. I didn’t have quite the same level of immersion as the first time, simply because there was less surprise and pure excitement. But the crowd was more energetic, my seat was an upgrade, and the sound was perhaps even a notch better (perhaps due to the seat). I really appreciated the setlist variations, and this might’ve even been the better overall set. It’s hard to judge. They were both absolute top notch.

[Trent and Atticus on the second stage for the techno set, projected on the curtain around the main stage.]

Here’s the setlist:

Second stage:
01. A Minute to Breathe [Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross song; Trent solo]
02. Ruiner
03. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
Main stage:
04. Wish
05. March of the Pigs
06. Reptile
07. The Lovers
08. Copy of A
09. Gave Up
Second stage with Boys Noize:
10. Vessel
11. Only
12. I Do Not Want This
13. Sin
Main stage:
14. Somewhat Damaged
15. Heresy
16. Closer / The Only Time [partial]
17. The Perfect Drug
18. Burn
19. Head Like a Hole
20. Hurt

Scores:
Boys Noize: didn’t see enough to judge!
Nine Inch Nails: A+

Thanks to Keagan and Dave!

Tangerine Dream - Live 2025.06.29 Volkstheater, Vienna, Austria

While in Vienna for the Nine Inch Nails show, I saw advertisements for this show. Rarely does that work on me, but for once it did! My friends were as excited as I was to see the legendary band in a beautiful venue, so for our last night in town, that’s what we did.

I’d last seen Tangerine Dream in a church in Berlin six years ago, and I loved it. Since then, Ulrich Schnauss left the band, but Paul Frick has gone from being a mere “guest” to a become a full member. Thorsten Quaeschning remains the central figure and Hoshiko Yamane continues to perform violin and pads. This show was apparently originally scheduled for the village of Grafenegg but had to be moved. Too bad for anyone who was excited for that, but I would’ve missed it in that case.

Quaeschning opened the show by announcing the outline of the show: first a main set of old songs, new songs, and really old songs, next an improvised piece, then by a break, and finally another set of old, new, and really old songs. He said the improv would be in the key of D minor because that’s what sounded best in the space, and he played a few deep synth tones and explained their effect: one shook the screws loose of the building, another gave a sense of well-being (“Wohlgefühl”), and so on.

[Tangerine Dream with video of Yamane.]

The show proceeded as planned. The main set was about an hour with very few pauses. I recognized some parts (particularly something akin to the classic synth sound of “Phaedra”) but not most. I let the music wash over me instead of hyperfocusing on the details, which seemed to be the appropriate means for enjoying it. There were distinct sections, but the pieces generally flowed seamlessly from one to the next. Most featured sequencers controlled by Quaeschning, keyboard melodies by Frick, and violin by Yamane, but they all switched it up and played synths, pads, loops, and other electronic instruments of indeterminate nature. Yamane’s violin was often heavily effected, sometimes to the point where I couldn’t even tell what sound was being conjured from the instrument, and while she rarely played virtuosic parts, she consistently played with sharp precision and fluid grace. It was usually hard to see what exactly Quaeschning was doing, but for one song he served up an impressive keyboard solo effected to sound similar to electric guitar. If it had been guitar, I probably would’ve dismissed it as self-indulgent, but on the synth it sounded sick!

The improvisation began slow and dark in the expected key of D minor, but shifted and expanded dramatically over the course of 45 minutes. I hadn’t expected it would be quite so long, and while there were of course some dull moments, I was impressed by how varied and engaging it was for most of its course. Quaeschning triggered a couple voice samples on his laptop that felt a bit out of place, but he manipulated them to give them some extra texture. One sounded like someone recounting a dream, and the other was just wordless vocalization. Otherwise, the band incorporated a wide array of different rhythms, sequencers, and moods throughout the piece. It wasn’t quite as smooth or dynamic as the main set, but it came close, which is remarkable for an improv.

[Note the on-stage disco hemispheres.]

After the break, the band’s second main set was similar to the first, but was a little more energetic, rhythmic, and powerful. In retrospect, the first half was calmer, quieter, and more atmospheric. I again recognized a few parts, but most was a bit of a blur. It grooved more and I felt like I woke up a bit and wanted to move more. They didn’t play an encore, but after two and a half hours, I didn’t really expect more.

I didn’t find this show to be quite as successful as the last one I saw. While this show sounded quite good and was instrumentally solid, I suspect having four members on stage made for a bigger, fuller sound, and I missed a bit of that this time. And while the video and lighting were quite good, the light show in the Passionskirche was on another level. Regardless, it was still a very enjoyable show and a welcome bonus for my brief trip to Vienna.

[The ceiling of the Volkstheater with the reflected disco lights.]

Score: B+

Thanks to Keagan and Dave!

P.S. The weirdest moment of the night was that early in the show, an older man near us in the balcony turned around and punched another man in the face. He was escorted out, and his presumptive partner left with him. I have no idea what the context was, but I’ve never seen something like that, least of all from older men seated in a classical venue. Who would’ve guessed that the Tangerine Dream show would be more violent than a Nine Inch Nails concert?