Einstürzende Neubauten - Live 2022.06.06 Konzerthaus, Berlin, Germany

Yes, I just saw Neubauten five days before at the Columbiahalle. As with that show, this one was also rescheduled from 2020, although this one was supposed to happen first, at the start of the tour in April. The Columbiahalle show was originally scheduled much later at the end of the tour in September. This show was initially rescheduled for the same timeframe in September, then again to September 2021, and then once more to this date. Thankfully it finally happened! You can read my hesitations around live music during a pandemic in my last review (or anything I’ve written in the last two years), but in any case, I went. I know it’s absurd to see the same band twice in the span of less than a week even during non-apocalyptic times, but I was presented with a bit of a conundrum. The nature of live music these days is accompanied by a constant worry that any show might be canceled at any minute. This literally just happened to Herbert Grönemeyer’s big tour; all three nights in Berlin were canceled because he has covid. So while I was actually more interested in seeing this show (I mean, it’s at the Konzerthaus! It’s a beautiful classical music venue!), I had to hedge my bets. So I went to both. I had tickets to both since 2019 anyway.

The show started off just like the last one. I was worried I was going to be bored by a repeat of the same experience. However, despite that the setlist was the same until the first encore, it gradually became apparent that the band were performing at a higher caliber. I complained quite a bit about the band being loose at the last show and even at the 2017 show I saw, but this time, they were tight on a level I hadn’t seen before. Even “Taschen” was better! The parts fit together just right and the songs flowed with carefully crafted grace. Even the slower songs jelled better; they were just smoother. I still think the samples were too much, and some songs were still a bit too tepid, but this time I could at least follow the intended idea and mood. They felt like they finally had some life in them. I was particularly impressed by “Alles in Allem”, which worked better than ever, even better than the album version. “Tempelhof” also excelled in this environment, and its position at the end of the first encore, but not the entire concert, was much better.

The best songs from Alles in Allem and all the classics were just as good as ever. On top of that came a surprise: when introducing the band before “Ten Grand Goldie”, Blixa Bargeld brought out his daughter Millicent to come out and play the trombone part from the record, which she also played on! Amusingly, she wore a blue suit much like Jochen Arbeit’s standard attire. Another surprise was “La Guillotine de Magritte”, a non-album single from 2020, in place of “Sabrina”. I love “Sabrina” but appreciated the variation. The Rampe improvisation was also quite a bit different than the one from the Columbiahalle show. The key lyrics in this one appeared to be “before I go” and “dissolved”. I could see Blixa’s lyric monitor (but not well enough to actually read it), and there were lyrics for it, but the display kept jumping around, so he was almost certainly freestyling. Rudolf Moser seemed to still be figuring out what to do with the song, as he moved around the stage to use just about every set of percussion he could get his hands on. Meanwhile, Alexander Hacke used some really weird effects on his bass to make a bizarrely fuzzed-out squeal. I liked it. [Update 2024.05.11: This song formed the basis of "Before I Go" on Rampen (apm: alien pop music), released in 2024.]

The end of the second encore was “Let’s Do It a Dada”, which was a pure delight with several members of the band using all sorts of weird toy instruments. N.U. Unruh donned a white garment and an absurdly tall hat in an apparent homage to Hugo Ball’s Magical Bishop costume and read Dada poetry, apparently written by Blixa, but obviously inspired by Ball. They’d also played the song successfully at the 2017 show, but this time it really struck me what a great showcase for their strengths the song is! It has some similarities to “Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick”, but whereas that song feels random and abrasive, “Dada” is light-hearted, joyful, and full of energy. I also realized that the most driving instrument is simply Hacke’s fuzz bass. He wielded it with so much power and confidence. I want to play bass like that! (For more context on the lyrics and inspiration for the song, I recommend this mostly-English article and this German article.) And after that, the band came back for yet another encore! They just gave us one more song, “Redukt”, which was a great closing pick.

In addition to the tighter performance and slightly better setlist structure, the venue itself made a big difference. The Columbiahalle is a typical large rock venue: no decoration, no comfort, no style, just pure function. The balcony is nice and the sound is fine, but it’s not exactly a pleasant place. The Konzerthaus, on the other hand, is beautiful, ornate, and designed with some level of comfort in mind. And it sounded way better, too! I was particularly surprised since I was sitting behind the band at an angle, and yet I still was treated to superb sound quality. I heard some gripes from other people near me about the view, but I thought it was great. I had an excellent view of the percussion, which is my favorite part of the Neubauten live experience anyway. I could hear every subtle note and beat, including several things I didn’t catch or didn’t understand at previous performances, mostly from little extra touches that Unruh would add on top of the main beat typically supplied by Moser. It was a pleasure to get such a close view of all the weird bits of metal, the assorted springs, the various machinery, and the amusing household found-art objects that the band uses to create the underpinning of their songs. I mean, Moser’s jet turbine percussion solo in “Nagorny Karabach” is just so good!

[“Ten Grand Goldie” with Millicent Bargeld on trombone. Also note the large curved spring played by Hacke.]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I bought the USB stick recording of the show afterwards. It’s still just mp3, but at least this time it’s 320kbps! (The one I got in 2017 was 256.) It sounds great; the only flaws I’ve noticed so far are some distortion in the heaviest parts of “Sonnenbarke” and Blixa’s screeched vocals in “Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick”. It still can’t beat the combined audio-visual experience, and the lack of editing certainly sets it apart from a typical commercial live recording, but considering my comfort with bootleg recordings, I think it stands fairly strong. I’m happy to have it.

Here’s the setlist:
01. Wedding
02. Möbliertes Lied
03. Nagorny Karabach
04. Die Befindlichkeit des Landes
05. Sonnenbarke
06. Seven Screws
07. Grazer Damm
08. Alles in Allem
09. Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick
10. How Did I Die?
11. Am Landwehrkanal
12. Ten Grand Goldie
13. Susej

First Encore:
14. Taschen
15. La Guillotine de Magritte
16. Tempelhof

Second Encore:
17. Rampe: Before I Go
18. Let’s Do It a Dada

Third Encore:
19. Redukt

Scores:
The concert: A-
The recording: B+

Einstürzende Neubauten - Live 2022.06.01 Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany

Einstürzende Neubauten released Alles in Allem in May 2020. I briefly reviewed the album as part of my 2020 in Review post, and honestly, I wasn’t that impressed. About half the tracks are good, but the other half just leave me bored. I was disappointed. Primary Neubauten albums are usually superb. Obviously, they weren’t able to tour at the time, but I’d already bought tickets for two shows of their tour long before I’d heard anything but the lead single. This show was originally scheduled in September 2020, and it was initially rescheduled for September 2021, but ultimately postponed again. It finally happened this time.

This was my first large-scale indoor concert since early 2020. It was a strange experience. With the exception of a small minority of people wearing masks (including percussionist N.U. Unruh), you could hardly tell that there was a pandemic still going on, or that for significant parts of the last two-plus years, concerts like this weren’t happening (in Germany, at least). Large-scale indoor concerts have been generally allowed here for about a year now, but plenty of bands didn’t feel comfortable touring, or they couldn’t finance the tour because ticket sales were low. I’m clearly not the only one who’s been hesitant. I still wish case numbers were lower, I wish more people were vaccinated, I wish public sentiment mirrored health organization advice, and I wish we didn’t live in an ableist capitalist society that shamelessly throws health workers and the vulnerable under the bus in the name of profit. And yet, I too long for some sense of normalcy, even though my world has been substantially shaken up in the last two years, and not just by the pandemic. I’m finally ready to take the occasional risk, test regularly before and after, and try to enjoy one of my favorite activities in life: live music. For better or worse, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t resist. The show was sold out and the venue was quite full.

I saw Neubauten in 2017 in the same venue. It wasn’t a perfect show, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This show ended up being quite similar, but much more focused on the “new” album. In fact, they played the whole thing, albeit not in the same order. Interspersed were some of their greatest hits, with a particular bias for Silence Is Sexy (2000). Much to my frustration, though, not a single one of the older songs they played hadn’t also been played at that 2017 show. For a band with such an extensive discography over a 42-year period, that felt a little strange. That said, every single one of those older songs is excellent, so it’s hard to complain too much.

At any rate, the show started really strong. The first two songs, both from Alles in Allem, were meditative and trance-like, with good grooves and clever lyrics. This is a relatively new vibe for Neubauten, and they nailed it with these ones. They then played some of the classics, including one of my personal favorites, “Die Befindlichkeit des Landes”. Bargeld’s musings on the commercial-capitalist takeover of Potsdamer Platz feel more relevant than ever! He warned us that “Sonnenbarke” was written well before the pandemic but includes the word “Corona”, and I was surprised that when he actually sung it, some people in the audience cheered! I’m still not really sure how to interpret that. Were they just excited to have caught it and wanted to prove they were paying attention?

Then came “Seven Screws”, one of my favorites from the new album. It felt a bit sparse and thin, but again, the groove held it together just right. I love that Bargeld managed to throw in a reference to “Für immer” by Neu! and make a very relatable play on words about his gender identity: “non-binary: I forever (k)new”! I might be reading into it a bit much, but that’s the sort of song that feels written for someone like me.

But then from “Grazer Damm” onwards, things got really slow and tame. That song and “Alles in Allem” just kind of dragged on without any of the pulsing energy of the previous songs. “Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick” came with an amusing explanation from Bargeld that the song consisted of fourteen parts within four minutes, each with amusing names, but the song itself mostly just felt like random bits of noise and scattered lyrics. “Am Landwehrkanal” was a notable interruption, though. It’s also one of the strongest tracks on the record and serves as a lovely requiem for Rosa Luxemburg. I love the simple admiration of the line, “Wir hatten 1000 Ideen, und alle war’n gut” (“We had thousands of ideas, and all of them were good”). The percussion was particularly good, and it was a rare case of guitarist Jochen Arbeit first adding some percussion and then even playing a melodica part!

The first encore opened with “Taschen”, another song from Alles in Allem, which seemed almost intentionally offbeat. Unruh and Arbeit both struck large plastic bags for the main beat, which is almost impossible to keep in time, and indeed even the recording on the album is loose. I like the lyric, and the way it specifically plays off similar lyrics and ideas from “Grundstück” from Perpetuum Mobile (2004), but musically it didn’t quite pull together. But then “Sabrina” and “Redukt” were excellent throwbacks!

They could’ve ended then on a high note, but I wasn’t upset that they came back for more. First, they tried a out a Rampe, their name for an experimental improvisation. I didn’t recognize anything from the piece, but it sounded like a key phrase was “write to me” (or “right to me”?). I was disappointed at the lack of a Rampe at the last show I’d seen, and I was worried that that was a thing of the past, so this was a pleasant surprise. However, ending the show with “Tempelhof” was a bit disappointing. It was of course appropriate in that the former airport and current park was literally across the street from the venue, but the song itself was just too sparse and diffuse. There was no energy to it.

I came away happy to have seen the show, but overwhelmed by the crowd and uncertain if I really got what I’d come for. The new-ish songs were a really mixed bag, much like the corresponding album. A few are awesome, but several just aren’t. Many of the songs heavily rely on string parts, but most were sampled. A few were done on keyboard, which feels more like a reasonable compromise, but the whole set felt a little too reliant on samples. Considering how much pride the band has in their unusual instrumentation, it just seems like a jarring choice. The band and their crew spent so much time arranging various unusual percussion instruments, which is a joy to behold. Yet much of the structure and rhythm is nonetheless provided by samples! And despite those backing tracks, the band again seemed a bit too loose. Unruh in particular seemed to have trouble keeping the beat, but it’s probably not fair to lay blame solely upon him.

Neubauten are a rare and wondrous beast, but they aren’t quite hitting their target. I’m glad I went, but I still wished for more. I didn’t bother getting the USB stick recording of the show afterwards.

Here’s the setlist:
01. Wedding
02. Möbliertes Lied
03. Nagorny Karabach
04. Die Befindlichkeit des Landes
05. Sonnenbarke
06. Seven Screws
07. Grazer Damm
08. Alles in Allem
09. Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick
10. How Did I Die?
11. Am Landwehrkanal
12. Ten Grand Goldie
13. Susej

First Encore:
14. Taschen
15. Sabrina
16. Redukt

Second Encore:
17. Rampe
18. Tempelhof

Scores:
The concert: B-
Alles in Allem: C+

Ian Fisher / Accidental Bird - Live 2022.05.29 Prachtwerk, Berlin, Germany

Yes, it was only about seven months ago that I saw Ian Fisher at the same venue, touring for the same album, American Standards, released in 2020 for supporters. This time, though, he was touring with a full band. He claimed this was his last chance to do a proper tour for the album before moving on to new material from a new album that’s apparently already recorded. Again, I was hesitant about Covid risks, but I felt pretty comfortable at Prachtwerk, which is a cozy environment that has never felt crowded or otherwise overwhelming to me.

First was Accidental Bird, the new band of Stefan Honig. He brought with him Martin Hannaford from Honig on lead electric guitar and Harmen Ridderbos of Town of Saints (who has also appeared on Honig and Ian Fisher albums) on keyboards and acoustic guitar, both of whom have also participated in Tour of Tours. Honig played all new songs from an as-yet unreleased album. The songs largely felt familiar to his established style of meditative, comforting singer-songwriter pop. The exception was a song titled “Climate Change”, which he claimed was his punk song. That might be an exaggeration, but it was his most upbeat and jagged affair, and the frustrated lyrics were an earnest plea for action. Ian Fisher came out and joined in on guitar and vocals to accentuate it. Musically, I enjoyed the well-honed backing vocals and the subtly intricate but supportive instrumental parts.

[Accidental Bird with Ian Fisher.]

Ian Fisher came to the stage with a five-piece band, the largest I’ve ever seen back him. I immediately recognized Camillo Jenny on drums from past tours, and I’d heard Richard Case on pedal steel and backing vocals on some of Ian’s past recordings and radio shows. Fairly new to the crew were Emanuel Krimplstätter on lead guitar and backing vocals, Lukas Pamminger on bass, and Danny Rico on keyboards and percussion. Notably absent was Ryan Thomas Carpenter, who was already in the USA for the St. Louis Muny season. Nonetheless, Ian mentioned him a few times throughout the night. They make for quite the musical duo, and when Ian had last toured just as a duo with Ryan last year, it was a different experience. That show featured a number of new songs (mostly versions of songs from his now-defunct Patreon) and a couple covers (one of which has now appeared on his Fanklub). This show focused more on explicitly on American Standards and included most of the album along with about half of his previous, Idle Hands (2018). These are generally all great songs, but I missed the playful risk of all the new songs from the last show. That said, I always appreciate some of his prescient classics like “Candles for Elvis” and “Manmade Mountains”.

On the other hand, with the full band, the newer songs really shone. As Ian has progressed in the complexity and nuance of his recorded arrangements, the songs have increasingly benefited from the skills of a tight band that can reproduce and embellish the material on stage. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ian play with both a lead guitarist and pedal steel player, to say nothing of a keyboardist as well. Krimplstätter wasn’t flashy, but he wielded a number of delicate solos in just the right places. I appreciated the band’s subtle changes from the recorded versions. And despite my affection for the full sound, I also enjoyed that Ian again took it a step down for a few songs. He performed “Bed Downtown” by himself and then “Candles for Elvis” with just Richard Case on lead guitar. Case moved back to his pedal steel for “Manmade Mountains”, and Camillo Jenny came back out on drums halfway through to really punctuate it. The rest of the band came back for “Regret”, and Stefan Honig came back up to sing along as well.

I’ve never been disappointed by an Ian Fisher show, and this was no exception. I’m looking forward to that new album!

[Ian Fisher with his band.]

Here’s the setlist:
01. Be Thankful
02. AAA Station
03. American Standards
04. Melody in Nashville
05. Road to Jordan
06. Tables Turn
07. Maybe a Little More
08. One Foot
09. Bed Downtown
10. Candles for Elvis
11. Manmade Mountains
12. Regret
13. Koffer
14. It Ain’t Me
15. Constant Vacation

Encore:
16. Nero
17. Idle Hands
18. Ghosts of the Ryman

Upcoming Show with Soltero

I'm excited to announce I'm going to be joining Soltero for a show on 2022.04.02 at the Belvedere am Kreuzberg in Berlin! I previously joined Soltero for a brief set in January during an evening of poetry at the same venue, but this will be more of a conventional concert. I will be performing on bass. We will also perform some songs from singer-songwriter Tim Howard's other project, Anfängerfehler. Sharing the bill for the evening is Mikka Bozu.

The Belvedere am Kreuzberg is located at Kreuzbergstraße 32Y, on the northwest corner of Viktoriapark, right by the bus stop. Doors are at 7, show at 8. It's 5€ and will be following the rules for 2G plus a test. That means you need to be vaccinated or recently recovered and tested. There is a simple bar at the venue.

Dedicated listeners may already know, but I've been jamming with Tim for a couple years now. I edited some recordings from one of our sessions and released them on my Preserve the Absurd EP last year. I'm thrilled that we're finally able to perform outside the rehearsal room together!

2021 in Review

2021 proved to be a perhaps even more challenging year for me than 2020. Music has hardly been my focus lately, and Covid restrictions and anxiety prevented me from seeing many concerts. I had tickets for a twice-rescheduled Jesus & Mary Chain concert, but didn’t go, and after purchasing a ticket for Synästhesie in a fit of summer optimism, I returned it when things turned worse. In the end I only saw few outdoor concerts, most notably the Ich brauche eine Genie songbook release party, and one indoor show of Ian Fisher. I only managed a single other review, although I also released one more song of my own work. I didn’t even listen to music at my normal rate; I bought fewer records than I had in any year since 2002, which is before I had a job, started recording, or could drive myself to a record store.

Nonetheless, I did listen to some music. Here are my favorite releases of 2021:

• Cremant Ding Dong - assorted singles - I’m so thrilled they’ve kept going. Many of their songs are still amusingly pandemic-related, but they’ve branched out, too, as with “Zu faul für’n eigenen Garten” (“Too Lazy for My Own Garden”). They write great lyrics and the cat still appears in every video.
• Falsetto Boy - People Crying in Cars - Falsetto Boy has released a string of singles, EPs, and splits (to say nothing of his excellent releases as Cup Collector, among other projects), but this is his first album under this banner in ten years. It’s a double, and it’s his strongest and most cohesive work yet. The guitars are splendrous and the lyrics and vocals are affecting. He also released “I Can’t Do That Anymore” from a Snappy Little Numbers compilation as a single, which is a little burst of upbeat energy with appropriately downbeat lyrics.
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d’s Pee at State’s End! - Have they released a bad album? No. They haven’t. The general pattern of post-apocalyptic ensemble rock and drone just gets refined with time as the rest of the world catches up to what they’ve been saying for 25+ years.
• Lightning Bug - A Color of the Sky - Hazy dreampop of the best variety. I’d just found their earlier albums at the start of the year before this was even announced, and I couldn’t be happier. They’re all pretty similar, but this one sounds the best. It's got less noisy shoegaze and more wistful synth folk. I think the radio-static compression effect is overdone, but otherwise I love the production.
• Nation of Language - A Way Forward - Their basic technique hasn’t changed since last year's Introduction, Presence, but they continue to churn out great synthpop. The drama has only heightened, though, and this album is actually slightly more upbeat and complex.
• St. Vincent - Daddy’s Home - Still can’t beat Strange Mercy (2011), but I prefer the 70s pastiche to the drug-addled electro mayhem of Masseduction (2017). The gender politics speak to me (or at least amuse me) better, too.
• Stereolab - Electrically Possessed: Switched On Volume 4 - It’s hard to compete with the first two editions of this series, but it’s still a gift that they finally caught up with the missing years. A few tracks feel like insubstantial filler, but most is high-quality, and the wide variety makes for a more captivating listen than any of their latter-day albums from the same era (well, except maybe Margerine Eclipse).

Again, a few additional honorable mentions:

• The Besnard Lakes - Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings - This is such a strange band. I love their grandiose vision, but I have trouble holding on to the individual songs. They went even harder into the long form, including a long closing drone at the end of the album. I’m not sure they used the time wisely. They also released the “Superego” single, which is a little poppier and more direct.
• Kikagaku Moyo - Live at Levitation - I literally heard this band’s KEXP session playing at a tea store and knew I had to hear more. I caught the name and now I’m hooked. There’s a degree to which this sort of deeply psychedelic jamming gets predictable and redundant, but I love it anyway. It was pure coincidence that I hadn’t already caught wind of them via Levitation, and when I found this album, I had to have it.
• Monta at Odds - Peak of Eternal Light - I hyped this Kansas City space rock band’s music last year, too, and it doesn’t seem that I’m gonna stop soon. This album didn’t immediately pull me in the way Argentum Dreams did, but it’s just about as good. Your Friend makes another appearance, too!

And lastly, a couple excellent albums (and a single) from recent years that I missed before but caught up with this year:

• Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (2014) - After hearing her name for years now I finally gave her a proper listen. I get lost in the beauty, power, and finesse of her voice every time regardless of where I’m at. The music is a perfect match, too, even if the lyrics don't always do it for me.
• Hallogallo 2010 - “Blinkgürtel” / “Drone Schlager” (2010) - Two great kosmische songs from a collaboration between Michael Rother of Neu! and Harmonia, Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, and Aaron Mullan. I don’t really know what the history of these tracks was, but it doesn’t matter. They’re on par with the classics.
• TENGGER - Spiritual (2017), Spiritual 2 (2019), and Nomad (2020) - I’d wanted to see them at Synästhesie in 2019, but I missed my chance. I finally dug into their music, and I find their latest three albums utterly entrancing. They are kosmische drones without much of a melody, but I can put them on in the background and always end up feeling better.

Who knows what 2022 will bring. I’m just trying to find some peace and stability. Stay healthy!

Ian Fisher - Live 2021.10.22 Prachtwerk, Berlin, Germany

Two and a half years ago I saw Ian play at the same venue on his last major tour, not counting the Tour of Tours show at Lido, one of the last shows I saw before the pandemic. Like everyone, Ian hasn’t been able to tour since then, despite that he released an excellent new album, American Standards, earlier this year. (Well, it was out last year for crowdfunding supporters, which is why I included it in my 2020 in Review post.) This tour was just four acoustic shows accompanied by his longtime collaborator Ryan Thomas Carpenter on banjo, keyboard, and backing vocals. This was my first indoor show since February 2020 and I’ve still been pretty anxious about attending events like this, but I’m vaccinated and I couldn’t resist the appeal. It helps that Prachtwerk is a really cozy venue, and they seem to know how to handle the sound such that it’s full and clear but not so loud that I need earplugs.

The show itself was excellent. Ian and Ryan played for almost two hours, including two thirds of American Standards, several of their older songs, a couple much older covers, and a whole six new songs! I loved the variety; that’s exactly the way to my heart. A particular highlight was “Manmade Mountains” from Vienna You White Moon (2009), which was given a much fuller arrangement with Ryan’s keyboard and harmonies. This was also the first time I can recall seeing Ryan play banjo, which he wielded deftly on some of the new songs and the cover of the Missouri state song. Although I quite enjoy American Standards, especially the title track and “Be Thankful”, the new songs were particularly special. It felt like we were getting an early taste of the next album, and the songs were already getting honed and arranged. “A Mother’s Love” was uncharacteristically sweet, but true as ever. “If I Show I Do” featured some impressive hambone percussion from Ryan while he simultaneously played the keyboard. “Achilles Heel” and “I’m Burning” reached impressive emotional and vocal heights, with the latter drawing in some gospel vibes in the chorus.

After coming back for the encore with another introspective new song, Ian and Ryan threw down and got the house rocking with the Hank Williams classic “Honky Tonk Blues”, complete with barreling solos from Ryan’s keyboard. “Ghosts of the Ryman” was an alternate opportunity for paying tribute to forebears, perhaps ironically featuring a lyric lightly mocking Southern-rock versions of Hank Williams songs. Much to my surprise, they even came back for a second encore. They asked for requests, and unsurprisingly “Candles for Elvis” won out. Ian claimed he barely remembered how it went, and he asked if Ryan could do it on the keyboard. Of course they went for it anyway, and with only a couple tiny flubs, it came off as the riveting, socio-politically emotional number it always does. It truly makes for a great closer.

Here’s the setlist:
01. [new song]
02. American Standards
02. Three Chords & the Truth
03. Melody in Nashville
05. Be Thankful
06. Manmade Mountains
07. If I Show I Do
08. Nero
09. Regret
10. Comin’ Down
11. A Mother’s Love
12. Missouri Waltz [cover of the Missouri state song]
13. Maybe a Little More
14. Achilles Heel
15. One Foot
16. I’m Burning

Encore:
17. Only One Way Out & No Way Back
18. Honky Tonk Blues [Hank Williams cover]
19. Ghosts of the Ryman

Second Encore:
20. Candles for Elvis

Ich brauche eine Genie Songbook-Release-Party - Live 2021.08.12 ://about blank, Berlin, Germany

What a strange year it’s been. Live music increasingly feels like a distant memory. Other than seeing a friend perform, this has been my first concert in almost a year, when I saw Bernadette La Hengst and the Chor der Statistik during the brief lull between lockdowns. I’ve made some of my own music and written some record reviews, but lately I’ve been busy with a new job and other life changes.

I’m still pretty skeptical about attending large indoor shows (and they aren’t really happening here anyway), but when I heard about a release party for a feminist songbook from Ich brauche eine Genie in the garden of ://about blank, that got my attention. The legendary sisters behind the Ich brauche eine Genie series, Kerstin and Sandra Grether, are charming and unbelievably enthusiastic. You couldn’t ask for better hosts or moderators for an event like this. They’re full of praise and humor, and they have an amusing ability to finish each other’s sentences and pick up right where the other left off.

The night opened with their own band, The Doctorella, which is indie rock with lyrics in the same delightful vein as their personalities. They were followed by Matching Outfits, whose intricate instrumental interplay and amusing lyrics were only outshone by their truly impressive three-part harmonies. Then came Babsi Tollwut, who rapped solid texts against the patriarchy, and Katrin Achinger, formerly of Kastrierte Philosophen, who claimed she hadn’t performed live in 20 years. I wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t said it; her voice and guitarwork were as dexterous as ever.

At that point, the pace of the evening sped up and the rest of the artists only performed one or two brief songs. It all went by in a bit of a blur, and I’ve probably left a name or two out or mixed up the ordering. Bernadette La Hengst, formerly of Die Braut haut ins Auge, played a keyboard and sang a song with her daughter. Drunk at Your Wedding told stories of travel on the cheap and sang about the kindness of strangers. FaulenzA played an accordion and spoke out against hyperconsumerism. Malonda rapped about embracing the fire inside and brought a friend to dance with her and through the audience.

Around that point, the clock struck 10 and no more music was allowed to be played (although the neighboring club somehow didn’t seem to obey that rule). The show carried on nonetheless with spoken word and a capella renditions. Annette Benjamin, formerly of Hans-A-Plast, read aloud the sarcastic classic “Für ’ne Frau”. Safi turned her songs in poetic mystery. Parole Trixi, Sandra Grether’s “other” band, turned their winding lyrics into scenic slam poetry. Die Supererbin told us tales of sexism and stress under lockdown. Hannsjana gave us another dose of humor against regressive reactionaries. And finally, The Toten Crackhuren im Kofferraum sang and acted out their frustrations with the job center and social judgment.

After a few closing remarks from the Grether sisters and their publisher, that was that! I naturally made a stop at the merch booth and picked up a copy of the book. The Grethers had explained that part of their inspiration was frustration with the lack of representation of women in major music media and festivals, and so they wanted to create something that would celebrate the many women artists that risked being left out once again. It’s a hefty book full of pictures, lyrics, art, and ephemera from 70+ performers. Most of the musicians are fairly new and young, but there are a few old favorites in there, too, like Malaria!, Gudrun Gut, Die Lassie Singers, Britta, and the aforementioned Die Braut haut ins Auge and Hans-A-Plast. Barbara Morgenstern, who I saw a couple years ago playing with Britta, is also present, along with all of the acts who performed at the release party and many more. It’s a really nicely put together collection!