March 30, 2007 Karlsruhe (Germany), Substage

First of all I need to admit that I most likely wouldn't have come across this band without reading a remark that Billy Gould had produced their latest album and that he will also perform live as second guitarist.

Their might be some bonus and a higher interest in the music than with other bands, however, the music still had to convince me. After having listened to some promising tunes from the bands myspace page  (by that time i.e.Elaine) I decided to simply give it a shot and buy their album. It is relatively straight but playful and disharmonical alternative rock music. Some parts reminded me of Nirvana (as in Tenderly) and others of the QOTSA (as in Elaine).

Most tunes have a nice sound texture to it and also built up and explode in interesting ways.

Up to the concert I only knee this particular album and I knew it wasn't their first one. Actually, it is their 7th and the band has been around for 15 years.

But back to the actual review. At first I was a little suprised by the venue. Well, it was very small, maybe even smaller than the Logo in Hamburg (where I got to see Fantomas promoting their first self-titled effort). As the name of the venue might indicate, it used to be a pedestrian subway. Therefore the ceiling is not really that high and the people on stage couldn't really jump around without hitting their heads, in case they are a little taller than average.

When the support act (whose name I never came across) came on stage there were nearly no people around at all. They were pretty weird playing long noisy songs with a very bid emphasis on the monotonous drums. One could barely figure out whether the guitar was actually playing a melody or just pure noisy chords. The sound was very dense and not uninteresting but there was hardly anything which could be considered as singing. A singer would have helped in the structure, I guess. Anyhow, I did not really actively listen to a bid portion of their set as I noticed Billy Gould standing around in the audience.

As I did have some sporadic contact with him via email years ago,he had managed to put me on a FNM guestlist and I had never met him in person before, I had to take this opportunity. I went straight up to him and introduced myself as Heino. He replied that I looked slightly different and could not remember me. Anyhow, we had a very nice chat about his search for good bands etc. He told me that he had not been playing live for 10 years and never on guitar. Actually we also was not a good guitar player according to his words. With this band it just clicked and they can communicate very well musically. He was very happy with this situation and loved the opportunity to get to play live again. It was really nice little talk. Great guy. When he left to get his wine glass re-filled I went over to my girlfriend and missed him when he got back. There show was about to begin within a couple of minutes anyhow.

I am quite sure that they started the show with a song from "7" as this is their only album I know so far. It was a really good show mixed with old and new songs, some pretty dense rock songs others melodic ballads, a good mixture.

The band gave it everything but some parts of the performance seemed a little too artifical and intendedly energetic and carrying along to me. They singer Aren Emirze also sported with the fact that the band existed for 15 years now. This he had pointed out several times. He also tried to much to get the audience give back the energy he provided for us.

However, it was a solid and good rock evening. "Tension" and "Hide" even both gave me goosebumps.

I only wished it would have been a little more crowded. It most likely wasn't more than 50 people in the audience. Please check out their album and form your opinion.

Claas

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