The support band were Göttingen’s The Blue Screen of Death who played a short set some kind of enjoyable ‘electro-punk’ which I approved of when seeing them in 2008.

Afterwards Les Trucs set up their countless little gadgets in the middle of the room and drowned us in noisy beepy goodness, all while jumping around, creating their own sweet mini-lightshows using the lamps they brought along. As great as I remembered them, with a few new songs mixed in and playing a gig that was a bit on the short side.

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Later on they became a bit more quiet and clever, using even more instruments (weirdo electronic thingy, keyboard, clarinet?). I preferred that sound, particularly with the vibraphone and cello parts.

There was a second band, Helgoland, playing later on. But as the gig started ninety minutes late (as usual) and we had to be up early today, we had to skip on that. Even if it makes me sound like a square, I’d quite like correct times on event advertisements. And I think it’s not a problem if gigs start before eleven at night. Particularly on a Sunday.

The bands are Les Trucs and Gtuk, both from Berlin if I’m not mistaken. They’re playing noisy electronic music. The word Nintendocore appeared somewhere which seemed strangely appropriate.

Now, I do have problems with electronic music. It may be clever, it may be loud and it may pull all the smart tricks you need to make people move. But I usually don’t find it suitable for live performance. With everything being electronic, it seems a bit superfluous to have people to press the play button and perhaps jump around wildly while the hard work is done by some little box full of electronics. There needs to be a bit more for things to be worthwhile. Luckily these bands could provide that, by adding in some live singing and playing as well as their sheer presence.

Les Trucs

Les Trucs came with a huge fold-out table full of cables, keyboards an nifty gadgets to play the right percussion sounds at the right times or when some button is pressed. They also brought along somewhat remarkable devices trucs to enable them wearing microphones right before their mouths without needing to hold them - one of them attached to a hat, the other being a more complicated construction looking like a boxy school-rucksack with some desk lamp parts being used to get the microphone in the right position; Extra metal bars were attached to provide a way to carry a small keyboard along. Rather decisive live playing and singing made this analogue enough to be cool. A cheerful Wal, Gorilla, Elefant to that!

Gtuk

Gtuk was a bit further on the weird side. At least that’s what you may find yourself thinking when you’re watching a young guy dressed mainly in underpants and dragon or frog style cape (I couldn’t quite figure that out, my colleague’s baby daughter has a jacket with similar ears on its hood and it’s quite cute on her…) crawl around the ground and shout into a children’s toy microphone or sit down at a miniature drum set and beat the shit out of it.

Musically this sounded a bit more electronic and automatic (with a hat tip to Alec Empire, perhaps) to me - except for the ‘singing’ which invariably sounded like indiscernible screaming, thanks to the odd toy device use as a microphone I presume, making the whole thing seem more like a performance than a concert at times (admittedly there seem to be a few comprehensible lyrics in the tracks available at last.fm), with Gtuk’s dancing and physical presence taking centre stage.

But sheer luck and discussing the virtues of the mighty Стерео Тотал after dinner recently, gave a spontaneous trip to Hannover to see them play at the Theaterformen festival. Amazingly the gig was free to watch and located a nice backyard in an area of Hannover which hides the city’s proverbial ugliness well.

They played plenty of songs for us, alternatingly using a guitar, drum set, some electro toys and an acoustic bass when a bassist joined them for a few songs. With their big ‘hits’, some old songs and quite a few of the newer ones, that made a great gig (even though didn’t play the - admittedly not particularly gig-like - Die Wäscheklammern which must be one of the most hilarious songs in existence.

The only thing irritating me was the fact that Françoise Cactus only stopped chewing her chewing gum for one of the very last encore songs - must have been a challenging one. And they had a chandelier on the street outside the venue - way to pimp your town!

Afterwards Knarf Rellöm, who should probably be considered some kind of historical figure in the whole Hamburger Schule set of things, did a weirdo DJ thingy. Let’s just say that I am not a big fan of people playing beats and speaking/singing to them while wearing golden track suits. That said, it was still quite fun and I’m waiting for the Außerplanetarische Opposition now.

Anyway, going to the gig was totally worth it after we survived the doped up hip-hopish support band whose movements looked like they escaped from the Augsburger Puppenkiste. (There are chances that I’ll get used to electronic music or even jazz as I age, but I doubt anything even remotely hip-hop will ever make the cut.)

Dota und die Stadtpiraten played a nice and long set - surprisingly with an interval - full of charming and slightly depressive songs. Dota’s voice reminded me slightly of Wir Sind Helden but the music was totally in Element of Crime territory, though probably not as laconic in places. From modern-time romanticism with a hint of irony (Containerhafen) to whole hearted pessimism (Der kleine Beobachter) most dark shades of grey are covered in the songs.

First playing were local band The Blue Screen of Death who were actually quite enjoyable. Amusingly their bassist played wearing a helmet. Whether he needs that to operate properly or it was just a precaution for a tall person meeting really low ceiling situation remains a mystery.

Then Juri Gagarin played. Probably to honour the association of their name with the great days of the Soviet Union they opened with that country’s national anthem. And went to to play somewhat boring electronic songs. Once again I am also baffled why people need to jump around so much when their idea of ‘making music’ is pressing plastic buttons on electronic devices. The motionless Kraftwerk approach to making music is much nearer to my heart.

The evenings headliner Bratze came on last. And I managed to take the shittest photo ever of them. While they certainly had a bunch of enthusiastic fans in the crowd there and weren’t bad, their mix of beats and singing isn’t really my thing. A bit repetitive at times as well.

Morgens aufstehen, wenn die Sonne scheint, was man durch die kleinen Risse im Rollo erkennen kann, springe ich aus dem Bett, geräkelt, gestreckt, ahhh! und dann unter die Dusche. Das prasselt auf einen nieder, massiert die erschlaffte Haut. Abtrocknen, rubbelen, mit der Bürste einmal durch die Haare und darein ein Tropfen Gel, damit sie einem nicht die Sicht auf diesen wunderbar klaren Tag verhängen. Ich habe nie diese Langhaarigen verstanden, die ihr Leben in einem steten Zustand geistiger Umnachtung verbringen müssen, weil sie einfach nichts mitbekommen von ihrer Umwelt. Freiwillige Autisten sind das, wenn man mich fragt. Zähne putzen, Borsten extrastark, das widerlich grüne Pfefferminzzeugs in den Abfluß gespuckt, frische Klamotten, die Pixies auf den Plattenteller…

Which is a line that stuck with me. I don’t want to know what kind of non-conscious role it played in making me want to get a turntable and doing my best to find a Pixies LP that I didn’t own as a CD already.

… 25 Liegestütz, raus auf den Balkon, einatmen, hmm, kaum Ozon in der Luft, tut gut, macht frei, frisch und fickerig, egal, wieder rein, ist inzwischen fast schon wieder Mittag. Wo ist eigentlich der Kater von letzter Nacht geblieben? Futschikado! Noch mal raus, vor die Tür, schauen ob er dort ist. Nein nein nein nein nein, nicht mal im Briefkasten, nichts da. Dafür tänzelt man selbst ballerinengleich durchs Treppenhaus, vor der Tür paffen Dir lustigen Wölkchen aus dem Mund - Vorsicht Glatteisgefahr! - und wenn schon, dann schnallt man sich halt ein paar Kufen unter und kurvt durch die Kurven mit den Kufen, ratsch, ritsch, rutsch, dann aber wieder rein, bloß nicht übertreiben. Man friert sich noch den Arsch ab, keine gute Sache, drinnen wartet das Bett. Genau: Frühstück im Bett. Großartige Idee. An der Tür vorbei, bevor sie im Luftzug zuschlägt, geschafft, 1. Platz von allen. Drinnen ists inzwischen auch ganz luftig, der Muff einfach weggeblasen, jetzt kann man anfangen zu genießen. Die Sonnenstrahlen knallen einem immer noch um ein Haar die Augäpfel aus den Höhlen, alles explodiert, die Konturen messerscharf. A propos Messer: da liegts, und dazu noch gut in der Hand, braucht man fürs Frühstück - aber nicht so ein lächerliches Butterbrotmesser, neee, 18 Zentimeter Klinge; mindestens!

Let’s just say I have a soft spot for oversized knives as well. While I don’t use them for breakfast, I use them for pretty much everything else. Perhaps I should work on my breakfasting technique…

Und dann reiße ich den Kühlschrank, dessen Temperatur immer nur haarscharf über dem Gefrierpunkt liegt, auf, und die Milchtüte raus, schmecke, fuchs, der Tetrapakquader - natürlich einer von den hohen schlanken, die breiten niedrigen vermitteln ein depressives Lebensgefühl, am schlimmsten ist H-Milch, bäh! - eist mir fast an der Hand fest, macht aber nichts, im Gegenteil, das stimuliert nur noch meine Kampfeslust. Lasche hoch und dann säbere ich voll in den Karton, daß mir das ganze Zeug über die Hose pladdert. Ui, da glitzern noch Eiskristalle drin, ich setze die Tüte an und gieße mir das Zeug in den Rachen und schlucke und schlucke und schlucke, fühlt sich an, als würde die Kehle einfrieren. Reine Milch ohne Zusätze, leider auch ohne Frostschutzmittel, da hat mans damals beim Wein besser gehabt: glykolversetzt, den konnte man sich gleich auch noch in den Kühler kippen, der Nachteil war, daß man elendig verreckt ist an dem Zeugs. Nichts für mich. Dann doch lieber den Weißen Riesen, der in meinem Magen inzwischen Eisklumpen bildet, schnell zurück unter die Bettdecke, zuerst aber stopfe ich noch den Schmeckefitzel in den Papierkorb, rülpse und lasse mich zurück in die Kissen fallen. Keine Frage: Jeder braucht mal ne Pause.

And to finish things off, the guy gives a perfect classification of milk packs. The tall 1 litre tetra packs are the ‘good’ ones while the wider and smaller ones are bad and usually contain disgusting UHT milk. After another fun detour to the glycol wine ‘scandal, the singer deserves a break.

The big day! Somehow the festival organisers decided to cram all the good bands into the Saturday. Which made the day very exhausting. But – first things first – we had to drink instant coffee because my friend had brought the cooker and the filter but had managed to forget the filter coffee (among other things) that goes with it. Another omission was the pan and the eggs, both of which make getting up in the unpleasant situation that is a campground a lot more tolerable. To start this day off extra miserably, it was quite chilly. And it was raining. Which is where the party tent came in handy as we could at least be in there rather than crammed into tiny tents.

As noon came near – and damn me do these hours of discomfort last long with the only pleasure being an iPod with speakers that had made it to the campground somehow and prepared us for the day – the weather improved and there were even a few minutes of sun. Finally we moved out of the safe tent and first had to grab some food. I picked a Chinese stall and the food was easily the worst Chinese food I ever had. Yucky, greasy, disgusting and making me feel sick. But at the same time good at fighting a hangover which was a main objective of that plan.

And then the music started for us. First with The Bravery playing, whose music always seems a bit too poppy to me but is charming enough to make you smile and cheesy enough to put on at any party. And I guess their gig was enjoyable. I still have to make up my mind whether the ‘real’ setup on stage which made them sound less slick and synthetic is a good or a bad thing. While that slickness is a big part of their music, I still lean towards the former.

Next on were Virginia Jetzt. I always thought their music was quite charming – particularly their first EP – but also a bit too nice to be great. They played a number of their charming songs and a few of the duller ones and their singer really liked talking. Very few singers are good at that. Very few. Still sort of enjoyable and with a nice logo behind the stage.

Next on were The Sounds. I sort of enjoyed their music at Hurricane last year but found it a bit disappointing on CD afterwards. And they didn’t disappoint, the music was enjoyable again when coming from a stage. Even more enjoyble even while sitting down. But hey – look at the screen in the back!

Slowly things were starting be more serious and Mogwai came on next. I like Mogwai and their music is great. So dedicated to noise. And in a very serious and unironic way (give or take a knitted woolen hat). Not many people make this kind of effort. And go on stage without silly jumping around or at least having some lead singer type of person. And make people like them! Seriously cool, coolly serious music. Best enjoyed loud and close to the stage. Which I made an attempt to do, thus noting that the volume levels were very reasonable at the festival – loud but not painful.

Once Mogwai got going I saw that there was a queue to get into the area right in front of the stage for the next gig. And that the queue was quite short. With Arcade Fire being the next band to come up, I did a bit of queueing (in their somewhat random/idiotic system) and watched Mogwai more from the side for a while. Because, uh, Arcade Fire were the main reason for me to come. After seeing them in Köln two years ago I just needed to see them again. After standing through a bit of rain there next to a bunch of very vivid tiny Italian girls and after (this really sucked!) the set up for the band needing 15 minutes longer than it should have, the band came on.

When seeing them in Köln I had fears that their music wouldn’t translate to an open air stage. A fear which turned out to be completely unwarranted. So this time I wondered how they’ll do on a huge open air stage. I actually was quite optimistic about that. And even that didn’t do them justice. And nor could any description of mine. Their music and their gig were just fantastic beyond words.

I’ll leave it at that. The problem was that they really ruined (well not quite ruined) the rest of the day for me because any other band just seemed old-fashioned, boring, dull and lifeless in comparison. For example Modest Mouse whom I saw afterwards (after just missing Tokyo Police Club, unfortunately) and who weren’t at all bad, just seemed dull to me. Even the crappy photo I took of them didn’t want to be in focus.

With things overlapping a bit, I still managed to see a few songs at the Bloc Party gig. I think they’re an OK band and certainly did well and a good show. But that’s about it. One thing to learn from the kids there: If you are standing way bac and don’t really see the band, look at the huge screens. If you want to take a photo of the band, just take a photo of the screens. That doesn’t make terribly much sense to me. But it works.

Next on at the second stage were the Manic Street Preachers. I never really got into their music but I know a few people who are absolutely crazy about it. I also figured that getting in at the front would ensure me having a good place for seeing Bright Eyes afterwards. Afterwards I have to tell that the Manics surely have dedicated fans. But that I’ll not be one of them. And their bassist has a bit of a problem with thinking he doesn’t get enough attention it seems. It seems mostly unnecessary to jump around like hell when playing bass – which is four strings, pretty much one at a time, the last time I checked. On the other hand, their keyboard and second guitar player were hidden somewhere at the back of the stage. Uh? At least I took what is pretty much the only decent photo of the weekend during the gig:

Bright Eyes came on afterwards with a whole orchestra and all of them were dressed totally in white. I was a bit disappointed by that. And I think it was overdoing it and killing the ‘whiney boy with guitar’ charme you usually associate with Bright Eyes. Things became a bit better when the orchestra left, but I still wasn’t persuaded to stay all the way to the end – I was supposed to meet my friends anyway.

Somehow we didn’t manage to meet, but I got to see a bit of Marilyn Manson instead. While the guy seems to be funny and all, I’m just not a friend of his music. And the whole thing seems to be about the persona anyway. More an ‘act’ than a band or so. The show looked quite elaborate but it definitely isn’t my cup of tea.

I was keener on seeing Aerogramme anyway. Their ‘The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it’ shirts at the merch stall amused me when I saw them (but weren’t pretty enough to actually get one) and I enjoyed their Story in White album. I was shocked to see how old the band are – having thought they’d be much younger. The music was all right, although I thought it lacked some of the lightness I had perceived in their album.

The final gig of the night were Interpol. I have a bit of a mixed relationship to their music because I always think I like it but I’m sometimes disappointed when I actually hear it. Still, their gig was solid and if I hadn’t seen Arcade Fire before, I may have even though it was great.

After that gig it was two o’clock. I had been running around in rubber boots which are two sizes too large all day and because of the mud everywhere I pretty much stood all the time. My feet were aching like hell and all I wanted was to lie down and get some rest. Which I almost got but I made the mistake of drinking a lot of water before going to sleep and not having had enough alcohol to be able to just ignore the noises from the rest of the campground.

Next: Hurricane Sunday