Yesterday, we sat on the grass in a park in the centre of Stuttgart, eating ice cream and chatting, when he told me that he was still waiting for a review about that one particular concert, that one particular night. And for a second I was totally confused. I was even convinced that I had already written about it. But I hadn’t. I guess I always had it on my mind but I never did it.
It was a strange night. Returning to all those bits and pieces that made up my youth: This awful little town where freedom is made only of wheels and a driving licence; the dark and deserted streets on a Friday night, roamed only by a few drunken under-eighteens on their way to find more booze; the run down, small town youth club with painted walls and wasted couches, forever populated by the same people, wearing the same heartbreaking Kurt Cobain style.
That particular night carried them all back to me. Those awful memories, those naïve dreams and miserable hopes… But don’t get me wrong: I am not saying I wasn’t happy back then. I surely had a great time and there are a bunch of memories I won’t want to miss… But let me say one thing: I know better now.
So there I was: meet and greet, hugs and kisses. People I used to know, people I didn’t know, people I always wanted to know, people I would have never expected to meet, people I call my friends – well, actually only one of the latter kind… Anyway…
Getting drunk. Sidekicks 44 played some decent Blues. Not bad entirely. Energetic and fun. If you like that sort of thing – and if you know it. Most of the lads in the back of room looked like they didn’t and clung to their bottles of beer or to the rods of the table football next door. Break and set up for the second band. I called the Darling and drunk on. I don’t know what I was expecting. Guess I was just curious what had happened to the band the last five years. And honestly, it turned out it wasn’t much. Much of the same songs, much of the same sound. Only different faces. Dead end Alternative Rock. Non-committal, uncontroversial, nice to the ear. The fact that I wrote most of those songs maked it even worse…
But the most important, the most exciting part of the night was yet to come: Hawelka! This wonderful, cosmopolitan, bohemian, free-spirited mixture of plain blues guitars, The Doors organs, electronic beats, East-European tunes and rhythms and catchy lyrics. This whirl-wind of musical outré; at one instance, both sweepingly happy and touchingly thoughtful.
You know I was always rather cautious about German bands and German lyrics – I was brought up with the overwhelming oligopoly of British and American Pop music, I can’t help it… But this one is different. Different in any possible way – and refreshingly so.
The three guys on stage, drew us out of the dark corners, drew us in, kept hold of us, took our dancing shoes hostage and released them only reluctantly one hour and many glorious tunes later.
So here it was, boiled down to one single night: my narrow-minded small town past and my (admittedly rather snobbish) cosmopolitan present. They met, shook hands and after a few enjoyable hours of music went separate ways again.
A strange night. But a good one.
PS: if you are wondering, where the “future” part of this blog entry can be found: well, it is in the hope for this funny, little cosmopolitan present to extent into an even bigger, world-embracing open-minded future. A future in which a truly innovative band like Hawelka would be honoured for their creative affords instead of being punished for their non-conformism…
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