2005/11/15: Skambankt, Berlin

(Photos)

OK, so Skambankt are coming to Germany, wow! On a weekday. To Berlin. But well – if I can go to Norway for concerts, I just HAVE to see the concert in Germany, right? Sadly I didn’t have any vacation left… but hey, what could possibly be more “punk” than getting on a plane directly after work, flying to Berlin, seeing a concert, sleeping on the floor, getting back on the plane veeeeery early the next morning and going directly back to work? =;-)

He he, so bear with me if this report is a little weird, but 4 hours of sleep in 38 hours or so is just not really enough… *g* But let’s start at the beginning.

It was a kind of festival, four mostly unknown Scandinavian bands. And it was for free which was a really good thing, I could convince some people who had never heard of Skambankt to just drop by – you can’t lose anything if it’s for free, right? And so in the end, the club was fairly crowded (okay, not because of the four, five people I convinced to come there, but you know what I mean… *g*).

The first band was CDOASS, a Swedish Hives-copy, or so I’ve been told. I actually missed them, as I was suddenly doing an interview with the band – which wasn’t exactly what I had planned. I had actually thought of just asking some questions to one or the other whenever the possibility occured or something, but well, it was fun. =;-) And I think there’s gonna be a fairly… uhm… _weird_ band-introduction whenever I come around to update it. *lol*

OK, the second band was from Denmark, Kira and the Kindred Spirits, and I also missed them. I saw the singer dressed in a tight red overall, that was enough for me already, honestly. And I was hungry anyway. *g* From what my sources told me later, the first song was fairly good, and then the ballads started. So no big loss for me.

The third band was the one everybody was there for, it seemed. OK, except for those people who didn’t know any of the bands, I guess. *g* Private Line from Finnland – I don’t really know how to describe what they did (and honestly I only saw the last few songs, aehem). If you closed your eyes, the music was fine. Not especially interesting, but okay, no bad. As soon as you (or probably I should say “I”, not “you”, there were actually lots of people who really liked them…) – so as soon as I looked at the stage, I burst out laughing though. I’m not sure WHAT they were trying to reinact, looked like a mixture of Rocky Horror Picture Show, wannabe-punk and The Darkness. I just hope they WERE acting and not taking themselves seriously. Their fans looked a lot like they were taking things seriously though. Hmm, what’s “aufgetakelt” in English? Well, 80s Glamrock anyway. In 2005. In a rock club in Berlin. It was amazing. *rofl*

Uhm, maybe I shouldn’t use the names of all that bands in here, people could accidentally find the review. But well, that’s what I thought. And I confess, I can’t judge ’cause I didn’t really see any of those three bands.

But then it was finally Skambankt time! And I’m back in the trouble that I have no idea how to describe a punk concert. “They played a song. Then they played another song. Then they said something which was not so funny that I would remember it, and then they played another song.” Would sound stupid. =;-) But the concert was great, the audience hardly reacted in the beginning, but it got better from song to song. OK, obviously there were also people leaving, but that was no surprise, ’cause Skambankt were… let’s say, a little different from the other bands that night. =;-) And those people who stayed (which were still fairly many!) definitely enjoyed themselves and even started to move in the end. Which was after only 30 minutes, so much too soon.

But now I’m already at the end of the concert, not good, there’s more to tell. First of all, Skambankt had another drummer. Skalle was not there, but instead there was a guy on the drums who refused to tell me how to spell his name. =:-p Skambankt had met him only one day before, except for Ted Winters who knew him for a whole week already, thus basically went to school with him. Aeh… yes. They had practiced only one time (“but imagine what it would sound like if we had practiced TWO times!”), but it worked out really well! Might have been due to the fact that Skambankt had promised him 20 beers after the show, and for every error the number went down… but actually, with the European beer prices, that’s not really too much of a problem. =;-) Of course there were some small errors, no question about that, but it didn’t matter at all.

So, what else do I remember? I actually understood the announcements, this is the advantage of concerts in Europe *g*, but well, announcements like “the next song is KKK!, I can’t translate it to German, but it’s a Norwegian saying” are not really helpful, and okay, “Bist du klar” is a perfectly correct German sentence, but I don’t know why I should be clear. =;-) He he, and I really don’t believe that “they” have been on tour for the last four weeks, even if I do believe the fact that it has been raining every single day except for “today we woke up and the sun was shining – and then we went to Berlin!” Where it had been raining all day, by the way. But all this sounds like talking bad about it now – no way. It all fit together perfectly, the songs, a little (and only a little) talk inbetween, and a lot of loud and hard rock. What else could you possibly want?

The setlist, maybe. Ok. =;-) There you go: Skambankt!, Me sa nei!, Revolusjonens Aggregat!, Desertør!, Panzersjokk!, KKK!, Alarm!, Skamania.
In my opinion, the song that really got the audience was Alarm! – if they had gone on for a few more songs after that, and not only Skamania, it would have been perfect and lots of new fans would have been born. But everybody had only 30 minutes, so they had to stop. But I’m sure they convinced several people in the audience – which is perfect. And next time they’ll take the rest! =:-)

And that was it, a very short but completely successful first gig for Skambankt in Germany, and we want to see you back as soon as possible!

Then a much too short night (not on the floor by the way, but it just sounded cooler like that *g*), thanks a lot for taking me in!, a flight back and a LONG day at work. And now I’m dead. But it was totally worth it. Thanks for the show, thanks for the interview, and see you live again soon!

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