So Reeperbahn Festival happened last weekend. Team Poule spent three memorable days running up and down Reeperbahn trying not to miss one show. It was a rather good line-up this year. Cheers to that Reeperbahn Festival! And cheers to the Hamburg audience – you seem to have a rather good taste in music. Rising acts like Dante from Stockholm or Denmark’s Indians and Asbjörn all played in basically sold-out venues with people waiting on the street to get in (they didn’t get in).
Pictured above are Dial M For Murder – who played an energetic set at Grüner Jäger on Friday night. Again, the place was packed! The duo recently switched from a drum machine and added a live drummer. The festival booklet (which btw was the most useless thing on Planet Earth because it didn’t feature a time table – what the hell) had concerns the new drummer might be a Menschmaschine – I can’t tell if he was, but he was furious!
The best gig we saw was already on Thursday though – but it wasn’t all downhill from there. Oxford’s Glass Animals played Prinzenbar and it was epic (told you so). Smooth electronic beats paired with a banging drum set and those impeccable vocals – just wonderful. The group has been around for over two years and now finally put out their first physical release: Leaflings is a great EP and it’s out on Rough Trade, here. Listen to the opener Golden Antlers below.
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Birmingham’s energetic Swim Deep played Molotow on Friday night (photo above) and had the audience eating out of their hands. They’ve been supporting the Poule d’Or compilation series for a long time so Team Poule was equally biased and excited to finally see them on a stage. As expected, they were fantastic! The guys just signed with a new label and are reportedly working on a debut full-length release. Can’t wait to hear that. Below is their latest single Honey.
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Spleen United was one of the hot tips from Berlin’s Nordic by Nature – who know what’s up! It also happened to be the day of their EP release and despite some technical difficulties early on the Danish quartet rocked Cafe Keese with their synth-laden banging electropop. We might be looking at the new WhoMadeWho here. I suggest you grab that little ball of Danish disco power right now – here. Taste their delicious trademark track Sunset to Sunset.
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Hamburg’s historic Reeperbahn is famous for this peculiar mix of great music bars (where The Beatles played first – YES!), strip clubs and cathouses (hah!) and more recently the addition of museums and musicals. So, for 51 weekends of the year Reeperbahn is basically a tourist attraction but every year, for this one weekend in September when it’s already a little too cold outside in the beginning of autumn, the music is taking back over – it’s the best time to visit the Reeperbahn. See you in 2013 Reeperbahn Festival!
