SANDY BIRD
CONCERT CHRONOLOGY
2012
CONCERT CHRONOLOGY
2012
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13.01.2012 Chemnitz, Aaltra
Attendance: 25
Soundcheck: I want to break free, a Black Sabbath cover, Mama said, Ich möchte Teil einer Jugendbewegung sein
Time: 55 min
Set: All Women Are Witches (new lyrics & vocals by Dennis) -> Time (new Version) -> Tiny Spiderwebs -> 9er -> 8er -> 21er - April Showers
Notes: For the first concert of the year Sandy Bird returns to Chemnitz after 2,5 years. They have previously played the Aaltra Vox in 2009 which is a little open air summer fest put on by this very venue. Today they play inside the lovely pub which has a genuine living room quality. The stage is very small and surrounded by chairs, old fashioned furniture, indoor plants and cute knickknack. The entry to the concert is free. A remarkable fun soundcheck finds the band jamming away on a juicy and funky rendition of Lenny Kravitz' "Mama said". During and after the soundcheck the small audience arrives: About 30 regular people in their twenties, many with a student look, many girls. The atmosphere is cosy inside the venue, people sit, drink and smoke and around 22:30 Sandy Bird begins to play. They commence the set with a major surprise: Out of the intro they soon model the familiar sounds of "All women are witches", one of the band's signature tunes which has not been played since the last Flink Festival. This piece is heavily associated with Vanessa (and her relationship to Dennis) of course. The tune is heavily rearranged, a bit shortened. There are new vocals by Dennis which work not so great and a brilliant and surprising drum break which works very well on the other hand. "Witches" segues into "Time" the way it did on the tape and in the fall of 2009. "Time" however is rearranged as well. Today it is reduced to its bare bones, it's just Dennis playing the harmonium and singing with closed eyes into the room without a mic -- very intense. The rest of the set continues in equally intense fashion. The small crowd listens attentively for the most part but there is a seperation between the band and the audience, no-one dares to come closer to the small stage. There is hardly any obnoxious chatter though, people respect the band and there is also moderate applause. Kathi of Playfellow (with whom the Birds have played 20.11.2008 and the aforementioned Aaltravox on 05.06.2009) saw her first Sandy Bird concert in 2,5 years and was majorly impressed by the giant leap and progress the band has made. Says Kathi: "They play a much more math-like brand of post-rock now, very much in the veins of the band called Monument To Masses".
picture
video excerpt on YouTube
14.01.2012 München, innen: welt Festival, Kafé Kult
With: Paula i Karol, Deep Sea Diver, G.E.F., Tasty Tea a.o.
Attendance: ca. 150
Soundcheck: included parts of "April showers" and "Tiny spiderwebs"
Time: 60 min
Set: The Second Cry Pt. III - IV -> All Woman Are Witches (instrumental) -> Time (new Version) -> Tiny Spiderwebs -> 9er -> 8er -> 21er -> April Showers
Notes: On their way south from Chemnitz the band meets the first snow and the first minus degrees of the winter. The band is headed south to Munich for their first show in the Bavarian capital and the third biggest city in Germany. The little festival innen:welt 2012 is being put on by an association of young and devoted people who want to support non-commercial underground culture and music in the underground wasteland that is the very rich and expensive city of Munich. The association called innen:aussen Raum promotes regular concerts in unusual places (e.g. the banks of the river Isar or former movie theatres) as well as this annual festival. The festival takes place at Kafé Kult, an alternative island in the north of Munich. The venue is an old wodden shack with two concerts rooms, a backstage, an office, a kitchen and a very small room where videos are being screened. The bigger of the two concert rooms holds 250 people and this is where the Birds are scheduled to play as second to last band of the night -- a good headlining slot. The two stages, the friendly prices for drinks and food, the cute little details in decoration and organisation, the choice of bands and music as well as the number of attendants (sold out with 280 tickets) make this festival very much comparable to Sandy Bird's very own Flink Festival. Organizers and members of the other bands welcome the little travel party from Berlin with open arms and spirits run high all day and night. Strangely enough of the 280 ticket holders only about 200 show up leaving the promoters wondering what happened to the 80 people who didn't come. The first performers up to Sandy Bird do meet a VERY talkative crowd. Therefore the band decides to come out of the gates with a bang and there is only choice for that: The mighty "Second cry"! The remainder of the set is intense and great too. The lyrics which surprised inside "April showers" the previous night are dropped tonight (and for all the following versions the next weeks). The band manages to captivate the crowd and plays a powerful, at times very haunting, show. There is a great light installation behind the stage which employs about a dozen umbrellas and several colours and light patterns. Apart from this installation there is a hardly any light which means the band performs in almost total dark (with added fog from dry ice) which emphasizes the intensity of the music. There are moments when the crowd applauses spontaneously (e.g. "Time" is greeted with cheers of recognition from a small group of people). While the Birds play a good show which is met with a lot of positive enthusiasm by the organizers and fellow bands afterwards it became obvious to this reviewer that there is still a lot of room to improve in terms of playing skills and tightness. This was particularly obvious in direct comparison to the performance of the headlining Polish band Paula I Karol afterwards who brought the house down with a great show that combined professionalism with the fresh approach and enthusiasm of the naive amateur.
poster
pictures
"All women are witches" on YouTube
26.01.2012 Berlin, Berlin Unhinged Festival, SO36
With: Quixote, Camera and many more
Attendance: several hundred
Time: 30 min
Set: All women are witches -> Time -> Tiny spiderwebs -> April showers
Notes: Sandy Bird were asked to participate in this multi-discipline art event just two weeks ahead of the date. Unhinged festival aims to "showcase some of the finest underground talents from the music, visual art, film, fashion and performance scenes" on one night with free entry. Thanks to powerful sponsors like Flux FM and Zitty the concept works and about 1.500 people show up for the festival during the course of the whole night. This means of course it was very crowded and packed all night long because the venue has a capacity of 800 people. SO36 is THE legendary club in Kreuzberg, flagship and crystallisation point of Berlin's punk and NDW-movement in the early 1980s. The band performs a brief 30 minute set in a very tight fashion. The performance is a success, the crowd cheers after the climax in "April showers".
poster
pictures by Susann
picture of the band on stage from afar
picture of the venue directly after the band's show
02.02.2012 Berlin, Galiläakirche
With: Zerfall, Levitations, Roadkill Zombies
Attendance: ca. 60
Time: 40 min
Set: All women are witches -> Time -> Tiny spiderwebs -> April showers, The second cry Pt. III - IV
Notes: The fomer inhabitants of the Friedrichshain squat Liebig14 put on a so called "action week" to commemorate the first anniversary of the squat's eviction. Under the moniker "Never reast in peace" the action week features concerts, parties, demonstrations as well as a solemn vigil on the actual day of the anniversary which happens to be today (there were also severe riots to kick start the action week on 29.01.2012). As part of the action week there is also this concert at a nearby church which normally hosts a museum for underground anti youth cultures. The Birds were asked to perform at this special concert because they also performed at Liebig14 on 04.02.2010 -- one year before the eviction. The other three bands on the bill are punk bands, the Birds were wisely scheduled as first band. Despite a freezing Sibirian cold that holds Berlin captive these days with temperatures hitting two- digit minus degrees a strong punk crowd appears at the church for the start of the concert at 19:00. Inside the church there are temperatures of ca. 2-5°C but people just keep on their clothes and hold on to their Sterni and their Glühwein. Several hundreds of cops have to sit in the cold outside though just around the corner of the church and Liebig14 in order to keep the quarter under control. But not only punks come out for this show, there are also some odd tourists, some notorious Sandy Bird fans as well as some Stoner dudes who are friends of Marc which altogether results in a weirdly mixed and colourful crowd. At 19:10 the Birds take the stage which has been set up on the former altar. The guitar amp is placed on the baptestry. The band performs the same set as at SO36 the previous week with "Second cry" added as a rocking number for good measure. The sound is surprisingly good. Marc and Sten gel together and lock into each other's groove while Dennis is not as tight today. The set earns some cheers of exitement from the crowd. The hardcore punks could not wait for their bands to begin though. "Schluss jetzt mit dem Kuschelrock" announces the drummer of Zerfall who follows Sandy Bird and soon enough the punk rock takes reigns of the houses of the holy...
poster
pictures
"Time -> Tiny spiderwebs" on YouTube
09.02.2012 Kiel, Prinz Willy
10.02.2012 Aarhus, Post Fest 2012, Train (DK)
11.02.2012 Hamburg, Michelle Records
11.02.2012 Hamburg, Mobile Blues Club
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