Beatsteaks, Manchester Night and Day
The Beatsteaks are clearly one of the worlds most underrated little punk rock bands, and when I found out they were only playing a four date UK tour in mid January, I was gutted that they hadn’t chosen to visit Sheffield, Nottingham or Leeds. Luckily, a telephone call from the fantastically helpful Nita at Goldstar managed to sort me out a place on the guest list so I could afford to travel all the way to Manchester to watch one of my favourite bands.
I arrived there pretty damn early to obtain an interview with the guys (which will be up as soon as I finally transcribe the second half of it) and afterwards, settled down to talk to some random people, as I was on my own. After being ejected from the café/venue thing for about 20 minutes while they set up (for some stupid reason), we were settled and ready for the opening act, GLUEBALL to start up. Well, what can I say? Buzzsaw guitars, throaty ‘vocals’ and furious drumming abound as they proceeded to bewilder everyone in the venue with their brand of sleazy, ultra fast punk rock. ‘The Love Song, who’s lyrics were entirely made up of the word ‘love’ was inspired, but apart from that, I can recall few redeeming features! (3)
After that bizarre aural offensive, things were toned down slightly for the pop-punk-with-a-bite sounds of the ‘soon to be massive’ FLETCHER. Playing songs pre-dominantly from their Six Track Sound e.p, with a couple of new tracks on top, they were highly impressive. Huge, towering punk rock riffs were topped off with brash but melodic vocals to really get the crowd down the front going. There were clearly a number of people here to see these guys, but those who were unaware of their existence were left with a smile on their faces and a very good impression left with them after their set. (7)
Finally, it was time for the full on rock onslaught that is Germany’s The Beatsteaks. After first seeing the video for ‘Panic’ on an Epitaph video sampler, and then purchasing the ‘Launched’ and last years phenomenal ‘Living Targets’ albums, I had grown to absolutely love this band over the years. Even their interesting new covers EP ‘Die Wohnzimmer’ has a number of absolute gems on it, and tonight, on only their second ever headlining show on British soil, the Beatsteaks rip it up like only the Beatsteaks can!
Not only are they possibly some of the nicest guys in rock, they also know how to put one hell of a live show on. In this small, yet curiously cosy little café in central Manchester, the largest crowd to ever frequent this venue witnessed such undervalued modern classics as ‘Shut Up Stand Up’, ‘God Knows’ and a wonderful cover of the Clash classic ‘I Fought The Law’.
After opening with ‘I’m Not Ready to Rock’, which has easily the most ironic song title in the god dam world, they then unleashed the ‘staple mix tape song’ from their Living Targets record, ‘Let Me In’. If I could describe how much I love this song, I would, but I can’t! Arnim managed to juggle guitar-playing duties with both suitably energetic vocals and equally important ‘dangling into the crowd’ responsibilities and the energy from the band easily transferred to the dedicated group of fans at the front, who matched every note with a jump of their own. (9)
As I left the Night & Day with the sounds of ‘We Have To Figure It Out Tonight’ ringing in my ears, I couldn’t help but grin and feel like I’d witnessed something truly magnificent. But then, that’s the Beatsteaks for you. It’s a shame British Rail don’t follow in their example of how to take something seemingly simple and transform it into a faultless art form, I thought, as I sat down in the train station to wait for the first train of the next day.
Ross
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