Easter Holiday Fun Times

I went to a total of three club-like things this weekend. Thursday night was basically a bust -- didn't really do anything. Friday night, I went back to Magnet for Pop Levi, Camp and Mit. It turns out Magnet does have an outdoor area, which is good to know. Still a little cold for it here, but it's a nice way to get away from the unbearable German cigarette smoke. On the music front, I basically missed Camp, but the one song I did hear reminded me a little bit of Stellastarr*, which for me, is a good thing. I plan to obtain some of their music at some point.

Mit
After Camp came Mit. I thought Mit was awesome, but they're maybe not for everybody? For example, one guy we were with immediately left after they started playing. Jeff? Thoughts? It's basically a guy on a Moog, a good drummer, and a guy on guitar who sings/yells. If you are musically adventurous, check them out. Otherwise, maybe don't bother.

Pop Levi
Third was Pop Levi. Allow me to describe Pop Levi: First, imagine that an eccentric billionaire has decided to pay Prince to try to come up with what Led Zeppelin would sound like if they were still around today. Second, imagine that Prince agreed to perform a concert in the style of hypothetical modern Led Zeppelin, but the only date available for the concert is Halloween. Third, imagine that Prince's Halloween costume is a pretty compelling Ringo Starr outfit. Fourth, imagine that the eccentric billionaire has now forgotten why he even got Prince involved in the first place. That is my description of Pop Levi. Aside from being a fascinating guy to attempt to describe, the music was not really my favorite. Specifically, it got a little boring because they were all "sound" and no "music." There were good moments, but every time I'd start to get into what they were doing, they'd drag it out too long. Lots of repetition of single chords, these guys. I'd say what they're doing is a certain type of musical achievement, worthy of praise, but just not as fun to listen to as, say, Mit. At least not this set.

After the performances, there was a lot of dancing. I danced for quite some time. Didn't leave until around 4:30. At one point, a German dude pointed at my feet and nodded, which could either mean, "Das ist gut dancing!" or "Das ist weird American dancing!!!" Dans Le Rock DJ'ed in the concert floor while the house DJ played their standard mixed-up Indie rock.


Knaack
Saturday, I decided to try out a new club. Knaack was already on my list as a) I've had to walk past it twice to get to Magnet and b) The Hold Steady are playing there on Saturday. Much like my original Magnet experience, Knaack also has a sort of "hidden" concert floor. Like, you walk straight in, up a flight of stairs, past the coat check, and you might never notice that there's a whole other building across the outdoor patio where the concerts are. So, the second floor of Knaack is a club, which looks a lot like some club we went to one time in Hollywood. On Saturday, they were playing a mix of stuff from the 60's onward. The crowd here was a little dorkier than the crowd at Magnet, I'd say. A little older, and a little more paired-up, too. I pretty much skipped this scene and went on up to the Dizzy Lounge on the third floor, which was dedicated to karaoke. I made a long post about this at loseyourselfawareness. The one detail I left out of that post is that after I sang Mr. Brightside, a German guy in a Johnny Cash t-shirt said, "Very gut." So, pretty successful night. On my way out, I finally found the concert floor and checked that out for a little while. I'd already un-checked my jacket so I couldn't really dance. But it was a pretty solid scene in there, and they were playing good stuff. Similar mixed Indie rock playlist. An example of a song they play a lot is Franz Ferdinand - "This Fire."

Lido
Another place that likes to play Franz Ferdinand - "This Fire" is Lido. This is the club I went to in Kreuzberg near Schlesisches Tor. You just go to that stop on the subway, walk East a bit, and it's right there on the southeast corner of Cuvrystrasse. I guess I'd compare Lido to the El Rey in LA (Whereas Magnet is probably most like the Echo, but more fully functional). One main stage, with a pretty big standing area, and a bar in the back. Then, there's another room off to the side with a pinball machine and a coat check.

Smashing Pumpkins?
My main reason for going was to see Camera Obscura. But first, I got to listen to disk 1 of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which served as the pre-concert playlist. This of course warmed my heart considerably and gave me something to mouth the lyrics to while I waited for the concert to start.

Lily Electric
The opening band was Lily Electric. They were okay, but not amazing. It was two guys with precisely matching guitars, a third guy with a bass plus a drummer. The two guitars of course sounded exactly the same, which left things a little empty, I thought, especially given how clean their sound was. It was as if they had a bass, drums and one really really good guitarist playing a guitar with not enough effects. They had some okay hooks, but I just found myself wishing for a fuller sound. The 3-part harmonizing on top of the overly clean sound also just forces you to compare all of their songs to Beatles songs, which generally doesn't work out so well for unknown bands from Copenhagen.

Camera Obscura
Have people heard of these guys? In retrospect, I can't remember if I had heard of them before or not. I think I had, but maybe I'd never listened to their music. Although it's apparently been said and unsaid before, they're sort of like Belle and Sebastian. One way in which this is definitively true is that both bands were started in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996. Another way in which it's true is that they sound sort of the same. But they're different enough that Belle and Sebastian is still more massively appealing, while Camera Obscura tends to keep things a little more brooding with folksier tempos and Appalachian instrumentation, and therefore carves out their own niche. They definitely have some upbeat numbers, but the vocals all have a sort of old-fashioned-sounding sadness to them. I thought they were absolutely terrific. I really like these guys. The crowd did too. People tried really really hard to get them to play a second encore. I think if the stage dude hadn't taken the microphones away, they would have had no choice but to come back out. In the first encore, they performed a nice cover of ABBA's Super Trooper, then some really good song of theirs. Maybe listen to "The False Contender" (a waltz, which is always nice), and "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken." Then, if you like the slower one, try "Books Written For Girls." If you like the faster one, maybe try "I Need All The Friends I Can Get."

After the set was over, Lido transformed into Karerra Klub, and they started playing music and pumping out some serious fog, such that at times you could only see like four or five people around you. Songs they played included Franz Ferdinand - "This Fire" as I mentioned before, B&S - "Boy With The Arab Strap," Shins - "So Says I," Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (lies)," Editors - "Blood," etc. I danced a bit, then checked out around 2-2:30. Grabbed a Doner Kebab and rode the subway back to Stadtmitte.

Go-Karts
Today (Monday) a bunch of us went and drove go-karts. To get there, we took the subway to Haselhorst, with an exchange at Bismarckstrasse. The excursion was super fun, but I came back smelling like fuel. One thing I didn't realize is that we were racing for best lap time. So instead of playing it clean and cool, I kept trying to pass people. That was probably more fun than doing time trials, though. I think maybe I was a little more aggressive than the go-kart people wanted me to be... I got at least one really stern look.