Neverevereverdid

Architecture in Helsinki are crazy bastards. 8 of them stomped onstage brandishing trombones, trumpets, those little keyboards you blow into, guitars, tambourines..in other words, lots of shaky, bangy things that make ALOT of noise. Making alot of noise i believe could possibly be the ethos of this band. Though it must be said that they also know the charms of subtlety, see: the clarinet, hand claps and mouth pops (y'know, when you blow your mouth up with air, then pop your finger in the side of your mouth?!) The stage was pretty small, they played in Bastard. It is a pretty cool place, as i have found most music venues in Berlin to be. Dimly lit by an assortment of old fashioned light fixtures and with walls papered in colourful images, though it is a small place, the ceiling is high and so you get the intimate feeling of the small venue, with a big sound assaulting your ears. AND WHAT A BIG SOUND THIS BAND HAVE! After they tromped onstage, they had to find somewhere to stand that wasnt taken up by cables or the drums or either of the keyboards. i mean 8 members yo, on this tiny stage. While they were grabbing instruments and arranging themselves everyone clapped and cheered to welcome them and then waited for the show to begin. SUDDENLY, there was a blood curdling roar that seriously must have shook the foundations, which turned out to be the band, all of them screaming terrifyingly into the microphone, saying hello to us or something. A typical Aussie greeting perhaps?

Their bio is pretty fantastic to read. Here!

The main singer-boy (there was a main singer-boy and a main singer-girl, he yelled alot and she sang sweetly) towards the end of the show took to the centre stage and seemed as comfortable there as if he was in front of his own mirror (up until then he had been kind of hiding at the left hand side of the stage...It was quite odd to hear this massive voice seemingly boom out of nowhere.) He sinously wrapped himself in the microphone lead, and there was not so much yelling, as he actually has a delicate voice that is strong even when he's hitting the high notes. He also has a massive head, and sure enough he addressed the crowd and asked if anyone there had the same surname as him, something terribly complicated and German. He said, "as you can see, i have a very German brow. Are there any Hefiansalodowieqwegers here?", or something like that... The band came back onstage twice for us, by the second encore they had run out of songs, so they did some rather fantastic covers. "Love is the drug" by Roxy Music and "Living Without You" by Randy Newman.

I think they have two albums, "Fingers Crossed" and "In Case We Die". I had never heard anything by them before this show, and can't give a setlist here. IT WAS REALLYREALLY GOOD THOUGH!

The support was from Jenny Wilson, who seems to be some crazy, French lady. Ohnowait, she is Swedish! She sang these mad, electro-pop songs. I got the impression that she probably owns the whole Human League back catalogue. She wowed us by tapping on a little wooden box along to the beat of her music for the first song, but then her guitar came out. (i haven't seen one of those wooden box things that you tap since my junior infants classroom. yay!) She had her sister onstage playing electric guitar aswell, and...i don't think it was a backing track, i am sure it was something else..a little gadget that had all the music of her songs, except for the guitars on it. What is that called? i saw her sister switching tracks each time.

Anyway, this lady really grabbed my attention. Now i find out she has worked with the KNIFE! I simply must get her new album, LOVE AND YOUTH. I must have it, yes i must. From the lady herself:

"LOVE AND YOUTH contains 12 songs/short stories with ingredients as: Nosebleed, love, fights, despair, the awful schoolyard-blues and - of course - sex! Drumbeats's next to electric guitars, dramatic & beautiful choirs, vibraphones and acoustic guitars."

Thank you Jenny wilson, you are probably crazy and i thought you were French but you are Swedish. I should have known, French girls don't smile as much as she did for us in the Bastard that night. (Plus, see how pretty she is! - main picture.)

While this unbelievably cold winter is just beginning, I am lucky to have a stack of good books as my excuse for staying in under the covers. The last three books i happened upon have turned out to be the best books i have read in a long time. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by Dave Sedaris, "Razor's Edge" by Somerset Maugham and "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. For one reason and another i picked up these books. I had never read anything by any of these authors before, the cover of the Somerset Maugham book nearly put me off (Bill Murray doing his best "whats that smell?" expression..) and since the Virgin Suicides is one of my favourite films evereverever the chance to read something by the man behind the book behind the film is a treat i could not pass up. English books in berlin are either overpriced imports- albeit as part of a usually good selection to be found in most bookstores- or eclectic and musty collections on sale in the 2nd hand bins at flea markets and also bookstores. I can't believe my luck, and now that I've discovered for myself three new writers that i thoroughly enjoy, i can look forward to hunting down more of their works...It was wierd, in the Dave Sedaris book, he is the main character and it was all about him. In the Somerset Maugham book, the story was from the author's point of view also. In "Middlesex", Jeffrey Eugenides description of his main character pretty much matches what he looks like, though they have different (but similar) names, and its obviously not about his life.

I just finished reading "Middlesex" a couple of days ago, so it was kind of cool that i came upon this interview: Jeffrey Eugenides being interviewed by Johnathan Safran Foer.

Tonight: Decemberists.