I had a life-changing experience last night. At the last minute I decided to go to a gig. The picture I saw which prompted me to head out depicts two members of Datarock in their red tracksuits doing front-wheel wheelies on their bicycles. The band from Norway is on tour, bringing along their hometown friends, Ungdomskulen, undertaking the Dirty Dancing Tour of Datarock, and last night they stopped off in Berlin to play the Lovelite and wow us with their hairy chests and energetic jogging on the spot.
This gig was..amazing. Both bands are from...Bergen! (But of course. Brilliant Bergen. What are they putting in the water?! Hometown of Erland Oye, Sondre Lerche, Annie...) First onstage was Ungdomskulen. They were like a cross between DFA 1979 and Hot Chip. This band had some seriously harcore fans in attendance. There were three boys, front row and centre giving it everything they got. They even managed to attempt possibly the smallest crowd surf of all time - two of them holding the other up. The lead singer tried his best to deliver a real rock n roll moment, and performed a rather ungraceful swing-my-guitar-around-my-head and just about made it, his guitar falling awkardly back in front just in time.
When I arrived, i couldn't help noticing the big mad tourbus that was parked outside the venue. Sure enough it got a mention at one point during the gig. "YOURE THE BEST AUDIENCE WE'VE EVER HAD!!!!", screeched the lead singer of Datarock. He looks like a '70s porn star, and sings with a rich, scratchy voice. Standing there with the zip of his glorious red tracksuit half open displaying a lovely hairy chest, fag in one hand, beer in the other, the whole ensemble was complemented nicely by his mullet. "Well, last night we played to twenty people." he said, a bit sadly. "See our bus? All that, and ten of us and our crew...for twenty people....Anyone seen Spinal Tap?" Then the wrong backing track was lined up on the drum machine. (For the first half of the show they had electro beats, and then they borrowed Ungdomskulen's drummer for the rest of the gig.)
For the last couple of songs Ungdomskulen joined Datarock onstage. They joined in on the drums, did some lovely backing vocals and danced funny in their red tracksuits. At one point the lead singer said, "everybody DANCE!" and then they played a song, "Molly", about their love for Molly Ringwald. The Lovelite pretty much turned into an '80s school disco then. Especially when they played their outro song. Yes it was, "I've Had The Time of My Life" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. The band came offstage and did '80s dancing along with everybody else.
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