It’s been terrorist week here in Germany (we’ve had good ones and we’ve had bad ones) and the attacks have mainly centered on my immune system. I’m still reeling from going to see Wednesday night’s “terrorist” and yesterday saw the foiled attempt to get a bomb onto a plane from Namibia to Munich. (The bomb has since turned out to be fake.) And I’ve been attacked by micro-terrorists that make getting up to write this feel like 1,000 crunches.
But it almost seems like Berlin doesn’t make time for colds, flus, diarrhea, fevers, etc because there’s too much riding on the night. This week alone sees the aforementioned terrorist (last Wednesday), Interpol, the Gorillaz, and the birthday of Germany’s City Slang record label. Who wants to miss any of that over a fucking cold?
The City Slang 20th Anniversary (Fri, Nov 19 @ Admiralpalast) is home to performances of Get Well Soon (that’s one for me), Notwist, and Calexico. And they’re 20 years old! That’s wise grandpa age for a record label. Or cool older uncle.
Officially, you can find me at Search & Destroy (Fri, Nov 19 @ Schwuz), which is somewhat of a constant for me, but this time I’ll be serving shots in something called the “Fuck My He Art” corner. And once yr He-ness has been fucked with whatever the hell they put in those free shots, Italoporno (who can go on the appeal of the name alone) rocks the stage at 2:00.
To continue on to something a bit more het, there’s the UNIversal Tellerwäscher Party (Sat, Nov 20 @ Fritz Club im Postbahnhof). The DJ-as-rockstar thing never gets old and tonight features Plemo+Rampue with Ira Atari (whose bloody self-referential song “My Name is Ira” invaded everyone’s consciousness for the summer of 2009), One Foot in da Rave, and Egotronic.
For Saturday night, Interpol (Sat, Nov 20 @ Tempodrom) play Berlin to promote their new album – what else, Interpol. The kings of unwarranted Joy Division references are here to give a generation its own version of mopeyness (if you have the Geld). Check out our interview with drummer Sam Fogarino here.
And then there are the Gorillaz (Sun, Nov 21 @ Velodrom) whose rockstars-as-rockstars appeal confounds me to this day… seriously: a supergroup who markets themselves with yesterday’s idea of cool animation are perfect targets for my annoyance with gimmicky indie music. The thing is, there is no denying that the records are actually damn good.