once more with feeling

Yesterday, someone asked me what the first concert was I ever went to. Of course there were a lot of bands I saw that I can’t really remember – especially when my mum took me somewhere, or some tiny band that played at my town’s local festival. However, the first gig where I at least still have some memories is the one of the Backstreet Boys back in 1997, where my mum had to go with me because I was too young to go alone. Already a year later I went to see Die Ärzte (nice change of my taste in music, eh?), but those are pretty much the only two bigger concerts until I started to attend festivals. This shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows that I grew up in a town with 15.000 inhabitants somewhere in Tyrol, because there just is no possibility to see an international band unless you drive for an hour to the next bigger city.

So when I moved to Vienna, a new world opened itself to me. Concerts every day, sometimes leaving me unable to decide which to go to. Especially the autumn and early winter always proved to be the best time of the year for my obsession with live music. And next week is going to be one of those weeks where sleep will be not allowed, where coffee and beer will be my best friends and where you will have to endure one fangirly tweet after another. Why? I can tell you 7 reasons:

1. Einar Stray @ WUK, Monday
Einar Stray from Norway is one of the most talented musicians I know. Everytime I hear him playing the piano, my heartbeat slows down and I have to close my eyes. It’s magical.
Einar will be supporting Hundreds at WUK Foyer.

2. Team Me @ rhiz, Monday
After letting myself be enchanted by Einar, the next Norwegians are waiting to steal my heart: Team Me, who have been supporting the Wombats on their tour for quite a while now and will finally play their first show in Vienna. If you’ve been following my crazy writing here for longer already, you might have come across the name Uno Moller once or twice – he is part of this team together with four other boys and one girl and together, they will bring their indiepop charm to rhiz.

3. destroy, munich @ Chelsea, Tuesday
The loveliest chaos-troop in the world will bring some happy-time with them, to put a smile on our faces and warm our hearts in those pre-wintery days. The band will share the stage with the trio Robotra, who will present their 7” single for the first time.

4. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs @ Fluc Wanne, Wednesday
After all the cute and happy and lovely music, it’ll be time for some electro-house and dancing on Wednesday. And how to combine this better than with a dinosaur? Yeah right, I couldn’t think of a better combination either. TEED is finally coming to Vienna after he had to cancel his gig at the Waves Festival. He will be supported by the locals Agent Cooper and there will be DJing from Laminat, Moogle and Temporary Secretary.

5. Portugal. The Man @ WUK, Thursday
It’s no secret that I’m totally and madly in love with John Gourley. After the FM4 radio session in April, he is now coming back to present the latest record of his band called “In the Mountain in the Cloud”. As I learned at the past concerts of Portugal. The Man, their psychedelic soul is live even better than on CD, with John’s fragile and tender voice moving and touching you in a way you never expected.

6. Likewise @ B72, Thursday
How good that WUK tends to end its concerts quite early and B72 tends to start its quite late, eh? Because Der Gute Club is inviting the indie-folk quintet Likewise and the singer-songwriter Philipp Szalay for the last date before the end of the year. Likewise is just recording the first album and I’m excited to see and hear in what direction that might go.

7. Antlers & Dry The River @ Szene, Friday
The spectecular finale of this music week will be provided by two bands every indie-lover should have seen live. The Antlers from Brooklyn released their latest album “Burst Apart” earlier this year, which has since then run on heavy rotation on my iTunes. Dry The River from London have been considered as the new Mumford & Sons from day one, even though until now, they didn’t even release a longplayer yet. As the biggest Mumford & Sons fan on this planet (uhm, slightly exaggerating here of course), you can imagine how curious I am to see what this is supposed to mean.

Dear Vienna people: I hope to see you at one or the other concert. You will recognize me as the person with the biggest dark circles around the eyes, holding a coffee in one hand and a beer in the other.

It was in September 2009 when I met Simon again, a colleague from the university I went to. We have been in different branches of study, so we never were that close, and completely lost contact after we graduated.
We ran into each other in one of the smallest concert locations in Vienna, where Sweet Sweet Moon had a release party for his first EP (if I remember it correctly). It was a warm night, somewhere between summer and autumn. We talked a little bit, and soon I found out that Simon has his own band, where he’s the bassist.

I’m pretty ashamed to say that it took me until this week to finally make it to a concert of his band – Albatros. It’s Fog Again.
For the gig, they brought their friends Likewise as support. Likewise is folk music. At least, it’s my understanding of folk music, with an energetic, good-humored, likeable frontman with a big brown guitar and a checkered shirt.
Since I usually don’t really listen to that kind of music, it’s quite hard for me to compare them to anything, but I was told that they sound a bit like Two Gallants, if that’s of any help.
You can download the EP “It Takes No Shoes For Leaving” (I love that title btw…) for free (!!!) here.

Albatros. It’s Fog Again is also a bit influenced by folk music, but goes more in the direction of rock/indie.
One song totally reminded me of Get Well Soon – also, because the singer could be the little brother of Konstantin Gropper. The hair, the moves, the overall style…
However, I was very impressed by the incredibly good interaction of all their different instruments – guitar, bass, double bass, drums, keyboard, violin, harmonica, clarinet (or was it an oboe?) and accordion. Especially the very long instrumental part of their last song was really amazing.
The next chance to see them live is on March 11th in Graz or on May 31st in Vienna.

But since I know that now, you are all extremely curious how that whole thing may sound, here is my favorite track of Albatros. It’s Fog Again: The Day I Die (and Snow afterwards).

For the first time I feel real
because I will meet you the day I die.