One crappy cellphone picture of Francis International Airport, May 14th, WUK, Vienna

My favourite thing about Cache sounding completely different from In the Woods is how these very different sounds are combined in concert situations. It has made seeing Francis International Airport live even more exciting. Also, I apologize for this picture only being semi-terrible. It probably won’t happen again.

One crappy cellphone picture of RIKA supporting Francis International Airport, 14 May 2013, WUK Vienna

While this looks like a screenshot from a dreamy 80s synthpop music video, it is actually a photo of 3/4 of Rika (and 1/2 of Sweet Sweet Moon in the background).

Seriously, you guys, Rika are one of those very few bands that you can go see over and over again and their songs become better and more magical with every listen.

One crappy cellphone picture of Neodisco, fluc, Vienna, April 30 2013

Neodisco concerts are a great place to feel old for those of us born when the Berlin wall was still a thing. It doesn’t matter much because Neodisco are really good in making you remember the carelessness of when you actually believed you would finish your degree in Mindeststudienzeit.

My absolutely favourite thing about the gig was that they changed the 20 fat Viennese tourists to mere naked ones in “Stubenberg am See”. That’s very considerate. Not really necessary but eh, if they wanna be polite.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, The Melody Men, club d’hommage at fluc, Vienna, February 9th, 2013

We’re the kind of people that use Udo Jürgens icons, so of course we attended this event. The Melody Men played songs by all the best people (Connie Francis, Johnny Cash, Peter Cornelius, Elvis Presley, Van Morrison, EAV), charmed the audience with wonderful announcements and, obviously, wore the best jackets. We assume they all ate fried eggs afterwards.

Two crappy cellphone pictures of Francis International Airport, Café Publik, St. Pölten, December 21st 2012

In the Box inside the architecturally phenomenal St. Pölten Festspielhaus, Francis International Airport premiered a lot of new songs to a larger audience. Judging from them, the new album, that we can expect in May, will have a much harder feel than its predecessors and if this were an NME article, I’d call it “From the woods to the factory”. The songs have some very new wave-y, almost industrial qualities. During some I was reminded of New Order and Kraftwerk if they had started out as a folk band. There are steely drums and scratchy noises and I promised someone to say something about the bass but I don’t know how to speak about basses but uh, I liked it?

The new Francis International Album is definitely, definitely something to look forward to in 2013.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, A Life, A Song, A Cigarette, WUK, Vienna, November 29th

Due to thesises/work/stupid real life obligations, we couldn’t stay for the whole set so we cannot tell you if they played all the announced 25 songs. What we did see, though, was not as folky as the record (which was good because I, personally, am quite sick of indie folk at the moment) and surprisingly energetic. You could almost call it rösk’n’röll. (You don’t need to get that reference.)

What we also saw was a slideshow of childhood photos of the band members by way of intro, which gave a very nice and personal touch to the concert.

One crappy cellphone picture of GINGA, 28 November 2012, WUK Vienna.

GinGa played a decent energetic set. Besonders schön: das No Limit cover (2 Unlimited, 1992). Alex Konrad: “Ein Lied aus meiner Kindheit.” Und auch aus meiner. 

One crappy cellphone picture of GIANTREE, 28 November 2012, WUK Vienna.

Nice soothing songs with a strong bassline and heavy drums. Best thing: Rasseln zum mitspielen!

One crappy photoset of DIVER and GINGA at the European Music Fair, 23 November 2012, Warsaw, Poland

Thanks to GinGa (who couldn’t use their train tickets), the Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw (that paid for these tickets), FM4 (that gave these tickets away) and tour manager Reini (simply the best), going to Warsaw instead of writing my thesis was definitely the right decision.

Paula & Karol, a band from Poland that also played at Waves Vienna, were dancing and singing along to Diver in the audience. Then I got to see GinGa from the front row (that wouldn’t be possible in Vienna!). After that, Rangleklods. Warsaw is a beauty, too!

One crappy cellphone picture of LIKEWISE supporting Dry The River, 20 November 2012, Chelsea Vienna

This felt like things have come full circle. Back in March, I remember that on our way through the countryside, when Likewise played an acoustic concert in my father’s Kellerstüberl, we listened to the then freshly released Dry The River album in the car and everybody loved it. And then yesterday Likewise opened for them. And what a nice show it was! Their upcoming EP is going to be so good. Punch and The Horror already are two of my favourite Likewise songs.

One crappy cellphone picture of Der Nino aus Wien, Stadtsaal Wien, November 11th 2012

With bandmates pauT and Raphael Sas as supporting acts for the second night of Nino’s album presentation of Bulbureal, this show was a bit rushed (due to stress induced by the venue). But still it was quite a build-up to Nino’s nice songs about life and its wronggoings. The new single Fühlen was presented in the middle of the gig, which was suprising. Anyhow, the little technical difficulties were crushed by a nice and souvereign and sympathetic “Aso”. This showed once more the true vienneseness of Nino.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, Tanz Baby! with Bilderbuch, MQ Wien, November 8th 2012

Tanz Baby! use soap bubbles and sparklers and confetti cannons and if you think that this is crossing the line to kitsch, you are free to keep thinking that this line exists. Bilderbuch statt Heimorgel work well with Tanz Baby!s* since the band is no stranger to theatralics themselves.

If you are in Vienna you can catch them later this month (on the 14th) when they are playing Bock auf Kultur with Johann Sebastian Bass.

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* How do you genitivize this correctly?

One - extraordinarily - crappy cellphone picture per band, Die Türen, brut Wien, October 20th 2012

There’s something slightly problematic about bands that are both smart and funny and that is that they usually know it. Die Türen manage to manoeuvre that problem by simply being so entertaining in a classic 60s way (being instructed to sing along, lots of banter) that you forget about their omnipresent and sometimes a bit annoying smarts.

So despite the “We have a band member from Iran! Axis of Evil!!1! lol!”-jokes becoming a bit too much after a while for an overly sensitive Arab like myself and clapping just being not my thing, I had a good time, four out of five stars, would see again.

One crappy Instagram picture of ERWIN & EDWIN at Dienstagssalon, 16 October 2012, Vienna

The apartment of two of my friends regularly hosts more or less artsy performances on Tuesdays, and this time it was Erwin & Edwin’s turn to play some music in the small Gästekammerl. Instead of the electronic brass music they usually make, they played a short and entertaining acoustic set with the help of kitchen utensils. If you look closely you can see a Walzerkönig sticker on the guitar. These guys have good taste! 

Watch here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/26193952.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, Mile Me Deaf, fluc, October 6th

Would you believe me if I told you that I had never seen Mile Me Deaf prior to that night? It’s a combination of early ignorance, living abroad and never being home when they played. Which is why it was so important to catch them this time and it was absolutely delightful. I personally think it’s impossible to be in a bad mood when listening to Eat Skull because it is such a cheerful album and the same can be said about Mile Me Deaf shows (well, the one I attended). Not to get all hippy dippy on you, but there were some very good vibes at the show. So good in fact, that we fed on them for the entirety of the night and just hung around the fluc until 5 a.m.