BOY SETS FIRE

+ WATERDOWN / STATIC 84 / ???

Schorndorf (Germany), October 28^th 2000, JuZe Hammerschlag

Boy Sets Fire are apparently everybody’s darling at the moment because a lot of kids showed up during this whole tour as I was told. It was the same this night when I wnt to see them in one of my favourite clubs. Around 400 people came to the show, so the club was pretty packed. Before the gig started one could witness the usual ritual taking place: Lots of people selling and buying records, shirts and stuff, hanging around and talking to each other. I like that.

There were four bands that night playing, Boy Sets Fire being the last and three support acts. The first band came from Zagreb I think, but unfortunately I forgot their name (if anyone can help me out with that, please mail me). It was a four piece with a female singer, and they played kind of mixture of melodic and screaming, more complicated songs. Pretty good for the first act on the set. One of the last songs they did was a Black Flag cover and they all changed instruments for that song which meant that their bass played tried to scream like Henry Rollins did a long time ago. Cool.

Next one were Static 84 from Bavaria, South Germany. How can I describe their music? Maybe a mixture of fast old school sound and more rocking tunes? Don’t know, check them out on vinyl or CD, they’re cool. Their show was really good, very energetic and their singer acted very special on stage, far away from all the typical hardcore poses one is used to. If you have the chance to see them, you shouldn’t miss this opportunity.

Third band was another German band called Waterdown. They had two singers, one did more melodic vocals and the other one’s vocals were more rough and screaming. The music was in that direction, too, melodic and rather calm on the one hand, but exploding and raw on the other. It always seems hard to compare a band to Hot Water Music, because Waterdown’s sound was no copy of the Gainesville boys, but Waterdown have a similar approach to their sound, combining melodic and rough moments. Entertaining in my opinion.

After a short break it was finally time for Boy Sets Fire to enter the stage. And when they showed up the space in front of the stage was totally crowded. They started their set with the opener of their last album, ‘After the eulogy.’ From the very beginning of their show people went crazy. During the ‘Rise’ part of the opening song lots of stagedivers were on stage jumping off into the crowd. In a few seconds it became so hot in the club, you could really see the water running down the walls. During the first two or three songs I took some pictures (I will post them quite soon, so keep your eyes open), but then they played ‘My life in the knife trade’, one of my favourite songs from their last record, so I had to get into the pit an sing along. In a few moments my clothes were totally wet, as well as those of the other people and those of the band. The guys from Boy Sets Fire played all the great songs from their albums, and people sang and shouted along almost every word. Their singer communicated with the audience whenever he found some air to do so, and I had the impression that these guys are pretty cool and nice. After they went off the stage people wanted some more songs, which seemed to be hard for the band because their drummer was sick. But the crowd had no mercy (hehe) and so they had tpo do two more songs, which was the Dead Kennedys cover ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ and of course ‘Vehicle.’ Before the ‘Holiday…’ track their singer chose one person from the audience and told him that he should start the circle pit to that song which he did very well. And during ‘Vehicle’ the crowd was even louder than the band singing ‘I am no one, I am nothing.’

When the show was finally over and everyone left the club, it was pretty cold outside, so the sweating people caused some fog rising up, no joke! A really great gig, without a doubt!

(Stefan Münch)