RAISED FIST; MC NAMARA + Support

(Schorndorf, Hammerschlag, 8.6.2000)

I Had mixed feelings before this show, because on the one hand I was very happy to see Shelter live again, but on the other hand I was kinda sad as this was one of the last shows for Shelter, because after the last album “When 20 summers pass” and the accompanying tour Shelter supposedly will call it quits as Ray is to leave the music scene. That’s pretty bad. But after this show I was so filled with enthusiasm, because the boys are still so fantastic on stage, but maybe I should start at the beginning…

There was a local band opening the show, but unfortunately I forgot their name. All I can say is that they did their job real well. Their mixture of Quicksand elements and New School sound was ok, and so their set was anything else than a waste of time. Good job.

Next act on the set was the German band Mc Namara that played a really cool mixture of new school and emo, hard to describe but definitely interesting. At first I thought that it was pretty hard listening to them, but when I later listened to their studio stuff  I was surprised that the guys are really good. Check them out (hi Christian!).

When Raised Fist from Sweden showed up on stage some “fans” of the band showed the rest of the audience what in their opinion hardcore means: Running around kicking each other and acting like real tough guys. Hey guys, everybody knows how hard you are, you don’t need it to show anymore. Two quotes from songs spring to my mind: ‘Go back to the Gym’ (Battery) and ‘We’re sick of all you tough guy shit’ (Good Clean Fun). Anyway, Raised Fist were really good, very aggressive and very tight. One of the first songs was a cover of Gorilla Biscuits’ ‘New Direction’ and people loved them for playing that song. Raised Fist’s musical direction is old school hardcore, and they played with enthusiasm and a lot of energy, although they had to engage a session bass player as their regular bassist could not tour with them, because he supposedly visited London with his girlfriend (at least that’s what the singer told the audience). The vocalist showed the crow some real cool jumps, and I almost broke some bones when I tried some of them at home after the show. Cool gig!

After a while Shelter entered the stage and from the first song you could feel that they had not lost any of their energy. Although Ray and Porcell are the only members who were in the band over the years constantly one never had the impression that the other guys didn’t fit into the band. On drums was the guy who also played last year’s tour with Ray’s project Better than a Thousand, and on bass was another familiar face from that our, Graham Land. The second guitarist was from Sweden and I forgot his name, sorry! They started with a new song, ‘Yes I can’, and the crowd went crazy. At least the people right in front of the stage went out of control (of course I was one of them, haha). The next song was ‘Message of the Bhagavat’ and the crowd gave  the band great back-up vocals. I don’t care what people say about Ray supposedly not being straight edge anymore, if you see these guys in such a little club you just have to love them. Especially Ray is without a doubt still one the big personalities in the hardcore scene and I can’t stand some of the pointless shit that is spread. Anyway, Shelter played a good mixture of all their albums, and after ‘Here we go’ I thought I wouldn’t be able to speak a ingle word the next day as I has shouted on the top of my lungs. At one part of the show about a dozen teddybears and stuff were thrown up on stage. After a first surprise Ray placed them on the bassdrum. Although Ray said during the show that they wouldn’t do any enchores people just kept shouting when Shelter had left the stage, so they returned and played two more songs, ‘Progressive man’ which was requested by some guy and another one I didn’t recognize. After that, they left the stage and said their goodbyes. Ray, we will miss you on stage. Thanks for all your commitment. (Stefan)

Thanks Ellen for the group photo of Shelter. To see some more pictures from that show click on the little pics below to enlarge them...