Eskobar Gig@Magnet, Berlin - 1.11.2006

So i went to the eskobar gig last night, in Berlin :) I arrived about 50 minutes too early, but that actually was quite cool, because so i could take a picture of this wonderful thing:

AND sit down next to the monitor box on the stage. Yes, that's right, there was no fence, nothing. i could even climb on the stage if i wanted to. But i didnt - couldnt be arsed to do so. So within the remaining time until the gig was supposed to start i basically just sent text messages, played games and whatnot, just to kill time. Didnt bring any money with me (should have, because i should have got a CD by Cabezas when i could) so there was nothing else to do.

Then the first support band stormed the stage - Nice Boy Music - four guys from Hamburg playing some sort of BritPop, relaxed Rock, all that

't was a bit difficult initially, because, you know, the audience in berlin is a little bit difficult. Too much music around here, people aren't easily impressed, they just stand around, barely smile... I was dancing a bit, but since i took the photos i couldnt do that too much.

The bass player decided to smoke on the stage (as did some of the guitarists that night too), but about 5 minutes later he needed a new string for his bass. serves him right - but the smoke itself looked quite nice in the red light.
Nice Boy Music played for about an hour - in the first moment i was fearing that my ears were going to fall off (the short "test"tunes on the guitar hurt a lot) but it turned out to be alright, as long as they didnt cane the drums. Because then it was pure pain. But that only happened twice during the whole evening, so who am I to complain? :)

So yeah, Nice Boy Music, a band from Hamburg, worth checking out: Myspace-Page with some audio examples. Although they sound much better live. :)
Oh, if you wonder why my pictures are so red'ish: i didnt use the flashlight, because i dont like doing that. But there were three girls who kept spamming with flash light photography, it was soooooooooooooooooooo annoying. And that girl was always smiling so overly cute when she took a picture, as if she wanted to get one of the music, regardless which one.
However.
Next on stage (after about 15 minutes break) was Cabezas.
Patricio Cabezas is a spanish guy who came to Sweden when he was around 10 years old, and well, add Spanish fire to the fact that Swedish people must have some weird hormons in their cereals, making them awesome musicians, and you got Cabezas. Together with Daniel Gidlund, who he formed the band with, he managed to create some really nice layers of music, with only two instruments: voice (twice) and guitar (twice). In the aftermath i am sorry that i didnt take some money with me, since i should have bought the CD.

You can find some of his tracks on MySpace again, although they are not as minimalistic as the stage show: Clicky for the page. Still very pretty, i think. Both of them have really nice voices, and high skills regarding their skill to play the instruments. And the arrangements... they are gems.

So, yeah, it was an amazing gig, even if extremely short - they played for about 30 Minutes, just 6 or 7 songs, including a cover (i think it was Blue Suede Shoes. but then again it was some sort of a ballad. so please, dear readers, correct me if i'm mistaken).

And then... 15 minutes later the masters of disaster. Eskobar themselves coming on stage, right in front of me :) but, oh what a surprise, Cabezas playing the bass with Eskobar? i really didnt expect that. Cabezas and the lead singer of eskobar were all quite a bit shorter than i imagined they would be, but i guess size isn't everything. Daniel has such a crystal clear voice that always makes you dream away.. they started off with "Big Sleeper", which already prepared the assumption that they mixed old and new songs... and indeed, they played 20 songs, from all albums they have released so far.

Although the show was not as soft as one would have expected from the album, you really could consider that as rock. However, i can only say that i enjoyed it, post up some more pictures and some videolinks... (i recorded fours songs).

More pictures on my flickr stream

And the videos:
Eskobar - Whatever this town
Eskobar - Persona Gone Missing
Eskobar - Real Life
Eskobar - Love Strikes