33rpm

Grundstück (Live at the Garage, 17.10.10)

Day 10 - Have you seen them live?

i’ve seen einstürzende neubauten twice, in london and spain. and holy shit i just checked the date, and it’ll be exactly a year on sunday since i saw them at primavera sound. thanks to the pure wonder of fromthearchives.com, i can tell you that i’ve seen them play these sets:

The Garage, London, 17.10.10: Grundstück/ Seele brennt/ Total Eclipse Of The Sun/ Sand

Primavera, 27.05.11: The Garden/ Die Befindlichkeit des Landes/ Let’s Do It A DaDa/ Haus der Lüge/ Sabrina/ Susej/ Headcleaner// Redukt

when i first saw them i was really only dimly aware of their body of work, i knew their very very early stuff but nothing post-1986, and i came away completely shellshocked by the whole thing. but blixa in particular. i think it says something about a performance when you can remember almost every tiny detail, even without the aid of youtube to remind you. seele brennt stands out in particular. i was completely and utterly sold at the end of four songs.

by the time i saw them last year i was more clued up. i have a really strong recollection of a moment in headcleaner ‘SILENCE! …. JC IS DEAD, 4 MINUTES 33…….. MUSIK!’ and blixa kind of doing this little dance and omg when he gRabBeEd HIS BALLS?? before redukt, it was hilarious and i nearly DIED ok. i mean as a festival primavera was pretty much perfect. i saw PJ harvey and swans later that night. knowing that nick (with grinderman), mick (with PJ) and blixa were all on site was pretty weird, i had fond imaginings of them meeting up backstage and throwing their differences aside for the sake of the sun in barcelona by the mediterranean sea and MANLY HUGS.