When we booked to go to Germany I had a look at what was on and this gig stood out a chance to see Napalm Death playing in Berlin in a club that was described as being a Notorious or
infamous Gay club in East Berlin.
Well what else would you expect for the gay club crowd than for the Campaign For Musical Destruction 4 band tour to pull in for a Saturday night disco!!
I thought I had worked out how to find the club by U-bahn but screwed it up a little. Still, we were still in walking distance and the second people we asked were actually going to the gig
which helped a lot, so we found the mural of an astronaut as instructed and the club was round the corner. Found out we had some time before Napalm Death and had a pretty good dirt cheap
pizza a few doors from the club we both ate for less than 10 euros.
Then we went into the club the cloakroom was selling Gayhane T-shirts that all those adorably cute Napalm Death fans would look just right in!The place was rammed and was a long black
rectangle of a room done out with mirror balls that span throughout the disco sensation without spots on them.
We were surprised to be served our beer in real Glass glasses or glass bottles. I can't remember the last gig in London where that was allowed. There were people smoking everywhere too. It was proper old skool.
We missed the first two bands and then on came Immolation who I'm led to believe are some sort of New York Homocore legends who basically play Sylvester and Tavares-influenced death metal
with Shredding solos nicked from old Chic tunes. Yes, you did read that right.
They played stuff from all over their career. From the singer's introduction (he had such a camp growl on him) I wonder what the song Father your Not my Father could have been about and did
it really have Thunderous Consequences? Certainly the 90% male crowd thought so as they went down well enough to get an encore before they minced off the stage.
After a short break during which the club got even more packed and the first of the glasses started to smash on came the campest band of Hardcore metal dudes everywhere, good old Napalm Death.
The sound at the start of the set was pants. It took until the second or third song for the sound guy to get his act together, but the place was going beserk anyway, loads of male bonding
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going during When All Is Said and Done. The singer reminded me of Jello Biafra in how he stomped all over the stage throwing stage divers off while singing about their Continuing War on Stupidity and making sure we knew how grateful the band were that we all showed up. Very humble indeed.
They had good explanations for what each crunching number was about and indeed Social Sterility crushed at our brains as the sound was finally almost loud enough. Well that mirror ball kept turning as they tore through The World keeps Turning and did a well camp version of The Pride Assasin which is about as far as I can keep the mickey taking going. As they got into the back
catalogue and took us to The Brink of Extinction and Mentally Murdered, certainly some of the stage divers looked that way.
The first of the covers they did was Conform by Seige and it fair rattled away with a great throat-shredder from Barney. Then they dug out Politicians by Raw Power. That was really well
angry but then the set got way more extreme with Scum and Control and You Suffer all helping work us up into the closing frenzy that was their blazing version of Nazi Punks Fuck Off that really got the whole place singing along.
They came back for a well earned encore of Suffer the Children, followed by a well-aimed Greed Killing and after much more thanking of the audience, they eventually left us with Instinct Of Survival.It was a good set which felt exactly what I expected of a band like Napalm Death having never seen them before.My thanks to setlist wiki for the essential information on song titles.
This was a great Saturday night out in a very cool Gay Club. It was a shame they wouldn't they let me in the ladies only bar, but the signs for the Ladies and TV's loos were a nice touch. I'm sure the same crowd will turn up this weekend for the Sex
drags Rock 'n Roll night with Gloria Viagra and the Teaserettes.......
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