Frutas do Verão – Mekons em Portugal, Inglaterra, Alemanha e Suíça
23. Jul 2010 20:00 The Fleece Bristol Fleece, Bristol
Video: Ghosts of american astronauts
24. Jul 2010 20:00 Cold Dog Soup Club at The Face Bar (acoustic), Reading
25. Jul 2010 20:00 The Bull and Gate, London
Show is up on Dime
26. Jul 2010 20:00 Green Note, Camden, London (acoustic)
29. Jul 2010 18:00 FMM Festival, Sines, Portugal
A report (spin to 4:47)
31. Jul 2010 20:00 Cabaret Maxime, Lisbon, Portugal
06. Aug 2010 20:00 Klangbad Festival, Scheer, Germany
A Review:
To cut a long story short: Two great shows in Scheer (Germany) and Zürich (Switzerland). On stage: the usual gang of suspects minus Tom, who’s still ill, as they said.
Mekons came to Scheer, which is a small provincial town on the river Danube, by train from Zürich and played just an hour, because of a strict time schedule – Klangbad is a festival, organised by Faust-member Hans Joachim Irmler, who lives and works in Scheer. I couldn’t grab the setlist (hi, Oliver!), but it was a collection of their number ones, starting with „Memphis, Egypt“. Jon did a spectacular dance of „Cockermouth“, crawling in the end over the stage-address-boxes – the audience, among them many young people, loved him, many of them, i’m sure, never had heard of the band before. Some hundred people as audience, and a really big stage from a Mekons-point-of-view.
Next day they lost all their (hand-signed) tour-posters in a chinese restaurant at my hometown Tuttlingen, where they had to change trains on the way to Zürich. I’m still searching. Jon additionally left his acoustic guitar in the train, but it was brought to him right before the concert.
Zürich it was a free concert, because the venue (the pub „El Lokal“ at the river Sihl, called here „Missisihl“ by the insiders) celebrated its tenth birthday with this concert. Stage was a big truck. Right in the middle of the gig some tequilas were handed to the band, and Sally said tot he audience: „You didn’t pay, so we can do what we want – and we’re gonna make a break now for tequila!“.
Setlist as usual; they had to end at about 11 p.m. because of the neighbours. Anyway: It was a perfect evening, the band in good mood, the sound loud and clear, the weather fine, the drinks cool.
And now let’s hope for the new CD.
Cheers, Dieter
Another one:
Not only were the drinks cool, there were plenty of them as well.
Driving the rental car back to Stuttgart the next morning seemed a bit on the illegal side given my condition still, but I made it back safely and was even able to face some solid food again at Suttgart airport. The setlist is still in the bag, will post details asap, likewise some of the pictures, though on a quick review most of them seem to have turned out quite blurry and useless for some reason , that camera was supposed to be foolproof. (or should I just stand still and concentrate on the photography next time ?)
Two great shows indeed. Scheer was interesting to witness, due to the time limit there were more songs and less banter than they usually manage within 60 minutes, I guess It was quite a good overview for the mostly uninitiated audience. Nice to see them on a comparatively large stage for a change, video screen and all.
Zurich was even better, a sunny day and warm evening, being greeted on arrival at the concert site by our man Ferl from Vienna (making his long awaited appearance on this tour), a nice setting, another appreciative audience , good sound, approx 1 h 50 min set, good beer and trains running past midnight… (unlike trains in London town on a Sunday evening….)
Good to see Dieter, Peter and Manuel and Ferl again (Ferl, hopefully see you at the Hafenklang soon, Nine Pound Hammer are apparently scheduled for the Aug 30th ?.)
Finally, thanks to the Mekons for two great long summer weekends. Worth the while, as usual
Oliver
Pictures from the Festival website
Videos from Klangbad:
Millionaire:
More on Youtube:
Soundboard recording from Klangbad on Live Archive
07. Aug 2010 20:00 Outside El Lokal, Zurich CH