Blut & Eisen at Verden inna April of Zero 9

needless to say I&I was well tired on the first of may 2009 and as there were no nazis invading innada hannover anyway, i&i have not gone out. could be too many drunken bastards on the outside coulda been stepping on my feet, so I&I rather decided to stay home for a good nap, as usually sleeping the day away....
but me evening on the third of april with blut & eisen was just great - in spite of die strafe playing cause I got there in a car with a lightspeed driver and the owner of fine RE-force label and I&I did not have to see the first two bands because four bands in a row - that's what I consider an overkill. but one thing I like about ea 80 and their various offspring groups is that they have a certain consequence in being tight but thrashing out mediocre songs with confidence for at least half an hour longer than anybody could possibly stand to listen to. so I went out to the front hall again and had my picture taken with one of the finest moments in german rock music: the first, last and only LP by blumen am arsch der hölle, but I think I have mentioned that elsewhere on this blog and even put a picture on there already.

blut and eisen started off really strong and hard hitting with a song from their first album, can't remember which one it was exactly. I have not heard that LP too often, because I can’t stand “funny” songs like “das Müllerschwein” but sure there is great tracks on it like “die feinen dinge des lebens“ or ”darf ich es wagen, das zu sagen” and "stiletto" (if my memory serves me right they played both of them and the only one of my favourite songs being left out was “DDR” an old tune by the drummer’s former band the cretins (yes the original 1979 Cretins from hannover who made by far the most controversial of all hannover band’s songs e.g. “Samen im Darm” and “Dachau Disco” (the first having recently been reissued as a 12" record on the above mentioned RE-Force label)))

Blut and Eisen played a really long set and at no point the show was a letdown. not much to your humble editoresses' surprise - just in case I have not mentioned this before - Blut & Eisen were one of the most underrated bands in german rock history (... next to the mighty Hypocritical Society ex-members of whom later went on to become Infaust and Cave Canem)

Inna 1982 or so B&E arose from the ashes of – at least I think it was – Aristocats who had Schotte singing and the cretins who had Tier on the drums. I don’t now what bands guitarrist Fiete and bassplayer Krösus had been in before – but very probably it was Le Crash. up to my knowledge the only recorded documents both Aristocats and Le Crash have left can be found on the “Korn Live…. Ab geht er!” compilation on Frostschutz Records.
unfortunately this record has been a collector’s item for the last 25 years so i recommend using soulseek and getting it there (btw I got the Blut and Eisen albums via the soulseek illegal file sharing data transfer device because their records are impossible to find on tape or CD (except for the live album from 1995 but this does not really represent the true live power of the group) - but you won't find me onna soulseek cause i am using a fake name to trade data on there so i can screw the music industry better and more anonymously) – B&E had the best lyrics and the best music. if you listen to the song “Transporter der Uniformer” on the second album “schöne geseh’n” you will hear a nearly perfect song that reminds the humble listener of bands like the descendents. unfortunately during the course of the early eighties you would not get your band big resp. recognized overseas if you had one with the vocals being expressed inna german language.

if my memory serves me right, again, I remember that born wuppertal but moved to hannover premium punk karl nagel (by the way probably the greatest B&E fan of them all – read all about it in issue 5, 6 or 7 of his fanzine Hackfleisch, can't remember which one it was exactly) once mentioned in public the that he had once dreamt of translating B&E’s lyrics into english and scoring big success in the american resp. global hardcore scene. so there’s not a lot of foreign (here meaning non-german) music fans into B&E except for maybe Perry Coma the editor of bristolian fanzine and label Destroy who once filed the “schrei doch” album under “exotic german punk”.

and here know is me interview with blut & eisen’s drummer thomas tier that I&I have done shortly after the set - so, as my german is even worse than my english, it is not going into detail too much:

Kohl: this is gonna be short, just 3 questions and the first one being: how old are you?
Tier: what would you guess?
Kohl: about 45 years of age?
Tier: you are right!
Kohl: great! o.k. - second question: what is your favourite B&E song?
Tier: „Transporter der Uniformer“... and (pauses for a short time) … probably “Seelenkruemmung” (me originally intented to ask “what is the favourite song of all the bands that you have played in so far?” but I was too hectic and nervous to remember that overall important half sentence)
Kohl: that’s been two songs already but nevermind. last question, have you enjoyed the evening and the show?
Tier: Me yes, sure i did, it was great playing here!!

after the interview I&I went on to make fun of some poor drunken punk rocker (?) making him look foolishly giving him the old V-shit, as hasmuth wasn't there to take my shit; when we left he had locked up himself on the bog and mumbled somehing about "a dierrhear" whatever that is.
very cheap humour fueled by some of those strong german export beers - this makes my world!

keep on looking for kohl, yours haselore