Hafenklang, Hamburg, Germany10th February 2020
3teeth - UK/EU tour 2020 - Support: Stake
One of two concerts I am visiting this month for Reflections of Darkness and actually on a Monday evening mid-February. Not really a typical day to go out to have some drinks and enjoy some live music - on the other hand why actually not and just extend the birthday weekend?
Well, a few hours before footage of storm tide flooded the harbour and so also the street right to the venue, Hafenklang. I was quite impressed when I saw the pictures and was wondering if we would have to swim to get to the show. Due to safety reasons the concert was moved upstairs to Goldener Salon (also part of Hafenklang), but when we arrived the water was not on the street anymore. However, the water was standing pretty high in the Elbe river that evening which was impressive to see from upstairs as well. A stormy atmosphere outside while inside two bands and an impressive amount of people for a stormy Monday evening were on fire.
Stake
STAKE is a quartet from the Flanders’ Fields in Belgium, making some serious, atmospheric Grunge Core. The band is currently supporting 3TEETH on their German dates as well as in Milan and Zürich end of February. They are promoting their new and debut album as STAKE ‘Critical Method’ along with older songs as well. Originally the band was founded in 2004 under the name STEAK NUMBER EIGHT, but started over in 2018 renaming themselves in STAKE. The first album under the former name was released in 2008, ‘When The Candle Dies Out’. A total number of four albums was released as STEAK NUMBER EIGHT. https://www.facebook.com/stakeband/
Music & Performance
STAKE put in a straight forward, energetic show right from the first second. They played songs from their debut as STAKE and turned on made the crowd pretty fast into them. Brent Vanneste, vocalist and guitar player, connected immediately with the people in the front rows and even left the stage to go wild with his guitar surrounded by the crowd. Solid, fun to join Grunge Core & Alternative Rock, absolutely perfect to the venue. The throughout the whole show red lights once more made me as photographer curse a little bit, but I did not expect much more after my last visit here. For the underground atmosphere it was totally okay, and probably suitable.
The raw vocals and enthusiastic instrumentals make one literally feel the Grunge vibes of the early 90ies combined with refreshing heaviness. Very impressed by the quality of STAKE as opener on that evening.
Setlist
01. Catatonic Dreams
02. Doped Up Salvations
03. The Absolute Center
04. Return Of The Kolomon
05. Critical Method
06. Careless
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Light: 6
Sound: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10
3teeth
3TEETH from Los Angeles are making finest Industrial Metal since 2013. Their debut album ‘3Teeth’ was released in 2014, followed by ‘<shutdown.exe>’ in 2017. Sean Beavan, who has previously also worked with artists like NINE INCH NAILS and MARILYN MANSON, mixed the second album and also returned to work with the band for the next album. The third and latest album came out on 5th July 2019 via Century Media Records and is called ‘Metawar’. As single release was chosen ‘American Landfill’. 3TEETH were invited by no one less than TOOL and also RAMMSTEIN to open for them on tour. Shows with DANZIG and HIM followed. https://www.facebook.com/3Teeth/
Music & Performance
Hafenklang has everything you need for the real underground vibe and so having a show in a venue like this means on the one hand that you have a pretty small stage to perform and usually not many possibilities to work with lights or visuals, on the other hand the band and audience cannot be closer than here. The red-light game also continued here for a few songs until Alexis told the staff just to turn out the lights - so we ended up with almost no light here at all, but who cares (beside of the photographer) for the lights, when you get a show like that. It took the people a bit to get out of their comfort zone and let the Monday mood go, but Alexis give didn’t give up and got rewarded fully. It’s been just a fun 70 - 75 minutes. He has done his best as frontman and vocalist and got repaid in endless shots that - once someone started - didn’t end.
At the end there was at least one shot in between the songs and sometimes even during. And that all though Alexis actually said he doesn’t like and drink Jägermeister, unless he is in Germany. I believe he got to try many different shots that evening. 3TEETH presented many songs from the current album, like the opener ‘Hyperstition’, and the singles ‘Affluenza’, ‘Exxxit’ and ‘American Landfill’. I liked to see how the crowd that could have been described as typically “northern German” warmed up from song to song and the headbanging spread further from row to row. Also, Alexis at some point wondered if we all don’t have proper jobs to go to next day, but who cares about the next day when you can have an evening like this. 3TEETH music is explosive, catchy and creates dystopian worlds. Even on the small stage the band’s energy makes them appear impressively strong and engaging.
No wonder, when they left the stage after the main part, the audience still didn’t want to go home and called for more. 3TEETH came back, Alexis saying “we didn’t come all the miles without playing an encore of course” and so they did. A perfect end to a strong, absolutely convincing show. It was my first time to see 3TEETH live, but for sure not the last one.
Setlist
01. Hyperstition
02. Affluenza
03. Exxxit
04. American Landfill
05. Time Slave
06. Altaer
07. Shutdown
08. Sell Your Face 2.0
09. Degrade
10. Slavegod
11. Chasm
12. Insubstantia
13. Pit Of Fire
14. Atrophy
15. Tabula Umbra
16. Master Of Decay
17. President X
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Light: 6
Sound: 7
Total: 8 / 10
All Pictures by Nastja Iz
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