slaa (106)
maggie (77)
pilgrim (74)
elliecat (69)
redfoxx (62)
Black_Posse (56)
porcupiny (54)
piwaket (54)
jodi (52)
suzanne010 (47)
Mad_Rebel says0 Votes UP / DOWN
i remember terrible sound problems and a shit venue
Posted Sunday, February 22, 2004 pm29 at 2:30pm
Rerun666 says0 Votes UP / DOWN
Hey, I just wanted to say that the venue is called "Universal Hall".
That's important because there exists another venue in Berlin that is called "Universal Halle" and a club (or something like a café+club) that is named "Universal".
Posted Sunday, April 4, 2004 pm30 at 2:59pm
Rerun666 says0 Votes UP / DOWN
I've just found this Interview. I don't know if you already know it, but Robert did this Interview before the show started.

http://www.britpoparsenal.de/bpa_inter_56.htm

Interview with Robert from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 26.11. 03 at the
Universal Hall in Berlin

Soundmag: You've been on tour a lot. How's been the reception live with the second album?

Rob: I was talking with Peter about it last nite. It's ridiculious. We've been touring for three years. We were at a the gas station at seven this morning and i just saw the row of magazines and it just went and streched on. You know just books of words. I found it that this record is the exact opposite of the last one. With the first album people and press were hyping it up and were saying it's "the new rock revolution", "we're the saviours of rock" and all this bullshit. Then we showed up to a gig and the room is half full and people have their arms crossed. You know, all the words don't mean a think. There're not happening. They happen as in like people being interested. It definitely helped as far as getting people to come to our gig. And on this album it's the opposite. Talking of majority press doesn't really say much of anything. But every night and every show is the real thing. I've been looking out at the last couple of shows and I've seen all these people.And it's two different things what my eyes see and what I read. The road is the road and the fact is we are playing good music, got a great album and people understand it.

Soundmag: Who did you enjoyed touring with most?

Rob: Almost all the ones we toured with. The ones we chose to, except this group-bill-thing we did a long time ago. The NME thing was crap; it was with Andrew W.K., Lost Prophets, The Coral were on, there were alright. But it was us versus the more metal sound. Musically it just felt like the wrong place. Dandy Warhols took us out on the first one. We played with The Charlatans, Spiritualized, Primal Scream Neil Young, Oasis.

Soundmag: Do you have bands you want to ring and ask them to go on tour with you?

Rob: Oh, Yeah. We have bands we ask to come out. We love The Warlocks, The Vue. Now we are trying to help out the same way others helped us when we started.

Soundmag: I haven't heard of the Vue since their album two years ago?

Rob: They did a new album the same time we were recording ours. Almost same exact time. We going over to their studio and back and forth, playign our record. And was a little bit of a rivalry thing. It was good though. But i guess the record label holds back the release when it gets too close to the christmas season. All new bands are hold off and wait until january, cause it's really hard for a couple of month to get anything on the radio. All the big names take up all the space. But the Vue's album is done and it's great. I play a song every night before our show.

Soundmag: I saw a palm hand on your homepage, that the Warlocks use as well. How come?

Rob: I haven't gone on the internet for a while. I must see it. Is it exactly the same?

Soundmg: Yeah.

Rob: Maybe they don't know or they ripped it off. I think just recently they try to stirr something up with us. It feels a little silly. We started playing around the same time they didin Los Angeles. We've done a lot of shows with them. Things recently got sticky which is really stupid cause there's no reason.

Soundmag: Between the first and the second album where is the main difference for you?

Rob: I know we developped hell a lot after the first album. We played like two hundered gigs before the second album. And we got really tight and the songs got stronger, words got more dragged. We didn't need to hide as much behind textures and layers anymore in the studio. We have a rawer sound that didn't need any support. But maybe it's seems like a big difference but in a couple of years looking back it could be a double album. The second album is like the right continuation. A lot of the songs on the second one we started writing around the first album. The spirit is not too far apart.

Soundmag: Were there other/new inföluences musically this time? Cause you recorded it in London.

Rob: People ask that sometimes. It wasn't like we moved to London and started writing about the pub down the street. I cannot find anything that is translated to the record. After it was recorded and I listened back to it, I found there was a lot of pressure in the way it's played and there's this tones in the voice that last gasp bavariour. I think that came from the fact that we couldn't go back home. There was this tention of "We've gotta get out, somehow." every day. London wasn't horrible.

Soundmag: The time you lived there, was the press really after you? It seemed quite around that time.

Rob: We lived there so we had time there. We played shows cause we didn't have anything better to do. And if you let people feel the energy of a band that to their city, so that people and press is takling about it. It was kind of the same way we felt when we were in America. It's like that wherever you are.

Soundmag: Did you hang out with Oasis?

Rob: We kept to ourselves, really. We are kind of our own people that way. Nick went out to a club every night living all his dreams out he's had, cause he is english. He's had his whole life in vision what's it like being a rock star in London. The heyday so really took it all on. It almost killed him. For me and Peter that wasn¹t our top goal. London doesn't mean that much to us. In any big city you can get into that shit. Even in Berlin. I hear things from certain people, like Peaches.

Soundmag:I think that's hyped up.

Rob: She was just like going on and on. Not in the same way maybe just you can feed off an energy in a city if you find it.

Soundmag: What you're doing for christmas?

Rob: I'm trying to figure that out. I need to find a place to live first. I'd like to go to San Franscisco and see friends, family. I have a christmas dinner with the Vue. All the people in our crew are not from L.A. so we were talking about doing something together, cause we just found the best fucking people to tour with. It took us while. We had some rocky tours and now it's heaven.

Soundmag: What's the first first thing you do after the show?

Rob: I think the most important thing is to wrestle as many people up as you can and go and find a bar and just hang out and talk to people. Not to get laid and not to get fucking waisted. To meet someone in the city you¹re in, cause this is the only time you get apart from soundcheck, show and the road. It's not as important to see the city. I think it' s more important to meet people that come from these places.

Soundmag: What your doing tonite after the show?

Rob: I got be careful to do that every night, cause it's like a burning candle in both hands. Literally you never actually sleep. You better pick your moments. A friend of mine lives here. Maybe I just go and hang out with her. The best thing is like to find some fans that are just like a bit awkward. The other day we walked outside after a show and some kids askign for an autograph and so were like "Come on with us". They don't know what to do so you just kind of force them. I brought them all a drink. It was so funny to watch them. When we entered the bar they didn't know what to do but hours later they had the biggest smiles in their face.

Soundmag: Do you feel that you belong to a particuliar scene in San Franscisco where you're from or L.A. where you moved?

Rob: A long time ago in San Fran it was like that was the sort of scene and there a lot of great bands. Everyone who was there really had a spirit liek we gonna go somewhere. I wasn't even people in bands. It was just kids dreams. And then it all died somehow. Maybe it was because of all that computer boom ­ the city was really fighting to keep the musical culture. A lot of clubs were just gone and a lot of rehearsal rooms. There was one rehearsal place austin giant warehouse space were 500 bands practiced and it was literally made into a computer office space. Just residential areas came up where there said "No sound in this", so all the clubs shut down. People started to move to L.A. The rest kind of followed, all of a sudden, we were one of the last ones. Everyone is San Fran, the ones who are still around are just like talking bullshit. Big ideas that will never come you know ten years later still sitting in the same clubs.

Soundmag: San Fran dies out.

Rob: L.A. got all the fire that San Fran had. In L.A. there's a really good music scene. There's a dodgery hand, dotshine emotion. It's just too cool and I don't even know what's tryign to keep that going. In L.A. everyone knows their hassle. So they just have fun, fuck around it's better neergy for music, you don't play shows in front of 10 people. They're part of it just as much as the band. There's way too much talk about New York as far as compared to L. A. .

Interview: von Mathias & Anja