Venturing to the St. Pauli Theater for the ANCHOR finals, the event was akin to a battle of the bands if it was held in Webster Hall with seats (this is a town full of theaters for musicals after all). With hosts Aminata Belli and Steven Gätjen serving as hosts, the international music award is a key part of Reeperbahn Festival, and is the only awards show for up-and-coming artists in Europe. The six finalists each had a clear identity to go along with a well crafted sound, and the audience was treated to a single song performance from all bands, including an opening performance by a Brazilian trio.
In between acts, hosts Belli and Gätjen interviewed jury members Bill Kaulitz (Tokio Hotel), Pabllo Vittar (Brazilian singer/songwriter and drag queen), Tayla Parx (Grammy nominated singer-songwriter for Ariana Grande and Panic! at the Disco), Joy Denalane (Berlin R&B singer), Pelle Almqvist (The Hives) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie producer) and filled the space while the stage was changed over. If only the last name sounds familiar, you’re in welcome company, as the Euro-centric award show made outlanders feel out of the loop at times, but the performances made the interludes less taxing.
The six bands to perform included VLURE (Glasgow), ekkstacy (Vancouver), The Haunted Youth (Belgium), Philine Sonny (Unna, Germany), Cassia (Manchester, UK) and Lime Garden (Brighton, UK). The winner would be Cassia, who graciously accepted the award before the crowd was released into the rainy evening along the Spielbudenplatz.
The final two shows of the night, and weekend, would be seen at Angie’s, a theater with a venue on the top floor that welcomed the Middle Eastern psych rock group Al-Qasar. Hailing from Paris, France via Syria, Algeria, Morocco and the US, the group’s new album Who Are We? (which features Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth and Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys) was on display throughout the band’s hour long set.
“Ahlan Wa Sahlan” (meaning ‘Welcome’ in Arabic) was written during the refugee crisis in Europe (and elsewhere), as the band’s way to extend love to their friends to the south. Later in their set, a classic Lebanese song “Bissaha” was performed, establishing the Al-Qasar set as one of the more eclectic shows of Reeperbahn, and the kind you rarely see in the States.
Following the mesmerizing performance, I sought out the frontman of the group, guitarist Thomas Attar-Bellier, who also played a Turkish Saz, as unique an instrument as you’d find at Reeperbahn. Thomas is from Paris, but moved to Los Angeles when he was 18 and later attended Berklee College of Music, while drummer Paul Void grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Paris around the same age, opposing origins for the pair who teamed up with a cross-cultural collection of musicians uniting under a global message. The band’s name translates to “The Palace” and refers to the palaces the Moors built in Spain a millenia ago. While this was the group’s first Reeperbahn, they have played Hamburg many times prior, as evidenced by the packed crowd who got down to the global beats.
The final show of Reeperbahn Festival was one of the best, and featured a finalist for the ANCHOR award, The Haunted Youth, from Belgium. Angie’s was quickly filled in with an industry friendly crowd who dug into psych pop that recalled Berlin-based Parcels. A capstone of the weekend, The Haunted Youth hail from all over Belgium, save lead singer/guitarist Joachim Liebens who is from Hasselt. While the group have been together only two years, getting together during the pandemic and already signing with Mayway Records gives every indication they’re striking at the right time. While Cassia won the glory earlier this evening, The Haunted Youth won the hearts and have a bright future on the horizon.
With only six hours before heading to the airport, I ventured to Central Congress for a night cap whisky sour, one of the finest you’ll ever have. A risky late night move with a morning flight home and no foreseeable nap, playing through and seeing part of Hamburg I hadn’t yet seen was a fair trade off, and put a final stamp on the weekend. The whisky sour was worth it, the flight was made and the return home a glorious whirlwind.
Reeperbahn Festival took the best up-and-coming talent from around the world and brought them together in a well organized, well laid out city festival for four days, leaving attendees with a taste of what music is on the cusp of being discovered, and kleine scheibe of Germany’s North Sea jewel.
Comments are closed.