Posts tagged Astra Kulturhaus

I’m no music reviewer, I’ll leave that to my brother in law (re: savetwofour.com). I am however, a music lover and a tourist in a foreign country and these two things combined with an awesome set is a beautiful thing.

Jess and I booked these tickets quite some time ago. We had no idea where the Astra was, how big it was or what the crowd was like. We have however, been fans of Vampire Weekend for a few years now, and we planned on being around Berlin at this time so we took the chance.

We walked towards where the Astra should be… It wasn’t there. No signs, just a scummy looking courtyard. We walked passed assuming it was elsewhere but ended up back at the gate to the courtyard trying to find out where to go. We walked inside, through the snow and mud and found a light with an “Astra” logo. As it turns out this whole area was some sort of (probably pseudo) underground music scene.

While the outside of the building was tired and covered in graffiti, the interior was very grand. There were multiple bars, cloak rooms, plenty of velvet and a couple of chandeliers to light the place up.

We grabbed a few overpriced drinks (5.50EUR is a lot to backpackers!) and then found our way to the front of the stage in prime position for the support band, Fan Death.

Fan Death were alright. They supported well with some quality music and their drummer was great, although their general act and image was a bit too “bandwagonish” for me. You know.. Karen O (YYY’s) clothes, an ET doll as their prize posession and so on. Regardless, they put on a good show and lets face it, a live band is always better than on an album. No disrespect! Before Fan Death finished, I was lucky enough to take a quick photo of Vampire Weekend’s set list. Jess and I were both so stoked at this point – it was the first concert we’d been to for years as we’ve been saving for this trip.

Vampire Weekend went off. For those who don’t know they are an Indie Rock band from New York City. Ezra Koenig, the lead singer kept telling the crowd he wanted us to sweat. We were drenched by the time the concert was over, and we weren’t the only ones. The concert was an opportunity to see the band as musicians, rather than seeing them on a film clip. Bass guitarist Chris Baio swapped guitairs every second song, and played a double bass at one stage.

They played songs old and new. Jess loved Oxford Comma while I’ve been struggling to get Cape Cod out of my head ever since. Their set actually helped me to enjoy and understand some songs of theirs that I had previously felt indifferent to.

Ultimately we had a great night. We were able to really let loose and have some fun. We walked back to the S-bahn and went back to the hostel for a few hours sleep – at 5:30am we were up to board our train to Warsaw, but that is another story…