The Ledge

About a week ago I got an email from a woman I went to grad school with, MT. MT wrote me because she was going to be in Berlin for a weekend and wanting to know if I wanted to meet up. The reason that she was in town was because her husband Jy, was playing in a show that was part of Club_Transmediale...which is part of the larger Transmediale, "festivale for art and digital culture", that is taking place here in Berlin this entire week in various venues and forms across the city.

We made plans with MT to meet up for the performance on Saturday night and she hooked us up on the guest list so we didn't have to pay the €20 at-door cover. The show was at the main Club_Transmediale venue, Maria am Ostbahnhof, where we arrived at about midnight. Jy was playing guitar for The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, who was headlining on the "Giddy Up Go!" themed 2nd stage and didn't go on until 4am, so we had plenty time to check out the place and other performers.

Maria was a large open warehouse converted multi-use club/venue. It had 3 large rooms and a labyrinth of little spaces between them.


The Lounge at Maria am Ostbahnhof

One of the really interesting things about this club was that they have some sort of program (the details I am not sure about) where they invite and/or commission artists to come and do projects. Most of the walls, except the main dance hall, are covered with huge murals in a range of styles and applications (paint, digital prints, etc). In the Lounge there are also a few large sculptures, namely the one pictured above which takes up most the room. In the pic above you can see about half of what is a large platform with two cars made of scavenged wood that have appeared to crash head on into each other. There were also a bunch of modular stools made from dye-cut laminated cardboard that had been intricately folded like some sort of designer banker's box. Various image-only videos played here throughout the evening.

The second room/2nd stage (Giddy Up Go!) was "psychobilly" themed (according the write-up). I kept thinking 'Punk Rock-a- Billy', complete with Mohawk/Pompadours. The first set we saw was the Swiss Reverend Beatman, a one-man powerhouse on guitar with kick drum and a mic. It is hard to describe the bizarre intensity of this guy...so here is a video from his myspace page.



After Reverand Beatman we headed to the large dance room...I was drawn by the mix of classic rock and disco/techno beats. We hung out here for awhile watching DJ Kavinsky and 10 large scale projections across the entire room on 3 walls.



I was as interested in the visuals as much as the DJ...all themed around gaming with a nice mix of analog turned digital imagery. The visuals were by a French collective, Play. Check out their reel...alot of that imagery was used at Maria.

By this point it was after 3am and we found MT again. She has just returned from the hotel to wake up the bassist, Klaus, who has overslept. While waiting for the band to go on we were hanging out with MT and end up discussing how the South Carolina Democratic primaries were about to close and how we have been really sucked into following US politics now that we are not bombarded by it everyday. At this point we were introduced to Klaus and he said "Oh, so your ex-pats" and continued with us in our brief conversation on the current political atmosphere in the US. This only became significant later when we realized this was Klaus Flouride, the bassist (also) for the Dead Kennedys, a infamous Hard Core political punk band from San Francisco. Needless to say, that made R's day.

"The Ledge" went on shortly after 4am to a fully warmed up crowd. Throughout the night on this stage they had been projected vintage footage from the 40's and 50's US rural culture; farmer's milking cows, trips to the grand canyon, cattle ranchers, etc. At one point I swear the video showed a sign for the 'smallest cathedral' or church in America, which is actually in Highlandville, MO, next to my hometown.


The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (left)

This pic was taken toward the end of the set when The Ledge had already stripped down to pants and shoes and was pretty sweaty from geriatric difficulties getting up off the floor after rolling around during one intense number.

The only US band made the vertigo of American culture reflected back at you a little less intense...but only until you realized the guy was an over-the-hill 'outsider' alternating between howling lyrics, screaming yaw!, pentecostal-style handshaking, and stripping. Needless to say, it was good times.