Both me and k5k saw posters for this a week or two in advance, but we'd both thought "Surely that can't be the Cobra Killer, from Germany, formerly on the legendary
DHR label. Must just be some Hard-Trance DJ with the same name". Two days before we discussed the possibility of it being a coincidence, and so we checked the
FU Bar website, and found that it WAS them.
So, on Thursday night, me and k5k and Edward Denton headed downtown. The tickets said 23:00, the bar's website said 22:30, so we were a little disappointed when we arrived to find that we'd have to wait until 23:30.
This meant sitting on Queen Street, luckily not too full of munters. Eventually we cruised back to the venue. We walked in, and were assaulted with a throng of people. They did not look like your typical FU Bar crowd: instead of ravers, there were a few Punks that I recognised (the anarcho-feminist ones), and a whole bunch of "alternative" types with their dreadlocks and funky clothes. The dead giveaway was that they were all at the bar being drunk rather than being on raver party drugs.
While k5k went to the bar to talk to people he knew, me and Herr Denton went down the back and found a seat on a large sub. k5k presently joined us, and we got to sit lamenting the DJs music choice and discussing the likelihood of anyone who is here actually having any idea who Cobra Killer (or Peaches for that matter) are, considering that there is no coverage or distribution of German hardcore style music in this country. There could obviously have been lots of people who were in the know, but considering how much it was promoted on student radio and the way that the crowd looked like students... Not that it really mattered, they were about to find out at any rate.
So anyway, first onstage were the Pussies, a local band that I'd never heard of. Either everyone was already really drunk, or a lot of them were friends of the Pussies, because the crowd went really wild. They were a four-piece all-girl band. A vocalist, synths/backing vocals, mellodica/backing vocals, and a drummer. Maybe there was more of them: they were kind of obscured by a pillar that was holding up the ceiling; maybe they had some other instuments too. All their songs consisted of synths that sounded like Type O Negative, and either the live drummer or a drum machine playing the same beat right throughout the song (when the drum machine was going the drummer just sat there playing a tambourine or looking bored). The mellodica was mostly too low in the mix to hear, and vocals weren't too hot either. Still, they sounded like a kind of gothic Lounge band, so it was pleasant enough to listen to.
The DJ was back after they finished; he seemed to only be playing female artists, so there was stuff like Missy Elliot, and other such riot girls. I watched as a lady in a trenchcoat and ridiculous stiletto heels set up some equipment on the stage [it was Gina].
And then after a while, it was time. Gina and Annika came out in matching trenchcoats, and they were both in really fucking big heels. Annika was holding a bottle of wine, which she was skulling from. They introduced themselves, with their really lovely accents. Their music was really fantastic: cut-up samples and beats combined with crazy 60s organ. They were playing a CD through a little mixer, and then singing over the top. The crowd was going really wild. They started pouring wine all over each other, and then throwing rice and ice into the crowd. The girls down the front were very excited, and so also was some strange long-haired guy, who seemed to be trying to grope them.
They were dancing around crazily in their heels on a now very wet and slippery stage, but somehow they managed to stay stable. They even jumped into the crowd, which really just got them groped by the girls and the boys. Personally I wouldn't have jumped into such a drunk crowd. It was madness, but it was really going off. At one point Annika kind of collapsed and rolled off the stage and under it, right in front of me and k5k. She lay there for a while, having a rest.
Finally, at the end of the show, they said "We have just one more song. Carl Crack is no longer with us anymore. He is dead", and I got kinda excited, because I figured they were gonna play an Atari Teenage Riot song as a tribute, but then they couldn't find the disc. A bit of an anti-climax.
They disappeared through the crowd. Me and k5k wanted to give them some CDs, seeing we are the local Digital Hardcore scene, and we figured that we would give it to them when they came back to clear up their equipment, but then someone else packed it up, and so we took off outside to see if we could find them.
They were not out on Queen Street, but I did take the opportunity to buy myself a cookie and eat it too. Then we headed back inside, and straight away bumped into Annika. We loaded her up with CDs, which she said her and Gina would listen to back at the hotel room. Gina was standing at the bar: I think that the long-haired gropey guy from down the front was buying her a drink. But she disappeared before we could talk to her.
Peaches was just starting up. She looked much more gothic than the promotional material had led us to believe (the bar's website said she only wore hot pink), dressed in black PVC and a dog collar and teased hair. We watched her for a few songs. Her voice was alright, and the music was Techno-ish. But for us, we had seen what we came to see, and so we went home.
