Hype of the States here, Tours of Europe there

Full Steam: Hype of the States at Luna Lounge, Brooklyn

Excuse the lame blogging of last week, we've all been bogged down by too much work, so we make enough dough to buy tickets for Coachella... just joking - we wanna go on tour in Europe, like everybody else this year, it seems: Old continent, get ready for Botanica, C. Gibbs, Morex Optimo, Melomane, Overlord and maybe Full Tank, whose show at Trash this Wednesday must have been quite a spectacle. Sounds like a pretty good representation of the bands on this blog, and rest assured, rightly so. We hope they all come through your town and strongly recommend you go see them! And you, bands, make sure you contact Palace in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to see if they might have a slot for you - the Palace in the beautiful city above Lake Constance is not only the nicest but also one of the most innovative clubs over there, as quite a few Brooklyn bands that have played there can testify. Just ask Jeffrey Lewis, for example.

But back to New York, where we traded the concert stage for a week of readings by german language authors. Bernd met his old friend Catalin Dorian Florescu while I got to meet on of my teenage heroes, Matthias Zschokke. Florescu is what we call a Fabulierer in German, a man who tries to enhance reality by writing, as he put it himself. Zschokke investigates reality under the lense and often leads it ad absurdum.

Ready for a bit of saucy rock after the little intellectual excursion? Hype of the States have that for you, as they proved Saturday night at Luna Lounge. You can tell the band is still relatively new, but that also makes it fresh, daring and entertaining, with great keyboard hooks and largely thanx to singer Jezrael who knows how to put on a show without falling into rock star poses or clownerie. Their sound was powerful and tight at Luna, with Kristina on a kristal clear, if a little loud bass and solid drumming by Sandelicious. Nice crunchy guitar sounds by Austin. Oh, and we hear rumors of a possible cat fight... Seems Jezrael is not that especially fond of the riot grrls in Full Tank... Then again, they like to talk rough. We recommend a direct show off in a concert setting, let the audience be the judge of who's better. We're offering to host at East River, if yer up for it, ladies.