22-05-2008 Skulls'n'Bones

Supports: Synthetic Sex; Venue: RAW Tempel, Berlin (Germany)
By: Stefanie Weisheit

Berlin’s glam scene is relatively small so it’s no wonder that once again I ran into Synthetic Sex. This time the little over a year old quintet shared a gig with Skulls’n’Bones from Stuttgart in south west Germany. The concert was at the RAW-Tempel in Berlin Friedrichshain which is usually a place for people who like electronic music, but it has many times before opened its stage to rock bands, so the crowd was rather mixed.

Synthetic Sex were first in the line up and had everybody rocking right away. This young glam metal band – or “neo sleaze” is how they describe their music – has in the past treated the audiences in their hometown to most insane rock shows, but tonight I thought that some of that energy was missing and they seemed rather distracted by the camera that was there to film their gig. The singer also had to fight with a cold and could only with much effort finish the last song. That didn’t seem to bother people, though. The music had convinced everyone, anyway.

Skulls’n’Bones couldn’t ask for a better start with this crowd. They had everyone on their side from the beginning. The four boys – really, the bass player is no older than 16 – have made a huge leap forwards musically since I heard them for the first time over a year ago at a gig not far from their hometown. They have by now been around for almost four years, enough time to grow as a band. On their poster it says “glam rock’n’roll” and I definitely heard the rock’n’roll, although not necessarily the glam. But what does it matter? In the end it was really good music and a great show – they really knew how to use up every bit of space on that stage. The band also seemed to have a wonderful connection with the crowd even though this was probably their first gig in Berlin. What weirded me out a bit, though, was that halfway through the show the singer started to take off his pants, but then again it hasn’t been the first time that we’ve seen someone perform in their underwear. Altogether, I had many more reasons to really enjoy this concert than not and the afterparty was fun as well. Even if the music clashed in my ears – electro just isn’t my favourite genre.

Links:
Synthetic Sex MySpace
Skulls’n’Bones Myspace