21-08-2011 Black Pacific

Supports: Templeton Pek; Venue: Juha West, Stuttgart (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Sunday night in Stuttgart. Summer has finally arrived in Germany and it was steaming hot. Tonight Black Pacific hit Stuttgart along with two other bands, one of them was Templeton Pek. Since Black Pacific has Jim Lindberg (ex-Pennywise singer) on vocals, you would expect the venue to be packed. But it wasn’t. Maybe because it was a Sunday night, maybe because it was so hot, or maybe because people did not check the event page on the youth club’s home page.

Yes, Black Pacific played at a youth club. A little dark room, with dim light, the air even hotter and even more humid than it was outside. Sweat was running down everybody’s faces instantly when entering the room. Incredibly hot. Almost unbearable. But there were people, not many, not like a packed and sold out house, but there were people.

Due to immense traffic I missed the first band, but I was right in time for Templeton Pek. An awesome punk rock band from the UK. The trio rocked as if it was cool and fresh in the room. The sweat was still running down their faces and the bass player fled into the audience room to escape the heat of the dim light shining down on him on stage. He even walked outside during a song with his bass to get some air and then returned. The guys are always fun to watch since they are very close to their fans – literally – and truly love what they are doing. Templeton Pek played for half an hour, rocking strong, with the sweat soaking them entirely. The audience had fun and tried to rock with them as much as they could. After Templeton Pek finished, everyone ran outside to cool off at least a little bit.

Now it was time for Black Pacific. The Black Pacific is a music project that was started in 2010 by Jim Lindberg, the former vocalist of Pennywise, and two previously-unknown members Alan Vega (drums) and Davey Latter (bass). They are signed to SideOneDummy Records and their self-titled debut album was released on September 14, 2010. In June 2010 (shortly after the completion of their first album), Jim announced that the Black Pacific had plans to release more music in the future. He also remarked that they had more songs written than could fit on their first album, and that (in June 2010) they had another batch of songs ready to record. As of February 2011, according to their website, The Black Pacific is already working on a second album. On October 8, 2010, some line-up changes were announced by the band: Marc Orrell, formerly of celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys has joined the band as second guitarist, and Gavin Caswell has joined as bassist, replacing Davey Latter who had to return to his drumming duties with his other band Everest. Now they were playing a few club shows in between the festival dates. Tonight here in Stuttgart. The band rocked on the tiny stage as if they played a huge stage in front of a even bigger audience. Catchy rocking tunes got everyone to move along. The guys reacted to the audience, made jokes, played with each other and had a good time. You just instantly loved Black Pacific. The heat did not seem to matter to them so on they went through their set of songs. I hope Black Pacific will come back on a “real” club show soon. They are so amazing live, the world needs to get more of them.

More photo’s of this event can be found at roseofthedevilsgarden.com

Links:
Templeton Pek Official
Black Pacific Official