One evening in midsummer, on July 5th, we are sitting in the beer garden at Conne Island Leipzig. The European Championship game between Germany and Spain is broadcasted on a big screen. The vibe is carefree. Originally, we were supposed to be in the nearby city of Halle at the Hühnermanhattan, but the concert was moved to the Conne Island Café in Leipzig at short notice.
Now we are in the center of Leipzig’s alternative scene. The Conne Island is a cultural institution, containing of a skater park, a beer garden, a bigger concert hall, and the mentioned café, all of which bring people together. It’s also a place that today’s headliner, Wormrot, should already know, because they played here on February 16th as the support act for Napalm Death. In winter, however, they played on the big stage. Today, they will heat up the smaller café.
CURSE OF THE NINTH opens in the evening. The four-piece band serves the crowd a mixture of Crust, Hardcore, and Powerviolence, with an aggressive sound galloping through the café. The venue is small and has no proper stage to perform on. So, the band’s vocalist, guitarist, and bassist play among the audience.
Not being separated by a stage brings a kind of intimacy. You can see and feel the strong emotions of the band remarkably clear. Song by song, the atmosphere is filling up with a gloomy and menacing vibe, which the music delivers. Vocalist Tiffany serves guttural vocals that get under your skin while guitarist Syd slaps the hell out of his guitar, and bassist Lukas as well as drummer Jakob playing their instruments in an assertive way.
After a bit more as twenty minutes the young formation ends their set. If you want to give these talents a spin then you can stream their demo [Pyre] on bandcamp!
It takes only a short smoke break until Miami Death 2 begin their show. This time, the café is fuller than before, because the public streaming of the European Championship game has ended—Spain has won. This five-man formation serves pure and raw Powerviolence, a mix of Hardcore and Punk, tending to Grindcore. Their songs are strikingly short and therefore they play considerably more than ten songs in 15 minutes. I guess, it is the shortest live show I have ever seen.
However, it is more than enough to heat up the audience. The set does not feel incomplete, instead it feels compressed. In the middle of the crowd, Miami Death 2 offered a stomping and aggressive sound, which is cascading up to distortion with the audience adapting to the sound and starting to dance furiously. If you want to listen to the music of Miami Death 2 yourself, I recommend to check out their music on bandcamp!
It’s two things that make this show special: the intimate proximity to the musicians and the finesse with which they mastered their art. After about 40 minutes, the show is over. That may seem quite short to some people, but these 40 minutes were concentrated Grindcore that wasn’t interrupted once. Continuous musical violence demanded everything from the band and the audience.
As we leave the café, we step out into a mild summer night and the fresh air feels relaxing and refreshing. Our pulse is still racing a bit. That was intense! An experience as pure and raw as you could wish for in the underground of a subculture.
