#brokenamp

To round off a busy week, here's a little story from your editor to tell round the campfire. ‪#‎CampfireFriday‬ is in session.

This story always comes back to me when people tell tales of a band playing to a meager audience, and still putting on a hell of a show. When I was in university, I got to spend some time in a small town called Krems an der Donau in Austria, working as an English teaching assistant. One of my students, I found out, was a local gig promoter working in punk and hardcore, and he invited me along to one of his shows. Curious to see what Krems had to offer in punk, I popped along with a few friends to the Jazz Café, a tiny and dimly-lit bar with a stage at the back.

About 10 minutes into the first band's set, said friends had left, not expecting an extremely loud crust-punk band called Indoctrinate to pummel their ears. I enjoyed them a great deal, as well as the dirty and chaotic leanings of the band that followed, Kurwa Aparata.

At this point, the fifty or so people who had been in the bar had mostly departed, either not knowing or not caring that there was a headliner band to play. I stuck around, and was rewarded with one of the best basement performances I've ever seen.

The band in question, Cannonball Ride, played with an honest energy that I had not previously witnessed in the underground scene. Despite the fact there were six people watching (I counted), the band put on a wild show of melodic hardcore. Their frontman, a friendly chap by the name of Siegi, was particularly nuts, especially when he brought out a trumpet during a couple of their songs. After their set, I dropped by the merch booth, firstly to buy their EPs, and secondly to catch a word with Siegi. I found out the band had driven from Corinthia (Kärnten), a 4-hour ride away, just to play this gig. They still played a blinder of a set to such a small audience, something I give them full respect and support for. That was quite a night.