#hellbeer

Anti-Hero? Perhaps. Pro-Beer? Definitely! Butcher Billy Returns.

Butcher Billy‘s back and in fine form (where’ve you been? Where have I been?), this time with a mixed seven pack of anti-hero inspired brewsthat make me angry because they don’t exist. These are all, as we’ve come to expect, stunningly creative and clever new twists that show not only the Butcher’s deep love of the material but also his wildly inventive side. Somehow the guy keeps getting better…

Three years ago, on the Spring Equinox, I was playing my first gig in Thea Gilmore’s band for Nordwest Radio in Bremen, Germany. Nigel (Stonier), my good friend and also Thea’ s MD, called me a few days ago and asked me if I remembered where we were on the Equinox three years ago. It’s come full circle and last night in Potsdam, I was playing my second gig with LIINES.

We had a bit of time in Berlin during the day, although not a great deal as we didn’t arrive home until nearly 5am from the gig in Bei Ruth. It was still sunny and warm, but really windy. We headed out to the Templehof Airport, which is now a city centre park where people fly kites, kitesurf (some on skateboards, some on roller blades), jog, cycle and walk their dogs. There are even two dog enclosures where they can run off the lead, that put me in mind of a doggy school playground.

Of course, no day in the park would be complete without attracting a nutter or two. As we sat enjoying our butties in the sun and wind, a man approached us to ask for a lighter. What he really wanted though, was to sit down with us and have a big rant about his ‘hooker’ wife, and wave said lighter about for punctuation. All in German, I might add, so while he was shouting and spitting, we were trying to look anywhere but at him as we couldn’t understand a word (apart from ‘Schyser’, which popped out at one point), until he finally left and Dana explained that he was trying to get one of us to help make his wife jealous. We let him keep the lighter.

Back then, to Bei Ruth to bring all the gear back downstairs and load the van. An hour and some pulled muscles later, we were on our way to Potsdam. We arrived at the venue, Spartacus, to find a high stage complete with drum riser and a full sound and lighting rig (and on the ground floor – yes!). It was an impressive space, and although we didn’t think anything could top our wonderful first gig in Berlin, we all thought this could be a contender.

Soundcheck nearly blew us off the stage – Tom, the sound guy, had massive subs and knew how to use them! We had about 5 times as much space as we had in Bei Ruth, and it felt very rock’n’roll. The size of the haze machine alone was something to behold, and we looked forward to looking like we were playing in the fiery pits of hell.

Incidentally, there is a beer in Germany called ‘Hell beer’ and it has a picture of the Pope on it.

It was a late stage time last night, as the set-up for the evening was a club night/party, so we got on stage around 1am, after Steffen (MaybeCyborgs) played a cracking opening set. We pulled a great performance out of the bag, after a small food coma and some excellent coffee (and pro plus). The crowd especially loved ‘Never There’ and were jumping around and dancing for us. The DJ did a great job after the gig, it felt like how the indie room in Poptastic used to be (an amazing club night that used to run in Manchester).