#sommerloft

So war's (15x) und so wird's sein (2x):

Sometimes one photo sums up an evening so much better than any amount of words could ever do. A perfect example is the one above of Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats playing on outdoor concert at Escobar in Berlin, Germany, on a cold Thursday evening. Basically we saw a bunch of friends with instruments having lots of fun and Nathaniel dancing so damn smooth. Who would have thought that? So far I’ve just seen him on his own with a guitar, seemingly a lone wolf kind of guy. So wrong, I was so, so wrong. While you often notice a certain awkwardness when a musician is without his instrument on stage, it seemed pretty natural for Nathaniel to not have his guitar all the time. He just loosens it and the audience in Berlin happily joined him.

Well, he’s not doing the music he did before, too. Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats are making soul and they came to introduce us to Nathaniel's new style. Nathaniel is surrounded by everything a decent soul band needs - horn players, drums, rhythm guitar, bass and a Hammond organ. That night it were seven people on a stage that is not made for seven people. The Night Sweats were kind of pushed to the edges so there was enough room for Nathaniels dancing. You just got to dance when they bring their music on stage. Even when it's on CD. For example "S.O.B." of their upcoming EP "Howling At Nothing". The song can make you dance everywhere, even on the plattforn waiting for your train (luckily there weren't too many people around, haha).  

And after the band left this tiny, tiny outdoor stage we sang until they came back. So good...although I could have listened to them the whole night, forgetting about this stupid cold air in June.

I've taken some more photos but it was hard. From the first note the Night Sweats played I just wanted to dance:

As always: More photos can be found on 

https://flic.kr/s/aHskeEgFn4.

Thanks for reading,

Dörte

'Did this crappy day finally killed me? Did I end up in heaven for some reason?' Those were my first thought when all of a sudden an ocean of good looking, bearded men made their way through the audience. Then all of them entered the stage. Yes, this could be heaven but a heaven on earth. I didn't die, I just went to watch Acollective last night. The seven piece band from Tel Aviv squeezed themselves on the tiny stage of the Badeschiff in Berlin. On a sun deck without sun and with a bit of rain but 'the rain makes the rainbow' as their support, Hanna Leess, sang in one of her songs. Well, sun is also needed but with such an enthusiastic audience and such an happy band, you don't need any real sun. The rainbow will come anyway, in your heart or something... does that even makes sense? I basically want to say it was a fucking awesome concert! One of the best of this year if not the best. I haven't danced so much in a while. It was perfect.

Within what felt like 20 minutes, they played 16 songs and an encore and were actually about 90 minutes on stage. A balanced mix of new song from their new album "Pangaea" and the first one "Onwards". For the first few songs I was almost wondering if they gave up swapping their instruments. But the longer they played, the more they changed where everyone was and what everyone played. Do they need a warm up for that? In the end it was a beautiful, loud mess. Especially during the two last songs: 'Simon Says' of the normal set and 'Girls' of the encore. Both of their first album 'Onwards'.  Electronic devices were being removed in order to play on its stand with drum sticks and stuff like that. But I think my favourite moment of the whole evening was when they played 'Happiest of all Memorial Days'. I love this song. 

It's funny in a way: I heard many of their influences, I didn't heard on the album. Not sure why but during the concert I heard elements of Hip Hip, Blues, Pop, most of all Rock and many other music styles. They are certainly louder and more of a rock band live. Many other things that happened during the concert are a bit blurry in my memory today but one thing remains: the feeling of absolute happiness and longing for their next concert. I can't wait. 

Here are some mediocre photos which don't show the awesomeness of the concert at all: 

Thanks for reading,

Dörte