Infadels, 59:1 Munich, 10/18/08

A night in the Circus of the Mad

You should really have seen me in the moment I got the news that I won this. Me and the Infadels, me as a personal band accessory, me as VIP, allowed to do almost everything, before, during and after the show – since I haven’t won much besides a set of crayons at a painting contest for six year olds, I kind of lost it for a minute.

When the day finally came I managed to cool down again – at least until I arrived at the 59:1. People were already busy setting up the club for the night and I remained unseen, since nobody had time to care about me. Then, shortly after 5pm singer Bnann Watts sneaked onto the empty stage and did an acoustic versions of “Universe in Reverse” and “Make Mistakes” in front of like five people including me, and right at that moment I got nervous again.

After the acoustic set Bnann came up to me and we were finally introduced. He called the group to come out of their dressing room backstage and welcome me too. Despite them not sleeping much the night before they all were in quite a talking mood and really sweet. In fact, they talked and asked me so much that most of the questions I had prepared became obsolete. It felt a little like speed dating. At it got really late we then had to set up the stage, and you should know that the Infadels have a lot of props – e.g. a padded fox, a mannequin and a plastic bird. We gave the fox a nice pink glitter neck ribbon, dressed the poor naked mannequin with an Infadels poster and put a giant mirror ball on her head. Bnann told me that this was a prop from their video to “Love Like Semtex” and he pitied the girls who had to wear it since this thing was really heavy. As if he had to prove it, he took the mirror ball and put it on my head so fast I couldn’t even protest. I felt a flash of thumbness going through my limbs, I guess the ball cut off some nerves in my shoulders.

The next thing for me to experience was soundcheck. Guitarist Matt Gooderson apologized in advance that this was the least favourite part of the day and I should forgive them for not looking too excited. There was no point in telling me this, at least for me it was exciting and I loved it just as much as the actual gig. Although the Infadels are known for a very electronic sound in their songs, I could hear that there is a fine basement of rock in their instrumental parts. They are not so far off from the big names in rock history they call their idols. The electronica in their music is just a nice add to differ from any other band, to make them more fun and eccentric and give them kind of an „unique selling point“.

The concert itself was the peak of the night, like a tiny little musical orgasm. When the guys came on stage they were strangely dressed and had tons of make up and colour on their faces, like real circus freaks – the one that scare children instead of making them laugh. From second one of the show an amazing vibe went through the crowd, it was one of the rare nights were Germans did not need at least ten minutes to get comfy and pull of their blinkers of shyness. Especially when the Infadels played „Can’t Get Enough“, a song that is well known from a commercial spot on TV over here, they almost freaked out. The band itself was very bubbly too. Bnann Watts somehow managed to bring the robot dance to perfection during the show, he was very outgoing and in permanent contact to his audience. His voice is another unique selling point too, btw. I would really like to hear him sing a slow and silent ballad, I think he could be one of the singers that give you goosebumps with his voice only. The most amusing part of the band was keyboarder Richie Vernon though. He jumped up and down all the time, most of it with at least one hand in the air. How he was able to keep playing without missing any tone is beyond me. Even during slower songs he kept the pace of headbaning to twice the rythm of the song. Somewhere in the middle of the show he just grabbed his microphone and jumped into the crowd just to continue dancing and headbanging there. Grand finale of the night was a cover of Eurythmic’s „Sweet Dreams“. They carried this song into the digital age without killing its original spirit. They gave the song a cosmetic surgery that made it look ten years younger. I have never been a fan of covers, but this was phenomenal. And a great kick start for the party afterwards.

ah