Reeperbahn Festival: A Motley crew, but hey that’s the way the Germans want it!

Darkness Falls, Treefight For Sunlight, The Malpractice and Lucy Love lined up to play the SPOT On Denmark campaign on Saturday – a total of ten Danish acts confirmed for Reeperbahn

The Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg is rapidly evolving into the place to be in the fall for the European music business, and the festival line up is expanded each year: this year totalling 193 concerts featuring acts from 23 countries.

Still, Danish music comfortably holds its own and attracts attention at the festival in Northern Germany. Ten Danish bands are going to play from Thursday to Saturday in the Hanseatic city (in fact the number would have been eleven if it hadn’t been for Sune Wagner’s back problems forcing The Raveonettes to cancel all their German gigs).
 
The biggest Danish event will be the SPOT On Denmark night on Saturday at Indra – the venue where The Beatles embarked on their Hamburg adventure 51 years ago. 

If things go like last year, the venue will be packed all night at Saturday’s event, and despite the even fiercer competition it is definitely a scenario that can’t be ruled out.

First of all, while we are writing this, there is a steady flow of registrations from music business and media, which testifies to the buzz around Danish music in Germany, and secondly Darkness Falls, Treefight For Sunlight, The Malpractice and Lucy Love, who form this year’s line up, are truly diverse bands in terns of genre and expression.

But that is the way the Germans want it. Thus, the four acts have been handpicked by the German Jury who attended the SPOT Festival in May (representatives from national radio as well as regional stations, national music magazines, record companies, managements, etc.). The members of the jury have subsequently helped promote the event and the bands.

Well what is in it for the bands playing at the SPOT On Denmark?
Darkness Falls’ record company abroad is HfN, whose head office happens to be in Hamburg. It is therefore important for the band to go down there and present their twanged, melodious post punk all to HfN’s collaborators – including the German distributor Word and Sound. Furthermore, the band is hoping to make a deal with a German booker, who can further boost their German adventure.

The Malpractice has a German record company and booking already, but is looking for booking and promotion in the Benelux countries and in the UK. They hope to capitalize on Reeperbahn’s international appeal and get such deals. Thanks to Johannes Gammelby’s previous bands Beta Satan and I Am Bones, the band and its mix of industrial rock, neo grunge and danceable beats already have a decent fan base in Germany, but the ambition is clearly to establish themselves even more!    

Treefight for Sunlight is released all over Europe through the record company Bella Union, and the psych pop heads have both a show promoter and a German distributor in the bag. They have played as headliners in various German cities and as support for the American indie darlings of Tame Impala. Now the band and its backing are going all-in to get as much media and audience exposure in this huge market via the SPOT On Denmark campaign.

Finally, there is the Danish queen of grime Lucy Love, who hasn’t had a lot of activities in Germany (as opposed to many other countries). So far, that is. Her manager Kettil Myrstrand hopes that being selected for the Danish night and playing at the Reeperbahn Festival may kick in some doors to record companies, distributors, agents, bookers etc.

The Danish Schedule at the Reeperbahn Festival:
SPOT On Denmark @  Indra – Saturday 24 September
20:00 Darkness Falls
21.15 Treefight For Sunlight
22:30 The Malpractice
23:45 Lucy Love

Other Danish Concerts:

Thursday22 September:
21.20 Fallulah – Prinzenbar
00:15 The Eco Vamper –  Molotow Bar

Friday 23 September:
20:30 When Saints Go Machine – Café Keese
00:40 Reptile & Retard – Prinzenbar

Saturday 24 September:
21:40 Striving Vines – Silber
00:00 Kiss Kiss Kiss – Silber