Fun Fare live review – post-punk mish-mash with no frills

by | indieBerlin

An intimate gathering of what seemed like mostly friends and family of the Späti palace label convened at Kantine am Berghain at 9 PM, Saturday, February 17th for the release of Leipzig-based band Fun Fare’s new album, Trifles & Events are your concern. The album dropped the day before at another event in the band’s hometown.

Fun Fare were supported by two other acts, experimental pop artist Helen Fry and psychedelic blues-rock band, Voodoo Beach.

Helen Fry was first up around 9.20 and delivered exotic funky riffs and sensual vocals in a deer-in-the-headlights manner. She conversed casually with the crowd between numbers in an informal way that was both endearing and a bit alienating (the crowd’s response seemed slightly lukewarm), asking “Can you handle two more? Oh, thank you, that’s really nice!”

Though she ended her set with a slow but thumping cover of Italian DJ, Gigi D’Agostino’s “L’Amour Toujours”, an interesting choice which the audience really seemed to appreciate.

a blow-up palm-tree or beach ball or SOMETHING would have really aided the escapist experience

Next, Voodoo Beach enhanced the sunny, summer vacation, beach party vibes with their surf and psychedelic inspired tunes. This is when I began to think some lighting or even a blow-up palm-tree or beach ball or SOMETHING would have really aided the escapist experience.

Maybe I’m just super bitter about winter. The set started with eerie beachy psycho-billy tunes slightly reminiscent of the Cramps, though set apart by the front woman’s jazzy voice and devolved into tunes I found less notable (though enjoyable) a kind of non-distinct 60’s garage rock, in the most literal sense of the term. Though the singer’s cabaret-tinted German vocals lent some originality to the act.

Fun Fare came on and gave me quite a surprise

Finally, Fun Fare, the headliners came on and gave me quite a surprise as someone who wasn’t familiar with their music and had seen it billed as experimental pop. I found them noticeably thrilling to watch even with the sparse setting, a marked departure from the previous acts, and whilst attempting to determine their influences or similar sounding artists, the best I could come up with was a mishmash of post-punk names.

Female and male vocals developed into the fun call and echo chants, slightly reminiscent of the B’52’s, the keyboards were spacey 80’s, bass and drums more psych-y. Each of the musicians seemed to be in their own separate world musically, but working ingeniously as a whole.

Overall, the whole event was relatively no-frills, without particular effort in lighting or decor, with the three bands walking on and off the stage casually and back into the small crowd where they would greet their friends.

a little change in scenery might have been nice, especially when accompanied by a lot of the sunny-sounding tunes

This generally gave the release a casual, friends-jamming and listening to each other’s material vibe, which was enjoyable, but also sometimes highlighted the air of inexperience of some of the musicians. Call me a sucker for trippy lights, but considering the event lasted about three hours, a little change in scenery might have been nice, especially when accompanied by a lot of the sunny-sounding tunes.

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