Weekend Round-up: Shows, shows, shows

So Friday started off with that show in Dortmund. And since I hate to repeat myself, I will just give the link here.
On Saturday then I was really wasted when I got up in the morning. Let's face it, I'm just not used to getting to bed this early in the morning. And every time I think I want to sleep way into the afternoon hours there's always some idiot in my neighbourhood who's redecorating his or her room. So no sleep 'til the next show and on this Saturday evening Kommando Sonne-nmilch were playing at Gebäude 9. I completely forgot about that show and only remembered it when I saw the poster for the Dortund show the day before. So I headed to the other side of the river and arrived at the venue at 8 pm. And noone's there. Which is strange, since all of the predecessors of Kommando Sonne-nmilch were sure to at least get a good attendance each time they played in Cologne. So me and the guys I met up with there had a beer first and then waited until 10 pm for the show to start. The music was just as expected, but the stage was fun. The whole band was looking like they were working for some construction company and in the back of the whole stage there was a huge plastic chainsaw. Great picture.
The show finished up early with just one band playing so we sat in the café a little bit longer, only to get annoyed by some dorkheads on speed who were climbing chairs and tables. I got home at around 1.30 am and prepared for the next day.
On Sunday Cologne's finest were coming home from a two week tour of Europe. Cobretti and Deny Everything teamed up with Tackleberry to play a show at the Sonic Ballroom. I have to admit the Ballroom is more and more becoming a punkrock institution in Cologne. There's shows almost every night and although I have to admit that most of them are not really my cup of tea I really appreciate what the people are doing there. They should just broaden the variety of different flavours a little more. Setting up a show like yesterday's is a step into the right direction. This could be considered to be the rebirth of Cologne hardcore pride. It's been quite a long time since I've seen an underground hardcore show attended by so many people with such good bands playing. Tackleberry started the whole thing with their positive and classic stop and go hardcore. The crowd seemed to like it and there were people bouncing around in front of the stage early.
Next up (after a very quick changeover. I REALLY like that!) were Deny Everything and their Lifetime-influenced melodic hardcore just had the same effect on the audience in the first rows. Stagedives and highfives, just getting in gear for their show with Gorilla Biscuits, I guess.
Cobretti were the headliner for the night, and their more aggressive and mean brand of hardcore fit perfectly to end the evening. Although singer Carsten seemed to have caught a cold, the sound was thundering and the crowd was having fun. Again, I have to say that I haven't seen anything like this in Cologne for a long time. Around 70 people turning up for a show on a Sunday evening with only local bands playing. This is great stuff and I really hope there's more to come in the future.

So this ends a weekend which I haven't had in a long time. It really was fun to hang out with a lot of people, meeting some faces I hadn't seen in a long time, just having a good time.