So Maggie Thatcher is NOT dead, but playing bass for The Soapgirls then?
Nah, without that mask the bass player looks pretty normal... ok, they had "extravagant" costumes... musically I got to say: the support band was much, much better!
My review:
So I drive the 40km to the little town of Obermarchtal - "or is it more like a village?" I think to myself as I drive through the streets - how anyone can put on "punk" gigs here is beyond me! What would e.g. my neighbours say about such "noise"?
Anyway, the "Kreuz" (name I heard before, but never been there) is easy to find, as it seems to be THE pub in the town centre. Somehow I sense that the ground floor pub is not where the gigs happen, so I take a side staircase to the upper floor, where I find a nice room (after I pay the 15 Euro) and there are quite a few people in! (No-one seems bothered about me arriving, which is unusual for such a sleepy little town too...) Fortunately I don't have time to hang around for long, as
The Franklys are starting their show. And already with the first song I realise they are just as good as I hoped they would be!!
From the garage-y guitar sound to the energy they radiate, they deliver exactly what I came here for! Good songs, good performance, they seem to have fun. The audience is pretty enthusiastic, they even get asked to do an encore (which they happily oblige to). Of course, I buy the cd from their drummer and tell her I might be there next week when they play in Stuttgart. This is their first gig in southern Germany, they'll play Lindau & Munich next, I think.
Check them out if you can, you won't be disappointed if you like "garage rock"!
http://www.thefranklys.com/Then The Soapgirls come on, these two sisters are obviously "not PC", they swear a lot and throw abuse at each other. Apparently they played here before and joke about Obermarchtal being the "drug capital of Germany". They have a red-haired drummer (but that's about all he has in common with Ratty...). They're not bad, a bit in the "grunge" vein; however their songs are pretty "basic", which (to my ears) makes the gig rather "monotonous" after a while.
Later they ask two males out of the audience on stage, what follows is pretty "anarchic" & funny, but a bit embarrassing too, as it includes diapers and chocolate... (No, I didn't take any photos, you had to be there, on the pics this could be misunderstood too easily...)
One encore gets played and I leave after 11.30pm (still puzzled about no complaints from the neighbours). Gotta admit, I would've left at that point even if they'd done another encore...
https://thesoapgirls.com/
