Indie-Katharsis-“Respectable” is the greatest insult to XIU XIU

Think about the avant -garde from yesterday, you could do that in Berlin last Saturday – at the XIU XIU concert in Silent Green. A good 20 years ago, the band around Mastermind Jamie Stewart from San José was the “hot shit”, since she stood with the album “The Air Force” (2006) on all clever lists of clever pop detectives. Pop music, however, has always made Xiu Xiu to a limited extent.

A diffuse intersection of cross -border artists has been referred to as “Industrial Music” for four decades, stylistically and in terms of content with proximity to noise. You can classify the band here. XIU XIU inserted the radical self -pity on the industrial. “Dear God, I hate MySelf” is one of her most famous songs. While Throbbing gristle in the 70s with cruelty, the collapsing new buildings in the 80s with decay and nine inch nails in the 90s with perversion, in the 00s there are only desperation on the ego: my error, my body, My fault, my dark prison. Jamie Stewart has managed to spew the most gracestive organ on this globe. A constant nervous breakdown, the constant exposure of a abused child trembles in his voice.

This therapeutic man was just as avant -garde 20 years ago. A generation began to be classified in clinical symptoms and abstract terms of identity. Leaning birth rights and obligations, right up to the body and mind. Self -authorization through self -victimization and self -sacrifice for – yes for whom? Certainly not for any company. Queerer nihilism, as comfort as the last icons of a pop culture. For example, Jamie Stewart supposedly worshiped the cartoon character “Butters” from the television series “South Park” iconic. Genesis P-Oldige once invented the “Godstar”, that was Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones. There is a difference here: it is a person.

Last year Xiu Xius News Aktuell “13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with bison horn grips “. A tattering, berserker and Säusler will eventually find his recipe. XIU XIU sound here, as you can hear in 2024. Therefore, not at all. Breaks the Chain of My Being Nothing Too «(I did almost nothing right/ all of my adult life./ But that I dared to touch the fire with you/ also tears the chain not to be).

On the stage, XIU XIU are a trio. Stewart is supplemented by Angela Seo on the electronics and David Kendrick, formerly drummer from Devo and the Sparks. A remarkable decision to play the song material, significantly shaped by eccentric production tricks, actually “live” and continue to play without loops and playbacks. Stewart chases his guitar through dozens of digital effects, sometimes it sounds like a bass guitar, sometimes like a Gameboy with water damage.

David Kendrick drums precisely between Krautrock and Freejazz. Angela SEO contributes sub -bass and anemic vocal comments. Apparently confused, but firmly composed clock and volume outbreaks, demands their skills to be able. Here an ensemble of new music plays in the highest flower. It is devoutly silent between the songs. Steward screams and howls in great vocal control, calculated catharsis and high intensity workout.

Play XIU XIU for a good 70 minutes as part of the CTM Festival and Platform for Adventurous Music and Art in the cultural area Silent Green in the Wedding district. Regardless of Senate, similar to the »Pop Culture« festival in the capital, it is about identities and expressions of the global intellectual middle class. Laptop-DJs, programmer, crypto-bros and professional queers have gathered to either nod a lot or to fidget on non-cooca cola.

As an encore, the audience also expects a tribute from the soundtrack to the “Twin Peaks” series of the deceased director David Lynch. XIU XIU reinterpreted the 2016 film music. However, concessions to the audience would rob any pose of seriousness – thanks, a wave. What remains is an intensive, impressive concert that demands a non -settlement of technical respect. Nobody else sounds like that. “Respectable”, however, is the greatest insult to a genius, “unique” an insolent consolation. What remains is an avant -garde that is a good 20 years old and clings to their puberty one last time in such concerts and festivals.