Latest pop music: I feel sick without a stage

Last Friday a special concert took place at the small Weißensee open-air stage in Berlin. The evening’s program consisted of Berlin newcomer Linda Finny (20 years old) and Nebel 3000, Brezel Göring’s relatively young no-wave band project (a few decades older). Both have released their first records. Linda Finny released her single “Save Your Drama” in the middle of the month, and Nebel 3000 released the album “Frankenstein Freakout” at the end of June. When it comes to hyper-weird coolness and ultra-loud akwardness, it probably surpasses anything Brezel Göring has done before.

In this trio, two thirds of the band come from Rome: the guitarist, Manuela Marugj (aka Lady Maru) and the drummer Bernardo Santarelli (aka Noisy Pig) organized a few concerts for Stereo Total in Italy in the noughties. This chanson-punk duo consisted of Göring and his partner, Françoise Cactus, who died in 2021. Shortly after his death, Göring released his first solo album entitled “Psychoanalyse Vol.2” in 2022. Quite a moving piece of dark brilliance, if you ask me. Compared to this, the sound of Nebel 3000 seems like it comes from another CD shelf. It’s anti-classic no-wave punk. Pieces like “Playmobile Metalhead” or “Dark Matter” are somewhat reminiscent of the destructive arpeggio synth sound of DAF or Suicide, even if the fog trio likes to avoid such comparisons.

Their lyrics lie live on top of the thundering music like a Dadaist linguistic grid. Lines like “Hospital- I’m going in and you’re coming out” or “Depression- I feel sick without it” had me and at least twenty other fans screaming along. To Noisy Pig’s fast drums, Lady Maru played her guitar expertly like a screaming hardcore harp, sometimes even with her eyes closed. With his eyes open, Göring added more melodic synth accents to the noise. Take note of his outfit: On the keyboards he wore a blue pixie-cut wig with red leather pants from which the price tag dangled to the beat. Oh how beautiful.

The musical highlight of the evening was Linda Finny (photo), whose influences, according to her own statement, were Malaria! and Brian Eno to Lana del Rey. But that’s less important, because their sound quickly turns out to be something very unique: something new. In “Save Your Drama” she combines sarcastic lyrics about histrionic male egos and toxic relationship patterns with a heartbreaking cello that flows with slow beats over the course of the song.

Together with her drummer, she presented three more previously unreleased songs that blew me away. She was so cool on stage that I really wished she had stuck there. One thing is clear: we have to see Linda Finny and Nebel 3000 again as quickly as possible.

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