As wonderful as this band is, none of us is good at self-marketing, so we often end up with one gig per year. At least we have that one gig! The annual The Absurd gig usually happens during the first days of the year at the LOFT in Cologne, and we have done it so often that it has become an institution.

Michael Frank’s wife Vera painted blindfolded this time, translating the music into pictures.

As usual, there was a wide range of musical styles between jazz and rock and punk. Guest artist Max Höfler performed pieces in the local Kölsch dialect, Sercan Özökten sang a sirtaki with Turkish lyrics, there was a very fast free jazz explosion dedicated to Enzo Ferrari, and the evening had some quiet lyrical moments.

My solo guitaret composition ‚With Me Pluck‚ (that we had worked on for quite a while until the tricky rhythmic structure sounded good in a band context) was unfortunately not performed successfully because its quiet pulse disappeared in the stage mix and we got out of sync.

I played a vaguely Mike-Ratledge-y solo during MF’s piece ‚Passing State of Mind‘.

Here is a best-of video, 48 minutes of sonic mayhem. The audience loved it, as always 🙂

 

00:05 – Reykjavic 2004
06:38 – 520 PS
08:15 – It never rains in Wuppertal (excerpt)
10:22 – Wir warten auf den Entstörungsdienst
15:22 – Passing State of Mind
20:03 – I Love You
24:14 – Benden nefret et ama acıma
27:17 – English Waltz (Procol Harum)
36:01 – Zukka Attakk
44:44 – Du Hengst

Gernot Bogumil: trumpet
Matthias Ebbinghaus: vocals, percussion
Michael Frank: guitar, vocals
Gala Hummel: drums, vocals
Michael Hausmann: drums, vibraphone
Marcus Jovy: bass
Manfred Meurer: drums
Sercan Özökten: vocals, percussion
Michael Peters: guitar
Hans Salz: drums, vibraphone
Andreas Wagner: alto saxophone
Martin Ziegler: e-piano
Martin Zierold: vocals
Vera P. Frank: live painting