Just a few minutes ago Beth Ditto bumped her glorious bum right into me. I wont forget the sight of her on the dancefloor: she's really tiny and there was a gang of ecstatic dancing boys jumping all around her in a circle. Twas a sight to behold.Yeh, The Gossip played a gig tonight in Berghain, a truly Berlin venue somewhere in the middle of nowhere. i don't really know how i actually managed to get there. After roaming around on my bicycle feeling totally lost (in my own neighbourhood!) and exchanging several texts messages with my cohort i finally wandered down a dark alley and followed lights and laughter and there it was. While waiting in the queue its hard not to observe the framed notice which proclaims "Absolutely No Picture Taking!" in several languages. Sure enough, i had to check my camera in, which was such a disappointment as the setting was unbelievably photogenic, you could spend months in there taking unbelieveable shots. Berghain is really an amazing place. Like some kind of huge abandoned nightmare factory, it's certainly an appropriate setting for a seriously spooky Japanese psychological thriller. Eeeeeeeeeek. Well, except for all the sweaty people dancing madly to Kate Bush. (The pre-gig dj, Kate Boss was really good.)
Dark and eerie inside, you feel cornered even though you're standing in such a massive space. There is a feeling that something strange and unworldly has been unleashed and is coming to get you. The concrete structure seems endless with stairs climbing up all the walls and rooms leading onto rooms. It seems so empty, though many things catch your eye: glass panes in the walls, a glass bar counter filled with broken beer bottles, ultraviolet lit toilets, the shadow of a hook dangling from the ceiling cast menacingly on the wall. This building also houses Panorama Bar which i haven't been to yet, so there's even more to it that i haven't seen...
Like their gig in Magnet nearly a month ago, tonight was a total sweatfest. Boys were stripping off and throwing their garments at Beth as she had no towel onstage. It was a good time. She was in good form, like last time, cussing and lasciviously chatting up the crowd. She looked absolutely amazing. They played a similar set, though with more "slow jams" as requested by Beth, including their sweet cover of Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" (it's on the space). They almost played Nelly Furtado's "Maneater" (...which is listed as no.3 in a top ten on Brace's space) and saved "Standing in the Way of Control" til last again. By the end of the show the crowd was a heaving mass of sinously shimmying boys and girls.
Their music gets right into you and shakes up your insides and unearths alot of deeply rooted feelings. It's her voice, its the dirty basslines and thumping drums - Hannah slammed right through her skins + had to tape her snare all back together.
Beth really knows how to work the crowd, without obviously doing so. Enticing and inviting you with her wiley charms and urgent pleas to join in, clap, dance, sing, bump and grind with her on the danceflo'.
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