The Detectors, Alert and Fingering Joanna on July the 22nd in Suburbia

I had a bad feeling about the number of people in the audience for this concert and unfortunately my premonition came true: I think there were 30 people in the club, including the guys in the bands. Nevertheless the concert did run smoothly (once it started, with the usual 2 hour delay) and there was a good vibe in the atmosphere throughout the night. The openning act, Fingering Joanna were a very pleasant surprise. They had stage presence and didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that there were only 10 people in the audience. They know how to mix short melodic segments into their strong, aggressive punk rock tunes, they have a good bass-player and can synchronize really well. Their set included their own “I.O.N”, “Don’t Get Enough”, “Cantecul Libertatii” (written by Ionel from Coercion) and a great Rancid cover, “Journey to the End of the East Bay”. After a short break Alert began playing at 11 pm. These guys blew me away, but not in a good way. I really liked their attitude and the guitarist’s funny leg dance but they were a little too loud for my taste, overall, and especially the singer. In essence, songs were good though, with nice anti-fascist material-“In Solidarity”, great speech about gender and how we’re all human, no matter our sexual orientation; animal rights, you know, the usual up-to-date punk rock ideas. They proved that for them, anger truly is a gift that fuels a sort of sad, angry punk rock. They pulled off a pretty decent performance. The Detectors followed up at 11.40 pm. Their sound is somewhat similar to Alert, only they have better vocals and they’re a tad more optimistic than the ones before them. The one thing that popped in my mind while I was listening to them was that they sound like Green Day being blown up. Funny cheeky bastards, cracking wise the whole time, with a singer that looked a lot like a very young Johnny Rotten. “Tributary to Death” got the 5 people in front of the stage going wild and singing along. Both german bands thanked Bianca (Diazenis) for organizing the show and you could tell that they actually had a good time. The same can be said about the very few people who attended who were dancing and moshing during the entire show. All I can say is that numbers are not important, but what a small group of dedicated people can do for fun on a hot summer night (while everybody else is off on vacation). Big thanks go out to everybody that came and especially to the bands that played.