Reeperbahn Festival Day 1: Sleepless in Hamburg

I was born in Munich back when it was still called West Germany, just after Kraftwerk had released their first album. My dad had taken a job there, but we moved back to the States before my second birthday. The only things that hinted at a European genesis for me were an early love of Gummi Bears, a set of rubber Schlumpf figurines before friends had ever heard of Smurfs, and later on, a hatred for crappy American beer. It took me more than 30 years to return to the country of my birth.

I'm here now for the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. This is my second European music festival after going to by:Larm in Norway earlier this year, and I love discovering bands that have never played in the U.S. In Norway, I was thrilled to discover Ida Maria, whose album will be in Paste's Top 20 this year. Already, after one day in Germany, I've got a couple more bands I'm excited about.

I'm starting to think that there are no sucky bands in Iceland. I saw a pair of great ones tonight, Sea Bear and Borko, and immediately fell in love. Borko is the stage name of Björn Kristiansson. I walked in halfway through his ridiculously short 20-minute set and thought immediately of Pedro the Lion with horns. His songs have that same slow-core build, but the intensity keeps growing until the song ends in a huge crescendo. The songs on his MySpace page unfold even more patiently than his live show, and there's a healthy dose of his countrymen Sigur Rós in there, as well.

Sea Bear got a full-hour slot and filled it with joyful indie pop. They're part of a growing genre of symphonic pop marked by gentle vocals, bouncy melodies, lots of members and eclectic instrumentation (see: Sufjan Stevens, I'm From Barcelona, Boy Least Likely To, Arcade Fire, etc.). Tonight those instruments included at various times violin, trumpet, xylophone, a squawk box, and a trumpet harmonica. But Sea Bear is also a believer in the big build, and their quiet/loud dynamic made it all the more engaging.

Both bands played in the Imperial Hotel theater, a cozy little stage with a small balcony. And as much as I was impressed by the music tonight, I might have been more impressed by the many cool venues around Reeperbahn Street. Far and away the coolest, though, was Prinzenbar. Classical sculpture protruded everywhere from the walls, which arched into about a 20-foot ceiling. Above is stained-glass and an enormous candelabra converted to electric bulbs. There's a 50-square-foot mirror behind the bar and the stair rails are all wrought-iron. Nearly as anachronistic was American singer/songwriter Turner Cody in his fedora hat and speakeasy-tinged tunes. It made for a perfect combo and my third favorite act of the evening.

I also saw:

Jennifer Kae - A 17-year-old German soul singer with the chops of Joss Stone but unfortunately even less grit.

Huecco - A Spanish hippie rocker who divides the very large gap between Los Lonely Boys and Gogol Bordello.

Zascha Moktan - Another German soul singer with a bit more soul and bit less pizzazz than Kae.

Sven van Thom - A German singer/songwriter who followed a beautiful ballad in German (and a smoke machine oddly out of place) with a parody song with backing tracks (and a smoke machine that added to the effects). This was the point during the night when I wished I could do more than count to ten in German.

Choir of Young Believers - The "choir" consisted of a Danish duo singing hushed music, but they were indeed heavenly. And might have blown me away if I wasn't so jet-lagged.