Reeperbahn Festival Day 2: Bon Iver follows The Beatles to Hamburg

When I think of the Beatles, I usually don't think of Hamburg, but that's apparently due to my own ignorance. After my Beatles tour today (complete with ukulele covers of "My Life" and "Shake it Up Baby" by our guide Stephanie), I know better. The Fab Four played their first gig as "The Beatles" at The Indra, a tiny club along The Reeperbahn, Hamburg's Red Light District. They weren't any good, but after playing well over 100 shows at Kaiser Keller and The Star Club, sometimes until 7 a.m., they learned how to entertain. The area is still a mix of strip clubs, sex toy stores (including the unfortunately named "Fashion & Tools") and live music venues. I limited my evening to the latter.

I seem to have a talent for catching the final song by a band here in Hamburg, and tonight was no different. First we got to Grünspan just in time to hear Foals play their final number. Then right after settling into the Imperial Theater, Australians Angus and Julia Stone finished their song and left the stage. Fortunately they were called back for a couple of encores. Looking a little like the Scarecrow and Dorothy, they had trippy voices straight out of Oz. I could have listened all night. Check them out for yourself at angusandjuliastone.com.

Next up was Murder, the Danish quiet acoustic duo of Jacob Bellens and Anders Mathiasen at Angie's nightclub. It was just weird enough to not bore me, despite the fact that we could hardly see them sitting on the low stage. Fans of Wovenhand or Silver Jews should check them out at myspace.com/murderdk.



From there it was down to the Molotov for Magistrates, an Essex band that recently signed to XL. Their danceable indie rock with cool falsetto should do well among the NME crowd. They've been recently touring with The Black Kids: myspace.com/magistratesband.

We made the long trek to Hamburg's premiere indie rock club, Knust, and settled into the packed crowd waiting for Wisconsin's Bon Iver. The Paste cover boy ran 35 minutes behind schedule, though, and the venue soon became a sauna. But once Justin Vernon and his mates took the stage, all was forgiven. I managed to miss all 107 of his SXSW performances last year, so this was my first time hearing many of my favorite songs of the year, like "Skinny Love" and "Creature Fear," played live. I was mostly struck that despite how quiet most of the songs were, there's a spastic energy behind Vernon's falsetto singing that's always threatening to break forth. When it does, it's like a rubber band snapping, and it's fascinating to watch.

After a 50-minute set of songs from For Emma, Forever Ago plus a new song called "Blood Bank, Vernon returned for an encore saying, "This is where it starts getting shitty because we don't know anymore songs." He and his band finished the night off with a pair of covers, "Lovin's For Fools" by Nashville's Sarah Siskend and "I Believe in You" by Talk Talk. On the first, guitarist Mike Noyce sang a verse. He looks 14 in his Eau Claire soccer T-shirt, but he sounds much younger when he sings. Drummer Jon Mueller sang the Talk Talk song in a high tenor, as well. The bass player was probably a deep baritone or he might have gotten to sing too.

Filter editor-in-chief Pat McGuire and I took the subway back to the hotel, but apparently not to the right stop. After trying to navigate our way home on foot, we finally admitted defeat and grabbed a taxi. We would not, however, be defeated the next night...