Rockhouse Brothers
in Hamburg, Drafthouse


It is my third time seeing the Rockhouse Brothers play within just one month. The first time was in Cologne where they were supporting the Wise Guys, second time in Munich (Wise Guys support, too). There I asked them, when they will play in Hamburg and I was lucky: Just one week later. They have three concerts this week, but the Wolfman told me it would be best to see them at the Drafthouse. Today!

So as girls never go alone anywhere Solli and I meet at central station and take off to the heart of St. Pauli. We just know we'll have to reach the Hans-Albers-Platz - nobody of us has ever been there - but we'll do our best. Well, it isn't that difficult to be honest, at about 10 p.m. we reach the Drafthouse where signs are telling us that the Rockhouse Brothers will start at 11.30 p.m. - but it's deserted. Nobody in there except for the employees and so we decide to stroll along the Reeperbahn for a while. 

10.40 back at the Drafthouse. I expect more people to be there... Okay, we are four or five guests now. It's hard to believe because the last two times there have been 10.000 people listening to the Rockhouse Brothers and today the location is rather empty. Nevertheless we decide to stay and take our seats opposite the stage. Sitting in a discothek is quite strange to me but unfortunately I have twisted my ankle just a few days before and so I will have to do without dancing and jumping tonight. The next 45 minutes pass with us watching TV and listening to the music. I really like it in here and I'm quite sure it is not my last visit. Next time you will find me on the dancefloor!

11.20. The Drafthouse is still rather empty, there are about 30 people in now and finally the Rockhouse Brothers arrive. First to be seen is Jamie, followed by the Wolfman and Joey. They are still wearing their normal jeans and T-Shirts, shaking hands with fans they know and then they go upstairs to change. A few minutes later the show begins!

The performance is absolutely great! I'm completely mystified how three men can rock the house like this! There are no signs that they need any warm up, they just start with full power. During the first section just a few people are dancing. One couple (about 45 of age) seems to mix up the dancefloor with their bedroom, they are showing us a foreplay par excellence.... it's just ugly but it is very hard to keep your eyes off of them because they are nearly the only ones using the dancefloor. The Rockhouse Brothers start to sweat very soon, it's really hot inside even without spotlights on you. And so jackets are removed soon... Should I say it? The boys look delicious... 

Bit by bit more people are coming in, most of them stay. There are some Columbian Navy Soldiers and a group of girls who start dancing with bottles of Heineken in their hands the moment they come in... The first section of the concert ends much too early, Jamie announces a "kurze Pause" and that you can buy the Rockhouse Brothers' CD before they leave stage.

During that short break many people find their way towards the dancefloor and when the Rockhouse Brothers come back they don't leave it again. So the second section takes place in front of a dancing crowd that is in high spirits. No song ends without us screaming an applauding furiously and of course we are singing along every bit we know. Joey asks us, if there's anybody here from Lübeck because he wants to dedicate the next song to Lübeck: "In the Ghetto"!

I'm not quite sure which song it was... but Joey tells us something he learned form a psychiatrist concerning a musicians face during playing a solo. This face is exactly what the artist looks like when he's doing a very hard physical activity. So he makes Jamie to do another bass solo and we all can see the face Jamie surely doesn't make during you-know-what ;-) The next one to show us his most unusual solo-face is the Wolfman and of course Joey too has got to pretend he's having some very very nice minutes... His solo is rather short (just a chromatic scale upwards) an ends with "Oooops, that has never happend before like this!"

But Jamie's life as a highly desired man also has got it's shady sides, especially for his brother Joey!

The evening's - or should I say: the night's - third section seems to be a bit emptier to me, but that doesn't mean more quiet. There's still a really great party going on, we sing, dance (most of us do) und have fun. I'm waiting for "Surfin' USA" to see Jamie standing on his bass and of course I'm looking forward to see the three topless. As I said before: delicious! During the first break I have passed greetings from fans living in Jülich and France to the Wolfman and they of course asked me to write a report about the show. I didn't even start to take notes, so I have to hope that the band can help me with extracts from the tracklist afterwards. But I try to take as many good pictures as possible instead so the fans from far away can get an impression of what they missed.

Who was telling that "Joey in fact doesn't speak any German"? Well... that comes out not to be true completely, because he sings a very very great version of Nena's "99 Luftballons". In German! My wish of hearing and seeing "Surfin' USA" is satisfied in the end, it's the last song before we start to beg them for more. After three encores (is this word used for that? I don't actually know...) the lights finally turn off and the DJ starts working again. Solli buys her first Rockhouse Brothers CD and I'm very lucky because the Wolfman gives the remains of all three tracklists to me so I can write down nearly each song they sung. Thank you for that!!! We leave the Drafthouse at about 3.40 a.m. and walk down the Reeperbahn to catch our metro back home. I feel rather deaf, but as the Wise Guys would sing: "Das war's wert!"

It was a really really great show and we sure will be there when the next one takes place.
What about you?

Setlist (a bit unsorted sometimes):
I'll blow your house in
You're the devil in disguise
Peggy Sue
I'm on fire
Ring of fire
Great balls of fire
Monkey man
Bye bye love
Wonderful world
Help
Red hot mama
The lion sleeps tonight
A little less conversation
Be my baby
In the Ghetto
Basket Case
You never can tell
Everyday
Rock this town
Suspicious Minds
Twist and Shout
So lonely
Diddely Daddy
Runaway
99 Luftballons
The Israelites
16 Tons
I feel fine
A little less conversation
Mrs. Robinson
Surfin USA
La Bamba
Wipe out
Mojo
Should I stay or should I go



But now: the pictures... click to enlarge.

Rockhouse Brothers Rockhouse Brothers

Rockhouse Brothers Rockhouse Brothers

Rockhouse Brothers Rockhouse Brothers

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Rockhouse Brothers Rockhouse Brothers

Rockhouse Brothers Rockhouse Brothers

PS: It's nearly worth writing a short report about the day after. A report about reporting... nice thing to do. And a report about what girls are saying when they think nobody can hear them...

On Sunday I wake up at 10 a.m., scuffle into my workroom and turn on my PC. Like I do first every morning when I got up. There's an ICQ message from yesterday telling me I shall have fun. Oh yeah, I really did! So I say "Good morning" to the girl on the other side of the ICQ-line and she starts questioning me at once. "What was it like? How were the boys? Did you pass them the greetings? What did they say? *bouncing on the chair* A report? What did they play?" Wow... ehm... whatever she might have taken last night... it was too much! When I mention the pictures she starts drooling over it, but in general we think exactly the same: "....delicious.... VERY DELICIOUS indeed...." like she says. Okay, we didn't talk about the music so much, our topic were just the boys most time. And so I just take another sentence of her to sum this all up:

"Why must these boys look so yummy? That's really mean... and then be so spoken for... that's even meaner!"



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