SpermBirds/Crossingpoint
Winston Pub - Tuesday 30 August 2004
by Yusuf from Lowprofile

(note: Will was standing in on lead vocals for this show)

Kaiserslautern, no not the evil mastermind from The Usual Suspects, but the birthplace of legendary punk-rock/hardcore band the Spermbirds. It was
1983 when the Spermbirds first started out, I was two years old then and who would have thought that 22 years later I would get to watch them play at The Winston of all places? There was a mixed crowd on the night. Those whose lives had been changed by the Spermbirds, like the guy wearing the Spermbirds t-shirt he bought at one of their shows 13 years ago, and those that just wanted to see this international punk band that all the hype was about. Needless to say, neither of the two sets of crowds left disappointed. Tuesday night seemed like an odd choice for the show, and the fact that most people had work the next day definitely affected the turnout. It wasn't a sold out show, but the pit didn't stop all night.

This was the third Spermbirds show in South Africa. They had already played at The Nile Crocodile in Pretoria and at Tempo's in Johannesburg.
The bill for the Durban leg of the "Nothing to Prove" tour was advertised as The Liquored, Crossingpoint and, of course, the Spermbirds. The Liquored pulled out of the show leaving a few Durbanites feeling a bit envious. The line-up for the Pretoria show featured The Slashdogs and The Terrorists while the Jhb show was out of control with 12 support bands, including Fuzigish, Pestroy, Misled, Humphrey the Teacup and Skelm Helm.

At around 9:30pm Crossingpoint took the stage. Tonight's show was the bands first without founding member and lead vocalist Wesley who started Crossingpoint with his brother, guitarist Brandon, in 1998. Wesley wasn't even at the show, which suggests that there are still some bad feelings there, which is such a shame. As Crossingpoint started, looking around, I realised tonight's show was definitely a bit of a sausage fest.

Crossingpoint's new vocalist Will is the lead vocalist of fellow Durban hardcore heads, The Rising End and he looked like he was not going to be overwhelmed by stepping into Wesley's shoes. His presence was awesome and Crossingpoint got on with the show like they'd been jamming with the new line-up for a really long time. They seemed full of purpose, perhaps because guitarist Brandon seemed like a member of the set of the crowd whose life had been changed by the Spermbirds. The sound was awesome, probably because of the huge mixing desk and set-up hired just for the show that took up half the floor space of The Winston. Will has been at every Crossingpoint show I've ever been to and he's always at the front screaming out the lyrics anyway, so he was the perfect choice. In fact Crossingpoint have such a big influence on The Rising End that for him it must have been like singing for his dream band.

Crossingpoint seemed both heavier and more melodic at the same time.
Will's scream is really heavy, like Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed heavy and his singing voice, accompanied by some melodic guitar playing by Brandon, was really impressive. Drummer Juan, with his cymbals so high they were almost touching the ceiling, was also on top of his game. He just has such a neat, flowing style and it looks like he's really settling in to his role. Bassist Ross was crazy, all over the stage as usual and his singing voice also sounded better than usual. Perhaps it was because, for a change, you could actually hear him.

After Crossingpoint's set the Spermbirds were still not in the building, which must have been a bummer for Brandon. I later heard that guitarist Frank Rahm had been hit in the back of the head by a falling light during their sound check. How punk rock I thought. I later saw the wound close up and like all head wounds the blood had been worse than the actual cut, but still, it must have been quite a shock to be playing your guitar and then all of a sudden, whack, you're bleeding from the back of your head.
Eventually from outside I heard drums getting pounded and realised that the Spermbirds had arrived. When I went inside I realise that the reason they had slipped past me was that they all looked like such mellow unassuming guys. There were no Mohawks and full sleeve tattoos, like I had expected. When lead singer Lee Hollis spoke into the mike, he seemed so diminutive, calm and unassuming. How could this be the Spermbirds? Then, they began. Lee became someone else, someone full of anger and passion.
Looking around all the Spermbirds had old skate shoes and baggy pants on.
It was just so cool to see these 'ballies' rocking out and looking like older versions of myself. Guitarist Frank even had the same pair of Vans on as me.

The Spermbirds list bands like Wire, The Ruts, the Buzzcocks, Minor Threat and Bad Brains as having a big influence on their style. In return countless punk and hardcore bands can include the Spermbirds as one of their major influences. The most interesting influence that I noticed was how much the Spermbirds had influenced our very own Leek and the Bouncing Uptones. The Spermbirds track My God Rides a Skateboard, reminded me straight away of the Leek track Skateboard. The Spermbirds influence has even carried over into founding Leek member Andrew Wright's new band The Slashdogs, perhaps even more so.

One thing the Spermbirds don't seem to like is Americans and who can blame them? They played their legendary song American's are cool, which is one of the most sarcastic song titles ever. Then later they played a song I'd never heard before. Lee did a little Bush impersonation and sang, "I'm a cowboy". Interestingly Lee was born in America and moved to Kaiserslautern as a commercial artist for the US Army in 1983. He is also a published author and still talks with an American twang, but, for all the naysayers, how is wanting something better for your country unpatriotic?

Talking to the band after the show they just seemed like the nicest guys I'd ever met. Like all old rockers they still smoke. Old rockers can quit the drugs, but never the ciggys. Drummer Matthias "Beppo" Götte told me that he is a news editor in Germany and he'd been hearing a lot about South Africa lately with the whole Scorpions, Zuma fiasco. Isn't it irritating how people only care about bad news? The other band members were just as calm and reserved in person as Matthias and Lee. Guitarist Frank showed me the gash on the back of his head from the fallen lighting display. The other guitarist, Roger Ingenthron seems like the joker in the band while bassist Markus Weilemann seems like the quiet observing Spermbird. All the Spermbirds agreed how much they had enjoyed their morning on the beach. They must have stood out like five sore thumbs.

The Spermbirds had rocked The Winston and they seemed to have loved every minute of it. For a band that has broken up several times they don't look like they're quite done yet even though they have "Nothing to Prove", they've proved it already and they proved it again tonight. It's just so impressive to see a band that's been playing these songs for 22 years play them with so much passion and energy. The whole show was organised by this huge, mega-tattooed giant of man, who Roger called, "Big Daddy Bill". The ticket came with a free CD that included 6 Spermbirds tracks and 22 local bands, a very cool idea. Checkout his website www.bill.co.za. In closing, I'd just like to write out a quote from the Spermbirds website www.thespermbirds.com. The little grammatical errors are what make the site so entertaining, hey I can't speak ANY German. "Anyway, we hope you enjoy the new record, come and party with us on the upcoming shows and stay true punk for next twenty years too".

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