Concert review: Being As An Ocean with Burning Down Alaska, Capsize and Casey

Munich, Nov. 26^th, 2016 at Backstage Halle

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting another sold out show in Munich. This time it was at the Backstage, my favorite venue in town. By the time I arrived there were already hundreds of people queuing around the venue. A few days before the show sold out. The venue itself has three differently sized clubs and two of them were sold out. Being As An Ocean played the smaller one, Halle, with a capacity of about 350 people.

The UK based band Casey opened the night. People were still pouring into the venue, due to the set times that were changed a few days before. Something not everyone was informed about. Anyway, the front area before the stage was packed, so no worries about there not being enough people to party out with. Their music has it’s heavy and quiet moments, sometimes the it’s just floating. They have one full length record out, called ‘Love Is Not Enough’. Give it a listen!

Next up were Capsize from Southern California. They played an energetic set. The stage wasn’t the limit, at least to frontman Daniel Wand, who climbed up to the balcony barrier and let himself drop down on the audience to crowd-surf back on stage while he kept on singing. Definitely a fun performance. Songs like ‘XX – (Sew my eyes)’ and ‘Tear Me Apart’ from their recent record ‘A Reintroduction: The Essence Of All That Surrounds Me’ inviting the audience to rock out and sing along.

Third band was Burning Down Alaska, the only German band that night. It’s a five-piece band from Recklinghausen, Germany, labeling themselves as a New Wave Hardcore-band. However you’d call their style, what counts is how the audience enjoys it and according to crowds reactions, they liked what they saw.

Which brings us to the headliner of that night – Being As An Ocean. The atmosphere of the show was one of a kind. The diffused lighting and the way vocalist Joel Quartuccio performs the song at times sends shivers down your back. The mix of spoken words and singing is unique. Joes has an amazing ability to sing ever so sensitive and scream out the lyrics the very next moment. During the set he keeps very close contact to the audience, getting down from the stage, wandering around the audience, crowd surfing, kneeling down to listen to the crowd singing the lyrics. Although the room was packed, which means, there were about 350 people there, it still felt like a very intimate show. Whenever you need something for the feels and don’t want to miss on energy, go see this band live.