An open letter to some friends. Pt. 1
Dear Mr. Monkey, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Kidd,
Iâm writing to you on behalf of all those characters that are to some degree incarnated in me. (Welly, welly, well! If that isnât quite an eloquent way of starting off this nonsense !)
But! First things first â I really feel like writing you this (Well, to be completely honest with you, I actually wanted to write you this last night, but I may or may not have been tooâŠletâs say, âdazedâ), but on the other hand I donât want to be a part of the mass hysteria related to the sad SSC news. I bet you get many uncountable amounts of messages referring to the somehow expected, but still too soon end of the band.
I understand that you four as the band members need to learn to handle this more than anybody else (me included). And I even feel like this is in some way an offense and disrespect towards you as individuals, because I feel like all of these events might be a part of your own personal privacy.
Yet, I feel like this is the perfect moment to tell you some things that I wanted to tell you since my soul got charged for the first time, because right now thereâs still some SSC magic in the air that might extinct too soon.
Without further ado, letâs start.
It must have been sometime around summer of 2011 when I was in Croatia at my grandparentâs house and couldnât find any sleep during a way too hot night. I turned on the TV and was surprised that I was able to receive some German channels. It mustâve been something about 2 am when I saw an interview of this weird looking band on some Bavarian village fair. Since I didnât expect to find any better entertainment to this late hour I kept watching. Soon the band started to perform one of their songs. It immediately tickled my fancy. In that night I wrote down the bandâs name and the songâs title and did some research about them as soon as I was back at home some days later.
After seeing their first music video and watching all of their weird video-blogs on their YouTube channel I instantly felt the urge to order their first album. The album arrived some days later and I experienced some of the finest psychedelic tunes Iâve heard in a long while. Furthermore, this band achieved to restore my faith in the modern music scene with just a handful of songs! I remember envying their talent (and the singer for his choice of clothing!). I also pre-ordered their upcoming second album and instantly fell in love with its artistic symbolism and overall appearance.
The second album was released a few months later and when it arrived it blew my mind. Never had I ever encountered such a vast world of art and storytelling. And to this day it still manages to keep me interested and unfolds into an even bigger masterpiece than it already was.
Then it happened. Time: Friday, the 19th October of 2012 Place: A small, but not too shabby club in Mannheim called O-Ton. After an arrival full of traffic jam, I was really nervous to finally see my âidolsâ. Right before the gig my friends and me bought ourselves some delicious pizza. The band played an acoustic set of songs and covered The Beatlesâ âHappiness is a warm gunâ. If Iâm not mistaken the bassist wore a strange shirt with a mix between a deer and a bear â the text on it read âBeerâ. The guitarist made Hendrix seem like a wannabe loser. The singer astonished me with his lyrics and overall eloquence. The barefooted drummer told the audience that the band would play in a nearby club on Friday. The Singer replied with a cynical âToday is Friday, Joe!â and made the audience laugh by introducing him as their âcolourful drummerâ.
After the gig I bought my first merchandise shirt, which is still my favourite shirt to this very day. Sadly, we had to leave early for our driver was the mother of my best friend and had to go to work on the next day.
Same place, one year later. After an equally excellent gig, I finally got to make some verbal contact with the band. I talked to the guitarist and was overwhelmed by how sympathetic he seemed. Like last year, we had to leave early due to our driver. But this time I felt very happy to have had the opportunity to talk to one of the bandâs members.
The next big thing (and still best festival of all the festivals Iâve been to, yet) was Finki 2014. It promised an overall great line-up of bands and had the marvellous Simeon Soul Charger as the act that topped it all off. I have many lovely and heart-warming memories when I think of that time. Even though the Festival was only two days long, it felt like time would move a lot slower at that location. I ran into Aaron when he headed backstage and was able to talk to him as he talked to some of his friends on the border between the backstage area and the area for those who suffer from standard mortality and are not allowed to go behind the stage.
It was that moment, when Aaron and I had some, more or less, profound dialogues about his photography and general artistic being. He tried to smuggle me into the backstage area, but we failed as the security guy was too observing. Though, I was really thankful for having the opportunity to talk to Aaron.
The true highlight of the festival (and basically my whole life, so far) was when Aaron and Joe took me and my girlfriend to their tent to smoke a joint with their friends. Even though Joe twisted the probably worst joint I ever saw due to the misery of not having long-papers, I still got medium-high and felt like I was in a dream.
My girlfriend started to feel sick, so I had to leave this way too short once-in-a-lifetime moment. But fate was nice to me and gave me an even cooler experience just a night after that evening. SSC was the last band to play on the Finki 2014 and I couldnât have thought of a better time for them to play. They started at about midnight and played the most energetic concert Iâve ever been to. They really played the audience into a state of trance just with their virtuosic performance. I felt like I was on a concert of the Doors with Morrison being the shaman that lead me into another sphere of existence. (Sorry for this esoteric detour!) After the gig I went to the not anymore secured backstage are and talked to many musicians from different bands. I also cadged a cigarette from Spider Monkey and had a really strong joint with Aaron afterwards. Since my girlfriend started to get tired I brought her to the caravan of her parents and headed back to Aaron. We had some quite interesting dialogues about art, festivals and basically just me being a squawking fangirl. Then someone close by started to play Ummagumma and I explained Aaron (in my unstructured weed soaked counterpart to logical mind patterns) that literally nobody could survive that album on strong acid (Not that I would have any idea about acid, but I was high, okay? Donât judge me! Also â Sorry, for being so annoying, Aaron!). Anyway, to me it all was just perfect.
Aaron got tired and said that he would drink another bottle of red wine before falling into bed. So, there I was. The happiest little fan on the planet with a handful of other people I didnât know until that moment. They offered me another joint and beer. One of them even was my self-proclaimed representative for beer who actually just had the job of passing me a new beer when I emptied my last one.
I wasted my time with those nameless individuals until the sun rose over the festival site at around 8 am. I can proudly say that I was one of the last three people to have left the Finki 2014! Oh and I forgot to mention that I even kept the bottle of the second beer I drank with Aaron when I still was backstage. Itâs my sanctuary (Wow. This whole SSC- worship starts to sound occult even to me!)
Long story short: Finki 2014 â Happy little fun times!
On 4th of April 2015 I was introduced to the Super Hard Boys in the Jazzkeller in Hofheim. This was also the first of two SSC concerts in the close area around Frankfurt, which came in handy for me. It was also the first time that I took Simon with me to a SSC concert. I got to talk to all members of the band before leaving at about 0:30 am to celebrate the birthday of my girlfriend.
Five days later SSC and the Super Hard Boys played in Das Bett in Frankfurt and during that concert I met an old friend of mine that I havenât seen for years!
SSC then played on Woodstock Forever 2015 and let my Finkiâ14 nostalgia revive. They even dedicated their final song before the encore to me (Best. Fucking. Performance of The Swallowing Mouth!). Shortly after Woodstock Forever 2015 I sent Spider some of my questions about SSC and he replied in an long and detailed way. This was also when I finally understood the whole idea of the band with its name and story-telling songs that are connected in some way. Once again, a mind blow for Ernesto.
I promise, that one day I shall solve the mystery of the whole story!
The last two concerts Iâve been to were at CafĂ© Amelie in GieĂen and Spitalkeller in Offenburg. Both of those evenings were lovely. Especially the gig at CafĂ© Amelie stood out to me, because you delivered such an immense energy to the audience. Plus, Simon, Yannik and me got to talk a lot to all of you, which is always a good thing.
So, now you may ask yourselves why this weird guy wrote about 1.724 words to this point just to tell you about every SSC concert heâs been to in chronological order.
Well, my answer to that question would be the following one: I just felt like I would owe you this. I owe you to tell you how much you inspired me, how much you made me care about your music and how thankful I am for finding true friends in all of you.
I never really had a passion for art or something like that, but your music showed me all layers and levels of art.
Your virtuosic way of playing music made me record own song ideas and restored my faith in music â I just started to listen as if I had a new pair of ears! Your lyrics and general way of using metaphors made me write own lyrics. Your political and social views were so mature and reasonable that they encouraged me to express and be that weird freak that I am. I could continue this list, but this would just make it longer than this message already is now.
So, thank each and every one of you, for helping me find my own way in this grey maze we call life. I might not be on the way of becoming the pseudo-eloquent wannabe musician with utopic ideas that I want to be some day, if I didnât âaccidentallyâ switch on the TV in a hot summer night in Croatia some years ago just to encounter Simeon Soul Charger!
You showed me what I want my life to become and that everybody starts small and can achieve anything if they work hard enough on the own dreams.