Old salt makes you thirsty

What a weekend! What a month actually...a lot of music related things have happened in February and if you are following this blog regularly you know that me like music very mucho. The right answer to my little quiz comes of course also from the world of sound: Last Friday my old rockabilly band Black Raven was in town for the second installment of their Worldwide Rockers Tour. Their gig in Bar Dubrovnik wasn´t only the first of the tour, it was also the very first gig for new drummer Jensemann with the band!

It was a running gag to cover Jensemann´s face on all pics.

Not bad at all to have your trial by fire in Helsinki. My first gig with the Raven guys was in Langenhagen, Germany and in case you´ve never heard about that town before, trust me - there´s a reason! Jensemann just replaced my own successor Fritzo, who´d been in the band for about five years and has parted ways with Julian and Torsten only a few weeks ago due to artistic differences. I met Jensemann for the first time that Friday and I´m really happy for the two founding members because they found a new member who fits to the band like a glove. A real nice and humble guy with a good sense of humor - the latter being absolutely mandatory in Black Raven.

And there he is uncovered. He can´t believe that he just signed his first autograph.

I had not seen the band since August 2010, when they played here in Finland (the review was my fourth post on this blog). Time flies, man. It was so cool to hang out with them before the show and realize that they had not changed a bit, it was immediately like the good old days. The first of two personal highlights from that night was Black Raven meeting my band guys who had come to see the show. My original plan to have a picture taken with both bands went awry cause in all this Wiedersehen commotion I simply forgot about it. We also missed most of the other band´s shows, at least we had a glimpse here and there.

First on stage was Pavulon Twist from Poland. They had already been part of the first Worldwide Rockers Tour in 2009 when I enjoyed them in Düsseldorf. Blues harp - yeah!
Next up were The Limiteds from Finland, an all-star project so to speak. I knew almost all the guys from their previous bands (Ellis & The Angry Teens, Cast Iron Arms, The Beetle Crushers). A little wonder that singer Ville was able to perform after some unfortunate encounter that left him with a broken jaw a few weeks back. I liked most of what I caught from their set, I didn´t like that they played "The Punk Bashing Boogie" - and they know it.

Whatever. Finally it was Black Raven´s turn to rock out. Jensemann had been a little nervous prior to the show but you couldn´t tell when he started to massage the skins. Rather on the contrary, he seemed to enjoy himself pretty much. Of course he made some minor mistakes but that´s how it goes. I still remember my own first gig with the band in said Langenhagen and oh boy, that was far from perfect. For a first show Jensemann did very well and I predict that they will have a great time together.

The second highlight for me came after the first half of their set, when they asked me to join them on stage. That was awesome! Although I´ve never regretted my decision to leave the band, I have harbored the secret wish to just play a couple of songs with the guys for quite a while. It was so cool that it happened now in my new hometown as we played
"Don´t Look Back", "Bird Doggin" and "Shaking All Over".

I guess that´s my little solo in "Shaking All Over". Pic by Susu.

After this intermezzo Jensemann took over again and BR rocked and rolled until 2.30am, when the dreaded light sign forced the show to come to an end. Nearly impossible to find an open bar at that point of time so we did the next best thing and translocated our binge to Ville´s hotel room. Must have been 5am when Susu and me took a cab home. Sentimental goodbyes included. Black Raven went the next day to Kouvola for a second gig. Later that day I had a short phone call with Julian in which we confirmed each other how cooool last night had been. And guess what: He told me that Pavulon Twist´s singer DID find an open bar, what the fuck?! What a local tour guide am I?
Sorry boys, next time...

Make sure to check out:

Black Raven
The Limiteds
Pavulon Twist