Baba Shrimps at Openair Benken

May 23, 2015 concerts 2015 0

Benken. A 2800 souls village in canton St. Galle. Somewhere at the border of the woods, at “Mösli”, a cottage was standing under which’s roof the stage was set, the small area fenced. Well, what can I tell about Openair Benken? I was there the first time and also the last one for sure.

We of course went there because of Baba Shrimps. Last time I’ve seen them complete was at their tour final at Mascotte Zurich and then also at ZKB Nachtschwärmer unplugged as a trio. So it was high time to see a concert by the Zurich band again. And the best, they didn’t just have a very new song in their programme but bass player Steve was finally back again after such a long time! You can imagine our big joy.

We arrived a bit too early, maybe half an hour or so, the doors were not opening before 8pm. We were the first ones and yes, didn’t look like much first. And we soon realized that this was obviously a “drinking party”. Sadly we soon got confirmed in this. The evening was a bit low. It reminds me a bit to Pfadi Folk Fest with Bastian Baker. It was great to meet friends though (the usual front row was there) and finally seeing the band live again. Esp. next with the new song “Fiji” and Steve being back. And still it wasn’t the best concert evening.

The first band, All To Get Her, was a young four members punkrock band. I got the impression of a school band and I didn’t like them much, also not their music style. The first youngsters, esp. friends and fans of the band, seemed already pretty drunk. Well, that was going to be fun…

Even before Baba Shrimps entered stage, we were slightly annoyed by most of these young spectactors. The setlist of Baba Shrimps was great: They started as usual with “Trouble” and next to the very new song, they also played the covers “N’oubliez jamais” and “Big City Life” again, as they did at the tourfinal at Mascotte. But well, these guys in the audience had a big mouth, did push unnecesarrily and did chat up stupidly. You also had to look well after the lights a fan took a long, not that it just got stolen. A group of guys started shouting for “AC/DC” then and also kept disturbing the concert – and not in a funny way. I lost patience at some point and before I did beat anyone, I changed my place. Even the band was annoyed eventually.

After Baba Shrimps a rock/hard rock coverband named Cover connection played. They played songs from Bryan Adams to ZZ-Top, Chuck Berry or Alter Bridge and various 60s hits to now. Just a party band. They probably suited the drinking party better than Baba Shrimps, but even here they were disturbing with shoutings. We had a drink afer Baba Shrimps, did talk, listened to “Cover Connetion” for a while, but didn’t stay too long anymore.

I sure was at events with worse audience, and so far nothing topped BBC Open in 2012. Maybe I am simply too od for this, but in future I’ll sure do without Benken or sure.