2024-03-18 21:16:30
“Speedy Ortiz” presented their music at Vienna’s Fluc – people were dancing, but the vibe was still somehow missing.
I went to Fluc that evening in a good mood – I was not only looking forward to the music, but also to the place and also to the people I would meet there. I haven’t been there in ages and was curious to see if anything had changed. So I was there very early, chatted with people I knew but also people I didn’t know and at some point I finally said “the, the” on the stage. It was really great that she was hired as a support artist that evening because I really wanted to see her live anyway. And when she started singing her songs, it really blew me away: her extremely good voice filled the room and everyone listened reverently. It was so nice that those present were so attentive – after all, that’s not often the case with warm-up acts. In addition, she also elicited one or two smiles from us with her humorous interjections. I thought it was wonderful to finally see “le:la” in action on stage and hope that I can see them with the full band soon!
After a short renovation phase, we quickly moved on to the main attraction of the evening, namely “speedy ortiz“. They stormed the stage and threw us some pretty tinny sounds. The light flickered only dimly on the group and anything but in time, and mist kept spreading uncontrollably from the right edge of the stage. Somehow the fluc didn’t feel particularly suitable for “Speedy Ortiz” – the wild rock sound somehow couldn’t be directed to appear pleasant. The drums were also incredibly loud and overwhelmed all the other instruments. I lost a bit of hope that the concert could develop in a good direction.
I also had the feeling that the band didn’t really feel comfortable: the stage was tiny, wild dancing around was hardly possible, especially for the guitarist. And the vibe between the group and the audience wasn’t necessarily there either – because when singer Sadie said that she had ridden the Ferris wheel, the audience was pretty cold. Sadie seemed perplexed – understandably. but that’s Vienna! Anyway, the sound was still loud and clanging and at some point we decided to move further away from the drums and towards the right edge. And actually: the sound seemed a lot better there and my hope of experiencing a nice concert rose again!
“Speedy Ortiz” really tried hard: they not only moved around on stage, at one point the guitarist and singer jumped into the audience together to perform their guitar solos in the middle of the crowd. and: they tried compliments. They suggested to us that we should consider ourselves lucky to have a concert venue like Fluc. and they emphasized several times that they were happy to be back in Vienna after 10 years. the reaction of the Viennese audience? behave in a very classic way. Anyway – “speedy ortiz” played their way through their setlist and luckily also had a few more reduced songs in their luggage. Less clanking, more melody and singing, that made the whole concert experience much more pleasant and beautiful. And I celebrated every form of guitar solo – somehow every guitar solo loosened up this concert dramatically and in the end I was always waiting for the next guitar entry.
At some point, instead of a guitar interlude, there was another announcement, namely a request to donate. After that there was another quieter song and then, yes, then the concert ended quite abruptly. “Speedy Ortiz” didn’t give an encore, but headed straight for the merchandise stand (probably to sell the very nice t-shirts and collect donations). Anyway, it was all kind of strange, somehow I was missing a bit of a well-rounded ending. In the end it was okay that the concert evening was already over – so we could go home and go to bed earlier than expected. What I took away from this evening: “Speedy Ortiz” did a pretty good job, they were just somehow in the wrong location. A different, narrower club and better used lighting and the concert as a whole would have seemed completely different, much more demanding and more memorable. maybe next time!
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#concert #lela #speedy #ortiz #fluc #March