Review: Unbroken, Zann, Veils

Unbroken were never a band that was really important to me, even when I used to listen to hardcore a lot. But granted the chance, I decided to check them out playing live again after a relatively long time of being inactive as a band. I also just learned a day before that Zann were going to play, too. Since I had't seen them in quite a while, I became a bit curious.

C* and I entered a relatively packed Festsaal Kreuzberg while Veils were already playing. I hadn't heard of them before and I wasn't that interested either. They played more or less solid hardcore stuff with angry female vocals, but it was nothing that could have gotten me excited.

Zann were up next and I think I never saw them playing on a proper stage before. At least not on one of this size. They reformed again to play as special guests for this night, I don't know if they'll play more shows ore if they call it quits (again) now. Anyway, as I said my last Zann show took place some time ago but I kept them in good memory as a live band. They play a dark chaotic version of screamo/hardcore and they've always been good at it. However I wish I could have seen them again in a more intimate setting. Somehow for me their music just doesn't really work in such a large venue and such, let's call it 'professional', surroundings. But it was surely good to see them playing live again.

After some time of changing the stage over and me getting some air outside, Unbroken came on stage and began to play. People went crazy within seconds and started a decent mosh pit and stagedives. I haven't seen people "jumping" from the Festsaal balcony before and the Festsaal security people seemed a bit surprised, too. For a band that had been inactive for quite a while, Unbroken seemed pretty tight and apparently they also had fun playing. They sounded a bit more modern than on their records, which wasn't really a bad thing. They played quite a long set, so towards the end I got a bit bored, but I have to say that despite not being a die-hard Unbroken fan, this was surprisingly fun to watch.

Gary Walker took this video for us and you can nicely see the mayhem that was happening:

Also check out an interview with Unbroken guitarist Rob Moran on Berlinbeat. They got some other cool stuff on Berlin's music scene so take a look and poke around!