Lange hat es gedauert, gestern war es dann endlich soweit: Krusty Crew haben die Veröffentlichung ihrer neuen EP "Alles Idioten, aber wir sollten sie auf unsere Seite ziehen" im Bielefelder Falkendom gefeiert. Zur Unterstützung waren End Of The Line und Pointless And Me am Start. Hier nun der Versuch einer kleinen Abendrekonstruktion.

Die SMS um 19 Uhr war eindeutig und legte die Marschroute des Abends fest: "Gin ist auch massig am Start! Das wird ne Freak Show!". Entsprechend aufgelockert war die Stimmung der bereits Anwesenden als wir um 20 Uhr den Falkendom erreichten. Die Bands gönnten sich Fuselbier aus 0,5l Kannen, auf der Bühne stand die Minibar mit Gin-Tonic bereit...

Bis 21 Uhr war der Dom dann auch relativ gut gefüllt und Pointless And Me legten los. Der Shorthanded-Nachfolger bei dem auch zwei "kleine" Krusty Crew Geschwister aktiv sind hat sich dem Emo- oder auch Melodycore verschrieben. Ihre Anhänger hatten die Jungs von anfang an im Griff und das zu recht. Ich sah die Jungs zum zweiten Mal und muss sagen: Im Vergleich zum Auftritt im WG Hotel waren riesige Fortschritte zu erkennen. Daniel kommt am Mikro rüber wie der typische Ami-Frontmann, die beiden Gitarren sind gut aufeinander eingestellt, die Gesangswechsel sitzen ebenfalls und das Schlagzeug macht gut Tempo. Da kann man wohl auf das geplante Album gespannt sein.

Weiter ging es mit End Of The Line. Die feierten 10-jähriges Bühnenjubiläum und versuchten das auch optisch zu veranschaulichen: wunderschön arschige Mittelscheitel, wild abstehende Haare und schnike Hemden prägten das Bühnenbild. Nicht ganz so oldschool war das Set. Zunächst gab es ausgefeilten Emopoppunk der neueren Tage und auch Songs vom kommenden Album. Gegen Ende gab's dann zur Freude vieler auch noch älteres Material.

Abschließend war es dann an der Zeit für die Krusty Crew. Der Pegel im Raum hatte seinen Höhepunkt erreicht, ausgelassen wurde von den ersten Tönen an mitgetanzt und gegröhlt. Das Publikum zeigte sich textsicher, sowohl bei neuen Songs wie "Sink Or Swim", den Songs der EP, aber vor allem auch bei älteren Sachen wie "The Coolest Guy". Nach und nach verlagerte sich die Party auf die Bühne, wo immer mehr Leute zwischen der Band rumhüpfen, mitgröhlten und tranken. Die Band war in bester Verfassung und schaffte es auch nach dem ein oder anderen Bierchen noch die Songs ordentlich zu zocken. Das Publikum forderte immer wieder "Summertime" und stimmte gelegentlich den Groezrockhit "Heute schütte ich mich voll" von Karl Dall an. Familiäre Atmosphäre: Yeah.

Anschließend zog ein Mob ins Getaway Drivers und Souls For Sale Headquarter um Tobis Flüssignahrung zu vernichten...

Fazit:
Gutes Ding.

Mit knapp einem Jahr Verspätung kommt nun endlich die neue EP der Krusty Crew. “Alles Idioten, aber wir sollten sie auf unsere Seite ziehen” wird am 16.05. im Rahmen einer Releaseshow im Bielefelder Falkendom veröffentlicht. Am Start sind außerdem die Kollegen von End Of The Line und Pointless & Me. Los geht es um 20 Uhr. Eintritt: 4 €. Eintritt + EP: 8 €.

Passend zur Veranstaltung und zum Bandfeature auf shitletter.tk hauen die Jungs noch fix ein fettes Gewinnspiel raus.

Was es abzustauben gibt?

• 2 x freien Eintritt zur Releaseshow + EP
• 2 x je ein Bandshirt

Was ihr tun müßt?

• Beantwortet folgende Frage: Welche Telefonnummer wählen Krusty Crew in ihrem neuen Video "Untitled"? (Wahlweise: Wen rufen sie an?)
• Schickt die Antwort bis Freitag [16.05.08] um 15 Uhr mit der Betreffzeile "Krusty Crew" an BastiB666[at]web.de. Bitte gebt auch an, welcher Gewinn euch lieber wäre. Die Gewinner werden bis ca. 17 Uhr per Email benachrichtigt.

DAS GEWINNSPIEL IST BEENDET. DIE GEWINNER WURDEN PER EMAIL BENACHRICHTIGT!

Also: beeilt euch! Viel Glück.

Ps:
Das Video findet ihr natürlich auf der Feature-Seite und auf der MySpace Seite der Jungs.

Und ganz wichtig:
Der Rechtsweg ist wie immer ausgeschlossen und natürlich übernehme ich keine Gewähr für irgendetwas.

After years of disillusion,and years of broken dreams
Excuses made repeatedly, promises broken at the seams
When you discover that your a nuisance
And they dont care at all
Where values are valued differently
You realise you've lost it all

There comes a time,there comes a day
When you see the parting of the waves
Its no ones fault it seems
Its just not working anymore
Its kept going longer than it ought to
You didnt want to give it up
But when your the only one thats trying
There comes a time to say enough

So pack your bags and take your shattered dreams
Hoist them on your shoulder and face another day
Your fire it still keeps burning,and passion fills your soul
Someone else along lifes way will help you with your load

There comes a day,there comes a time
You step up to that line
You sing your song and its sounding good
A brand new melody in tune
And soon another voice is singing
Its blissful harmony
A brand new stage is beckoning
And its time to change the key

Rod Macfarlane

Well its all right, riding around in the breeze
Well its all right, if you live the life you please
Well its all right, doing the best you can
Well its all right, as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring
Waiting for someone to tell you everything
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring
Maybe a diamond ring

(chorus 2)
Well its all right, even if they say youre wrong
Well its all right, sometimes you gotta be strong
Well its all right, as long as you got somewhere to lay
Well its all right, everyday is judgement day

Maybe somewhere down the road aways
Youll think of me, and wonder where I am these days
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays
Purple haze

(chorus 3)
Well its all right, even when push comes to shove
Well its all right, if you got someone to love
Well its all right, everythingll work out fine
Well its all right, were going to the end of the line

Dont have to be ashamed of the car I drive
Im just glad to be here, happy to be alive
It dont matter if youre by my side
Im satisfied

(chorus 4)
Well its all right, even if youre old and grey
Well its all right, you still got something to say
Well its all right, remember to live and let live
Well its all right, the best you can do is forgive

(chorus 5)
Well its all right, riding around in the breeze
Well its all right, if you live the life you please
Well its all right, even if the sun dont shine
Well its all right, were going to the end of the line

They deliberately released their two albums under pseudonyms, so they could see if they were still as good without their names. IIRC, the album liner portrayed them as a band of travelers, with no fixed abode, which rather goes with Seans last post.

I love just about all their songs. For example, the song "Last Night" is quite memorable to me due to the lyrics:

They rose from single digits in the national polls to receiving 32% of the primary votes cast to date. They became the conservative establishment’s choice.

They leveraged mechanical and resource superiority into solid leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, giving Rudy Giuliani pause about competing in the early states and chasing John McCain from Iowa. They leveraged their candidate’s mastery of pat, 60-second answers into dominance (and rising poll numbers) out of the first debates. They met their goal of winning Ames, and got a bump. They met their goal of 30,000 votes in the Iowa Caucus.

Comment: What is "mechanical superiority?"

Also, "leverage" implies that you get more back in return for what you invested, that you managed to get a lot for a little. But for Tribe Romney the opposite was always the case. Romney's principle was always to invest superabundantly beyond what the moment demanded for the most meager ROI. But Romney's consistent willingness to sacrifice all for almost nothing did "giv[e] Rudy Giuliani pause about competing in the early states and chas[ed] John McCain from Iowa."

Back to Ruffini:

Nearly all of the benchmarks set by Romney, Inc. were met — and often with flying colors. They checked every box they needed to become the nominee. Practically everything the Romney campaign could keep under control, they did. But for a few thousand votes in New Hampshire, the conversation today would be dramatically different.

Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, goals and benchmarks are not the same as real-world outcomes. John McCain missed nearly all of his campaign’s benchmarks and yet will become the nominee.

The X-factor in translating a campaign’s technical mastery into victory is the candidate himself. And here, there was something missing.

Comment: yuh-huh. Here be the primary fixed point of the Romney post-mortems. The man as inauthentic.

I am attending CPAC this week. This is the same CPAC Mitt Romney put a huge effort into last year, paying some 200 students to come vote for him and likely providing his margin of victory over Rudy Giuliani (I know! Rudy once finished second at CPAC. Wild…). His speech last year was packed with every conservative insider’s code word imaginable. McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy — you name it [...]

Comment: Another code word from Romney's ungracious CPAC tirade, or code date, was 1976, a suggestion that Romney believes that Sen. McCain will lose in the general in vindication of the assumptions of the Romney campaign, and that Romney plans to return in triumph in 2012.

[...] What Romney didn’t account for is that it would take more than being a CPAC, or Agenda Conservative to win the nomination. Country Music Conservatives — and frankly, most voters outside the Beltway swamp — don’t listen to your words; they listen to your tone of voice as you’re delivering those words. Do you get angry when you should? What’s your sense of humor like? For social conservatives, are you grounded in faith? And ultimately, are you the real deal?

This has nothing to do with being right on issues. It has everything to do with being authentic [...]

The problem for Romney: You cannot separate the issue from the issuer, the message from the messenger. We would argue that an apter term than authenticity would be ethos, i.e. Romney's problem was not that he was inauthentic; Romney's problem was that his life and character were inconsistent with the issues he alleged that he wanted to advance. This in itself became an issue, and a decisive one.

[...] Even those of us who are social conservatives rarely live in the rural South. And because of this cocooning, the conservative elite failed to understand how those voters could possibly have more in common with a Baptist minister with a Massachusetts millionaire. We can debate the LDS effect all we want, but even without it, Romney already had two strikes against him: that he was from the land of Kennedy and Kerry and acted like it, and that he was too white collar for a party that most of the bluebloods have left.

The idea that talk radio could paper over this basic demographic divide is almost comical. The leader/follower model of conservative support (get Rush, the talkers, the CPAC people, all the groups on your side, and in so doing win the hearts and minds of a decisive majority of conservatives) has been proven starkly and decisively wrong.

Despite these challenges, it was still a close call. As I said: a few thousand votes the other way in New Hampshire… But still: the ease with which John McCain won states like South Carolina and Florida has taken us all aback. It all boils down to Agenda Conservatives being nowhere near a majority of the party. Yes, John McCain was a weak frontrunner, but Mitt Romney was a weak challenger, and enough conservatives chose character and authenticity over issues to make the difference [...]

[...] At a minimum, [the Romney debacle] challenges us to think differently about the movement, to junk the leader/follower model for a networked model that elevates real grassroots outside the Beltway over “grasstops” and to find new ways of bringing low-information conservative voters into the fold [...]

Low information conservatives?

Note the disconnect Ruffini describes between doctrinaire conservatives---or "agenda" conservatives, as Ruffini puts it---and those who tend to vote conservative but live more rounded lives. It is this, and not authenticity, that predicts the failures of the Romney campaign. We will return to this theme later.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.