Katzenjammer played Amsterdam on 13 March to a packed house in the Sugar Factory. Reviewer Matt J Brown: “The songs are full of vigour and life and are performed so tightly that the high notes almost seem involuntary.”
The Sugar Factory is one of those venues which, when busy, feels as safe as a Russian nightclub holding an indoor fireworks display, but the growing popularity of these four girls from Norway has ensured a packed house and we must put our health and safety concerns to one side.
Since they performed upstairs in the Paradiso last October, Katzenjammer have quickly been scooping up fans around Europe as they have plugged away at the touring schedules. Also helped by David Byrne inviting them to play on his curated stage at Bonaroo festival last summer, there seems to be a general feeling that we are being grabbed by the collars and told that there’s something worth listening to here.
The songs are full of vigour and life and are performed so tightly that the high notes almost seem involuntary. Each tune is a varied as the different instruments each of the members can play with more skill than the word ‘aplomb’ can suggest. ‘Virginia Clemm’ waltzes and rises with an Edith Piaf vocal that chills, ‘Ain’t No Thang’ pulls off Cajun rock ‘n’ roll with a surprising loyalty to a Deep South that must be closer to Oslo than we think, and ‘Le Pop’ is like an unlikely collaboration between the Beastie Boys and Toni Basil doing ‘Hey Mickey’. Each time a new song, each time an accordion/trumpet/piano/set of drum sticks etc. is passed onto another member to try to better the previous one’s performance.
Even Genesis’ ‘Land Of Confusion’ is given such a rousing turn with full-blooded chorus harmonies that it almost redeems Phil Collins from his other many sins.
Katzenjammer seem genuinely thrilled by the opportunity to encore with ‘A Bar in Amsterdam’ in…er…a bar in Amsterdam. The crowd likewise, who are by this time suitably awestruck, as have the many growing audiences been in this part of Europe.
Next stop is a show in the Lexington in London arranged by none other than BBC Radio DJ Steve Lamacq who seems to have a track record of knowing a good thing when he sees it.
