retiredmartin

No, the bloke with the sword waver isn’t a famous American real ale drinker you might know.

March 2026. Cologne. Germany.

You left me and our lads in Kupferhut in the Cologne suburb of Mülheim, finishing our second Gaffel and deciding that we were never going to get a third,

so let’s get to the Palladium early and see how German indie venues compare with those in Manchester and Leeds.

20 minutes walk through bakeries, kebab shops and film schools,

and the odd art installation,

to a surprisingly small queue outside the Palladium, where Brooklyn’s Geese have ended up after two venue upgrades since Matt bought tickets last year.

You’ll all know Geese, right ? No actual hit records, like my sad bedroom pop women get,

but an actual Brit award last month for Best International Group, following legends such as, er,

I’d seen them before at End of the Road 3 years ago, but in the last year they’ve become my lads favourite band, and with UK tickets selling out in seconds plenty of Brits had travelled to Cologne to enjoy Kolsch at only 25% above bar prices.

Actually pretty good Gilden, and by paying by card and then returning the empties for deposits in cash I may have destabilised the entire German economy.

Doors at 20:00; we arrive at 20:25 to find Manchester’s Westside Cowboy playing their last song. Yes, in Germany “Doors” means “We start at”.

At the bar we talk to two Dutch lads who tell us Geese will start at nine, absurdly early, and at 21:00 they do indeed come on.

I’m not one to use lazy comparisons like “a prog rock Television“; Geese are just a very good guitar band*, hardly justifying the adolatory hand waving from the Michael Moore lookalike from California next to me.

An absurdly long set by my standards, and back in central Cologne at 11 all the bars were closed. Lukas Podolski’s kebab shop awaited.

Not the best photo of a kebab I’ll ever take (NKSS 4).

*_{Only now, digging deeper, I see that Cameron Winter is barely 24. They’ve only just started,}