Clinging to the old days with beer: Slime germs celebrate their cult status in Leipzig | free press

2023-05-02 10:29:00

Slime germ is considered one of the most important underground punk bands in the GDR and still has cult status in the scene today. Actually long since dissolved, former members still give occasional concerts, including weekends at the sold-out Werk2 in Leipzig. An evening with a few warmed-up retro feelings and a lot of beery boisterous partying.

Punk from the GDR.

If “GDR” or “Eastern punk” is announced, it always sounds a bit like a feuilleton and radio feature. The name slime germ will also have been mentioned in such retrospective contexts. Apparently to prove the cultural-historical credibility, the concert on Saturday evening in Hall D of the Leipzig Kulturfabrik Werk2 at the Connewitzer Kreuz begins with a reading. Author Frank Willmann brought his book “Satan, can you forgive me again”, the biography of the legendary Schleimeim singer Dieter “Otze” Ehrlich – and a new comic book that illustrates the biggest “hits” of the Thuringian punk band founded in 1980.

There is a lot to tell. With the split LP “GDR from below” together with Zwitschermaschine they deserved the honor of the “first punk album in the GDR” in 1983, which, however, was only released in the West. Otze not only tried his hand at a sensational, provocative lifestyle, but also briefly as an IM. After reunification, his psychological problems increased, in 1999 he killed his father with an ax and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital, where he died in 2005.

Somewhat questionable hero worship cannot be dismissed out of hand, especially in a scene that doesn’t have much to do with idols and ideals overall. But the music he and Slimekeim created laid the foundations for much of what followed in the genre. The band officially broke up in 1996, since then there have been occasional concerts by former members Isegrim Lippe and Hagen. So it’s no wonder that, as such a cult event, Saturday was completely sold out. And so much Iro and self-painted chlorine bleach slob is rare at punk concerts these days, the evening breathes plenty of 90s chaos stage atmosphere from the audience too.

But even the anecdotes that Willmann bawled more in the microphone than read properly show quickly why slime germ has always managed to protect itself from overly cultural appropriation. Too loud and unpredictable, too lumpy and primitive, too dirty, rough, angry and provocative, yet almost one-dimensionally clear in the statement: the most beautiful swear words are ready for everything to do with the police, the state and conservative life, declarations of love are about beer and anarchy intoned. And that’s exactly what will be celebrated extensively and extravagantly on Saturday in Leipzig. Knowing full well that since the demise of the GDR this has always been possible more openly and thus more loudly, which, however, has never diminished Slime’s anger at the countryside and stuffy people.

Of course, a band of aging members that has “warmed up” after a long time also always has the stale taste of a long past zenith that clings to “the good old days”. The slime germ project that flared up in Werk2 also oscillates between the “seen” hook of a cult band and timeless rampage of rage and booze, where times were never “good”. And it is precisely the hardcore rumbling that keeps you from getting too much of a museum impression. Nothing is smoothed out or explained at length, there is sometimes playfulness and several times rescheduled, encores are decided spontaneously. The characteristic “singing” once coined by Otze also comes wonderfully dirty through Lippe’s throat on the drums, as if you were feeding a duck sandpaper instead of white bread.

Be it the “Dry Throat Pub”, “Banknote”, “Have another beer with me”, “War Makes People”, “Ata, Fit, Spee” or “My Garden”, several slime germ hits can be played without beating around the bush even after plenty of hops spritzer, they still roar flawlessly and so the evening quickly becomes more of a big party together than a concert that can be measured in terms of professionalism. Again and again, fans join the common crooked intonation and dance on stage, hardly anyone could have survived the evening without a beer shower.

Despite all the cult role and formative importance for future punk generations, it seems that they want to oppose too much depth with full force. One likes to play the role of the “waste products of society”, as Slime Keim called their only official complete studio album in 1992. After all, after the beer from the bar, the best sellers of the evening after the concert are the books.