Truck Rest

In the music industry, it’s become something of a necessary pronouncement to declare your hometown as boring and dry, and the Mannheim-based Fluids make this claim because they are as savvy as a band can be. But visitors here should remember that they are actually from Koblenz, and the criticism is leveled there and not necessarily here. However, there are plenty of post-punk musicians, and they’re included, from Germany who declare that Germany itself is the most boring country in the world. It’s also necessary to remember that one of the most interesting things about the country is that the cultures here have been bored for so long, that it’s become a terribly interesting component of the art.

Visiting here means staying in pretty spectacular Mannheim hotels , eating fabulous food in sidewalk cafes and fancy restaurants, and enjoying all the local scene has to offer. Mannheim’s history as a city for music is very long, and very impressive, and there’s plenty of classical music to hear, played live or piped in. Like any progressive city in Germany, the new music scenes are always in motion, developing fluidly between and among genres. The bass thumping from car radios as traffic lights is always going to be over 180 beats per minute, and techno is everywhere.

But so is punk, and with the Fluids , the future is in very good hands, although they may be bored hands. It’s filled with angst that ranges from the adolescent to the melancholic, and always complex, and the performance is one of magnificent boredom. This is the minimal sound that made it interesting in the early 80s, and 30 years later it’s back with these three terribly interesting musicians. In the intervening years, techno has come to take over most of everything, and the influence is absolutely in the music. It’s a welcome component, too, because the monotony helps to drive the sound forward until it becomes something else, something entirely relevant, from a pulse that suggests that something is happening here.

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