Market Rep review: Skinny Lister and Beans on Toast in Berlin & Hamburg

- 12/11/2017 -

Seen an Xtra Mile band of late? Want to write some words / send us some photos of the experience? Do! We may publish them. Like this one by Xtra Mile market rep, Jim Barron. Read on, look at the pictures, and maybe you'd like to go see some Xtra Mile shows soon. Check out the forthcoming shows (and tickets) for Skinny Lister and Beans on Toast.

If you have a review with images to submit, let us know at contributions@xtramilerecordings.com.

Words by Jim Barron

At the end of October, me and Deborah Barron were in Germany on an adventure seeing a couple of our favourite bands. It was about this time that we had just arrived in Hamburg, despite trying to leave Berlin early in the morning, but due to storm damage the trains were cancelled. We eventually made it though and we had a great couple of days in Hamburg after an amazing time in Berlin.

Our main reason for our Germany trip was to see Skinny Lister and Beans on Toast live. We missed Skinny Lister in Edinburgh in April due to work commitments and we’re missing Skinny Lister/Beans on Toast in Glasgow this November, again due to work commitments. We decided the next best thing was to go see them in Berlin, and once we had booked the tickets we thought we might as well do the Hamburg show too, just so we could sing ‘Hamburg Drunk’ whilst getting drunk in Hamburg!

Skinny Lister had recently embarked on their 2017 European Tour of The Devil, The Heart & The Fight. The deluxe version of the album was released to coincide with the start of the tour and features band chats, live recordings and new tracks. The 16-date tour ran through France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland. 

They were on the fifth night of the tour when we saw them at The Frannz Club in Berlin. The gig was amazing and afterwards we went to the Beans on Toast/Skinny Max after show party and watched them play another set (followed by sets by local based bands RYL and Les pleureuses) and called it a night at 4am!

We thought the Berlin show was amazing but we were blown away by how good the Hamburg show at The Knust Club was! The crowd were treated to two encores whereas Berlin only got one! It was utterly outstanding (bearing in mind we had just seen Metallica a few days before this)!

It was great to hear Beans play some of my favourite tracks (and others at the after show party) and on both nights he played some tracks off the new album Cushty which I cannot wait to be released. Tracks such as ‘Chicken Song’ (doing my hähnchen!), ‘A Whole Lot Of Loving’, ‘Fuck You Nashville’,  ‘M.D.M.Amazing’, ‘It’s Only Natural’, ‘I’m Home When You Hold Me’, ‘Jamie and Lilly’ (which I love after hearing the backstory to this song), ‘Taylor Swift’,  ‘Smells Like Bullshit To Me’, ‘The Ignorant Englishman’, ‘The Sun, the Moon and Me’ and ‘Afternoon(s) In The Sunshine’ (which I shouted out for twice and got it played twice)! This was an updated version that was much better than the version on last years ‘Spanner In The Works’ album and sounded amazing!

Skinny Lister were outstanding on both nights and really know how to get the crowd going. All the favourite songs were played and they didn’t disappoint. Songs such as ‘Wanted’, ‘George’s Glass’, ‘Tragedy In A Minor’, ‘Colours’, ‘Injuries’, ‘Cathy’, ‘Geordie Lad’, ‘Devil In Me’, ‘Thing Like That’ (Brexit song!), ‘Bold as Brass’, ‘John Kanaka’, ‘Rollin Over’, ‘Trouble on Oxford Street’, ‘Seventeen Summers’, ‘Charlie’, ‘Fair Winds & Following Seas’, ‘Bonny Away’, ‘This Is War’, ‘Hamburg Drunk’, ‘Architect’, ‘If The Gaff Don’t Let Us Down’, ‘Beat it From the Chest’, ‘Forty Pound Wedding’, ‘Six Whiskies’, ‘South Australia’ and ‘William Harker’, the last of which Lorna crowd surfed to the bar during, downed a shot then crowd surfed back to the stage!

I’m now wondering if it’s too late for me to get a job as a touring gig photographer? North America Skinnies?