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Port O’Brien

Bar 25, 2009

After almost two years of filming bands it now starts to happen that we randomly run into someone we already know from a previous shoot (remember Wavves-Ryan surprisingly popping out from the Vivian Girls tourbus and commenting during the videos…). This time it is Two Gallants’ drummer Tyson Vogel’s turn. He joined Port O’Brien for their short European summer tour and furthermore helps out with audio recording during our video shoot by creatively installing one of the mics on a branch. It is a nice late-August day when we meet Port O’Brien in Berlin. They are set to play an acoustic show as one of the last bands performing on the Circus Stage of now-closed Bar 25. Darkness has already fallen in when everyone’s ready, and all the light that remains at the venue comes from some psychedelically coloured electric bulbs with the best-lit spot being surrounded by some bushes in front of a fence. So, “cramming into the bush” is the slogan for the next ten minutes, when the California-based band plays inspired and beautiful versions of “Sour Milk / Salt Water” and “Oslo Campfire” from their new record “Threadbare”.

Camera
Michael Luger
Sound Recording
Philipp Bruger
Post production
Michael Luger
Photography
Sarah Brugner
Artist
Port O’Brien

Bar 25

www.bar25.de

The Bar 25 with its mousy wooden gate entrance is now closed. It was one of the hip spots at the river Spree, some say the hippest. A long queue and a strict doorman policy indicated that this was the place to be. Port O’Brien’s guitarist Gram Lebron gives a good indication of what it was like on theowlmag.com: “The last show of the tour was in Berlin. It took place at the coolest place I’ve been to in Berlin. That is saying a lot since I have been to a lot of amazing spots there. It was like a nicer Williamsburg where all the hipsters speak German and no one gives you attitude, plus, it’s on the river. So I guess it’s really not like Williamsburg at all… But, like any great thing…It is being torn down so they can build more riverfront office space. We would be one of the last bands to play at Bar 25.”