The Maccabees
Gasometer, 2010
„It looks like the future“, Orlando says, when he comes out of the Gasometer venue and sees the mix of old an modern buildings, the industrial landscape with occasional steeples towering. If it’s the future, it’s a crisp one, though, and the singer of Brighton-based The Maccabees might have regret his decision to go out without socks on a rather cold November evening. He bears it with dignity and – together with two of his bandmates, the brothers Felix and Hugo White – starts into a beautiful acoustic version of „Bag Of Bones“, the last song of The Maccabees’ recent album „Wall Of Arms“. On the way down the stairs to the second location – a corner of a calm street, that has probably never seen as much traffic as there was during the time we shot the video – the three guys make up their mind which song to play now. A cover is the first candidate, then they start „Young Lions“, but finally opt for „Love You Better“. We would have hold out in the cold for all three performances, but their duties on stage already waited for them.
- Camera
- Michael Luger
- Sound Recording
- Matthias Leihs
- Post production
- Michael Luger
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
- Artist
- The Maccabees
Gasometer
With a height of about 70 metres the four Gasometer towers are visible from afar. Although they are a bit out of Vienna’s centre in the 11th district, the sight attracts numerous tourists nowadays, and especially those who have an interest in architecture. The cylindric towers were built from 1896 to 1899 and have served as huge gas tanks – each capable of holding 90,000 cubic metres of gas – for more than 80 years. With natural gas becoming more and more important, the Gasometer towers became useless and were closed in 1984. The closedown marked the beginning of a long discussion about the future utilization of the buildings. During the following years the towers have seen Gazometer raves happening, exhibitions taking place and even the shooting of some sequences of the James Bond movie „The Living Daylights“. In 2001, however, revitalization was finished. Each tower was designed by another architect (Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Manfred Wehdorn, Wilhelm Holzbauer). With the exception of tower B – where a shield-like building was added – the towers kept their old facade, whereas the interior is completely new. Apart from flats, the Gasometer towers now feature a concert hall, a cinema, a shopping mall and a students’ dormitory.