We Were Promised Jetpacks
Funkhaus, 2010
If you’re standing in the front rows at the We Were Promised Jetpacks-concert, the four young Scottish men blow their music of raw emotions and physical force right up in your face. It’s like a blast or thunder in dramatic tones that bursts over the audience’s heads. A fact the Glasgow-based band is loved for, but there is still more to their angst-ridden trembling sound clouds. In this dark universe amidst the loud and muscular play, Adam Thompson’s singing reveals melancholy and vulnerability. And when you leave everything else aside and have Adam perform solo in the freezing back of a van on a nightly parking lot, the fragility (that is otherwise like an undercurrent always latent in We Were Promised Jetpacks’ sound) peaks. While his bandmates Michael, Sean and Darren kill time and cold by chasing after a football and drawing into our guestbook, Adam’s raw and intense performance of “This Is My House, This Is My Home” and “It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning” in this otherwise unexciting setting turns the atmosphere electric.
- Camera
- Michael Luger
- Sound Recording
- Matthias Leihs
- Post production
- Michael Luger
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
Funkhaus
Many bands and music artists that stop by Vienna call at the rectangular, greyish Funkhaus in Argentinierstraße. They follow an invitation from Radio FM4 to do an interview or play a session in one of the beautiful recording studios. FM4 is a national radio station and has become indispensable for listeners of alternative pop music in Austria and parts of Germany (the close-by Bavaria). It broadcasts – besides the music – a rather high level of spoken word content (some of it produced in English) and frequently organizes concerts. Apart from FM4 the listed building, constructed in the 1930s, houses another well-known radio station operated by the public broadcaster ORF – Ö1. Ö1 is a cultural radio network that focuses on classical music, jazz, documentaries, radio plays, discussions et al. Further mentionable and integrated in the 1930s Funkhaus is the RadioKulturhaus, that stages concerts, literature readings, round table discussion and other cultural events. Talked so much about culture, hence, it is not surprising that the adherent café is named KulturCafé.