Ballet School in Berlin – Photos

Traipsing my sorry ass from Sydney, Australia to Bydgozscz in Poland via Dubai and London on a whirlwind tour, my feet eventually landed on German soil in Berlin. Incidentally, all of the above destinations reside in various percentages within the code of my DNA. Except Dubai. Unless there’s something I haven’t been told.

It’s a “fly by the seat of one’s pants” kind of journey. Although, I managed to lose said pants (along with everything else) after a particularly wild party put on by the good folks at Panavision (my final tipple for the evening being a schooner-sized beverage that was a 50/50 mix of gin and squash) and was found fast asleep, curled up in the foetal position on the unfortunate side of one’s hotel room door.

That was Poland in a nutshell. Back to Berlin and the point of this: Ballet School.

These folks are a cultural melting pot, hailing from all over the place, hooking up in Berlin and smashing out strong, yet graceful tunes. Kinda like the aural equivalent of ballet, I guess. Fresh off the back of an extensive tour and a shiny new album (not kidding, the record sleeve is metallic foil coated), Ballet School were fatigued from travel, but their performance on stage would have you believe otherwise.

What we have here is a three piece comprising lucid and elegant guitars, thoughtful and idiosyncratic percussion and the product of giving a pixie with classic vocal training a couple of microdots. Many compare them to bands from the eighties and this isn’t entirely unfounded, but discredits the unique and contemporary nature of their sound.

I guess my advice would be to go grab their album, sip a civilised amount of gin, get a bit naked and dance like nobody/everybody is watching…

You can keep up to date with Ballet School on Facbeook.

Words and pictures by Philip Erbacher.