The urge to pick up an instrument – Kill Everyone and Arktika

I quit Arktika in 2010 and, although we never officially announced our disbandment,  amodestproposal played their last show in 2009. And ever since that time, not counting one very brief stay in Mannheim, I have not picked up my instrument again. Things happen and it just wasn’t meant to be, it seems. Do I miss it? Not really, at least not on a constant basis. It’s not that I feel bad about things. But in flashes, in short moments, the urge to pick up my bass and play some patterns and chords, returns. Those short flashes usually come from a record I’ve been listening to. Or maybe a movie I’ve been watching. Both happened it the past few weeks.

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A Weekend In Düsseldorf: amodestproposal record new songs

We had this planned rather spontaneously since the guy where we want to record four new songs was closing his recording studio by the end of October. So we took the chance to give it a try with such a short time in advance. See, our main problem as a band is that we are very slow in recording songs. God knows why, but we set a timetable each time we recorded a record and each time we failed to keep it and we had to add extra days to finish off the whole thing. So two days for four songs seemed to look as if they were enough, but you’ll never know.

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A Modest Proposal + Ultrafair – "Karnevalsmetropolentour"

A Modest Proposal played two shows this weekend with Düsseldorf’s finest Ultrafair. We kicked off on Friday witha a show at Cologne’s Bauwagenplatz, some sort of open air squat. The setting was nice and although not many people showed up the show was fun. Ultrafair were really good and we rocked as well. Kalle, our singer, even destroyed the microphone stand.

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Great days in a row.

Honestly, the past few days have been the best in a long time. I had so much fun spendingt ime with the guys of The Gaslight Anthem who we had the honour to play with on monday. We talked a lot after the show, I then met the guys on tuesday to give them a short tour of the city which they seemed to have enjoyed. And then yesterday I spent the evening with them watching movies, going to a bar and talking and talking for hours and hours.

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The Gaslight Anthem + A Modest Proposal @ Blue Shell, Cologne

Our second show since our two year break and this was was a very good one. It was set up by the local college radio station KölnCampus and we were scheduled to play with The Gaslight Anthem from New Jersey, a band I never heard of before. But when I was listening to the songs the had on their Myspace site I knew we were in for a good one.
Great thing about this show was that I was able to go there on my own two feet, the “Blue Shell” is in walking distance to where I live. So I arrived there at around 6.30 pm and met up with my guys. We soon were introduced to the Americans and after some small talk the guys were putting up their stuff on stage.

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A Modest Proposal – No Action Left In This

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Against Me! + A Modest Proposal @ Underground, Cologne

So we finally played a show after almost two years on a hiatus. And to top it off this one must have been the biggest one we ever played so far. The “Underground“ is a(if not the) guitar/live show club in Cologne. A lot of bands played, even our little band was out playing on that stage two previous times in 2000 and 2002. I have seen a lot of memorable shows there, bands like Pennywise, The Offspring, Kill Holiday, Isis, Cave-In, you name it.

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There’s always a next rehearsal. Or is there?

Since A Modest Proposal got back together at the end of last year we reahearsed a lot more than during the previous two years. We even wrote new songs. And we even have a show we will play. Now that’s progress. Our record will be out this summer eventually after three long years and this has given us a boost when it comes to rehearsing. So Batman drove up from Mannheim on Sunday and we played for about three hours with the last 30 minutes being spend on recording a set of songs we would like to perform at our next gig.

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Some things never really change, do they? – The Heartbreak Motel and Bubonix @ Sonic Ballroom

When I was coming back from a very successful and refreshing rehearsal session with my bandmates I found some messages from two friends that there was a show at Cologne’s No. 1 punkrock bar Sonic Ballroom and that both of them were planning to go there. So we met up at the club and hung out before the show.

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