Reeperbahn Festival 2025

This was my 13th Reeperbahn Festival, and it’s still possible to find new clubs, bars and places. Incredible. We discovered the Damensalon. The old Headcrash is now named Betty – and I don’t understand why. The new Molotow is smaller than the last one, but not as small as I feared.

The writers for the band summaries on the website had a blast this year. My friends and I had multiple occasions where we just wanted some basic information and sat there shaking our heads about this or that weird string of words. The texts hit harder in German, I think, but here I added the English versions of some colorful quotes from the RBF website (RBFW).

BED

Post Punk, Shoeganze // Berlin, Germany

»It is above all conceptual tricks that combine a range of complementary expressive possibilities, from deliberately androgynous vocals to lyrical coming-of-age tropes and noise-like sound design.« [RBFW]

South Arcade

Alternative, Rock // Oxford, GB

»In-your-face vocals, melodic guitar lines, and a tight interplay of drums and bass transform the band’s concerts into intense, physical experiences.« [RBFW]

Twin Tribes

Post-Punk // Brownsville, Texas, USA

»Here, melancholy meets a somehow-liberating resignation, and the view inwards ignites a change of perspective on the outside. Accordingly, there is hardly a band at the moment that does so well at capturing the attitude to life of a time that is beginning to shatter due to its own contradictions.« [RBFW]

One of two or three bands I knew before the festival. Probably the best known band in this list.

Trustfundbabes

NDW, Punk // Berlin, Germany

»The beat rumbles out of the speakers like a tuned Schwalbe moped, guitars and synths light up in sparkling frills, and the lyrics always remain as pointed as they are laconic.« [RBFW]

Just Mustard

Alternative, Pop // Dundalk, Ireland

»Gothic post-punk, dreamy pop escapades, ethereal wave vibes, post-industrial drums, shoegaze, noise, yesterday, today, tomorrow: Everything comes into its own in Just Mustard’s sound without the more hardcore songs such as ‘Deaf’, ‘Frank’, and ‘I Am You’ unravelling in the process.« [RBFW]

We saw them on Friday and discussed to maybe see them again on Saturday. (With so many bands to see, a discussion about seeing a band a second time is already high praise.)

Coach Party

Indie, Alternative / Isle Of Wight, UK

»Songs such as ‘Micro Aggression’ or ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’ are prime examples of what the band knows how to successfully realise: forward-moving, positive songs that simultaneously navigate sensitive terrain in terms of content.« [RBFW]

Divebar Youth

Alternative // Australia

»Sometimes it’s more leaned-back indie reverie like on ‘Clueless’, then it's the driving nostalgic pop of ‘Vertebrae’ (2023) or ‘Idioms’ (2024) and in between there’s always that vibe that’s just as appropriate at a festival in the depths of summer as it is after a first date with a loved one.« [RBFW]

The Buoys

Indie, Rock // Australia

»In a world full of office drama and ruined dates, The Buoys manage to do exactly what many can't: they make lemonade out of lemons.« [RBFW]

Sex Beat

Alternative, Punk // Berlin, Germany

»Big city meets small town, youth meets nostalgia, order meets chaos. It's about what gets stuck in the ups and downs of everyday life: Broken lifts, strange heroes and the eternal question of how not to let yourself be dragged down - neither by life nor by the lift.« [RBFW]

Drinking Boys and Girls Choir

Punk, Rock // Daegu, Korea

»Skate punk meets pop appeal, energetic vocals meet melodic hardcore, and clear political positioning meets an unyielding desire to disrupt the status quo.« [RBFW]

I saw them on Thursday evening at 9pm outside on the Spielbudenplatz. They had a lot of room on that stage. But I think this would have been more fun a bit later in one of the darker clubs.

Extra: DenManTau

In our first years at Reeperbahn Festivals there were a lot more Off-RBF-bands. Bands who were not part of the festival, but played somewhere on the Reeperbahn. We saw less and less of those each year. So I was quite happy, when I found DenManTau playing in front of the Sparkasse.