Vivian Girls
Arena, 2009
Vivian Girls climb the attic of the concert venue Arena for an acoustic aftershow of their gig in Vienna. Beneath hung up bed-linen and a lot of other lumber Cassie, Katy and Ali set to perform “Tell The World”. As the space for filming is limited up there and the three Brooklyn-based girls are not willing to keep it to theirselves – as they sang just before – we move on to the backstage room. With simple, but captivating melodies they confess their faith in “I Believe in Nothing”. Attracted by the melancholic sweetness of Vivian Girls’ most notable vocal-harmonies, their driver comes in, followed by Wavves drummer Ryan who happens to accompany Vivian Girls on their tour since they’ve met at Primavera Sound in Barcelona just some days ago, when Wavves-singer Nathan was close to a burnout and had to cancel his tour right away. So when good-mooded Ryan enters the room, Vivian Girls invite him to join for “When I’m Gone”. Ryan hesitates, then politely refuses in order to pay them the truest compliment: “Ladies, those harmonies are beautiful.”
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
- Artist
- Vivian Girls
Arena
Arena is a cultural center and music venue in the industrialized district of Erdberg. Its beginnings hark back to 1976, when some thousand demonstrators gathered around the former St. Marx Auslandsschlachthof to save it from demolition and subsequent commercial use. While they were not able to save the huge building complex, the vast social movement did succeed in reaching the foundation of an autonomous cultural center on the smaller area of the former slaughterhouses, which represents today’s Arena. Presently Arena has integrated a wide musical spectrum to its programme for various crowds and commercial use. Yet Arena’s dictum “Love Music, Hate Fascism!” is more than a relict of old days as it is still the venue with the most punk concerts in town.