# # # and Punchke @ Prostor Do 20Jul2013

Although, just like Gogo Pavlov, I cannot understand what motivates a band to name themselves ### I come across similar smarty-pantses rather frequently and I even remember I bought an album by a band called ∆Ñ∆ from Bandcamp. At this moment Bandcamp search page alone houses no less than 12 pages full of bands named in this fashion - from lonely Asteriskses to Triple spaces and small posses of question marks surrounded with back andfront-slashes.

Maybe to discourage torrent searches and copyright infringement? Who can say? It just seems like a really bizarre marketing strategy - but then again; maybe they do not want to be popular or available.

Nevertheless, I liked what Hashtags played for us at Prostor Do this Saturday night. They were so loud during sound check that we were a bit worried how this would sound but when the venue filled with people it was just right. As I did my homework and listened through their EP before coming to live act I knew what to expect and I think they did a good job performing. Besides that, this being their first show, I expect them to be even better with a bit more experience. Since, if I was not misinformed*, part of the band is also part of Zagreb/Croatia “kužističke scene” (know-it-all scene behind fun and vibrant Kultivator music portal) this could have gone both ways but I was actually pretty pleased that it felt very cute and natural, and, as much as guys seemed freaked out in the beginning, final result was quite good: energetic post-punk with tendency to slip into noisy instrumental post-rock. My only objection to the act is that it lacked soul - it was technically excellent and they have showed us they can play AND that they know how to communicate with the crowd, but it both felt like it comes out of a book rather than being their second nature.

They will relax with more live performances and this will be just a sentimental anecdote that we could all enjoy, band and the audience that was there for their first show. For all of you that missed the show or ones that want to re-hash the memory here is their EP on Bandcamp.

And then there were our stars of the evening - Punčke.

I was trying to catch one of their gigs from the beginning of this year and I have almost caught them during Terapija portal birthday at Gričevanje and it was close, but no cigar.

Not this time.

I had to tumble my itinerary quite a bit and also miss Fjodor gig and Galactic Picnic on Saturday to be here and I was not dissapointed. Girls rocked!

That rediculous amount of energy that Lucija, the frontwoman sports, is something that regales my soul and makes all this concert-going business all right. Sound was awesome and  girls were in good spirits so the music was explosive and wonderful. They performed and they conversed and they were softspoken and loudthinking and I loved them.

I was also very pleased with conspicuous change in the audience as it, without mistake, contained unusually high number of LBT audience and it was good to see that and good to be there among this crowd.

Here you can browse through their EP/singles discography so far and you can also take a look at their brand new, beautiful video:

 I will most definitely go and see them again and follow closely on release date for their release "Sunčano s povremenom naoblakom" (due September 2013).


*Update - 26Jul2013:

It looks that I have been misinformed as Kultuvator guys contacted me through twitter denying all and any connection with the Hashtags :D
So I'm including this footnote for clarification.