At first sight there is not much reason to visit Erdberg, the southern part of Vienna’s third district Landstraße and one of the oldest settlements in the Vienna region. There are few things left which evoke the memory of the area’s rural past with its wineyards and vegetable gardens, apart from Erdberg’s coat of arms, which bares a strawberry. This, however, is based on a linguistic misunderstanding as the German word for strawberry, Erdbeere, bares a strong resemblance to Erdberg. Nowadays, factories, commercial buildings and the highly frequented A23 motorway with its several ramps, characterize the area. Although Erdberg appears rough and industrial, there are some spots that increase the value of the quarter. Arena, a former slaughterhouse, is a cultural centre and music venue, hosting mainly rock and punk concerts and manages to maintain a high-quality of programming for its altogether five stages. Close-by, the four Gasometer-towers form Erdberg’s skyline. The 70-meter high brick buildings, erected in 1896, were formerly used as gas tanks. Around the year 2000, however, the towers were reconstructed by famous architects such as Jean Nouvel and Coop Himmelb(l)au and now feature a shopping centre, flats, a concert venue as well as a student dormitory.

Recent Session(s) at this location

• Roots Manuva and The Banana Klan The evening before Roots Manuva played a headlining show with The Banana Klan in front of thousands of people at the Donauinselfest in Vienna. The morning after he wanders around in some urban wasteland in the industrial part of the city for a stripped down session. „Too early in the morning“, he jokes, „Ricky Ranking didn’t even know“, subtly reminding us that the Banana Klan MC had to be woken up half an hour after we were supposed to ... more ... October 1st, 2011 - (0 Comments)

• Karl Blau And Lake “Just another day in Vienna,” says Ashley. For the filming session on the grey morning after their Vienna show the Olympia-based band Lake (here with Ashley, Andrew, Eli and Lindsay) is joined by Karl Blau, who is also from Washington, but from the smaller city Anacortes. On a huge, yet deserted open-air stage the quintet goes for the mellow “Breathing”, a song of subtle catchiness. The more the song advances, the more the scenery opens up and... more ... May 30th, 2010 - (2 Comments)

• Finally Punk It’s a late-night show with the female punk quartet Finally Punk rocking the streets of suburbian Vienna. The band from Austin arrives tardily and a little exhausted, a string of their bass breaks during their concert and the next day will bring another long journey of driving (the girls split this duty). As we approach Erin, Stephanie, Veronica and Elizabeth after their short and sharp onstage performance of rotating instruments and voc... more ... September 13th, 2009 - (3 Comments)

• I m From Barcelona Emanuel Lundgren gets up at noon, when we are already supposed to meet up at the venue. He looks a bit rough and appears to be suffering from the aftermath of the previous party night in the tourbus of the more-than-twenty-members band from Jönköping, Sweden. But Emanuel, the head and lead singer of I’m From Barcelona, is a die-hard performer. As soon as he takes his acoustic guitar in a small shopping center in the outskirts of Vienna, he get... more ... November 10th, 2008 - (6 Comments)

• Final Fantasy Humming Owen Pallett is the man behind the one-man-project Final Fantasy. The violin-trained Canadian – he studied composition at the University of Toronto – kept singing by himself before and after our shooting to try out his acoustic potential. On stage his approach to pop melodies through classical compositions are punctuated by unexpected swerves. In concert Pallett uses a loop & rewind technique that he operates with his foot wh... more ... April 6th, 2008 - (6 Comments)

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