Karate

Karate from Boston are undoubtedly among the pioneers of post-rock, although this pigeonhole is by no means sufficient to even begin to describe their work. Founded in 1993 by guitarist and singer Geoff Farina, drummer Gavin McCarthy and bassist Eamonn Vitt, they caused quite a stir in 1995 with their self-titled debut album, on which they skillfully tamed the concentrated energy of post-hardcore with edgy riffs and precise, expansive guitar lines full of technical perfection. While the patient tempos and the thoughtful atmosphere of their songs were sometimes reminiscent of slowcore in the beginning, the increasing tendency to give more and more space to jazz influences, post-rock tones and improvisational moments gave rise to their very own, unmistakable sound cosmos over the years. In 1997, Eamonn Vitt left the band for personal reasons and Jeff Goddard took over on bass, which meant that they had found their trio line-up, which has never changed since.

By 2005, they had released six studio albums as well as various EPs, sessions and live recordings before they were forced to disband for the time being due to Geoff Farina's hearing problems. However, their name always remained present in the background noise of the indie/alternative scene, as they are role models for a whole generation of experimental post-rock/indie kids. So it was all the sadder that the band's back catalog was hardly available anymore due to unclear rights. And so they concentrated on rectifying this situation and reissuing their long out-of-print works piece by piece with the Numero Group label. However, as Karate have always been a passionate live band, it was hardly surprising that the three of them were itching to play again, and so they gave a celebrated reunion tour through eight US cities in 2022 after a seventeen-year break. This was followed by short flying visits to Spain, Portugal, the UK, Benelux and Iceland in the last two years. In spring 2025, they are finally coming back to Germany and we are delighted to welcome this exceptional band back to Dresden!

w/ special guest: Kinsella & Pulse, LLC

Presented by Dicktator Soundz and Toutpartout.