Had a rollickin’ time playing an outdoor show at Admiralbrücke last week, part of the 2025 Summer Concert Series.
I’ve been enchanted by this spot since my first visit to Berlin. It’s the way crowds gather, ice creams and byobs from spätis to knapsacks into little group jubilees of social merriment, decorated by rotating street musicians, sunset, ruffled silvery blue hour lighting up cobblestones and reflecting off the bottle caps wedged between them.
I lived in town when coronavirus lockdowns were lifted, and will always remember how it felt to encounter, after months of isolation, hundreds of people packed on Admiralbrücke, each with their own music playing out of portable speakers, unified in our joy to be alive.
Here’s video #2. Thank you to old friends and new who came through — take it to the bridge! — including our friends in costume (see happy ending) ~
🏴☠️ The show always goes on: here’s two more clips from a second set after night’s descent. Together with the astonishing Scott Hildebrand on vocals and guitar, performing an unreleased song of his:
And #4, featuring Derif on guitar to close out the evening:
Full concert program:
Set 1, 42 minutes
00:00 Singya (Ali Farka Touré) -> Impro 1
08:40 Impro 2 // 7/8 melodic travel music
12:55 Impro 3 // cross-rhythms/periods, evolving chords
20:28 Single Petal of a Rose (Duke Ellington)
22:52 Impro 4 // jazz ballad/stride
24:50 Impro 5 // pulse + melodies + counter-pulse
33:02 Impro 6 // blues, shuffle
37:47 Impro 7 // samba
Set 2, 60 minutes1
00:00 Impro 8 // piano + guitar
01:22 Impro 9 // piano + guitar + harmonica
03:36 I Found Love (Scott Hildebrand) // guitar + piano (uncut)
07:16 Impro 10 // piano finger-plucking + guitar
(cut) A Foggy Dew (traditional)
08:30 Wild Mountain Thyme (Francis McPeake) // guitar + piano
10:18 Impro 11 // piano + guitar ballad
12:45 Impro 12 // piano N. African polyrhythms + guitar percussion
Long recordings of these with better + stereo audio, plus soundcheck, can be streamed and downloaded pronto —
they’re at the top of the Campfire Sparks secret vault — at least until we pile more jewelry onto the stash . . .
