A concert without cis men: What is a concert like that wants to create a safe space for Flintas?
At Cassiopeia on Thursday, December 14th, concertgoers gathered for the sold-out Team Shit and 24/7 Diva Heaven co-headliner show. “What’s better than a concert by 24/7 Diva Heaven and Team Scheisse? A concert by 24/7 Diva Heaven and Team Scheisse WITHOUT MACKER!” This is what it says in the announcement of the co-headliner tour, which runs under the name “Flinta Winta”. Only FLINTA people are allowed in here: women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people.
“Berlin knows how to do it”
The evening was set in motion by Team Scheisse. “Usually at this point I always say, ‘Hey, cis dudes, be a little considerate,’ but that’s a bit gone now. “Still, please keep your T-shirts on and don’t grab anyone,” announced singer Timo Warkus and the crowd cheered. From the very beginning there was an exhilarating energy and exuberant atmosphere. “We can just keep banging, not much to say,” bassist Thomas Tegethoff told those present after the first songs. After about 20 minutes of the concert, the first person in the audience got up on stage at the front to crowdsurf over the crowd. Flinta Wintas’ first surfer commented on the band: “Berlin knows how to do it”. Afterwards it seemed as if a spell had been broken and FLINTA surfed over the crowd again and again.
At some point Team Scheisse started talking. The group introduced their new guitarist Lulu, who was on stage for only the second time that evening. “I am Mello 2.0,” said Lulu, referring to Mello Kanone, who is also a guitarist in the band. “Mello 2.0 sounds like I’m your upgrade,” Lulu said later in the set, to which Mello replied, “You are.”
Endless crowd surfing
For the song “I’m turning around again,” the band asked for help from the audience and brought Franzi onto the stage to support her with a recorder, as is usual at Team Shit concerts. “Franzi, Franzi, Franzi!” shouts the crowd. “I wanted this so much,” she said, passionately playing the recorder as the audience sang along to “New Monday, Same Shit.”
The audience danced, sang along exuberantly and in the front third of the room they threw themselves into the mosh pit while Team Scheisse played “Disko”, “FA”, “Sternzeichen Brass knuckles”, “Ins ins Loch” and “Karstadtdetektiv”. The track “Frank” was a little quieter. The encore was “Butterfly,” where the audience let it all out one last time and probably let four crowd surfers float over the crowd one after the other.
24/7 Diva Heaven: “Yeah, they know. And we know too”
After a short break for the audience, 24/7 Diva Heaven started their performance with “Potface”. The three women brought exuberance, passion and humor to the stage. “Team Scheisse are actually the great speakers,” announced Katharina Ott-Alavi, lead singer of the Divas, “even today.” And so the divas headbanged through their set with a lot of power. A few times, lead singer Kat sang the team shit song “Rein ins Loch” and the audience joined in the chorus.
At some point the lead singer walked a few meters into the audience and was put on a checkered Häckel hat, which she then wore for a few songs. “I’m sorry I’m sweating it all over now.” The track “Death To” continued at a fast pace. “No nonsense, the internet tells the truth. “They’re great,” the punk band later thanked Team Scheisse for the tour together. “Team Shit always talks a little more than we do. We’re standing here in this crowd, looking around and thinking, ‘Yeah, they know. And we know too.’” The evening ended with “Bitter Lollipop,” lots of noise and hand kissing.
You can see what Flinta Winta looked like here:
Safe space through and through
Opinions differed on Instagram about the idea of organizing concerts only for FLINTA people. While the majority were happy, there were also comments like: “I celebrate you hard, but the exclusion that is happening here is not cool.” The bands did not comment on the headwind that evening. Instead, the audience and the safe space that had been created celebrated. Safe space didn’t just mean being able to throw yourself into the mosh pit uninhibitedly without the fear of getting elbowed in the nose by 1.90m tall men. Or feeling an unpleasant hand on your bottom while crowd surfing. I noticed what safe space means in the time between the two concerts. The men’s toilet could be used without receiving unpleasant looks – after all, there were no men there. Later, a woman suddenly turned around and asked: “Do any of you have a tampon with you?” A question that, in my experience, is not asked so openly when men are present.
What remains to be seen after the evening: What could be better than a concert by 24/7 Diva Heaven and Team Scheisse without Macker?