Montreal is home to a great many fantastic musicians. A-Trak, Chromeo, Leonard Cohen, Arcade Fire, AIDS Wolf, you name it. Yes, Celine Dion calls it home, too, but let’s not talk about that and I think that Canada deprived her of her citizenship last year anyways. It just seems as if this city was the perfect breeding ground for all kinds of innovative, creative and progressive artists. Montreal almost serves as a seal of quality. It surely does so in the case of My Name is Claude, and so it was pretty much a given that the visitors of L.U.X., a cosy and intimate location on the edge of Kreuzberg, would be hearing some amazing music that night.

First up on stage was the lovely Susanna Berivan and she made sure that nobody would be leaving the place without knowing her name. This lady has it all. Style, grace, musical talent, a beautiful voice to fall in love with and a face to match. Her songs vary from dirty C&W style to an almost Billie Holiday-esque style of singing, and is always accompanied by her trusty guitar. So whenever you’re in Berlin make sure to see one of her shows, which shouldn’t be too hard, because if there’s anyone who’s playing a lot of shows, it’s her. Or better yet, offer her a record deal.  

Up next was the main act, My Name is Claude, who some folks in Berlin might already have seen performing at the infamous Bar 25′s competition “The Saddest Music in the World” or at the show that Claude had played at Freie Universität to support the students on strike. And while Claude chose to play a happier set at said university gig, it was at L.U.X. that he really showed his forte and proved once more why he deserved to be amongst the finalists at the Bar 25 competition. This man possesses the rare talent to create songs with gloomy, almost spooky, depressing and sad moods, without taking it too far. Just as Susanna Berivan, his whole appearance and his art fuse and become one to the extent that it’s hard to tell one from the other. While Claude himself seems of a very fragile nature, his body is being thwarted by a powerful and dramatic voice and the combination of both creates a very unique and impressive live performer.

But My Name is Claude is not only Claude singing and playing the piano, it’s also Steffen Illner on double bass. And to all of you guys who are thinking about learning an instrument in order to impress the girls, drop your guitars and go get a double bass, because the magic that Illner was working on his instrument was just incredible. Whether he was playing it like a cello, picking strings as if it was a guitar or creating some menacing baselines, it all fused perfectly with Claude’s melodramatic piano play and vocals and more than one face, female as well as male, lit up with unshrouded excitement.

My Name is Claude will be recording new songs in the near future and the music video for their song “Airport” is about to be finished, but this band really is a live band so if your feeling in the mood for a little drama and some very sad songs, then go out, see one of their shows, for example the one on the 20th of February at the Gypsy Hotel in London, and I promise that you’ll be in for a treat.