JOE ASTRAY

Date: Thu. 11.12.2025
Admission: 19:00
Start: 20:00

Support: lestrade
Admission: 16 Euro VVK + fees / 19 Euro B.O.

Offside. Outlandish. Deviant. These are frequently occurring conditions in a world that is constantly evolving and in which progress is advancing at breakneck speed. Constancy has become an unknown variable that causes countless people to fall by the wayside. Joe Astray is an artist who successfully tackles this complex dilemma and reflects on it through sincere and authentic indie music. The singer-songwriter is a musical nomad whose music is a veritable kaleidoscope that unabashedly travels through the annals of music history and incorporates dozens of its elements. Heavy, socio-critical lyrics blend with volatile, unpredictable compositions to create a damn exciting mixture that has its own unmistakable signature.Joe Astray deals with everyday situations and the thoughts that go with them and, in particular, the music circus and its absurd seriousness are taken apart with biting, yet charming humor.The enigmatic accent in Joe Astray's vocals, which can never be specifically attributed geographically, is particularly interesting. Influences range from The Eels, Bright Eyes and Leonard Cohen to the sardonic, socially critical humor of Billy Bragg, but there is a clear punk rock DNA in Joe Astray's work. The name says it all, because Joe Astray is everybody and nobody at the same time, who writes songs for the landless and the dispossessed, a fumbling mystery that cannot be pigeonholed and who, despite all the darkness, still holds a candle of hope aloft.

Stefan Neugebauer from Cologne is the man behind lestrade. Once very active with various projects and his DIY label Intersphere Records (2020- 2024), the singer of the indie punk band OH HENRY (since 2022) is now taking it a little easier. It is life with all its ups and downs that inspires Stefan to write his songs, sometimes personally, sometimes as an observer, sometimes angrily, sometimes with a wink.

At the now rare solo concerts, you can hear songs from earlier and current projects, in English and now also in German, somewhere between indie, punk rock and pop, arranged only with acoustic guitar and voice. Be there! Here's to life!