Five for Five with Mario Braun of Roadrage Booking
Mario was one of the first friends i made independently since arriving in Zurich. I was having coffee with Ian of Uberyou outside of Dynamo (easily the best punk/hardcore venue i've ever seen - played in or otherwise) when a quick exchange of Swiss-German ended up with Mario joining us, ending with hanging out at Ian's, then Mario's places geeking out over records and talking about tattoo's. Legitimately solid dudes i'm happy to have befriended. Mario books hardcore & metal bands through his company "Roadrage Booking" , including but not limited to Bitter End, Saint Vitus, Crowbar, Judge and i could go on but i won't. I also hear he has a killer t-shirt collection.
1. What are your all-time favourite bands?
Ha, i always hate this question, bc i have a lot of favourite bands. Terror for sure is one of my all-time favs. Sick Of It All (Yours Truly Album brought me into Hardcore). At the moment, im listening to a lot of Born Free, Fury, Leeway, Combust, Risk It, Ekulu, Grave Pleasures (Beastmilk)..the list goes on.
2. What is the hardcore/punk/alternative scene like in ZRH?
In my opinion, the scene itself shrunk, compared to 10-15 years ago. Of course you'll always notice a change of people inside the scene, especially when its quite small. It is definitely a "hard core" that come to shows.
3. Favourite piece of vinyl you own and why?
I think it is the 50 Lions - Time Heals Nothing LP i showed to you last time you were at my place. I love the band itself and the colourway of the Vinyl itself is crazy sick.
4. One current band you want people to check out?
Born Free from Australia and Fury from the USA. Also the new Leeway is super good, i think they never got the attention they deserve outside the USA.
5. How did you get into Road Rage and booking bands and what are you excited about that's coming up?
I have always been a music addict since i was a little kid. I sat in my room, listening music for hours playing Lego or just sat there. I can't even remember at what age my first show was...my friends always were a bit older than me so i had to sneak out for shows. I was listening to a lot of Punk in my younger years and a friend gave me a Sick Of It All CD one day. They actually came through my hometown a couple months later witch had a famous Club in the Hardcore/Metal scene called "Remise". Every Hardcore band that had a name came through there one day. So, my first Hardcore show was Sick Of It All, Most Precious Blood and Bleeding Through when i was 13 years old...i got hooked on Hardcore that day man. I did a show myself when i was still in my apprenticeship being about 16/17 years old. Of course i failed financially so i never had the money again to do shows for some time. A couple years later i did a small show for a band called "Revenge" from Boston. The show was insanely wild, there were people stacked on top of people, jumping around everywhere...just a perfect show. Then another 2-3 other shows by myself and then a friend of mine (Simon) came up to me and asked if i needed help with shows. I said yes, so we decided to give us a name so we can promote better and so on. Then Leo, Luca and Hermann (Hermann unfortunately left our Team after two years because he got too busy with his own business...if you're reading this, we miss you bud!). Two years ago Simon decided to leave as well because he got too busy too with his job (Of course we miss you too!) After a while, Phil joined which is one of my best friends and i am super glad to have him with us and a few months ago, Chris joined our team, super fun dude with a lot of passion for Hardcore and a good expansion for our team. So yeah, here we are: Chris, Leo, Phil, Luca and Me. I love "working" with all of them. Im actually super stoked for every show we have because we only book bands that we personally like.