As a lover of country music, the Rattlesnake Saloon had been a chance discovery when I was searching the internet to see if there were any country music venues in Munich. It appeared that there was a limited audience in Bavaria for country music and the only place where they had live country music bands was the Rattlesnake Saloon.
One of the strangest things about the Rattlesnake Saloon, other than it was a pub in Germany where they had country music bands, was its location. We had the address and as the saloon wasn’t in the city centre, we decided to drive past in the afternoon to see exactly where it was. It was a residential area and as we were driving down this street full of houses, my thoughts were we were either in the wrong place or the Rattlesnake Saloon had closed down. Neither of these assumptions turned out to be correct. There, in the midst of ordinary houses, was the Rattlesnake Saloon. It wasn’t open at that time of the day, but it didn’t look boarded up. Even so, I wasn’t convinced that it would be open later, despite the fact the website was still live and advertising the Andy Starek Band, a Bavarian country rock band would be playing on Wednesday night.
In the evening we drove to the Rattlesnake Saloon. The Andy Starek Band were on the bill. They were quite something. It was a 4 piece band and Andy was the singer/songwriter who also played the guitar. There was a bassist and drummer and then a keyboard player who looked about 25 years older than everyone else in the band. There was a table of people already there when we arrived and they were either wives of the band members or other musicians that sometimes played with Andy. A bloke turned up on his own and then there was a group of another three blokes and that was it, that was the audience!
Andy asked where everyone was from and when he found out we were English, he said he usually did all his own songs which were in Bavarian dialect, but since we’d come to see him, he would do some cover songs in English. He did his best to translate what the songs were about for us, although sometimes the translation lasted longer than the song did! The first song was called something like “Just go away”. A helpful member of the audience provided a less polite English translation. Then Sylvia who sometimes sings with him got up and we had a bit of Hank. Jambalaya. Sylvia had a really good voice, but she did have this weird thing going on with a pair of braces that were attached to her jeans, but rather than having the braces over her shoulders they were dangling round by her knees. I actually found that really annoying. But I’m not well up on fashion, is this a popular style these days?
Andy did some more of his songs in Bavarian including one about a stalker and a love song for his wife. He decided to translate the second verse into English for us which took longer than singing the entire song! A guitarist called Robert played with him, he was excellent. And then another bloke at the table who had been learning the guitar did a song about trying to achieve a perfect body. I picked some of it up, but my German isn’t good enough to understand it all which was unfortunate, because it was obviously hilarious, the blokes at the next table were in hysterics.
In the second half of the set we then got an accordionist jamming with the band. Robert the guitarist broke into the opening lines of “Please Release Me” and then, as Robert is great at playing AC/DC songs we got “Highway to Hell”, with the accordionist taking part in that number. That was fantastic. And we got a song about the love of Nutella Bread, which is possibly the weirdest subject for a country music song I’ve ever heard! Nothing tastes as good as Nutella Bread. If you say so Andy!
At the end of the set, Andy said it was his birthday next day and he was having champagne at midnight to celebrate and invited the 5 members of the audience to join him in a glass. After we’d all sung Happy Birthday accompanied by the accordion, the accordionist then sang “Living Next Door to Alice” in German, with us all joining in for the obligatory line put into the song by Chubby Brown when the song was a hit for the second time. We sang that line in English! I was a little surprised that “Living Next Door to Alice” was a song that was particularly well known in Germany and especially by a Bavarian accordionist! I actually don’t think surreal begins to describe our night at the Rattlesnake Saloon!
As for the alcohol, well those cocktails were not for the faint hearted. Alan generously offered to drive so we didn’t have to get a taxi, so he drove and I drank. I started with a Lynchburg Lemonade which was Jack Daniels, triple sec, lime and lemon juice. Then I had a Caiparinha, except I was told it was a strong one, not all lime juice. It certainly was strong, you could taste overpowering alcohol on the first sip. I ordered a Mai Tai after that, it was huge and loaded with alcohol. I thought I’d easily manage 3 cocktails, and usually I can, but that’s at an ordinary establishment where there is more fruit juice than alcohol, not at the Rattlesnake Saloon. They were very generous with alcohol and liked to give you your money’s worth. The staff said they hoped we would come back. I would definitely make a point of going there if I came back to Munich.
So with the cocktails and the champagne, I was extremely drunk when I got back to the hotel. The drinks, the music, the venue and the company all made for an amazing and memorable evening. There’s no doubt that our night at the Rattlesnake Saloon will go down in history!
I travelled in Bavaria during the second week of May in 2015.
The Rattlesnake Saloon hosts live music events with a focus on country music and is located in a suburb of Munich
I stayed at Hotel Kriemhild close to the Hirschgarten in Munich
I flew to Munich direct from Birmingham Airport with Lufthansa
Read about my other adventures on my trip to Bavaria and Austria.
Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps
Längenfeld Aqua Dome Spa
