The Swipes

Two cities, one trio

The Swipes have been going since 2007, working out of the corridor between Frankfurt and Mannheim, and they have kept two awkward decisions intact: they remain a trio, and they write in English rather than German. That second choice puts their reference points outside the German punk mainstream — the band names Leatherface, Snuff, the Ramones, Hot Water Music and China Drum as the music they came up on, and the guitar sound follows accordingly: thick rhythm walls under melodies, with the bass and drums doing the pushing.

The current line-up is Stefan Becker on vocals and guitar, Ralf Unterstab on bass and Patrick Bernhagen on drums, and all three arrived from other Rhine-Main bands. Becker lists Swoons, Psycho Gambola and Lost Lyrics behind him, plus Ferien auf der Ratiofarm alongside; Unterstab plays in Motörblock and The Cognitively Theres; Bernhagen came through Carefree and, like Becker, Psycho Gambola.

The band's own account of the years before now is a run of support slots and one hard reset. They toured Malaysia in 2018. In September 2020 they released a split mini-album, World Gone Mad, with the Boston group Moving Targets — a connection that has outlasted the record. In 2022 The Swipes restarted with the present three-piece, recorded through 2023, and played with the Bollock Brothers at Das Bett in Frankfurt on 2 September that year. January 2024 brought a support for the American emo-punk band Samiam at the Schlachthof in Wiesbaden, and that May they played three nights with Moving Targets: Kopf und Kragen in Fürth, Wild at Heart in Berlin and the Ponyhof in Frankfurt.

The records that carry the band

Generation Slave, released on 24 August 2019 through No Balls Rec, is the record that set the template. Eleven tracks, cut at Tonstudio Bieber with Oliver Rüger and mastered at Masterblaster Audio, it runs through water-rights sell-offs, fake news and disaster aftermath — Requiem For Nepal, You Call It Fake News, Scripted Reality, Keep Smiling For The End Of The World. The vinyl was a limited colour pressing of 100 copies.

Something In The Way Must Be Destroyed followed on 15 March 2024 on Mad Butcher Records, the band's fourth album and the one they describe as faster and darker than anything before it: ten songs, opening with Atomic Stomp and Bad News – Short Fuse, closing on Through My Fingers, with cover versions of China Drum and Pegboy folded into the running order. The subject matter is cultural and social decay read through racism, environmental destruction and the far right's gains.

The most recent release is Action Against NZ DSNYLND, out on 1 October 2025 on Mad Butcher, pressed on red-swirl twelve-inch vinyl as well as CD and digital. It is a hybrid: six new studio tracks — Forbidden Words Against MAGA, the title song, Fatherland, Hypocrites, Snapshot Of The Year and the forty-second The Colour Of Money — backed with four live recordings from a 2024 Frankfurt show at the Ponyhof. Ten songs, twenty-two minutes. The live side includes Coming Home with Kenny Chambers of Moving Targets playing one of his own band's songs alongside them, then Rat Race, Germicide Suicide and Atomic Stomp. Their Bandcamp page lists eight releases in total, including the earlier Communication Log-Out, Lost and Destroy Your World.

What the fanzines have made of it

The German punk press has largely treated the band as a craft act rather than a novelty. Ox Fanzine judged that the 2024 album had added a considerable amount to Generation Slave in sound terms and that the darker turn suited them. Underdog Fanzine counted ten songs in half an hour and called it short but filling, singling out Rat Race for its directness. Trust Fanzine heard Snuff and Samiam in the forward motion and the drum phrasing. Plastic Bomb placed them near China Drum with traces of the Ramones and Bad Religion, while making the point that they do not sound like copyists, crediting the indie streak in the writing for that. Frankfurter Neue Presse put it more plainly: worth a listen for anyone with a taste for dirty rock.

The most recent assessment came on 2 May 2026, when the site Duisburch ran a double review of the 2024 album and the 2025 mini-album together. The verdict was warm and specific — melodic, driving, guitar-led and emotional, with comparisons reaching to Dinosaur Jr, Hüsker Dü, 7 Seconds and the Lemonheads, and the conclusion that both records work as a durable song collection rather than a hit chase.

The politics are not a garnish

The lyric sheet is the band's stated reason for existing, and the commitments run past the songs. One euro from every CD and LP of Generation Slave goes to the sea-rescue organisation Sea-Watch. In winter 2019 the band played a benefit with Stage Bottles, Shutcombo and FCKR and contributed to the accompanying sampler All Cats Are Beautiful in support of Project Shelter, which houses homeless refugees in Frankfurt. They also try to keep concerts carbon-neutral, making offset payments to environmental projects.

That line continues into the current touring year: the Kassel show at Sandershaus on 7 March 2026 was billed as a solidarity night for Seapunks, and the Darmstadt date at the Bessunger Knabenschule on 11 April 2026 was part of the FrühLinks festival, an afternoon slot starting at 14:45.

Where they stand at the end of 2026

This has been the band's busiest year since the restart, and almost all of it in Germany. The run opened at the Brückenkopf in Hanau on 7 February 2026, then Kassel on 7 March, the ASB-Bahnhof in Barsinghausen on 21 March, the E-Werk in Bad Homburg on 28 March and Darmstadt on 11 April. Two Frankfurt dates in May stood out: Das Bett on 17 May supporting The Undertones, then the New Rose on 25 May with the British band Diaz Brothers, whose members came through HDQ, Red London and Angelic Upstarts. September brought a southern pair with Fraeser — Emma 23 in Heilbronn on 11 September and the Scheune in Sindelfingen on 12 September.

The remaining stretch is the densest part of the calendar. Kassel's Mutter on 17 November 2026 with the Austrian band The DeeCracks comes first, followed four days later by the centrepiece: Swipes-Release-Festival #2 at the Elfer in Frankfurt on 21 November, a five-band bill with doors at 18:00 and music from 19:00. December then runs Sonic Ballroom in Cologne on the 4th with 1. Mai 87, Lokvogel in Heber on the 5th, the Scheune in Reutlingen on the 12th with Neckarions and Wurstcase, and the Karo in Bremen on the 18th with the Italian ska-punk band Skassapunka.

Booking is already reaching well beyond that. Four 2027 dates are published: Hemer on 20 February, the Dreikönigskeller in Frankfurt on 10 April with The Hawaiians, a secret-location party in Kassel on 26 June, and a return to the ASB-Bahnhof in Barsinghausen on 2 October.

The room, the volume, the bill

Nothing about a Swipes show is scaled for an arena. The venues are the small end of the German circuit — the Elfer and New Rose in Frankfurt, Sonic Ballroom in Cologne, a converted station building in Barsinghausen, youth and culture centres in Kassel and Bremen — and the band is usually one name on a two- or three-band bill, sometimes five. Local press previewing the Barsinghausen date in March 2026 described what to expect as an old-school punk rock show: loud, hard, and always with an eye on current events. Doors there were 19:15 for a 20:15 start.

The live side of the 2025 record is the best public evidence of what the set actually contains, taken from the Ponyhof in Frankfurt in 2024: Coming Home with Kenny Chambers guesting, Rat Race, Germicide Suicide and Atomic Stomp, each under three and a half minutes except the Moving Targets song. With the recorded catalogue built from two- and three-minute tracks, the sets move at the pace the reviews describe — Vinyl-Keks wrote of being pulled into the band's undertow by the second or third song, and Trust summed the live impression up as a good band with a decent attitude.