Jet Lag, Mystery Cigarettes, and Rabid Esports Fans: Brutalismus 3000’s China Tour Diary
Fresh off finishing their new album Harmony, Theo Zeitner and Victoria Vassiliki Daldas of the abrasive techno-punk act documented their first trip to China, featuring lucky charms from strangers, scooter blankets, and a stage that humbled them.
PHOTOS BY TOM FUNK
INTRO BY ZACH SOKOL
DIARY BY BRUTALISMUS 3000
Brutalismus 3000 are the Berlin duo of producer Theo Zeitner and singer Victoria Vassiliki Daldas, who met on Tinder in 2018 and have since built a band around fast, abrasive club music that undeniably bangs. Their sound — gabber kicks, punk snarl, distorted yell-along hooks — always ran too rowdy for Berlin’s techno purists but caught fire everywhere else, situating them in the same sonic family tree as forebears Crystal Castles, but also acts like Marie Davidson, Bassvictim, and Snow Strippers. Since their 2023 debut ULTRAKUNST, they’ve become festival-circuit fixtures, playing Coachella, Primavera Sound, and Boiler Room sets that have passed 15 million views.
This past May, Brutalismus 3000 headlined the music programming for Riot Games’ Valorant Tour, a 2026 festival series pairing the wildly popular tactical shooter’s esports scene with live music and culture events across China. It was their first time there, but the pairing tracked — an in-your-face German techno-punk club act flown in to soundtrack a gaming festival in a country where Valorant has one of its most devoted followings. B3K arrived jetlagged and still tinkering with final revisions to their second album, Harmony, out June 26. It’s their most expansive record yet, a genre-mangling run through dubstep, trap, nu-metal, and techno, with features from Underworld and Anya Taylor-Joy and co-production from Boys Noize and 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady. It’s also one of our favorite releases of the year.
China caught them off guard, in a good way. They met fans they didn’t know they had, collected stuffed animals pressed on them by strangers, and played a stage so massive their own onstage decorations — three little flags — looked comically small against it. B3K documented the whole trip with the help of Berlin-based photographer Tom Funk. The following is an exclusive diary, featuring their stylish fans in Beijing, the mystery-flavor cigarettes they bought (despite a recently kicked smoking habit), scooter blankets they’d never seen before, and some thoughts about the liminal moments of life on the road in a foreign city.
Brutalismus 3000: Jetlagged and overworked. Listening to some last mini revisions of our album Harmony in front of our Shanghai hotel. About to go out in China for the first time ever, maybe have a drink to get out of our heads for a bit.
Brutalismus 3000: This is the view from our hotel. It’s the biggest city we’ve been to so far. The air is different. Shanghai feels grand. We got a brand new feeling and it has no meaning.
Brutalismus 3000: Got an Ultraman fidget spinner in a fake mall. Always in the back of the car – Iggy Pop’s “Passenger”: I am a passenger / And I ride, and I ride I ride / through the city’s backsides.
Brutalismus 3000: Massive stage design at the Valorant Party. Our three little flags look ridiculous in comparison. Sound check was loud af.
Brutalismus 3000: Shanghai street photography moment.
Brutalismus 3000: About to take the train from Shanghai to Beijing. Everyone is very chic here. They had lie flat seats. We wish European trains were like this. Ride the train…trying, trying, trying,…
Brutalismus 3000: Head banging at the venue
Brutalismus 3000: Medieval armor and reflections on the highway.
Brutalismus 3000: Big love and big harmony.
Brutalismus 3000: The little stuffed animal is supposed to bring fortune. Got it from a fan and we brought it back to Berlin. It’s sitting on our shelf next to Godzilla figures we got in Japan later on. Waiting for fortune rn.
Brutalismus 3000: Chinese cigs are on a whole different level. You never know what you get and you don’t really want to.
Brutalismus 3000: Here we’re being escorted to stage, waiting in anticipation.
Brutalismus 3000: Met Billionhappy after his show in Shanghai. Groundbreaking stuff.
Brutalismus 3000: About to get some more mystery flavor cigarettes! Love the little convenience stores in China. We just couldn’t figure out how to pay most of the time.
Brutalismus 3000: “4am YoungStar” — literally.
Brutalismus 3000: Concert vibes. Very stylish people in Beijing.
Brutalismus 3000: Always seeing sights out of the backseat. Someone should write a song about it.
Brutalismus 3000: Surrounded by beauty, wherever we go. Only think about the beauty, I don’t think about the rest. Tell me baby, ain’t life grand.
Brutalismus 3000: Kawaii — ke’ai / meng. Found a place to sit down after the concert.
Brutalismus 3000: Our show was great. The audience gave us full energy. Now it’s time to rest.
Brutalismus 3000: Capturing moods.
Brutalismus 3000: Again, big love and big harmony.
Brutalismus 3000: We always buy keychains, wherever we go.
Brutalismus 3000: Tour life…
Brutalismus 3000: Soundcheck. Custom mic made by Lorenz, our manager.
Brutalismus 3000: Meeting fans in Beijing. We didn’t know we had any in China. We were so surprised. Went back to the hotel really happy with our new stuffed animals.
Brutalismus 3000: Vibing with our fans outside the venue after the show.
Brutalismus 3000: B3K crowd
Brutalismus 3000: These are the cutest scooter blankets we ever saw, as well as the first scooter blankets we ever saw.
Brutalismus 3000: Aftershow photos.
Brutalismus 3000: Backstage for a second.The moment the show is over and you’re already thinking about coming back.
Brutalismus 3000: Post-show mystery cigarette. I stopped smoking before this, but sometimes you just got to.
Brutalismus 3000: We are thankful and tired on our way to Tokyo and Seoul. We pack our stuff and we fold the sheets, we leave the hotel and that’s all there really is.
Writer
Zach SokolPhotographer
Tom Funk