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Sophia & William Fitzsimmons @ den atelier

21.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

No 24 hours after having seen the hard-rockers of AC/DC in Cologne, I’m back at home and in my favorite club. Sophia are playing at den atelier with support act William Fitzsimmons.
First of all, this man amazed me. He’s a gifted singer/songwriter who plays sad and slow folk songs, just he and his guitar. Buy his records (or download them on iTunes, whatever)

Sophia were great, the place was less crowded than their last gig in Luxembourg, but this time it seemed that only the fans where there, and less people who showed up without knowing anything about the band and the music. A circumstance that pleased me, an it felt like the band liked it too.

All in all a great concert evening, very different than the night before.

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AC/DC Black Ice Tour – Cologne, Germany 19/05/2009

20.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

I had the great luck to get tickets for this AC/DC Tour (german stadium concerts were sold out in 77 minutes). They are one of the few bands that one has absolutely to see in your life (or theirs) comparable to the Rolling Stones or for british heavy metal fans maybe Iron Maiden, too.

As a stage design adept, I was amazed by their setup. Even with exclusivly up to date gear being used, the influence of  a classic rock’n'roll stage with it’s tons of par cans was clearly visible as intended by the designers. Centerpiece of the stage was an impressive train influenced by a famous train accident in 1895 at the “Gare de Montparnasse”, Paris. In a animated video intro, the Rock’n'Roll train, was heading towards a city, when Angus was seduced by 2 girls who made the train derail. After several Pyro effects the LED Wall spitt and revealed the Stage and the train replica.

The lightning grid was inspired by the architecture of several train stations, with it’s large roof arcs. The many washes and Studio Beam fixtures gave the stage a neat rock’n'roll look.

The setlist had a reasonable lengt and all the most wanted songs could be found in the set. Angus’ solo in the center of the stadium was a real highlight and this not only because of the 6 follofspots used. The crowd was fantastic, all in all a great night and superb show.

Thanks to AC/DC and their road crew.
For those about to rock, I salute you.

Cologne - People waiting for AC/DC AC/DC Black Ice Tour - Stagedesign

AC/DC Solo AC/DC Stage - Hells Bells

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Farewell and Goodbye: Fury in the Slaughterhouse

1.09.2008 in Life, Listen!, Touring!, Travel! | 1 comment

I spend my weekend in Hannover, to say goodbye to one of the coolest Bands I know, or knew. After more than 20 Years the Furys will leave us but won’t retire yet. The last show was quite emotional even though the setlist was quite the same as for the rest of the tour.

We saw a whole set of the greatest Fury Hits, an unplugged Set in the middle of the crowd and a crowd-surfing, overweight german TV Star.

Won’t forget these days, and I never thought I would!

One more thing. The king is dead, long live the king. It might be Fury in the Slaughterhouse’s end, but there was also a reunion. Hannover needs at least one decent Rockband and therefore Terry Hoax are back together.

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KISS

27.06.2008 in Listen!, Watch! | No comments

 

I saw the awesome Kiss show yesterday at the rockhal.

What shall I say? I wanted the best, I got the best! The hottest band in the world…

 

 

Now I can die without regrets ;)

Rock-a-Field 2008

22.06.2008 in Life, Listen!, Touring! | No comments

Rock-a-Field 2008I like the summer, not because of the sun(burn) but mostly because of the Music Festivals. The most decent Festival in Luxembourg is Rock-a-Field from the atelier-guys. Having brought Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, The queens of the stone age, The Killers,  The Hives or Billy Talent the expectations were high for the 2008 edition.

And the line-up with We are scientists, Mando Diao, The Verve, Uncle and the Babyshambles seemed disappointing to many. The Babyshambles couldn’t make it due to some little prison incident, and after this news was published sales were a bit lets say weak. I believe that therefor the Kooks were booked to fill the empty space. A good choice in my humble opinion.

Rock-a-Field 2008

Fact is that about 9000 people spent a great and sunny day in the Fields in Roeser. Less people than last year, luckily, so that the facilities and catering were adequate to the crowd and the waiting time in queues was great (in opposition to last year’s edition).

As you can se on the pictures, weather was great as were the bands. 

Unfortunately we were a bit late an the programming set the local heros, Eternal Tango to lunch time. Saw the guys before, even had them on a stage once and they are quite promising.

First full set I saw were the geeky We are scientists, witty as always. Liked them on tape, but on stage they are even better. Bad point: they didn’t play Ghouls :(

Mando DiaoNext band on stage were Mando Diao and a weird Backdrop (who designed that?). The rocked well, the crowd acted well, and their sound was awesome.

Follow-up were The Kooks, with their lovely songs and damn their tunes are catchy. I’m still humming Seaside and catch myself asking people if they wanna make love to me ;) Honestly they are quite a band.

Then a band came on stage I didn’t even remember. Sure there was this song way back in my youth. I remembered the The Rolling Stones suing them because of the use of a sample. But where were they since? Never heard of them again. Did they hide in a cage? I don’t know. But one thing I know for sure, they are still awesome and are capable of building a bridge between slow floating melodies and massive dance style tunes. Their new single “Love is noise” will hit Europe this summer. I’ll bet on that one.

The Verve The Verve

Last band for the night, playing in front of an empty field were Uncle. To, lets say outer space for my taste. Some kind of Electro-Rock-Punk with a lot of drugs. And the Verve seemed wrong after all, the drugs seemed to work after all. ;)

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Rock am Ring 2008

10.06.2008 in Life, Listen!, Travel!, Watch! | No comments

Alle Jahre wieder … irgendwann zwischen dem Osterhasen und dem Weihnachtsmann, kommt beides zugleich.


Was für die einen der Karneval, ist für eingefleischte Musikfreunde die Hochsaison der Festivals, wärend der fast kein Wochenende ohne Openairs vergeht. Letztes Wochenende stand das grösste Doppelfestival Europas an, 85.000 (x2) kamen. Wir auch…

… allerdings erst recht spät. Anreise am Donnerstag war nicht möglich, so dass uns das traditionnelle Freitagschaos nicht erspart blieb. Dieses Jahr gelang es uns, ohne Stau innerhalb kurzer Zeit einen Parkplatz zu finden, da wir die ausgeschilderten Plätze umfuhren, um den Shuttleservice in einem der nahegelegenen Dörfern zu nutzen. Hierzu kann man nur sagen, der öffentliche Transport ist eine tolle Sache … wenn er denn fährt.

Das Resultat unseres Versuches:

  • 1 Stunde gewartet
  • 1€ gespart
  • Bierreserven verringert
  • 30 min. Fussmarsch zum Festivalgelände angetreten
Unnötig zu sagen, dass der Bus uns nach ca. 250m überholte ;-)
Fortsetzung folgt …

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Hit am Ring

9.06.2008 in Listen!, Watch! | No comments

Der Song, der, den meisten Ringrockern wohl in der Ohren hängen blieb, dürfte wohl “I won’t be long” von The Hives sein. Und die sind noch nicht einmal aufgetreten.

Nichts verstanden? Erklärung folgt:

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Fettes Brot und Böller

5.04.2008 in Listen! | No comments

Ja ich gebe es zu, als ich die neue Singleauskopplung der Brote zum ersten mal hörte, dachte ich mir “Mein Gott! Was ist denn hier passiert?”. Ungewohnt harte Beats, und fehlende Melodie liessen mich aufhorchen. Der neue Stil der Brote? Gottseidank nicht. Bettinas Brüste sind immer noch nicht mein Fall. Im Gegensatz zum Rest des Albums, denn der ist klasse.

Denn hier beweisen die Jungs, dass Sprechgesang mit Witz und Hirn villeicht vom Aussterben bedroht, aber nicht tot zu kriegen ist. Im Gegensatz zu allen Berliner Aggro Rappern kommt Fettes Brot freundlich lächend auf einen zu, winkt nett und hat dann etwas zu sagen, und das auch genre mal mit fiesem Unterton. Etwas über traurige Mädchen und grosse Menschen, über gewaltbereite Musiker und nackte Tatsachen. Und doch sind sie ganz lieb, denn die wollen nur spielen! Villeicht auch mit Bettinas Brüsten.

Empfehlung: Kaufen!

“Strom und Drang” bei amazon.de

Fettes Brot Online

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