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Michael Franti & Spearhead @ Luxor - Cologne(DE)

2008-08-26

Posted: 2008-08-29 15:33:18

Thanks to Johan

Before the show:
A couple of weeks before I already knew that I will not be alone here in Cologne. Ingrid and Michael - my friends here in Cologne will come to the gig and together with me on the guestlist were Anna (the girl I knew from the Beck gig in Berlin) and Toni from Barca(Catalonia), so I had great expectations for this day.

I stopped working in Wolfsburg earlier so I could take the train to Cologne at 3 pm. Got a good place, listened to the new record and wrote a lot for the review the day before.
I arrived in Cologne at 6 pm and was half an hour later at the Luxor. The doors were open and I came in the small backstage room where the guys were hanging around. We talked about the gig yesterday, traveling by train, children. I also told Michael about his little mistake he made yesterday with the year the Berlin wall came down. and he said that others had already mentioned it.
Versace would like to see the Dom so we took the underground and some minutes later we saw this really big building with all its sculptures, towers, details. We were making some pictures and also took a walk within the Dom and to the bridge over the Rhine. We came back to the Luxor at 8:30 pm
While I was drinking a beer at the bar near the doors I saw Juiceman and Anna coming in and buying tickets. I was totally surprised and happy to see them now after three years. We went outside talking. Ingrid, Michael, Anna and Toni almost arrived at the same time, so we talked a lot in front of the Luxor. Ingrid gave me a key for their rooms and described me the way I had to take. More and more people were coming so we decided to go in.

Michael Franti & Spearhead @ Kato - Berlin(DE)

2008-08-25

Posted: 2008-08-29 14:10:54

Thanks to Kathrin

Before the show:
Some days before the gig in Berlin started I wrote an email to my friends not to forget about this special concert but I didn't know who of them would really come. I invited Ville - one of our friends from the FIN-Connection - to be the last of my guestlist. After I was coming back from work changing my clothes for a wet gig night (I took my black Volleyball-T-Shirt titled "Wattebaellchen"), Tiina (my wife) and I were ready to leave at 7:30 pm. We took our bikes driving along the water channel straight to the 'Schlesisches Tor' where the Kato is located. 'Schlesisches Tor' is an Underground station (viaduct) in the heart of Kreuzberg - my district. Before the wall came down it was the last station of the famous Underground line 'U1' - there is also a famous musical about this underground line. But back to the day.

After we had locked our bikes I was totally happy to see Antje, Andi, Kathrin (friends from my volleyball team) and Oskar - Andi's son - near the Kato. Tiina was really surprised to see Oskar there because he is one of her pupils at the school she is teaching biology. To calm down a little bit she was eating a Kebab. While we were waiting for her food, Manas was jogging around our way. We hugged and talked a little bit. Also Raleigh came the way jogging but he didn't see us. Back to the Kato we got our guestbuttons. Also Liane and Paul (volleyball) came to see Spearhead. So many people I know were here. A really big surprise for me. Than I saw Versace. I introduced him to Tiina and he was curious to learn some finnish words. 15 min later Ville was coming and we were ready to go in.

Beck @ Columbia Halle - Berlin(DE)

2008-06-27

Posted: 2008-06-28 01:23:10

Beck @Columbia Halle

Beck was a big disappointment for me.

But let's start some weeks before with this review - to get the whole story why I was going there.

At the StayHuman Board we have a topic called "What is your next show". I asked our posters what they are thinking about Beck and if it's worth to go there although the tickets are expensive. One day later I got an email by a girl from Frankfurt/Hahn who saw my posting by a google search and asked me if I could buy a ticket for her. Well this was the beginning of some email traffic between Anna and me - so I decided to buy two tickets. She is from Spain(Catalonia) and is working at the airport in Frankfurt why she is getting cheap flights to Berlin. She ordered the tickets for the flight and got a room in a hostel nearby the location. So everything was managed for the gig - waiting for this day.

The Mars Volta @ Huxleys Neue Welt - Berlin(DE)

2008-02-24

Posted: 2008-03-01 18:10:37

The Mars Volta © by Karen McBride

My first gig according to Mars Volta and a big disappointment.

Don't really know what was the big point for my feeling. The gig was sold out. Maybe 2-3000 people, some looking like Cedric (Cedric Bixler-Zavala - lyricist/vocalist) with afro hairstyle, most wearing dark clothes. Good feeling when I entered the place.

In the beginning I stood on the right side only some metres away from the power amplifier - so it should be the best sound. When they started to play (Roulette dares - one of my favorites) I already recognized that the sound in this venue is really bad. Everything sounded like a big messup. But I felt good.

Bernard Fowler's Bad Dogs @ Quasimodo - Berlin(DE)

2008-01-25

Posted: 2008-01-28 21:47:44

Bernard Fowler's Bad Dogs (Tackhead & Little Axe)
© by Bernd Friemel or Ulrich Mücke

My first gig this year and already a highlight. Tackhead!!! Never have seen Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald, Keith LeBlanc and Bernard Fowler together. Together as Tackhead. I know the music of Tackhead now for 20 years and have seen Doug, Skip and Keith more than 5 times and now together with Bernard. Although the gig was titled "Bernard Fowler's Bad Dog for me it was a Tackhead gig. The Quasimodo venue was a good deciscion of the organizer. I think the location was almost completely full.

I came there late and I hoped they didn't start already. But the woman at the door told me they will begin soonest at 10:30 pm. Enough time to get a beer and looking for a good position near the stage. I stood in front of the small stage between the mic of Bernard and the equipment of Doug. Keith came in and began a drum solo, the Quasimodo get filled and the other band actors came on stage. The first song was a Tackhead classic "Tell me the hurt" followed by songs from Bernard's new record (e.g Pop that thang). It rocked. After an hour they made a short break and came back with the absolute highlight for me: "Stealing", singing as loud as I could ("in the name of the Lord")- and also the audience got it that "Tackhead was in the area". They were also playing a song from Little Axe called "Grinning in your face" and another favorite of me "Trance" - a Doug Wimbish song. Also Skip and Doug were doing their soli. After two hours they left the stage but the audience applaused them back. Their last song I think was "Rock this house". Everyone felt happy after the gig was finished. I took another beer, talked for a short moment with Skip, Doug and Eddy - the organizer - who showed me a maybe 6'6'' man and introduced him as Mark Stewart who will play in Berlin two months later together with Skip, Keith and Doug known as Mark Stewart & The Maffia. I left the Quasimodo with a really good feeling late in the night :-)

John Butler Trio @ Columbia Halle - Berlin(DE)

2007-09-26

Posted: 2007-09-27 02:03:55

(JBT Grand National 2007)

This concert is my second concert this year so far. I was very excited because I only know JBT by name from spearits at the forum.

Before I could go to the gig there was a parent-teacher conference of my daughter at school. It should stop at 8:30 pm so there should be enough time to go to the venue. At 9 pm it still went on so I left the school and drived with my bike to the Columbia Hall - only 1 km away. It was raining so I came there a little bit wet.

Anyway, they already started playing (I missed maybe one or two songs). I went to the right side of the stage - as I always do - and enjoyed the music and atmosphere of JBT. I recognized there were a lot of young people there - teenagers in my eyes and I also wondered that a lot of people know the lyrics of the songs. They played almost all songs from the new record Grand National, all of them had there solo more minutes and the highlight of the show was the song Peaches & Cream. John atarted solo with his guitar. After a minute Michael Barker entered the stage positioned behind his drums with two sticks in his hand and started to clap with them so the audience did the same. Within the next minute also Shannon Birchall came on stage and they played together this song until the refrain was repeated unplugged. "All I know is, all I know is, I love you and I love you ..." That was so wonderful. I never was within a audience - except Spearits in Netherlands/Belgium - who was singing that loud. They all enjoyed it. After threee songs within the ENCORE JBT finished short after 11 pm. I had a wonderful feeling after the gig and the next day I bought me "Grand National" at the iTunes store including an extra video of Peaches & Cream.

DEFUNKT @ Domicil - Dortmund(DE)

2007-07-11

Posted: 2007-07-12 09:15:03

(Defunkt European Tour 2007)

Dortmund was the only location in Germany of the Defunkt European Tour "Defunkt in the 80s". First when I saw the tourdates I thought to make it for the Amsterdam gig because I always know that the Netherland's audience will be great. But I couldn't make it because it was on Sunday and family is more important. So I made a decision to go to the Dortmund gig.

Dortmund was the only location in Germany of the Defunkt European Tour "Defunkt in the 80s". First when I saw the tourdates I thought to make it for the Amsterdam gig because I always know that the Netherland's audience will be great. But I couldn't make it because it was on Sunday and family is more important. So I made a decision to go to the Dortmund gig.

After a normal working day I was driving 2 1/2 hours by train - first to Bochum, where I could sleep at a friend's room - and than to Dortmund. The location of the Domicil was near the railway station - so easy to find. I got my ticket I reserved two days before and went in. There was a bar room and the concert hall for maybe 500 people where it was not allowed to smoke. Fresh air - yeah.

I think they started at 9:30 pm and from the first moment I got the groove. The first minutes I was in the front line but you couldn't hear anythink from the master loudspeakers so I went back some meters and the sound was phantastic. It was interesting to see the artists after 15 years again and how they were getting older but I still could remember all of them. Can't remember all songs by name - there were also some new - but there were a lot from Thermo nuclear sweat and the Defunkt debut record Defunkt. Kim Clarke - the one and lonely funkiest female bass player in the world - had some problems with her electricity power from time to time but she took it with her kind of lovely humor.

A night in Berlin (Report from the day in Berlin) - DE

2006-12-05

Posted: 2006-12-05 21:36:34

(Setlist of the Berlin gig)

Days before the gig started I tried to organize the three people I can take with me according to the guestlist. So in the end it was clear that my wife, Ville (one other friend of the FIN-connection) and Sven would be on the list. Sven also promised me to take a camera for photos and video with him so that I could tape the show. The nights before the gig I slept less because I tried to finish a playlist for two audio cds I wanted to give Versace and Michael. When I woke up the gig day I had headache and was absolutely tired - not to be keen to go work - so I stopped my working day at 3 pm and drove back to Berlin, making the covers for the cds and took my bike riding to Kalkscheune.

I was there at 6:30 pm and get in and the first who I saw was the man behind the big power amplifier - Versace. It was so nice to see him again after the summer trip in Brescia. I gave him the CDs and he looked very happy with this.

I went outside into the inner courtyard for some fresh air and saw someone staying at the gate, very disturbed, confused that he will not get tickets for the show. His name was Michael Lefkoff(?) from Haarlem/HOL and he said he knew the guys very long, was making pictures from the shows. He also was in NY for the show and also have seen that the two Amsterdam and Utrecht gigs are already sold out. So he was just scared he couldn't get tickets for the Kalkscheune gig after he is coming back from his hotel, having a shower, etc. I could calm him that the show is not sold out. But for help reasons we changed our mobile phone numbers.
Than Michael and Carla came in and I was very surprised to see Carla because she wrote me some weeks before that she wouldn't come to Berlin. Well we went up to the Backstage rooms where all the others were sitting on their computers (everyone with a mac). Carla showed me on her mac what she would like to change on the spearhead website and I liked the new style and changes to come. I gave her the other set of CDs.
I also talked with Carl about shows in Berlin and mentioned the saxophone intro at the Pfefferberg gig in 2001. He said that is very curious because I am the third person telling this today. Makes him thinking.
Got a phone call from my wife that Sven is once again ill. Last time in 2003 he also was ill when the Spearhead gig was. Today the same. Also curious. So Petra was now on the guestlist.
At 8:30 pm Antje and also Andreas were coming. Wonderful. So there are two more persons which get to know the live feeling of a Spearhead gig. 15 min later Tiina, Petra and Ville were also there, having some problems at the entrance with the camera but in the end it worked and everyone got their backstage pass.
The "Photo"-Michael from Haarlem got also his ticket but had the same problem at the security check with his camera. Anyway he got in and was very happy.
In the meantime DJ Boima was warming up the people with reggae music. Together with Andreas and Antje I was going in front of the stage (3rd or 4th row, more right side - I always stay on the right side, haha), good filled by lovely people. My wife and Petra were in the back - knowing that they are not that kind of jumpers :-). Ville also was somewhere in the back. After the whole Kalkscheune get really filled with people, DJ Boima was going to the mic holding some box in his hands from which he could make a sirence sound. The Sirence sound getting longer and longer and the Kalkscheune show in Berlin began.

Michael Franti & Spearhead @ Kalkscheune - Berlin(DE)

2006-11-29

Posted: 2006-12-03 16:48:10

(Michael Franti and Spearhead@Kalkscheune)

The gig started at 09:15 pm. The band members were coming on the stage and began to play some kind of Intro for the first song "Time to go Home". Michael began to sing "Those who start wars ..." but he wasn't on stage. So in the first moment I thought it was playback(?). He was coming from the back, walking through the lines of people and was on stage after one minute. From the first moment the atmosphere in Kalkscheune was wonderful. A lot of people were singning and jumping all the time if Michael said to us "I want everyone seeing jumping" and we were jumping and waving our hands. Don't know when Antje was leaving the front area but Andreas and I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it where we were until the end.