Tanzbrunnen, Cologne, Germany
24th August 2012
The BossHoss, Dick Brave & The Backbeats & Support: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
Last weekend, growling guitars were dominating my days and nights. This Friday was much more nostalgic, not meaning that there was less power on stage than last weekend at Area4 Festival. The first act was already scheduled for 18:00. Besides opener KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS from London, the program offered BICK BRAVE and his BACKBEATS, just re-appeared from the Canadian woods, and the Spree-Cowboys of THE BOSSHOSS. About 8,500 fans showed up to be part in this event.
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
Kentish Town siblings Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are a group of highly talented and original musicians who play more or less anything they can lay their hands on. Musically, they present a mix of dirty R'n'B & blues, whiskey soaked country, haunting Hawaiian jungle drums and Gospel fever, with a punch in the face by Daisy's hard beatboxing. KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS is Kitty, Daisy & Lewis Durham plus additional musicians Daddy Grazz, Ingrid Weiss and Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton. http://www.kittydaisyandlewis.com / https://www.facebook.com/kittydaisyandlewis
Music & Performance
The evening at Tanzbrunnen was opened by the three siblings Durham, who have dedicated themselves to the sound of the 40s and 50s since their foundation in 2002. To complete the family, also mother Ingrid Weiss (big bass) and father Graeme Durham (guitar) joined them on stage when daughter Kitty took a seat behind the drum set while her sister Daisy hit the keys, taking over the vocals for groovy opening song ‘I’m Going Back’. In the meantime, brother Lewis was treating the six-string, taking over vocal duties for the following, cool ‘Don’t Make A Fool Out of Me’. The siblings are real multi-instrumentalists, changing their instruments during the set. Along with rhythmic ‘I’m So Sorry’, Kitty changed from drums to guitar and vocals, while Lewis replaced her on the drum set. Furthermore, family Durham was supported by Jamaican Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton and his trumpet, who joined them i.e. for swinging ‘(Baby) Hold Me Tight’. 
Quickly, ‘Messing With My Life’ followed and also the CANNED HEAT cover ‘’ Going Up The Country’ brought some movement into the play. During ‘Say You’ll Be Mine’ the surely proud parents left the stage, leaving the field to their children, who did very well during this song. At the end, the parents joined them again for final instrumental song ‘What Quid?’. Great energetic final of 45 minutes of R’n’B, Swing, Blues, Country and Rock’n’Roll, being rewarded with well deserved applause.
Setlist
01. I’m Going Back
02. Don’t Make A Fool Out of Me
03. I’m So Sorry
04. (Baby) Hold Mme Tight
05. Messing With My Life
06. Going Up The Country (CANNED-HEAD-Cover)
07. Say You’ll Be Mine
08. What Quid?
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 5
Total: 7 / 10
Dick Brave & The Backbeats
The band DICK BRAVE & THE BACKBEATS was invented at the end of 2002 by popular German musician SASHA. The name’s inspired by NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS. The band attracted first attention with the album ‘Dick This’, a rockabilly album that would become widely popular, not least because of SASHA’s status as a musician, but there’s always been a certain fun factor to the band’s music and they were sure to reproduce the energy of the songs on stage as well. Around his alter ego DICK BRAVE, Sascha has created a new biography stating him to be Canadian from Vancouver. The album ‘Dick This’ was released together with André Tolba “Adriano Batolba” (guitar), Maik Schott “Mike Scott” (piano), Felix Wiegand “Phil X Hanson” (bass) und Martell Beigang “Matt L. Hanson” (drums). http://www.dickbrave.com / https://www.facebook.com/dickbraveandthebackbeats
Music & Performance
In big letter, built by numerous light bulbs, the name D I C K was written on the back of stage during the whole evening and finally at 19:00, the man wearing this name was entering the stage: DICK BRAVE! Luckily – be aware, now comes the fiction – Klaas Heufer-Umlauf found the musician, being lost after an airplane crash for long years, last year in the Canadian woods and after some time of recovery, the man with the rocker quiff finally found his way back to Rock’n’Roll, how he impressively proved with his band, THE BACKBEATS. Dressed in a sleeveless chequered shirt, Dick did not only ripple his muscles, he also wiggled his hips, not only making cologne’s ladies go wild. Anyway, the audience was electrified from the very first moment and celebrated old-school Rock’n’Roll as well as non-genre covers and own songs of the vivid band. And so, after the JERRY LEE LEWIS piece ‘Highschool Confidential’, the band presented the DEPECHE MODE cover ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ where Dick every now and then even moved like Dave Gahan, followed by the own song ‘This Girl Is Trouble’.
The for the ADELE adaption ‘Rollin’ In The Deep’, smart front man climbed up Falco’s piano. His companion on piano couldn’t sit anymore anyway, just playing standing on his chair while Matt in drums was standing already from the very beginning. Also the fans did not hold back anymore, latest when ‘Come On’ started. And as the lyrics were much more simple than during the song before, anyone was singing along. ‘No One Knows’ was turning out as a ticking time bomb, starting gentle and creeping and soon exploding under thunderous applause. Piano based ‘Tonight (Ain’t Rock)’ afterwards convinced as well with a lot of power. With ‘Just The Way You Are’, time had come for a heartbreaking tearjerker where people were waving arms. I must admit that I saw this turning out better during other concerts before. But anyway the emotional presentation by DICK BRAVE was great. After the small journey to emotional fields, with ‘American Idiot’ some Bad-Ass Rock’n’Roll was up next. 
Finally it was getting darker at the Tanzbrunnen and so, the diversified light show could take full effect while DICK BRAVE promised he’d be speaking German better than REA GARVEY by the end of the year. He’s already better than Marc Terenzi and he also can dance better, he stated. Latter one he proved during the bluesy ‘Black Or White’ immediately. For this reason, Phil Hanson was moving towards the stage rim with his big bass and also his brother Matt was moving into the centre of attention while guitarist Eddie and pianist Falco took a little break. The Hansons showed great interaction, being rewarded with lots of applause before with ‘Take Good Care of My Baby’, “Schunkeling” was on topic. As we all know, DICK BRAVE came to Soest (where also Sascha Schmitz grew up, if anyone if familiar with the name *hint*) with the Canadian army and there he learned his first German words: “Autobahn”, “Schönes Fräulein” and “Bier”. Latter one was especially easy because it sounds same like the English “beer” and was used during the Soest marksmen's festival where he also got in touch with mentioned “Schunkeling”. 
Of course, any further explanation in Cologne was unnecessary and there was no doubt that people soon celebrated ‘Take Good Care of My Baby’ as well as following ‘Walk This Way’ ending the main set. But there was still time for an encore. First, crispy PRINCE medley of ‘Cream’ and ‘Kiss’ and afterwards, dramatic ELVIS piece ‘Always On My Mind’ where even the sky lost some tears. At the end, the evening with DICK BRAVE ended like it began: with Old-school Rock’n’Roll and JERRY LEE LEWIS’ ‘Great Balls of Fire’ when all musicians changed positions on stage, being bid farewell finally by an excited audience.
Setlist
01. Highschool Confidential (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
02. Just Can’t Get Enough (Depeche Mode cover)
03. This Girl Is Trouble
04. Rollin’ In The Deep (Adele cover)
05. Come On (Chuck Berry cover)
06. Use Somebody (Kings of Leon cover)
07. No One Knows (Queens of the Stoneage cover)
08. Tonight (I Ain’t Rock)
09. Just The Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
10. American Idiot (Green Day cover)
11. Black Or White (Michael Jackson cover)
12. Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee cover)
13. Walk This Way (Aerosmith cover)
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14. Cream / Kiss (Prince cover)
15. Always On My Mind (Elvis Presley cover)
16. Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 9 / 10
The BossHoss
Founded in 2004, 7-head band primary became well-know in 2005 for their Country-style interpretations of hits from big stars, i.e. Britney Spears, Beastie Boys, OutKast or The White Stripes. Today, the band writes most if its song itself and developed the style further to Rock’n’Roll. The latest album ‘Liberty of Action’, released in autumn 2011, was very successful and climbed to position 4 of German charts. THE BOSSHOSS is Alec “Boss Burns” Völkel (vocals, washboard), Sascha “Hoss Power“ Vollmer (vocals, acoustic guitar), Ansgar “Sir Frank Doe“ Freyberg (drums, backing vocals), Malcolm “Hank Williamson” Arison (mandolin, banjo, washboard, harmonica, backing vocals), André “Guss Brooks“ Neumann (big bass, E-bass), Stefan “Russ T. Rocket“ Buehler (guitar, backing vocals) and Tobias “Ernesto Escobar de Tijuana” Fischer (percussions, keytar, backing vocals). http://www.thebosshoss.net / https://www.facebook.com/thebosshossofficial / www.myspace.com/thebosshoss
Music & Performance
So far, especially people wearing petticoats and rocker quiffs were getting their money’s worth. Now the time was come for those wearing Stetsons. Saint Peter just seemed to think about if he liked the Country Rock of BOSSHOSS, sending down a few rain drops just short before the show was going to start. But thanking him, he left it for good and so, it remained dry during the concert. Scheduled for 20:45, it took about 10 minutes longer before the band finally entered the stage… ten minutes that were missed at the end, as you’ll read later. When the band finally entered the stage, they started with full power and ‘Last Day (Do Or Die’ from same titled album (2009). THE BOSSHOSS was once more supported by three members of the Tijuana Wonderbrass during several songs, but first leaving the stage already for the second one, ‘Rodeo Radio’, the title track of the second album (2006). 
For ‘Remedy’, Boss Burns armed himself with a megaphone and during ‘I Keep On Dancing’, percussionist Ernesto Escobar de Tijuana was grabbing a red keytar while the wind instrument players were caring for lots of power and the audience was giving huge applause after some song- and dance games. Hip-Hop grooves belonged to ‚ Live It Up‘, being presented not as stormy as the song before, and was sowing the seed for following emotional ‚ I Say A Little Prayer‘ being next on the setlist. Visually, this song was accompanied by a couple picked from the audience, playing the “kissers” on stage, meaning they were kissing during the whole song and with lots of effort while for Hank Williamson already first bras were by thrown onto stage. Haunting ‘The Answer’ was perfectly presented by the whole band, just being gathered together, before during the Boogie ‘Shake Your Hips’ the whole stage was covered with blue lights and all protagonists returned to their places.
Some Cowboy feeling turned up during ‘Break Free’ when Hoss Powers was taking the six-string you can, btw., win in a raffle. Why and How? Learn more about it at www.tape.tv. Fort he audience at the Tanzbrunnen, now a heavy version of ‘Don’t Gimme That’ was on the list before drummer Frank Doe high fived the fans in the pit during ‘Shake & Shout’ while more and more women entered the stage. Their task was to more along to the hot rhythms. At the end, nearly the entire audience was going down on their knees, jumping up wildly on command. Having just warmed up for real, Hoss came onto stage, wearing his acoustic guitar with the line “THANKX” on the back, with bad news: The band had to end the set sharp at 22:00 and there was just time for one more song. Really sad for the audience that curfew at the location was really strict (otherwise the promoters have to pay huge fees) and the planned encores had to be skipped. ‘Run Run Devil’ was chosen as final song and the Wonderbrass were changing their Sombreros against grotesque masks to start the final rollercoaster ride. 
Setlist
01. Last Day (Do Or Die)
02. Rodeo Radio
03. Remedy
04. I Keep On Dancing
05. Live It Up
06. I Say A Little Prayer
07. The Answer
08. Shake Your Hips (Slim Harpo cover)
09. Break Free
10. Don’t Gimme That
11. Shake & Shout
12. Run Run Devil
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
And so, after just a little more than one hour, the concert was really over at 22:00. Just a few bows, that was all the remaining time allowed, even the audience hardly could believe that the gig was really over already, extensively begging for an encore that sadly could not be given, even though the band surely wanted to. But maybe it was also good that way since heavy rain started very short after the concert and anyway, things should find an end when they are most beautiful. And beautiful it really was with those three bands gathering at the Tanzbrunnen.
Written by Daniela Vorndran in cooperation with Ulrike Meyer-Potthoff (Terrorverlag).
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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