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Underground, Cologne, Germany
30th April 2007
Escape with Romeo, Akanoid

Beltane usually means a dance night into the May. This year I decided to watch a concert instead featuring German ESCAPE WITH ROMEO and AKANOID at the Underground in Cologne. Already early before the doors opened, people gathered in the beer garden outside the concert hall to have some beers and meet up with friends.


Akanoid

AKANOID, that’s Hilton Theissen (vocals, guitar) and Uwe Lübbers (Synths) who already released three albums before now the recent album ‘Cocktail Pop’ was released on 20th April. In the latest album, they enrich their electronic sound much more with atmospheric melodies, emotional voices and accentuated guitars resulting in a unique mixture of modern electro Pop with 80s influences and danceable rhythms. http://www.akanoid.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/akanoid



Music
Going different way than on their previous albums, AKANOID presented exclusively songs from their current album ‘Cocktail Pop’. The division of duties on stage was very clear – Uwe was playing synths while Hilton delivered the vocals and was playing guitar. Additionally he was starting the tapes which were providing the basic sounds. The range of different influences is wide, but both artists summarize it in their incisive song writing which is sometimes pushing - like in ‘Nexx’ - or sometimes very spherical - like in ‘Caught in Sphere’ which seems to be a very fitting name for that song. AKANOID play with different elements from Synth Pop (‘Gameboy’), Wave (‘I swear’) or even Indie Pop (‘Usual Freak’). Result of all these influences is a diversified and enthralling mixture resulting in the current album ‘Cocktail Pop’ and brought to stage during the last evening of April. Besides their own songs, AKANOID played a cover version of my all-time NINE INCH NAILS favourite ‘Sin’ - which I would call usually a sacrilege. But they did not too bad. ;) All in all, the both guys on stage presented a very nice Synth-Electro-Pop set - enriched by decent guitar play - which reminded me partly a bit of American Synth band IRIS - what should be understood as praise.



Performance
During the evening in Cologne, not a big stage performance was counting but the music which was presented very dedicated in my opinion. But anyway, I had the impression that those guys did not have a long stage experience - especially Hilton seemed to be a bit insecure and cause smaller breaks when fiddling around with the backing tapes. But hey, no one is perfect and that only mage the band more likeable to me. A bit sad was the poor light “show” with nearly only red steady spots. There was a bit more possible at the venue. After the last song ‘No matter’, the show ended a bit surprisingly - I think also for the band - when immediately the pause music started as the two guys left the stage. No chance even to applause for an encore.



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Under the line
03. Nexx
04. Gameboy
05. Caught in Sphere
06. On Air again
07. Usual Freak
08. Sin (NIN cover)
09. I Swear
10. No Matter

Rating
Music 9
Performance 7
Light 5
Sound 8
Total 7.7






Escape with Romeo

The Roots of Escape with Romeo (EWR) date back to 1989, when Thomas Elbern founded the band after leaving PINK TURNS BLUE and also released the first album including the famous and all-time fan favourite ‘Somebody’. Several more albums, a DVD and lots of gigs followed. Mid of April, the most recent album ‘Emotional Iceage’ was released, featuring a bonus CD in the limited edition. EWR are Thomas Elbern (vocals/guitar), Martin Pott (keyboards), Frenzy (drums) and Ralf (bass). http://www.escape-with-romeo.de/ / www.myspace.com/escapewithromeo



Music
EWR are no youngsters in the Wave-Goth whatever scene and so they had a lot of material to present during the Beltane night in Cologne. The set consisted of some songs of the new album ‘Emotional Iceage’ - put into the first half of the set - but was mainly some kind of best of selection though all the periods of the band’s history whereas especially the early years were pointed out to the pleasure of the attending fans. The show started with ‘New beginning’ from the recent album. Other songs from this album being played were ‘Glitter on the Snow’, ‘Come shining’, ‘I feel it in my hands’ and ‘Here comes the night’.



Those were the only five songs out off the new album. The current studio album is very organic and presents rocking, electronic and sometimes symphonic facets. But all songs have something in common – they are very melodic and full of timeless gloom. Within the main set, several older pleasers have filled in – i.e. ‘Escape with Romeo’ from the very first album or ‘Alaska’ from 1998. Last song of the main set was the all-time fan favourite ‘Somebody’ which featured an extensive guitar solo by Thomas at the end of the song. Simply great!



But playing some kind of home match, the band was not released that easily. Four songs as encores were planned - eight had to be given and people still wanted more. All in all, the band had to come back four times! The planned encores were ‘Skeletons’ and ‘Problem Child’ from 2002’s ‘Love Alchemy’ as well as ‘White Room’ and 1989’s ‘Coma Beach’ played in a more or less acoustic version. When the band did come back for the third time, second song they played was again the highly demanded ‘Somebody’ – this time in an acoustic version featuring only Thomas and Martin in acoustic guitars. Perfect! The refrain of the song was sung by the audience alone. Goose bump feeling! Last two encores were ‘Helicopters in the falling rain’ and ‘Addiction’ which finally was announced by the band as “very last song” which it finally was.



Performance
Even though the temperatures went a bit down during the last two days, it was quite warm in the small club filled up with about 250 fans I’d say. When the band entered the stage they were welcomed with warm and honest applause. The audience was in the mood to celebrate - especially after Thomas mentioned to have a home match there. They were dancing, cheering, clapping and even playing air guitar together with the band. It was a fantastic mood in the room and every old hit has been welcomed euphorically. The mood in stage was great too and the guys gave everything… starting with jumping, clapping or presenting guitar duels. You could see that they could not believe how often they had to come back because people wanted more. Fantastic guys! Looking forward seeing you again during Bochum Total festival end of June.



Setlist

01. New Beginning
02. If seeing in believing
03. Glitter on the Snow
04. It’s loneliness
05. Come Shining
06. Escape with Romeo
07. I feel it in my hands
08. Here comes the night
09. Alaska
10. Prince in a shell
11. Anteroom for your love
12. Somebody
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13. Skeletons
14. White Room
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15. Coma Beach
16. Problem Child
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17. Teargas Baby
18. Somebody (acoustic)
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19. Helicopters in the falling rain
20. Addiction

Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Light 6
Sound 8
Total 8.4





All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/)
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