Ruhrcongress, Bochum, Germany30th June 2023
Eisbrecher - “Liebe macht MonsTour” 2023 - Support: Schattenmann
Even though the name of the location sounds very unimpressive, the evening at the RuhrCongress in Bochum was harder than expected. With EISBRECHER and SCHATTENMANN, two bands of the Neue Deutsche Härte were represented this time.
Schattenmann
SCHATTENMANN formed in 2016 and have already released four albums. Very fresh in June 2023, the album ‘Día de Muertos’ was released. It is certain that the four guys from Nuremberg/ Germany will also play something from the new album. https://www.schattenmann.net / https://www.facebook.com/schattenmannband
Music & Performance
Alex Wesselsky, singer of the band EISBRECHER, came on the stage in a Hawaii shirt and opened the evening. When he announced SCHATTENMANN with a debauched speech, he handed out carrots and apples to the audience. But then it started and the lights turned off. Only in the background of the stage, despite the darkness, the name of the upcoming band could be seen in big letters: SCHATTENMANN. Singer Frank Herzig could only be recognised by neon-coloured stripes on his face and clothes in the lack of light. His band mates Jan Suk (electric guitar), bassist Luke Shook and Nils Kinzig on drums, were also painted with a special colour only visible in black light.
Musically, the boys started with the songs ‘Licht an’ and ‘Brennendes Eis’ from their first album ‘Licht an’. Frank rocked the whole time, running and jumping across the stage. Standing at the edge of the stage, his hair flew in all directions as he headbanged. Jan Suk on electric guitar and bassist Luke Shook in a long black coat swapped sides on stage from time to time or played right next to each other. So, SCHATTENMANN played some songs from all their albums. In addition to the many songs from the last albums, songs from the new album ‘Día de muertos’ were not missing, of course. SCHATTENMANN even played a total of five songs from this album - ‘Everyone is bad’, ‘Chaos’, ‘Menschenhasser’, ‘Hände hoch’ and ‘Dia de Muertos’.
Setlist
01. Licht an
02. Brennendes Eis
03. Jeder ist schlecht
04. Chaos
05. Nadel und Faden
06. AMOK
07. Menschenhasser
08. Spring
09. Hände hoch
10. Dia de Muertos
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Light: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.3 / 10
Eisbrecher
The actual main act of the evening was the German band EISBRECHER. The band around singer Axel Wesselsky is one of the pioneers of Neue Deutsche Härte and has also celebrated several chart successes. But finally, EISBRECHER were allowed to present their “Liebe macht Monster-Tour” live, which had been postponed since 2019. https://www.eis-brecher.com / https://www.facebook.com/eisbrecher
Music & Performance
After SCHATTENMANN had left the stage and a small change-over provided a break, the fans could fortify themselves with a drink or stock up on shirts at the merch stand. When the hall was turning dark again, various shadowy outlines could be seen. One of the shadows was quickly recognised by his cap as the front man and singer Alex Wesselsky. With the song ‘Volle Kraft voraus’ (‘Full speed ahead’) the show literally started. With his typical Bavarian manner, he first welcomed the entire hall. As with concerts by other artists, Alex asked his fans to leave their mobile phones in their pockets and enjoy the concert. During the song ‘Amok’, four steel barrels were brought on stage next to each other. Surrounded by his band mates, Alex stood in the middle of the stage. Noel Pix, Jürgen Plangger, Achim Färber and Rupert Keplinger each stood in front of one of these barrels and played rhythmically on it. Only the faces of the four drummers were illuminated by spotlights and the barrels also sprayed water in all directions as soon as someone hit them.
The boys of EISBRECHER didn’t even stop to cover old German songs from the Neue Deutsche Welle. In this case it was the TRIO classic ‘Anna’. EISBRECHER are something special, which you could see with the song ‘Eiszeit’. It suddenly started snowing on stage and the band appeared in fur jackets. Alex, on the other hand, was at the front with a fur hat and long coat. With two ice picks, which he hit on each other, he heated up the fans. Due to the warmth in the hall, this was not really necessary. That EISBRECHER can also play quieter sounds was shown by Alex together with Jürgen. The two entered the dark stage, where only two bar stools could be seen in the spotlight. With their acoustic guitars, they performed an old German hit song by Michael Holm. Surprisingly, the audience sang along, although they did not fit the target group of the original song in any way.
Afterwards, they were overcome by a bit of humour and played a short piece of the NDW song ‘Ich will Spaß’ (‘I wanna have fun - MARKUS). But they stayed with the acoustic guitar and performed a special version of the EISBRECHER hit ‘Schwarze Witwe’. After a short while Alex and Jürgen returned their acoustic guitars and without interruption, they changed the song to the normal rocking version. The journey then continued at full speed and full power. Songs like ‘Sturmfahrt’ and ‘FAKK’ were among them. Alex acted like a conductor on the song ‘FAKK’. He raised his arms and waved his hands, which the fans in the hall immediately imitated. So, Alex stepped in front of the audience again and announced the next song with a harmonica, saying: “This is the hat, this is the waistcoat. Bavarian traditional, now comes a classic”.
At the same time, he yodelled and played on the harmonica, until synth sounds rang out and the song really began. Then, with every line of the lyrics ‘This is Deutsch’, several fountains of steam were shot metres high into the hall. For the encore, there was Alex in a pith hat, which he wears regularly during the song ‘Verrückt’. For one of the last songs, ‘Was ist hier los?’, the guys from EISBRECHER turned up the heat again. The whole band stood on the stage with little toy polar bears in their arms and visibly touched they said a few more words to the fans. “Guys, how we missed it” and “a life without live concerts is senseless”. Alex then also introduced the individual band members one after the other, who then threw the little toy polar bears into the audience.
Setlist
00. Intro
01. Volle Kraft voraus
02. Frommer Mann
03. Fehler machen Leute
04. Heilig
05. Augen unter Null
06. Amok
07. Anna - Lassmichrein lassmichraus (Trio cover)
08. Nein Danke
09. Eiszeit
10. Im Guten Im Bösen
11. Tränen lügen nicht (Michael Holm cover) (As Jürgen und Ich)
12. Ich will Spaß (Markus cover) (Acoustic snippet as Jürgen und Ich)
13. Schwarze Witwe (Acoustic snippet as Jürgen und Ich)
14. Schwarze Witwe (Played in full with full band)
15. Sturmfahrt
16. FAKK
17. 1000 Narben
18. Himmel, Arsch und Zwirn
19. This Is Deutsch
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20. Verrückt
21. Was ist hier los?
22. Miststück (Megaherz cover) (With ‘Der Kommissar’ snippet)
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23. Out of the Dark (Falco cover)
24: Outro: Junge, komm bald wieder (Freddy Quinn song)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Light: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
All Pictures by Andreas Klüppelberg
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