Live Review: Oomph! - Saarbrücken 2012

Written by Kai Bimber Wednesday, 17 October 2012 13:13

Garage, Saarbrücken, Germany
9th October 2012
Oomph! & Blowsight

OOMPH! started with their current tour already in September and finally it lead them to Saarbrücken. Happy that the show took place since just short after, several shows had to be cancelled due to Dero’s health problems…

Blowsight

BLOWSIGHT is a Swedish music project founded in 2006. They consist of Nick Red (vocals, guitar), Seb (vocals, guitar) and FabZ (vocals, drums) and call their music themselves “PopMetalPunk”. As their Facebook site describes: “With no fear and always with a tongue-in-cheek attitude the band manoeuvres through all facets and colours of modern rock music. Even in reflective moments they maintain a touch of lightness. Despite all diversity, BLOWSIGHT always put the fun in music first and they never stop short at playfully crazy ideas to show it off.” http://www.blowsight.com/ / www.facebook.com/BLOWSIGHT



Music and Performance
The spectacle started with BLOWSIGHT from Sweden, who visited Saarland for the first time. Theirs was the job to whip up the masses and bring them into the right mood for OOMPH!, and with their fast, dirty and straight-forward rocking songs, they did their job quite well. They also integrated the audience into the show and often communicated directly with the crowd, inviting the to clap hands or sing along the chorus. Catchy songs like ‘Miracle’ or ‘I Wish You 666’ were accepted and celebrated by the audience, but the most memorable song of the set was undoubtedly the last song – it started with a certain feeling that the melody is somehow familiar, and when the chorus kicked in, you could literally see the recognition flash up in everybody’s eyes: BLOWSIGHT covered ‘Pokerface’ by LADY GAGA, and they covered it damn well, to the audience’s delight. A very good performance for a support act – two thumbs up.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6.2 / 10




Oomph!

OOMPH! was founded in Wolfsburg in 1989 and are one of the oldest and most famous German bands. They consist of Dero (vocals, drums), Crap (keyboard, guitar) and Flux (guitars, sampling). On stage, they are supported by Silvestri (drums), Hagen (bass), El Friede (keyboards) and Okusa (percussions). Their music is called “Neue Deutsche Härte”, a powerful mixture of Rock, EBM, Pop and Metal, and has inspired bands like RAMMSTEIN. OOMPH! have published 14 albums, their newest, ‘Des Wahnsinns fette Beute’, in 2012. www.oomph.de / https://www.facebook.com/oomphband



Music and Performance
Then, OOMPH! were about to enter the stage. And a short look onto it did already give a hint that the band will most probably no longer use the outfits and performance (clergyman’s garments and so on) everybody was used to, as the stage was decorated with lifebelts, nets and fake seagulls. This impression proved to be true, when the band including Flux and Crap entered the stage in sailor suits. Then, Dero showed up. He obviously internalized the motto “Des Wahsinns fette Beute” (“Madness´ fat loot”, roughly translated) a little bit too much, jumping around on stage with a sailor suit, a red cape with red mask and flamboyant make-up (somewhere in the middle between Popeye, the Sailor, Zorro and Batman’s Joker), while performing the first song ‘Unzerstörbar’ (an allusion to the “Take care! Glass!” sticker on his chest? No one but Dero will possibly ever know…). Well, one thing did not change: Dero´s hyperactive stage acting, which included frantic jumping and mimic between mad and crazy, completed with a drum he often beat while the songs.



After ‘Unzerstörbar’, Dero greeted his fans (which were not too large in numbers, only 200 people had gathered, I estimate), a ‘We will rock you’ intro was played – and then OOMPH! played ‘Labyrinth’, one of those iconic, powerful and catchy songs the band is famous for. Sadly, already at this point one could hear that Dero´s voice was not as its usual level (an impression which lately proved to be valid because some shows had to be cancelled because of this reason). Afterwards, some stripper tunes were played, and Dero took off his cape and his mask. Great, now he only looked like a mixture of Zorro and Popeye. Not sure whether this was an improvement or not, but at least his maniac’s glare came more into its own. Next songs were ‘Mein Schatz’ and ‘Das weiße Licht’, and then he took off the “Take care! Glass!” stickers until “the mirror breaks” (Song ‘Bis der Spiegel bricht’). Probably another subtle allusion…



With the invitation to jump around, OOMPH! now played ‘Träumst du’, and although the audience not really participated in jumping around, at least much clapping commenced and the mood reached a first height, a fact that did not change for the next song ‘Wunschkind’ (to which Dero performed with a zombie-like gesture and truly creepy glare… The next song was once again from the new album, and everybody who knows this new album could tell by the accouchement which song it would be: Dero told about how the traditional metal outfits with leather, chains and spikes was more or less introduced into Heavy Metal by Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, who borrowed this looks from the gay scene. So it was not difficult to tell that ‘Kleinstadtboy’ was about to be played, the possibly most catchy and socio-critical song of the CD. Soon after, Dero wanted to see the audience’s cigarette lighters raised to into the air, but being a modern band and stuff, he announced he’d also accept mobile phones. Yeah. OOMPH! keep up with time.



And so, the somewhat repetitive stage show went on (with a changing outfit of Dero, who wore a Dirndl later on), and Dero also did not miss the chance to stage dive into the crowd. Somewhat courageous, as the hall was not really full… he also tried to motivate the fans to do a Wall of Death, but people were not into the right mood for more than a tame moshpit. The performance then ended after respectable 20 songs and three encores. It is difficult to sum up the people’s general opinion towards this show. The point which was criticized most was not the stage acting which did not change too much in contrast to the past shows, but the musicians outfits. Where the dresses of Flux and Dero were often called boring, you could hear many fans call Dero´s outfit more or less ridiculous – but not in the positive way it was intended to. Also, the songs from the new CD were – in comparison to the older songs – not accepted too well by the audience… nevertheless, the performance was solid, but OOMPH! can do better…



Setlist
01. Unzerstörbar
02. Labyrinth
03. Mein Schatz
04. Das weiße Licht
05. Bis der Spiegel zerbricht
06. Träumst du
07. Wunschkind
08. Kleinstadtboy
09. Mein Herz
10. Der neue Gott
11. Regen
12. Niemand
13. Gekreuzigt
14. Seemannsrose
15. Mitten ins Herz
16. Auf Kurs
17. Sex hat keine Macht
18. Zwei Schritte vor
19. Sandmann
20. Augen auf
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21. Aus meiner Haut
22. Gott ist ein Popstar
23. Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

Rating
Music: 7
Performance:5
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.7 / 10

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