Zeche, Bochum, Germany
12th May 2011
Katzenjamer, Unni Wilhelmsen
While still working on the follow-up to the successor of ‘Le Pop’, the KATZENJAMMER gang still found some time to tour around a bit again and one of their stations was the sold-out Zeche in Bochum on Thursday.
Unni Wilhelmsen
Norwegian born UNNI WILHELMSEN has come a long way. In her childhood she already learned how to play the piano and switched to guitar at the age of 10. At 20 years she started her live career at a club, playing cover songs. In 1997 she released her first solo album ‘To Whom It May Concern’ rewarded with the Norwegian counterpart to the Grammy, the Spellemannprisen. To this day she’s released 7 albums in total and a new one is already in the pipeline. http://www.unniwilhelmsen.com 
Music & Performance
UNNI WILHELMSEN just walked in to the sold-out venue, gave a little introduction and just started playing afterwards. That’s when she filled the entire room with her presence when her soulful voice hovered above the brittle guitar chords. For her second offering she switched to the piano and enchanted everyone. Well done so far for passing the time until the KATZENJAMMER girls are finished dressing up themselves. She actually told us that was her job for today. The next one saw her returning to the guitar not without mentioning that this was one of the quietest audiences. Well, not that quiet ‘cause people just couldn’t stop talking when she was performing her final song of the evening, destroying the entire atmosphere necessary. Otherwise a wonderful little show!
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.9 / 10
Katzenjammer
The Norwegian band’ name goes straight back on one of the earliest modern comic strips “The Katzenjammer” Kids from 1897. The band earned their popularity and reputation with playing a few very successful gigs. One particular at a musical congress and festival called ‘by:Lärm’ in 2008 would become their breakthrough. It’s also been the year they released their debut album ‘Le Pop’ for which they received a nomination for the Norwegian Grammy. Further gigs outside Scandinavia helped expanding the audience a lot. Currently, the girls are working on their sophomore. http://katzenjammer.no / http://www.facebook.com/katzenjammerne
Music & Performance
The next few minutes people passed the time either watching what the stage crew was doing up there or chatting and drinking until the ladies came out to start with a funfair influenced intro. It’s like being taken 200 years back to a quirky place in the woods where that events taking place. That little intro was fluently segueing over into ‘Cocktails and Rubyslippers’, an upbeat fun manifesto marking the shows actual kick-off for which the ladies earned more than just a warm applause. Afterwards you saw the girls changing places and instruments quickly, a thing happening more often during the show. Apparently, everyone in the band is capable of playing every of the instruments. The ‘Demon Kitty Rag’ took some of us into unconfined territory with a country-ish fashion. I admit it, it was mostly unconfined for me but the way the ladies performed on stage, that is, with a whole lot of verve and fun, almost made me forget I’m not much of a country fan. 
The banjo had its say on the toe-tapping western influenced ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ and to that one it was you could see most heads nodding in happy unison to the beat. ‘To The Sea’ nearly blew off the roof off the venue. It started with an audience choir of the choir that was used by the group for a little entertainment intermezzo before the party really started with the song actually kicking in and the people going berserk. With ‘Land of Confusion’, which everyone could “surprisingly” sing along to, everything was taken to a new level, even though you’d hardly expect that to be possible after such a show, but it happened. Up to that point the show in Bochum had become a big party, ended for now with the ferocious ‘Hey Ho’ but followed by a little encore block we just witnessed from afar cause after a long day of work we that show has drained the last bits out of us. Great live band!
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 7
Total: 8.3 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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