Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Live Review: Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub

Details: Written by: morTICIA; Published: 02 June 2014

Turock, Essen, Germany
23rd May 2014
Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub

I guess it was 1988 when a good friend of mine, who is not amongst us anymore, introduced me to the music of PHILLIP BOA. For me it was a “Wow!” moment as I immediately loved this beautiful noise. Thus I bought several of his albums. Nevertheless after ‘Boaphenia’ I lost sight of the project and was not up to date. The more I was delighted to find out that PHILLIP BOA is still touring. But when I decided to see him live something was always in the way and I couldn’t make it to the concerts in my area. So now I finally made it to his concert at the Turock in Essen. With only a couple of shows (‘Live 2014 / play 25 singles’) in Germany it was no wonder that the concert was quickly sold out. Actually there should have been a supporting act but due to illness it must be cancelled on short notice.

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The German band was founded in 1984 by PHILLIP BOA. His partner in life Pia Lund, Der Rabe and Voodoo were members of the first hour of the VOODOOCLUB. In the same year they released their first mini album. The following year the album ‘Philister’ was launched, that soon entered the German Indi Charts. Though highly appreciated in the German independent scene, the band gained much more recognition in the UK. With releasing the single ‘Container love’ in 1989 from their album ‘Hair’ they had their commercial success and international recognition. Their most successful album until now was ‘Boaphenia’, launched in 1993, but with ‘Loyality’ (released in 2012) they reached the highest chart position of the band’s history. Then PHILLIP BOA spent his time on his Metal side project PHILLIP BOA & THE VOODOOCULT but released nevertheless further albums with THE VOODOOCLUB.

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When Pia Lund left the band during the years 1997 to 2003, the high vocal parts were sung by Alison Galea from the band BEANGROWERS. In 2003 Pia came back to work with the band again but left in 2013 once again. Now Pris is filling the part of the high vocals. The distinctive sound and style of the band can be described as Avant-garde Pop/ Independent, deeply influenced by the British Punk and New Wave music. Characteristically are the melodic refrains, the sprechgesang and diametrically opposed the melodic singing on high notes as well as the dominant drums. During their 30 years career they have released until now 19 regular albums as well as 18 re-releases/ live albums and samplers. Besides PHILLIP BOA (vocals, guitar) the members of the VOODOOCLUB now are: Pris (vocals), Maik Timmermann (bass, backing vocals), Moses Pellberg (drums), Toett (keyboard, percussions, programming, samples) and Oliver Klemm (guitar). http://www.phillipboa.de / https://www.facebook.com/phillipboaandthevoodooclub

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Music & Performance
As already mentioned the supporting act was cancelled. Nevertheless the show started as scheduled. Thus we had to wait quite a while, entertained with some nice music from the playback, until ‘Bela Lugosi’s dead’ from BAUHAUS as a kind of intro was played and the band finally entered the stage. With approximately 500 guests the concert was sold out. The party started right from the beginning and the audience sang and danced to the songs enthusiastically. Every now and then PHILLIP BOA turned the microphone into the audience in order to hear more of the applause or he walked in front of the stage and shook some hands. His performance was underlined quite expressively and I was torn between my musing whether he is a genius or a maniac. Maybe he’s both but from the musical aspect he is surely a genius. When Pris had her first almost solo singing part you could hear a lot of people shouting “We want Pia”. Well, somehow I missed her recognisable voice, too, but I have to say that Pris did a pretty good job. But I found her position on stage near the drum set and behind the bassist sadly misplaced.

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For the applause after each song, BOA took a bow which I found quite nice though I had to find out that smiling does not belong to his repertoire. The setlist was just a wonderful mixture of great songs of the band’s 30 years career and thus there were a lot of songs I knew, too. When ‘Container love’ was played everybody in the audience was singing loudly and thus PHILLIP BOA let us sing the refrain alone. While during the songs before parts of the crowd were dancing pogo, at ‘Container love’ I almost had to fear for my life as almost everybody pogoed. As the drum beats is a dominant part of their sound we were of course presented a drum solo by Moses and Toett. The people reacted very enthusiastically to the performance of ‘Albert is a Headbanger’ at the first encore and PHILLIP BOA stated that he always said that this song is bigger than the singer. And he might be right as the fans shouted for a repetition at the second encore but didn’t get it but I think we were all happy with ‘And then she kissed her’ as well.

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Though the sound in the venue was not so good, it was a stunning concert and personally I hope that PHILLIP BOA & THE VOODOOCLUB will not stop performing too soon as they are really a great live band so that I hope to see them again in the near future.

Setlist
01. Loyalty
02. I dedicate my Soul to you
03. Ostrich
04. Rome in the Rain
05. Fine Art in Silver
06. Atlantic Claire
07. Bohemian Life
08. Want
09. This is Michael
10. Hyperactive Cracker
11. Deep in Velvet
12. Til the Day we are both forgotten
13. Love on Sale
14. Diana
15. Annie flies the Lovebomber
16. When the wall of Voodoo breaks
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17. Emma
18. Albert is a Headbanger
19. I don’t need your Summer
20. Bells of Sweetness
21. Molly’s Lips
22. Container love
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23. And then she kissed her
24. Kill your ideals

Rating
Music: 9.5
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.8 / 10

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