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Coconut Beach, Muenster, Germany
28th July 2005
Mia.

Mia. are one of the outraiders of a new wave of German music bands who combine catchy Pop appeal with Punk attitude and influences from three decades of (German) underground music. After their Asian tour Mia. came back to their home country for a few shows where checked them out at a rather unusual place – a coconut beach in the middle of Germany…

 
Mia.

There was a time when the music market in Germany was dominated by Anglo-Saxon bands and producers. After a period in the early 1980s called ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’, the counterpart to British New Wave, acts from the UK or the US dominated German charts and apart from some rock dinosaurs like ‘Westernhagen’. German-languaged music had hardly a chance. This changed over the last couple of years; in fact German bands are the only booming sector in Germany’s music market. Apart from some rather mainstream-orientated groups like ‘Silbermond’ or ‘Juli’ there are also some Indie acts which made it to the top, like the techno-pop duo 2raumwohnung, the grandeurs of German Indie-Pop, ‘Wir Sind Helden’ - and Mia.! The Berlin based band around front woman Mieze is often described as “electro punk” though this description is a little misleading when it comes to Mia.s music. Their sound is not exactly punk, and though electronics play a certain role in their music most of it is rather guitar-driven. Mia. does have a punk attitude though which is most noticeable when you visit the band’s website (http://www.miarockt.de/). Mia. are activists and engage in many projects from the pacifistic art collective “Angefangen” to contributions to benefit compilations like ‘Pro Asyl’. Even the name of their label R.O.T., which reads “red” in German and the short form for “respect or tolerate” hints at that this is rather a left wing band.



Music
With their second album, last year’s ‘Stille Post’, the band had their major breakthrough and even gained some success in Asia, were they recently toured. After the Asian tour Mia. came back to their home country to do further shows.
We went to see the band at a location with a name that maybe confusing for a place in a town in the West of Germany – the Coconut Beach in Muenster. Well, there are no beaches in the middle of Germany and coconuts usually don’t thrive and prosper in Middle Europe. It’s simply the name of a very nice location at the industrial harbour of the city. I don’t know if everyone there got a sense of a coconut beach with your shoes in the sand, a place fringed with plastic palms and very middle-European weather – I didn’t, but I was there for the music anyway.
The evening started early with two local bands opening. ‘Die Perfekte Freundschaft’ turned up first and although their sound goes with the one of the main act and the band obviously enjoyed themselves onstage their music wasn’t quite perfect. At this time only very few people have already shown up. This changed when the next band, ‘MenschJulius’, entered the stage. It seems that their brought their own fan club, and more and more Mia. fans began to surge the place. ‘MenschJulius’ impressed with a singer with very clever and elaborate German lyrics and an excellent very energetic drummer – sometimes a bit too energetic for the mid-tempo Rock of the band.



Performance
However, it had become time for Mia.! But first of all the band had to do their soundcheck – in front of the impatient audience. While for many bands this would have been a somehow embarrassing situation Mia. took it from the more relaxed side. All in their street clothing, they tried to entertain people, joking around and singer Mieze singing a German traditional. All checked, gear set up, time to go backstage to get dressed for the gig, A few moments later the band returned in their stage outfits and the audience was cheering so much as if people were seeing the band for the first time this evening. After a short intro it soon became clear that Mia. wanted to rock and the audience was there to party! The audience was by the way pretty mixed, from teenage girls who found a role model in singer Mieze to guys in their mid-30s who like Mia.s music because it’s reminiscent of the music of their youth – Neue Deutsche Welle – it was a quite diverse mix of people.
After a myriad of gigs Mia. are now a very routined live band – a great pleasure to listen to and even a greater pleasure to watch as front woman Mieze has become such a great performer who knows how to get a crowd moving and everyone involved. She got all the Rock Star poses but she displays them with an ironic wink and despite all rock stardom she didn’t allow the slightest notion of distance between artist and audience to spring up. Very simpatico, indeed! The highlight of the show was when Mieze took about 20 or 30 fans from the first rows onstage to sing and celebrate one song together. Mia. presented a great mix of their two albums including all of their hits (only ‘Alles Neu’ was missing) and some rarities for the die-hards. After a 75-minute set, which was all in all a little less electronic than their studio work but pretty powerful, Mia. finished their show with a one-song encore. Word is that the band would have liked to play more but the locals didn’t allow as there was a strict curfew at the open air location. One shouldn’t shed a false tear, it was a great show and the ever-touring Mia. will be back soon, for sure.



Setlist
01. Mein Mädchen
02. Machtspiele
03. Kreisel
04. Ökostrom
05. Verrückt
06. Kill 4 You
07. Poem
08. Himmel
09. Komm Her
10. Hungriges Herz
11. Hoffnung
12. Factory City
13. Skandal
14. Wei Mix
15. Sonne
-----------------
16. Protest

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 8





Die Perfekte Freundschaft





MenschJulius





More pics on Black-Cat-Net


More articles about Mia.

Concert Review - Anröchte 2005

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