Jovel, Münster, Germany5th May 2014
The Baseballs & 77 Bombay Street
Monday evening. Sofa after work? No way, THE BASEBALLS were in town and promised an entertaining evening. After releasing their fourth album ‘Game Day‘ in March, for the first time with mainly self-written songs, the band now presents it on an extended tour.
77 Bombay Street
The four brother Matt, Joe, Esra and Simri-Ramon were grown up in a family of nine in Basel, Switzerland. Already as children they were playing concerts in hospitals and various private occasions. In 2001, the family was moving to Adelaide, Australia, to 77 Bombay Street. When the four brothers returned to Switzerland two years later, they moved to a chalet of their grandparents and formed the band in 2007. Only one year later they signed their first record deal. With the songs ‘47 Millionaires’, ‘Long Way’, ‘I Love Lady Gaga’ and ‘Up in the Sky’, they gained national fame via radio airplay. In their career, 77 BOMBAY STREET so far played more than 150 shows. In spring 2011, 17 of their 21 club shows were sold-out and in summer, they were playing 20 festivals. The debut album, ‘Up in the Sky’ released 2011, contains twelve folk-rock songs. For this album, the were rewarded with gold and platinum status. The second and latest album ‘Oko Town’ was out in 2012. 77 BOMBAY STREET is Matt Buchli (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Buchli (E-guitar), Esra Buchli (drums) and Simri-Ramon Buchli (E-bass). http://www.77bombaystreet.com / https://www.facebook.com/77bombaystreet
Music & Performance
Before THE BASEBALLS entered the stage, Swiss 77 BOMBAY STREET opened the evening. When they greeted the audience, they were mistaking Münster for Reutlingen, causing a few laughs in the audience. But the Münster audience forgave this little faux-pas and soon they were waving their arms along to groovy ‚Planet Earth‘. The string section, wearing velvet jackets in different colours, was taking over the polyphonic chant while the man in red first worked alone für ‘Oko Town’, just equipped with his ukulele. His brothers soon joined him again and also drummer Esra was using the microphone for a moment before during ‘Number 2’ all returned to their uses positions again. The song had a lot of drive and was animating the crowd to jump along. Following ‘Up In The Sky’ was fun with his rhythmic melodies and so, the thirty minutes lasting gig found an amusing end where, of course, some games with the audience were not missed out.
Setlist
01. ?
02. In The War
03. Planet Earth
04. Oko Town
05. Number 2
06. Up In The Sky
07. ?
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.8 / 10
The Baseballs
THE BASEBALLS met by chance in the kitchen of a rehearsal complex in Berlin and quickly found they were vibrating on the same frequency. Their debut album 'Strike', released in 2009 climbed up various chart list and laid the foundation for their continued success in the respective countries, naming Germany or Switzerland for instance. Their second album 'Strings'n'Stripes' has just been released 2011. The band’s new album ‘Game Day’ is out in March 2014… and still, the heart is beating in Rock’n’Roll time. But the album comes with a surprise. Besides the cover versions the band is known for, THE BASEBALLS present also various own compositions. In April and May 2014, Sam, Digger & Basti will embark to a tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland. THE BASEBALLS is Sven “Sam” Budja (vocals), Rüdiger “Digger” Brans (vocals) and Sebastian “Basti” Raetzel (vocals) supported on stage by a full band consisting of Lars Vegas (guitar), Klaas Wendling (upright bass), Jan Miserre (piano) and Tomas Svensson (drums). http://www.thebaseballs.com / https://www.facebook.com/thebaseballs
Music & Performance
It was a good thing that the BASEBALLS fans were already warmed up in a good way because, as Basti explained to first-goers, a concert of the band being founded seven years ago is no “Sugar schlecken” (no bed of roses), but entire fitness program. The first impression of the intro was that you are on a platform where the BASEBALLS train soon would come in. First, the three vocalists were still hidden behind three white curtains, but along with the sounds of ‘Let it go’, the curtain were slowly lifted and the bug curtain in front of the accompanying band finally fell down too. With ‘Goodbye Peggy Sue‘ the band very soon proved that the own compositions stood not behind the band’s new interpretations of well-known songs. Tracks like ‘Hello’ (in original by MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE) or ‘Never-Ever’ by ALL SAINTS were celebrated extensively by the fans. During the latter one, the piano man was not sticking on his seat anymore and also the Münster audience was shaking the hips to the sound. In a very cool way, ‘My Baby Left Me For A DJ’ followed before ‘King Kong’ impressed with its decent Psychobilly borrowings. During ‘Follow me’, the gents proved their entertainment qualities.
It was slowly getting too hot for Basti on stage, leading to the fact he was thinking about various marriage traditions (i.e. the wedding guests are allowed to take off their jackets when the bridegroom does so) and soon he was pointing to the fact that the happy couple should kiss when hitting to a glass. Much to the joy of the band, two ladies in the front row did exactly that… kissing each other… and would probably burn in hell if you trust the band. With high-speed and a great instrumental part, ‘Royals’ was raising the mood before Digger presented a very special music instrument: a Theremin named Theresa. If you know this electronic instrument, played totally without touching it, you know what strange sounds can come out. On this evening, its sound reminded on a soundtrack of early Sci-Fi movies. Task for the audience: imitate the heard sounds with their voices… could be the sound of a fighting cat. This was really strange but nevertheless entertaining! ‘Angels‘ went into a different direction. The ROBBIE WILLIAMS song was accompanied by loud song-a-longs. With ‘Hot’n’Cold’, already the next stunner was on the list, but different than in the past, the band did not please several ladies onto stage to sing with them, but the made photographs with one girls afterwards, using an old-fashioned photo booth. To be exact, this part was taken over by Digger because he comes from Münster, but it is said that he is doing the same in all cities… with the same explanation.
Well, Alina seemed to be very happy anyway and danced after the selfies to ‘Bitch’ playfully besides Sam. Together with Basti and Digger, Sam soon was allowed for a break while the band performed the terrific ‘Beep Bop’. Afterwards, a second keyboard instrument with candles‘ illuminations was gaining centre stage. The whole band was gathering around Jan and altogether they presented the Gospel ‘Looking For Freedom’. Very cool was also ‘What You Want’ when all seven artists was grabbing ukuleles. Seems this was a popular instrument that day. During ‘Bad’, the men could show how high they could pitch their voices. The Jovel was burning this evening, not only in the sense of words, during ‘Mo Hotta Be Hotta’ the piano of Mr. Miserre was going up in flames. But of course this was well planned, but the flames were really rising high and there was a lot of smoke when Jan was hitting the keys all alone. For ‘The Look’, the whole band was back on stage again and latest with ‘Born this Way’, the hall was turning into a bubbling cauldron. ‘I’m Yours’ was evoking a sea of raised arms and of course, any musician got his solo time with this grand finale.
105 minutes were over in a flash but still, this could not be all. There was a real tearjerker still missing and this one was presented by the gents with ‘Hard Not To Cry’. During ‘Umbrella’, the crowd loudly sang along and finally, ‘Lucky Guy’ ended the set. It was a real pleasure once more; Basti, Digger and Sam always show so much vigour on stage and the band is not standing behind. A BASEBALLS show is just pure fun.
Setlist
01. Let It Go
02. Goodbye Peggy Sue
03. Hello (MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE)
04. Never Ever (ALL SAINTS)
05. My Baby Left Me For A DJ
06. King Kong
07. Follow Me (UNCLE CRACKER)
08. Royals (LORDE)
09. Crazy In Love (BEYONCÉ)
10. Angels (ROBBIE WILLIAMS)
11. Hot’n’Cold (KATY PERRY)
12. Bitch (MEREDITH BROOKS)
13. Beep Bop
14. Looking For Freedom (DAVID HASSELHOFF)
15. What You Want
16. Bad (MICHAEL JACKSON)
17. Mo Hotta Mo Betta
18. The Look (ROXETTE)
19. Born This Way (LADY GAGA)
20. I’m Yours (JASON MRAZ)
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21. Hard Not To Cry
22. Umbrella (RIHANNA)
23. Lucky Guy
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.8 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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