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introZakk, Düsseldorf, Germany
8th November 2014
DAF & Fehlfarben - ‘Verschwende Deine Jugend 2014’

When two legends of the Punk and NDW era decide to perform on one evening in the same venue (with a capacity of 900 people), it is no surprise that this event is sold-out, even more as it is for both bands a home match. In the eighties, DAF and FEHLFARBEN were regular guests in the renowned Ratinger Hof club in Düsseldorf, a fancied venue of the Punk and Wave members. It was the place where the guys of the bands met, hung around and performed of course. Despite many other bands of the NDW/ Punk genre these bands impressed with intelligent lyrics, their smart way to play with the German language, an inspiration for those who are able to read between the lines. But this is not the only thing they have in common. Two of the founding members of DAF, Kurt Dahlke (keyboards) and Michael Kemner (bass) are long-time members of FEHLFARBEN. Disbanding and reuniting is as well a history they share. But fortunately they are back for good and surely they still inspire bands/ musicians nowadays as they did back in the eighties.


Fehlfarben

Successor of the band MITTAGSPAUSE (lunch break), the band was founded 1979 in London during a concert of THE TEARDROP EXPLODES. Being quite experimental in their former Punk bands, the members now decided to work together more professionally. Their effort yielded a contract at EMI which was for the band surely a good thing at first but on the other hand they were heavily criticised for having backstabbed the Punk movement. ‘Monarchie & Alltag’ (Monarchy and everyday life) was the debut album released in 1980 and became their most successful album which has, even today, a high significance in the German language Rock scene. Shortly after the release of the debut album the singer Peter Hein left the band. FEHLFARBEN (Missing colours) disbanded in 1984 but reunited in 1989 again. All together they launched 10 albums (the last one in 2012, including a tour in Germany and Austria), 2 live albums and a compilation album. Being personally close to DAF, both bands released the song ‘Kebab- Träume’. FEHLFARBEN are: Peter Hein (vocals), Uwe Jahnke (guitar), Michael Kemner (bass), Frank Fenstermacher (keyboard, saxophone, percussion), Kurt Dahlke (keyboard, synthesizer) and Saskia van Klitzing (drums). http://www.fehlfarben.com/

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Music & Performance
Though I really liked a lot of songs from this band, especially ‘Paul ist tot’(Paul is dead), I have to admit that it was now the first time I took my chance to see them live – finally, I have to add. First all band members appeared and took their places before the singer Peter Hein entered the stage and the show immediately started. Cheerfully they performed the first two songs before Peter welcomed the audience and advertised the next song as one that makes him a bit sentimental. The band presented a good mixture between the old and newer songs which was commentated by Peter as “So you see it’s good to play the old shit but also the new shit!”. Every now and then Peter announced the next song with some words of introduction. Peter showed up with powerful vocals and with the dominant bass, the kind of tinny guitar sound and the saxophone playing to some songs, it was so distinctive the typical FEHLFARBEN sound.

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While singing Peter did some dancing as well and the joy of performing transferred to the audience and you could see most of them dancing and moving, too, while singing along to some parts of the songs. Fortunately for me there was almost no one pogoing as the people obviously preferred to listen attentively. I have to admit that I don’t know all of the FEHLFARBEN songs and as they started to play ‘Politdisco’, the intro reminded me very much of ‘Blue Monday’ from NEW ORDER and I wondered at first if they do a kind of cover version but then I learnt that this song has no further elements of the above mentioned song. We witnessed a kind of premiere as the band performed a new, unreleased, song, which was quite catchy. Personally I’m glad that so many heroes of my youth still like to produce new material. Unfortunately the show seems to end much too early. I could have listened to much more songs. Anyway we got one encore before the band left for good.

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Setlist
01. Dekade 2
02. Ernstfall
03. Gott sei Dank nicht in England
04. Stadt der 1000 Tränen
05. Glauberei
06. Im Sommer
07. Politdisko
08. Glücksmaschinen
09. Ein Jahr (Es geht voran)
10. Bundesagentur
11. Die Welt (?) (new, unreleased song)
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12. Platz da
13. Das war vor Jahren
14. Paul ist tot

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 6
Total: 8 / 10

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DAF

Starting as a five-piece band in 1978, DAF reduced to a duo of Gabi Delgado and Robert Goerl after the UK tour in 1981. Between the years 1980 and 1982 they were commercially extremely successful with their albums ‘Die Kleinen und die Bösen’ (The petite and the evil) and ‘Alles ist gut’ (Everything is good), not only in the German language speaking countries and DAF became pioneers and an inspiration for the genre Electro Punk, EBM and Techno worldwide. Their provocative lyrics and their martial appearance were definitely controversially discussed but despite of taking a position, DAF used this as a kind of promotion. Like FEHLFARBEN, DAF experienced separation and reunions as well but in 2008 Gabi and Robert decided to work together again and since then they appear on festivals again and give successful concerts. https://www.facebook.com/daf.deutschamerikanischefreundschaft / https://www.facebook.com/gabi.delgado.752 / https://www.facebook.com/goerl

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Music & Performance
Was the stage before quite full with a drum set and two keyboards, it changed into sparse after the rebuilding: a table with a CD player, a drum set on a platform and a microphone tripod. And with the allocation of at least 4 six packs of small water bottles in front of the drum set, it is quite clear who will appear on stage next. This set up is not only sparse but quite extraordinary for an electronically based band. Usually there is a keyboard on stage and the beat comes from a drum machine, or the setting is at least a keyboard and a drum set. The show starts as usual with the ritual that Robert appears on stage, puts a CD in the player and takes his seat behind the drum set before Gabi enters the stage, gives the audience the first shower with water and the show starts. Actually I thought with an audience that is dominated of people of my age, it would be more peaceful but I was completely wrong, for right from the first tunes on lots of people started to pogo. Well, I’m not the pogo kind and as I had no chance to take one decent photo, I had to escape the manic dancing crowd. Of course we were presented the classic hits of DAF but with some variation in the set list. Furthermore ‘Begrüßungsgeld’ was presented which was not part of the shows I saw.

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But it is not only the choice of songs that make the shows of DAF so special – Gabi stresses each song with such an intensity and spiritedness that it never gets boring and Robert plays the drums accurate to the point. Time flies and you get the impression that the show ends just after it started and I was apparently not the only one who had this feeling. Thus it was no wonder that the people shouted for an encore. The first one started with a recitation of ‘Die lustigen Stiefel’ (The funny boots) followed by ‘Kebab Träume’. As one encore was not enough, the shouting for the next one was loud of course. We then got ‘Der Räuber und der Prinz’ (The robber and the prince). The lights went on when Gabi and Robert left the stage but still the audience shouted for more. Actually I thought that they all were shouting in vain, but to my own surprise the guys returned and presented ‘Der Mussolini’ - this time with a variation as the first stanza was sung in Spanish. So a fantastic concert evening ended and we all were quite exhausted for sure but very happy.

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Setlist
01. Verschwende Deine Jugend
02. Ich und die Wirklichkeit
03. Der Mussolini
04. Ich will
05. Muskel
06. Begrüßungsgeld
07. Mein Herz macht bum
08. Moschino, Heckler & Koch
09. Rote Lippen
10. Liebeszimmer
11. Du bist DAF
12. Sato- Sato
13. Alle gegen Alle
14. Nachtarbeit
15. Verlier’ nicht den Kopf
16. Die Lüge
17. Als wär’s das letzte Mal
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18. Recitation: Die lustigen Stiefel
19. Kebab Träume
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20. Der Räuber und der Prinz
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21. Der Mussolini (Spanish and German language)

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8.9 / 10

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All picture by morTICIA



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