Colosseum, Essen, Germany19th September 2019
Amanda Palmer - “There will be no intermission” Tour
AMANDA PALMER’s new studio album, ‘There Will Be No Intermission’, was released on March 8th. On occasion of this release, she is on tour again in Europe with several dates in Germany, one of them was taking place at the beautiful seated Colosseum theatre in Essen.
Music & Performance
She announced the evening with following words: “I will be bringing my song & storytelling tour, ‘There will be no intermission’, to the Colosseum theatre in Essen, Germany on September 19th, 2019. We will be having ourselves many cries, laughs, and hugs, throughout the night as I take you through a journey of my last six years and play songs from the new record. Come prepared to have all sorts of emotions. The show is approximately 3 hours long with one intermission (get it?), there will be no support acts, and the shows will start very punctually, so please be seated early. This show is not appropriate for kids under about 15.”
Of course this was very promising. And the evening turned out even more exciting than expected. It was different than the concerts before. During prior concerts, Amanda hat her setlist and was playing “the show”, as she said later. In Essen, she was walking around in the lobby before the concert and collected fan requests. Short after the beginning of the show she announced what was going on today and that she would play any single request she collected. Well, that was sounding great! In the course of the show, she added only one song she really wanted to play herself. Speaking of the show… when it became dark in the venue, no one appeared on stage behind the piano. Instead, you heard silent ukulele sounds from somewhere within the audience area and soon, a soft voice started singing RADIOHEADS ‘Creep’. You literally could hear a needle falling on the floor. Touching, especially when the audience started to form a big choir. Goose bumps!
Amanda walked through the audience to stage and presented another song on ukulele, ‘In My Mind’, before she announced what would be going on today. Then she took a seat behind her piano, spoke about the weird experiences of a Nazi (and Anti-Nazi) demonstration in the city today and this German song she would play now. She had rehearsed it for the first time during the sound check and was surprised to hear it as request during her walk through the lobby… she in fact wondered how the girl could know she had rehearsed this song… maybe she was a witch! Just with the first chords, people in the hall exactly knew what song was coming up now! It was ‘Schrei nach Liebe’ by German Punk band DIE ÄRZTE. Amanda presented this song in pretty good German and as she forgot a little part, she just added some lines of MADONNA’s ‘Like a Prayer’ (fun fact besides: I just heard this song during my ride to Essen in the radio).
The following evening was very entertaining. There was no big light show or visuals displayed. It was just Amanda, her music and a lot of anecdotes she told. With a grin she said that usually she is playing just nine songs within three hours… since she is speaking so much. And she had a lot to say - might it political or feminist statements, stories about her songs or things happening in her life. It was never boring. The combinations of her own songs, some cover songs, like the German Neue Deutsche Welle classig ‘Eisbär’ by GRAUZONE, and lots of stories made the evening very entertaining. Three hours were over so fast and unlike to other shows, there really was no intermission in the show today. At the end, there were even good news for all DRESDEN DOLLS fans: the band is working on a new album, as Amanda announced.
After the show, Amanda demonstrated her love for the fans and you could meet her in the lobby for some chats, autographs or pictures with her. Really a great evening and if you have the chance to see her during the tour, don’t miss it!
Setlist
01. Creep (Radiohead cover) (on ukulele, walking through the audience)
02. In My Mind (on ukulele)
03. Schrei nach Liebe (Die Ärzte cover) (with ‘Like A Prayer’ from Madonna snippet)
04. Astronaut (A Short History of Nearly Nothing)
05. Die Seeräuber-Jenny (Kurt Weill cover)
06. The Killing Type (Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra cover)
07. Oasis
08. Runs In The Family
09. Ampersand
10. Drowning in the Sound
11. Eisbär (Grauzone cover)
12. Machete
13. A Mother’s Confession
14. Voicemail for Jill
15. Lass jetzt los (Willemijn Verkaik cover)
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16. The Ride
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 10
Light: 9
Total: 9.5 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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