Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany14th April 2018
Beatsteaks - “Yours Tour” 2018 - Special guest: Zugezogen Maskulin
Berlin’s legendary Rock band BEATSTEAKS have completed their circle: 17 years after they opened for DIE TOTEN HOSEN in the Westfalenhalle, they are playing their own headline show in the giant venue in front of 20,000 people.
Zugezogen Maskulin
The Berlin Hip Hop Duo was chosen to support BEATSTEAKS on their tour. Since their formation in 2010, they have released their third album ‘Alle gegen Alle’. https://www.facebook.com/ZUGEZOGENMASKULIN / www.zugezogenmaskulin.de
Music & Performance
At 8pm, BEATSTEAKS Singer Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß und guitarist Bernd Kurtzke went on stage to introduce their friends from ZUGEZOGEN MASKULIN as being “punks” in the year 2018. It seems like among punks of the year 2018, Fred Perry Polo shirts and black jeans are all the rage, because this was what the two front men were wearing, when they entered the stage. Accompanied by their DJ, the rappers started their performance with their song ‘Oranienplatz’ from their 2015 album ‘Alles brennt’.
All in all, their rap almost solely relied on beats and German lyrics, which made it rather inaccessible to the majority of people in the audience. The two rappers teased the apathy and antipathy of the people present, which did not really help, as more and more people started booing and whistling during the song breaks. After a long half hour, ZUGEZOGEN MASKULIN left the stage, accompanied by the cynical applause of the relieved audience, and the question remains what on earth made the BEATSTEAKS think that bringing along this support act was a good idea.
Setlist
01. Oranienplatz
02. Ich hasse alle
03. Plattenbau O.S.T.
04. Alle gegen Alle
05. Enlich wieder Krieg
06. Alles brennt
Rating
Music: 2
Performance: 2
Sound: 2
Light: 2
Total: 2 / 10
Beatsteaks
It all started around 22 years ago, when five friends from Berlin decided to apply for a local music competition for a spot as a warm-up act for the SEX PISTOLS. Since then, the BEATSTEAKS did what every ambitious Punk Rock band would do: they toured their asses off, and in the meantime spend the rest of their resources on recording stuff. This finally paid off in 2004, when they released their album ‘Snack Smash’, which contained the iconic single ‘I Don’t Care as Long as You Sing’, which landed on heavy rotation on MTV. From there, things only went upwards. So these days, the BEATSTEAKS have made it into the Premier League of bands, booking festival headliner slots and large venues for their European tour, promoting their eights and most recent album ‘Yours’, which was released in September 2017. www.beatsteaks.com / https://www.facebook.com/beatsteaks
Music & Performance
Shortly after 9pm, the band’s DJ went on stage to spin some tracks. A few minutes later, the rest of the band joined to start off with the song ‘Yours’, which is also the album title of their latest release. Within minutes, BEATSTEAKS amped up the energy levels inside the large venue, as a large number of people in the main stage area started pogoing, and also the fans on the ranks were standing up and dancing. Singer Arnim leveraged his entertainer qualities, as he encouraged fans to experience a concert ‘like 10 years ago’, which essentially meant not through a smartphone screen, and he assured everyone that the BEATSTEAKS were more interesting than WhatsApp. This certainly proved to be true, as the band played all their hits from their 20 year-long band history, as well as carefully curated cover songs, such as QUEEN’s ‘I want to break free’, or the iconic ‘Hey Du’ from ILONA SCHULZ.
Singer Arnim seemingly never stood still for a moment, but instead whizzed back and forth on the large stage of the Westfalenhalle, always interacting with people from the audience, sometimes by pulling them on stage to scream into the microphone with them and making them stage-dive after that. A true highlight with the potential to burn the house down, as Arnim frequently called on the fans to do, was the song ‘Jane became insane’, during which a large part of the audience sat down and jumped up at the same moment, when the music picked up again, creating a beautiful moment for everyone. After around two hours of play time, the main set list ended with the uber hit ‘Gentleman of the Year’.
The encore offered a massive surprise (at least for those who did not sneak peak at the set lists of other concerts): the band came back on stage with two members from DEICHKIND to perform last album’s single ‘L auf der Stirn’. Then they all together performed ‘So ‘ne Musik’, and closed the encore with the gem ‘I don’t care as long as you sing’. BEATSTEAKS would not be BEATSTEAKS if that would have been the end of the evening. The band returned on stage for a second encore to play the old school hit ‘Cut off the Top’, and the evening culminated in the BEASTIE BOYS’ cover version ‘Sabotage’, which made everyone once again go berserk in the pit. This marked the end after a full 150 minutes of playtime, so every concertgoer could go home with the unique feeling of having witnessed a truly special evening.
Setlist
01. Yours
02. Hello Joe
03. Frieda und die Bomben (Fu Manchu cover) (with Jan Windmeier/Turbostaat)
04. Summertime
05. Automatic
06. I want to break free (Queen cover)
07. So kick it!
08. Fever
09. She Was Great
10. Summer
11. Jane Became Insane
12. Policoro
13. Cheap Comments
14. Barfrau
15. Badfish (Sublime cover)
16. Hand in Hand
17. Milk & Honey
18. Hey Du (Ilona Schulz cover)
19. 40 Degrees
20. You in Your Memories
21. To Be Strong
22. I Do
23. Let Me In
24. Gentleman of the Year
---
25. L auf der Stirn (with Deichkind)
26. So'ne Musik (Deichkind cover) (with Deichkind)
27. I Don't Care as Long as You Sing
---
28. Cut Off the Top
29. Sabotage (Beastie Boys cover)
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8 / 10
All pictures by Andreas Gey (Kommodore Johnsen)
Comments powered by CComment