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introStahlwerk, Düsseldorf, Germany
30th October 2012
Gotye & Jonti

When GOTYE succeeded with their international hit ‘Somebody that I used to know’, they caused a big stir turning that they were booked for a concert at the big Mitsubishi-Electric Halle in Düsseldorf. But the big hype was soon over, even though the band deserves a lot of attention, and so, the show was moved to the much smaller Stahlwerk, where just a few hundreds of people showed up to enjoy the concert.


Jonti

Just like GOTYE, also opening act, or better opening DJ-like act, JONTI lives now in Australia whereas his roots are in South Africa. When entering the venue, you could see a packed stage with lots of GOTYE equipment and in the middle in front of the big white screen, there was quite a big DJ desk for JONTI. If you did not stumble across JONTI before and so you are not familiar with him – he’s a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and vocalist. JONTI himself describes his music as simple, but others see it different because of the advanced arrangements, just to name one aspect. https://www.facebook.com/jontidanimals / http://www.myspace.com/jontidanimals

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Music & Performance
So, what did we get during his 30 minutes show time? JONTI, all alone on stage mostly hidden behind his desk, surprised with a quite experimental musical mix of various electronic playful sounds accompanied with ecstatic dance moves. He tried his best to warm the audience up and at the beginning, it was not really easy for him – maybe the audience expected some other opening act judging by GOTYE’s music. Behind the desk, there was the huge screen extensively used for psychedelic colourful and abstract pictures accompanying the sounds. Pictures and sound, they perfectly fitted together. During the set, the audience seemed to wake up and soon, JONTI earned quite some applause. For the last song ‘Saturday night Songs’, he skipped all electronic sounds and grabbed a simple Ukulele accompanying his voice. Thanking people, he soon disappeared from stage to make room for GOTYE.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 7.3 / 10

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Gotye

Born in Belgium and living now in Australia, GOTYE is the moniker of singer-songwriter, drummer, guitarist and keyboarder Wouter (Wally) De Backer. The name "Gotye" is derived from "Gauthier", the French equivalent of "Walter" or "Wouter". Having already released a few albums independently, he turned from insider tip to celebrated world star with only one hit, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ from his latest album ‘Making Mirrors’ from 2011. This song alone was leading the charts not only in Germany and probably many people only know this one song, not living up his overall musical output. Due to this song, also the album ‘Making Mirrors’ became very successful. GOTYE is not the common super star, he’s a really innovative musician full of fantasy with fantastic live shows. During his show, the was by the way supported by a full band – keyboarder, drummer, guitarist and bassist – while GOTYE himself was playing various percussions accompanying his vocal performance. http://www.gotye.com / http://www.myspace.com/gotye / https://www.facebook.com/gotye

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Music & Performance
It took nearly 45 minutes until GOTYE and band finally entered the stage. And let me tell you first – if you expected more songs in the style of ‘Somebody…‘, you were disappointed. Instead, multi talent and sample-wunderkind GOTYE presented a mix of electronic sounds (now you know why JONTI was support act), soul, funk or dub, anything accompanied with an amazing video show. His set started with the title song of his latest album, ‘Making Mirrors’, accompanied by him on percussions. The audience was excited from the very beginning and so, an evening with a very diversified musical program found its beginning. Multi-talent Wally also showed on stage his many facets, playing various percussions and rhythmic instruments or additional synthesizer, showing all those details and the richness of his songs and sounds, making sure there was played as much live as possible. It was amazing! I really did not expect this kind of show! The stage at the Stahlwerk was nearly too small for the production and the immense amount of equipment being placed there, not to speak of the huge video wall in the back. How must have this looked at the big Mitsubishi-Electric hall!

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Soon after the first songs, GOTYE started interacting with the quite mixed audience, asking them where they are from. Of course he wanted to know if someone was there from his home land Belgium, but there were only a few. Anyway, the set was developed further, the songs offered lots of sound tinkering and effects, always underlined by fantastic and really creative videos being shown on the big wall. Vocally, GOTYE reminded me during several songs a bit of STING, and this is definitely meant as a compliment! During older song ‘The Only Thing I Know’, GOTYE himself was taking place behind the drum set while the drummer changed for a sampling device, delivering female voice and some sampled e-guitars with typical 80s sounds. GOTYE in the meantime really convinced with his drum play showing once more how many facets he had to offer. Following really calm song ‘Night Drive’ was underlined with a fantastic video showing night pictures of a city. With ‘Giving Me a Chance’ and ‘Bronte’ , two more calm songs followed, leaving Wally excited since the audience was so calm during those pieces.

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Finally, it was time for this one song anyone was waiting for: ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ left the audience excited, anyone was singing along, especially during the female vocal part which was originally sung by KIMBRA. Not only huge applause but also a fantastic video animation, remembering of the music video for this song, accompanied the hit single. With last song ‘Hearts a Mess’, GOTYE said goodbye. But not for long! There was room for three more songs before the band finally left for good, released an excited audience into the cold night. How to sum it up? I was really impressed by the diversity this man had to offer. The show was much different than expected, but nonetheless absolutely phantastic!

Setlist
01. Making Mirrors
02. The Only Way
03. What Do You Want?
04. Easy Way Out
05. Eyes Wide Open
06. Smoke and Mirrors
07. State of the Art
08. Thanks for Your Time
09. Dig Your Own Hole
10. The Only Thing I Know
11. Night Drive
12. Giving Me a Chance
13. Bronte
14. Somebody That I Used to Know
15. Save Me
16. Hearts a Mess
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17. Seven Hours With a Backseat Driver
18. I Feel Better
19. Learnalilgivinanlovin

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

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All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)


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