Huxleys Neue Welt, Berlin, Germany
30th September 2012
Oomph! & Blowsight
The Huxleys Neue Welt was three quarters full on this cold day of September, waiting for the nearly unknown Swedish band BLOWSIGHT and for the veterans of German Gothic Rock, OOMPH!.
Blowsight
BLOWSIGHT is a Swedish music project founded in 2006. They consist of Nick Red (vocals, guitar), Seb (vocals, guitar) and FabZ (vocals, drums) and call their music themselves “PopMetalPunk”. http://www.blowsight.com/ / www.facebook.com/BLOWSIGHT
Music and Performance
I must confess that my first association, when BLOWSIGHT begun, Was “The 69 Eyes”, and my second “Dead Kennendys”. Maybe their own definition is true and they are really a “PopMetalPunk” band, I thought, although I was slightly disappointed by the lack of originality of their music. Their third song was called ‘666’ and the title didn’t improve this opinion of mine, just as little as their jokes about “Weihnachtsmänner” (Santa Claus) and “Kartoffeln” (potatos). But the in-expected happened - their forth song was a really powerful piece of alternative rock, followed by a beautiful metal ballad. Nick did his best to catch the audience, saying that he wanted to marry them all because they were so beautiful and dedicating the seventh song to LADY GAGA, who still “doesn’t know that she is married to him”. BLOWSIGHT ended their performance screaming “Oi oi oi” and earning a lot of applause for their last and eighth song.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
Oomph!
OOMPH! was founded in Wolfsburg in 1989 and are one of the oldest and most famous German bands. They consist of Dero Goi (vocals, drums), Crap (keyboard, guitar) and Robert Flux (guitars, sampling). On stage, they are supported by several more artists on drums, bass, keyboard and percussions. Their music is called “Neue Deutsche Härte”, a powerful mixture of Rock, EBM, Pop and Metal, and has inspired bands like RAMMSTEIN. OOMPH! have published 14 albums, their newest, ‘Des Wahnsinns fette Beute’, in 2012. www.oomph.de / https://www.facebook.com/oomphband
Music and performance
OOMPH! appeared half past nine, dressed completely in sailor clothes and accompanied by steamer tooting. Dero was wearing a red harlequin mask and red shorts over his sailor trousers. He gave the welcome to Berlin and started the concert with ‘Unzerstörbar’ (un-destroyable), a typical OOMPH! song, ending the song with ‘We will rock you’ and asking the public to sing with him. The second song, ‘Labyrinth’ from their tenth album ‘Monster’, was a powerful rock song which caught the audience immediately. “Give me vibes, and I’m going to undress just for you!” Dero screamed and took of his red shorts. ‘Das weiße Licht’ (The White Light) was a beautiful and dramatic ballad taken from one of their first albums, ‘Plastik’, and Dero modulated his voice in a fine way. In contrast, ‘Bis der Spiegel zerbricht’ (until the mirror breaks) was an angry evaluation of so called “casting shows”. 
After this, the band performed ‘Träumst Du’ (Are you dreaming?) about an obsessive love. The song invited to jump, and many people did so. A few songs later, OOMPH! performed ‘Kleinstadtboy’ about boys and young men who pretend to be strong and tough, for example rappers or soccer stars, and who discriminate gay people but who wear secretly female lingerie or desire their team fellows. I must say that the song caused me ambivalent feelings. Although the intention was surely good, I felt uncomfortable with the highly exaggerated gesture and effeminate voice of Dero and with the sample of stereotypes reproduced by the singer. The ninth song was ‘Mein Herz’ (My heart), which didn’t have been performed for a long time and which showed very clearly where RAMMSTEIN took their inspiration from. Both, this song and the next one ‘Der neue Gott’ (The new God) showed the “old” OOMPH!: A hard, provocative band with strong influences of EBM. 
In contrast, ‘Regen’ (Rain), from the newest album, was clearly a pop song. Another highlight was ‘Gekreuzigt’ (Crucified), a beautiful rock song full of power and passion. The next song, taken from the new album, was called ‘Seemansrose’ (Rose of the sailor) and was a nice and funny shanty. ‘Auf Kurs’ (On Target) was a ballad full of emotions, beautiful performed by Dero, a song about love and lost. ‘Sandmann’ was dedicated to “the poor little European banks” and was a rock song about the poverty of children in Germany. “Three millions of children under the poverty level - shame on you, Germany” screamed Dero. After performing their twentieth and maybe most successful song, ‘Augen auf’ (Open your eyes), OOMPH! did finish their regular set, reappearing for three additional songs.
At the first encore song, which dealt with travesty, Dero was wearing a red dress with a blue skirt. The second additional song was ‘Gott ist ein Popstar’ (God is a Pop star) and the audience went mad. OOMPH! ended their concert with a Monty Python cover: “Always look at the bright side of life”. Beside the good musical quality, I think it is worth to mention that Oomph, unlike many other bands, appeared punctually and played a real long program, about two hours in total. People went home late, but satisfied!
Setlist
01. Unzerstörbar
02. Labyrinth
03. Mein Schatz
04. Das weisse Licht
05. Bis Der Spiegel Zerbricht
06. Träumst Du
07. Wunschkind
08. Kleinstadtboy
09. Mein Herz
10. Der neue Gott
11. Regen
12. Niemand
13. Gekreuzigt
14. Seemannsrose
15. Mitten ins Herz
16. Auf Kurs
17. Sex hat keine Macht
18. Zwei Schritte Vor
19. Sandmann
20. Augen Auf!
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21. Aus meiner Haut
22. Gott ist ein Popstar
23. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Monty Python cover)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 7
Sound: 10
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
Pics by:
Oomph – Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
Blowsight – Sarah Wolff
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