Rosenhof, Osnabrück, Germany
4th April 2013
Letzte Instanz & Lost Area
After releasing their latest album ‘Ewig’ already in 2012, the final part of the trilogy was such a success that the band decided to do an extension of the tour. Therefore, LETZTE INSTANZ added another 14 shows to the tour in order to further promote their album and please their fans. Today, it was time for Osnabrück to celebrate with the band and the new support act, LOST AREA.
Lost Area
Swiss based band LOST AREA was founded in 2003 and shortly afterwards, the band self-released their first few songs, followed by the first album ‘Dare to Dream’ in 2006 including remixes from bands like BLUTENGEL or UNHEILIG. Many concerts in Europe followed. In 2008, their second album ‘Man Machine’ made its way into the public. The band gained more and more fans, not only due to shows with PROJECT PITCHFORK, DIARY OF DREAMS and FUNKER VOGT. LOST AREA changed their sound throughout the time, accompanied by line-up changes, getting a more guitar based sound today. Their latest piece ‘Destroying Something Beautiful’ came out in 2012. LOST AREA today consists of Matteo “VDiva” Fabbiani (vocals), Jan Bertram (keyboard), Fabian Reißmüller (guitar) and Chris Fox (drums). Since Fabian could not get off from work, Mischa on guitar jumped in for him. http://www.lostarea.com / https://www.facebook.com/LostArea / http://www.myspace.com/lostarea
Music & Performance
What a change! When I saw LOST AREA live for the last time, they were an electronic band with two singers (at that time Markus Bär and Andi Gundler). Now, the band presents itself as an electronic influenced Goth-Rock band with a singer, who indeed fulfils all clichés of a Goth-Rock front man from the deep charismatic voice (which was a little bit affected by a cold on that evening) to the glamorous look. Another visual highlight on stage was drummer Chris who is really extroverted and does not hide behind lots of high-hats. The show itself presented a set of ten songs, from older ones to several outtakes from the latest album. What was really interesting for me: the old songs were presented in the musical direction of the current album and so, anything was fitting perfectly together. In the middle of the show, also a cover version was woven in – the famous BILLY IDOL song ‘White Wedding’, combined with the demand of Matteo that people scream along. Well, this was only partly successful. 
At the beginning, the audience was quite hesitant in the only half-filled hall. But during the show, they more and more woke up and finally showed their admiration for the band. There were lots of fans happy to buy some band merch later and meet all musicians at the merch stand later for some chats, autographs and photos.
Setlist
01. A Place called Home
02. You are alive
03. Nobody
04. Sun is still Shining
05. White Wedding (Billy Idol cover)
06. Memoria
07. Leave me alone
08. Amnesia
09. Breakdown
10. Blackstorm
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.3 / 10
Letzte Instanz
LETZTE INSTANZ was founded in 1996 in Dresden. After they approached some labels under the former name RESISTANCE they signed a record deal with the label Costbar and recorded their first songs which are included on the first album. Later the band then changed their name to LETZTE INSTANZ. Before they even released their second album, singer Hörbi and bass player Kaspar left the band. Sebastian Lohse aka Robin Sohn and Rasta F. took over as singer and bass player. After the release of their fourth album ‘Götter auf Abruf’, again three members of the band (incl. the singer) left the band. With him a new era began for LETZTE INSTANZ which culminated in the 2012 release of ‘Ewig’, the final album of a trilogy started with ‘Schuldig’ and continued with 'Heilig'. LETZTE INSTANZ is Holly (vocals), M. Stolz (violin), B. Cellini (cello), Oli (guitar), Holly D. (guitar), Micha (bass) and David Pätsch (drums). http://www.letzte-instanz.de / http://www.myspace.com/letzteinstanz / http://www.facebook.com/letzteinstanz
Music & Performance
LETZTE INSTANZ are always a guarantee for a great live experience. In Osnabrück, the task was not the easiest one since the hall was still just half filled and many people rather stayed in the back instead of coming close to celebrate with the band. When the intro ‘Aeternitas‘ started, slowly the LETZTE INSTANZ logos on both sides of the drum set started to glow and soon, the light became brighter, tinting the back into red. Soon, the band entered the stage to start with the atmospheric ‘Ewig’, seeing singer Holly shaking some hands in the front row. Afterwards followed some songs from the new album. For ‘Wieder einmal Rot’, the whole hall was flooded with red light. During the song, soon a strange noise from the speakers was heard, destroying the song sadly and being commented by Holly, “Oh, we broke it”. Luckily, no such problem appeared during the following set, a set, where not only the main actors in front, both Hollys, Benni and M. Stolz were brilliant, also the back row had its time with various solos. 
Even though the band surely was not happy with the amount of attending fans, the mood soon became better and better with seeing people singing along and waving their arms. ‘Kopfkino’ or ‘Für immer und ewig’ brought us back to the earlier years of the band. Over the years, the band constantly developed and songs like ‘Schwarzer Sand’ or the instrumental ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ were proof of the rockier direction the band is recently going. Latter song presented a great instrumental part by Oli on guitar, Michael on bass and David on drums. ‘Sing!’ being presented towards the end, was one of the show’s highlights with people loudly shouting “sing”. ‘Tausendschön’ finally marked the moody end of the main set. But there were several more highlights to come. The first encore started with the intro from the “Schuldig” tour and led over to ‘Flucht ins Glück’, remembering the first part of the trilogy, the album ‘Schuldig’.
The hymn ‘Wir sind allein’ is always one of the fan’s favourites and also the audience in Osnabrück loved that song. Anyone was holding another hand, waving over their heads and loudly sang along. When the band already had left the stage, the chants went on, bringing soon drummer David back to stage, first supporting the chant with rhythmic drum beats. When the audience did not intend to stop at all, he tried to distract the singers with various beat variations, but it took him quite a while until he finally succeeded and the audience just answered with loud screams and clapping. The rest of the band joined him on stage to start another fave, ‘Rapunzel’. People were enthusiastically celebrating this song. In its middle, LETZTE INSTANZ moved over to WHITE STRIPES’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ where Benni and M. Stolz were surfing the crowd. Singer Holly was disappearing from stage and all of a sudden, he was reappearing at the mixing desk, singing his way through the audience and grabbing a big beer at the bar on his way back to stage.
But still, ‘Rapunzel’ was not over. Before the song went on, Holly made another announcement. Stage hand André had his birthday this evening and so, he had to come to the front to receive his birthday song, enlarged by the audience with another song which made anyone smile. But finally, also ‘Rapunzel’ was over and the set closed with the calm ‘Sandmann’ after more than two hours. After the exhausting show, the band even found time for the fans at the merch stand. Great show as always, my friends!
Setlist
01. Intro: Aeternitas (New Version 2013)
02. Ewig
03. Nur für uns
04. Blind
05. Neue Helden
06. Wieder einmal Rot
07. Morgenrot
08. Dein Licht
09. Schwarzer Sand & Et in Arcadia Ego
10. Intro & Regenbogen
11. Der Garten
12. Von Anfang an
13. Ohne Dich
14. Atme
15. Kopfkino
16. Für immer und ewig
17. Schuld
18. Der letzte Tag
19. Sing!
20. Tausendschön
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21. Intro (from the Schuldig Tour) & Flucht ins Glück
22. Finsternis
23. Wir sind allein
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24. Rapunzel (& Seven Nation Army by White Stripes)
25. Sandmann
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 10
Total: 9 / 10
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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