Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany9th September 2017
Me the Tiger – “What is beautiful never die Tour”
For months I was looking forward to the date when ME THE TIGER would play in Hamburg. Since the band is still quite unknown in Germany and also played in Hamburg without a support band, the concert was rather poorly attended. There were 30 - 40 people in the venue, but the danced, clapped and behaved as if 100 people more were in the room. That was wonderful.
Embossed by the historical industrial environment of the Swedish city Falun, Gabriella Åström (vocals & synth), Tobias Andersson (synth & guitar) und Jonas Martinsson (drums) founded the electro-pop band ME THE TIGER in 2012. Since then, ME THE TIGER have released three albums. With their newest one, ‘What is beautiful never dies’, they did a little tour through Germany. The new album ‘What is beautiful never dies’ is still on place 10 of the DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts). The single ‘Hollow’ has some good charts placements as well. In the DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts) on 11 and in the GEWC (German Web Charts) on 13. This is fantastic. http://www.methetiger.com / https://www.facebook.com/MeTheTiger
Music & Performance
The advantage of this solo show in Hamburg was that the band could play their new album nearly in total, starting with ‘What Is Beautiful’ to the first single ‘Hollow’ and ‘Saknaden’, the second song on the new album. Wonderful! Gabriella sings in English as well as in Swedish and uses every now and then a mini-mouthpiece… simple but beautiful. ‘Headlines’ and ‘Ariana’ are older songs, but can catch up with the new songs when it comes to significance, mood and danceability. The audience knew every text by heart and sang along what moved and delighted Gabriella visibly. I was really excited as well since ME THE TIGER is a band full of potential and I really with them to be much better known. Lot many have so much energy, deep lyrics and sympathy. ME THE TIGER is no old story. ME THE TIGER is unique. Every year, there are many new bands in the fields of electronic music, but only a few stand out.
Gabriella is a real whirlwind on stage, she sings, screams, jumps and kneels and in-between she even plays keyboards. Jonas gave everything behind the drums…. Is if there is no tomorrow. When Gabriella had some problems with her in-ear monitors, Jonas just distracted the crowd with the words: “you are the loveliest crowd we ever had”. What a charming man! Third person on stage was Tobias, changing constantly, also in-between the songs, between guitar and keyboard. He was totally drown into his own world. Jonas was finally the first one leaving the stage during the last song, ‘What Promises Are Worth’, but before he disappeared he came to the front and formed a heart towards the audience with his hands. After him, also Gabriella left the stage. The lights were dimmed and finally, only a silhouette of Tobias behind the keyboard was visible. Magical! When the lights finally went down totally, he also disappeared in the dark behind the stage. The venue stayed dark. Our chance for an encore?
And indeed after the band had already played fifteen songs, they came back to stage. “You want one more? You get it!”. ‘All We Had’ was finally the last song of the evening when Gabriella literally exploded. You had the feeling she could even go on for hours. What a power! After the show, anyone was invited to come to the merch and say hello. Of course I di das asked and used the opportunity to buy the very new and very first shirt. Gabriella even remembered me standing in the audience during last year’s M’era Luna. What a likeable person! After the concert, there was the “Return of the Living Dead” party held at the venue. The band decided not to party though since Gabriella has an eight-month old daughter who was on tour with the band.
Once again I have to close a review of ME THE TIGER with the words: “I hope we will meet again very soon”. It is just wonderful to see such an enthusiastic and authentic band live on stage. A fire, many bands of the scene have lost long time ago, is burning inside of them.
Setlist
01. Slottet
02. What Is Beautiful
03. Hollow
04. Saknaden
05. Kerosene
06. Headlines
07. Ariana
08. Everything I Am
09. Hiraeth
10. Pocket
11. I Thought Sleep Would Do It
12. Meadow
13. My Heroine
14. As We Really Are
15. What Promises Are Worth
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16. All We Had
Pictures by Jan Termath (http://www.profound-passion.com/)
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