E-Werk, Cologne, Germany
15th November 2012
Skunk Anansie & The Jezabels
It is more than one year ago we saw SKUNK ANANSIE touring with her last album in Cologne, back than it was at the packed Live-Music-Hall. Now, the band is back with a new album, ‘Black Traffic’, and in the course of the supporting tour, SKUNK ANANSIE are also back in Cologne, scheduled for a bigger venue. But the choice for Palladium seemed a little oversized and so, the concert was moved to the smaller E-Werk, still bigger than the Live-Music-Hall. THE JEZABELS as support opened the evening.
The Jezabels
THE JEZABELS is a four-piece group, consisting of Nik Kaloper (drums), Samuel Lockwood (guitars), Hayley Mary (vocals) and Heather Shannon (keys), coming from Sydney, Australia. They music is a mix of Alternative, Indie and Disco Pop, in parts it was reminding me of FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE. Coming together in 2007, they released three EPs, ‘The Man Is Dead EP’ (February 2009), ‘She's So Hard EP’ (November 2009) and ‘Dark Storm EP’ (October 2010), as well as a full-length album, ‘Prisoner’ (September 2011), so far. The band also have earned some live experience, i.e. while touring the US or on their 2012 UK dates with GARBAGE. http://www.thejezabels.com / https://www.facebook.com/TheJezabels
Music & Performance
Australian four-piece was entering the stage punctually at eight to start their short set of just six songs. The space they had on stage was not really large. Most of stage was covered by a black curtain hiding the SKUNK ANANSIE stage setting and just on front of the curtain, drums set and keyboard for THE JEZABELS was placed. Musically, I really liked what I head. Sadly, performance-wise the band could not convince. The whole set was pretty static, beginning from the musicians to the light, who were just steady green-blue without any alternation. Hayley just moved, when she was not singing. Not sure if the band had a bad day or if it was the limited space. I am sure they could do better… at the end, the music is really catching.
Setlist
01. Endless Summer
02. Easy to love
03. Trycolour
04. Catch me
05. Hurt me
06. Dark Storm
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 6
Sound: 8
Light: 5
Total: 7 / 10
Skunk Anansie
The popular Britrock band SKUNK ANANSIE consisting of lead singer Deborah Anne Dyer aka Skin, Mark Richardson (drums), Martin Ivor Kent alias Ace (guitar) and Richard Keith Lewis alias Cass (bass) was formed in 1994. Their unusual name was taken after an African tale of a spider-man called “Anansi“. One year after, they were voted “Best New British Band“ by the readers of Kerrang!-magazine. The first albums `Paranoid and Sunburnt´ (1995) and `Stoosh´ (1996) made the world-wide breakthrough. In 1999, SKUNK ANANSIE released the long-player `Post Orgasmic Chill´ which should be the final album before the band disbanded in 2001. After the split, the band members turned to solo-projects: Skin recorded `Fleshwounds´ and `Fake Chemical State´, Cass collaborated with Gary Moore releasing the album `Scars´ and Mark recorded sessions with various artists. The band reformed then in 2009 and with ‘Wonderlustre’ released a completely new album. Now in September 2012, the next album, ‘Black Traffic’, followed. http://www.skunkanansie.net / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSkunkAnansie / http://www.myspace.com/skunkanansiemusic
Music & Performance
It took longer than expected until the SKUNK ANANSIE show finally started. When THE JEZABELS ended, the audience had to wait 45 more minutes until finally the cover picture of the new album was projected onto smaller screens right and left to the drum set and then, the band stormed the stage, leaded by Skin who already put full power into her show from the very first second. It is incredible how much power this woman has. Even being past 40, she constantly moves on stage like a young girl, dares stage diving and crowd surfing. The show started with ‘The Skank Head’ followed by a few new songs from the latest album, which had a main part in the whole show. All in all, eight out of eleven song from the album found their way into the set. The rest of the show belonged to a few songs from the previous album ‘Wonderlustre’ and of course some of the band’s biggest hits, like ‘Weak’ or ‘Hedonism’. Visually, the show was underlined by a formidable light show and various strong video projections.
Even though SKUNK ANANSIE is a complete band, the eyes are mostly on front woman Skin with her strong appearance. First wearing some kind of black glittery stole, she soon removed it, showing her trained body making you drowning in admiration. After the first bloc of newer songs, the hall started boiling with ‘I’ve had Enough’ when anyone was screaming, clapping and jumping. And then it was time for ‘Weak’, one of the band’s most catching songs’ and all of a sudden, Skin pumped from stage into the audience to present the song standing over the fans’ heads, just being hold by the strong arms of the audience. She did not manage to balance there for the whole song and soon she sings if lying on her back over the crowd. Being back on stage she dedicated following smasher ‘Hedonism’ to “the guy who tried to hold her up all alone”. Her little ride into the audience during ‘Weak’ was not the only one. During the show she came down for crowd surfing more often, showing how close she is to her fans. Few more newer songs followed, broken by such gems as ‘Because of You’ until the end of the main set was reached with ‘Charlie Big Potato’ and a fantastic vocal performance with immense power running showers down your spine. 
After already 18 songs, there was still room for five more, split into two encore blocs. The first one presented older stuff with ‘Tear The Place Up’, ‘Secretly’ and ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’. For the very last two songs, speed calmed a bit down and with ‘You Saved me’ from ‘Wonderlustre’ and finally ‘Satisfied?’ from the newest album, an amazing show ended, releasing an overly happy audience into the night. SKUNK ANANSIE is definitely a band worth seeing live!
Setlist
01. The Skank Heads
02. I Will Break You
03. I Believed in You
04. God Loves Only You
05. I Hope You Get To Meet Your Hero
06. Twisted (Everyday Hurts)
07. I’ve had Enough
08. My Ugly Boy
09. Weak
10. Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)
11. Our Summer Kills The Sun
12. This is not a Game
13. I Can Dream
14. Over the Love
15. Spit You Out
16. Because Of You
17. Sad Sad Sad
18. Charlie Big Potato
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19. Tear The Place Up
20. Secretly
21. Little Baby Swastikkka
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22. You Saved Me
23. Satisfied?
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
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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