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yl-00Zentrum Altenberg, Oberhausen, Germany
16th April 2011
Yogi Lang

The singer of the Bavarian Progressive-Rock band RPWL, Yogi Lang, goes out and presents his first solo album on a tour across Europe. Fresh from the Netherlands he and his band entered the stage in the halls of the old tin factory Zentrum Altenberg in Oberhausen.

Yogi Lang has so far mostly been recognized as the singer of his main band RPWL and producer on many other records. Now he was out to promote his first solo album ‘No Decoder’ that shares a lot of the complexity RPWL’s works are known for. In order to reproduce this on stage, Lang recruited a busload of fine and individual musicians: along with Manni Müller (Drums, Claudia Koreck) and Markus Jehle (Keyboards) who have worked with Yogi on RPWL before, he brought Ian Salmon (Bass, Arena), Torsten Weber (Guitar, The Doors of Perception) and Carmen Meier (Percussion, Cama). http://www.yogilang.com

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Music & Performance
Exactly - and maybe a little too - on time, Yogi Lang and his band picked up their instruments in the Zentrum Altenberg in Oberhausen at 8.15 pm. ‘Sacrifice’ that serves as opener on the album kicked off the show with straight forward guitar and drum work and a lot of energy. Whilst most of the performed songs were taken from the album ‘No Decoder’, a few RPWL classics such as ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’ or ‘Sugar for the Ape’ and even some PINK FLOYD covers made their way into the set. Throughout the concert, Yogi switched between microphone and two synthesizers to unfold his extensive and characteristic Moog solos, exchanging occasional calls and responses with Torsten on the guitar. Atmospheric and mind-dazzling passages in extended versions of songs such as ‘A Million Miles Away’ or ‘SenseValue’ satisfied the heart of every present fan of Progressive music and summoned a little spirit of PINK FLOYD.

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Expectedly the audience asked for the 2005 RPWL hit single ‘Roses’ (then recorded with Ray Wilson from GENESIS) very early in the evening. But they had to wait until the encore and with it a double-edged surprise: Yogi announced that not he but Uwe Bohsmann, a web radio host from Duisburg, would be singing the song. You could sense the scepticism in the air, but Uwe did a great job on the vocals - even though his stage performance could use some more verve. All in all the audience experienced a very professional band playing great music and having fun at it. The fact that only a handful of - very grateful - fans showed up was not at all detrimental to this. Quite the contrary, Yogi Lang used this to create a very intimate and suitable scenery for his music.

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10

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All pictures by Yann Mirnoir (www.im-treibsand.net)


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