Live Review: Universum25 - Hamburg 2023

Gruenspan, Hamburg, Germany
3rd October 2023
Universum25 - “Horizont in Flammen Tour 2023” - Support: MandelKokainSchnaps

German Unity Day with a public holiday for citizens in Hamburg. The city is full. Especially the centre, and especially Große Freiheit. However, I was here because of a more expected event, namely the concert of the German super band UNIVERSUM25. That night it was the second concert of their tour, and it took place in the legendary Gruenspan.


MandelKokainSchnaps

Rock-Pop mixed with Punk influences... that’s how the four describe their music. MANDELKOKAINSCHNAPS, MKS for short, cannot be pigeonholed. Their rocking sound is wonderfully snotty, bluntly mixes with progressive synth sounds, and plays uninhibitedly with catchy melodies. The Croatian Folk Metallers MANNTRA were announced as support. For health reasons (Covid), however, they had to cancel their three planned shows. As a substitute, the still quite unknown Berlin band MANDELKOKAINSCHNAPS was engaged at short notice. The quartet does not have an album out yet, but is already quite successful as a live band. They play a Pop-Punk-Rock crossover and consist of singer Wenke Zastrau, drummer Benedikt Scholz, guitarist Max “Hajo” Schlüer and bassist Wolfgang Wanner. The band came about in 2020 during one of the rehearsals when the musicians were drinking a lot of Amaretto (Mandel Liquor) and Cola (Koka = Kokain). The band has been called MANDELKOKAINSCHNAPS ever since. https://www.mandelkokainschnaps.de/



Music & Performance
MANDELKOKAINSCHNAPS put their thoughts and feelings clearly and unambiguously in German in all their songs, without embellishments and quite directly. With their music, however, MKS also stands up for uncomfortable, political, and socially critical topics. They are particularly keen to use their platform to spread the message of more tolerance in all areas of life, an indispensable task that the band has set itself from the very beginning. Lines like “Racist, I think you personally suck” are not only meant in the same way but express what MKS stands for diversity, openness, respect, and love for people.



MANDELKOKAINSCHNAPS quickly created a good atmosphere in Grünspan with their rather political and very insinuating lyrics and expressive stage outfits and antics. Considering that the band is still quite young, they take every opportunity to involve the audience. For example, drummer Benedikt and bassist Max let people in the audience carry themselves on their hands as crowd surfers, and then Wenke went down into the crowd and flirted with some of the audience until a mosh pit circle was formed in the room. There was constant interaction with the public. In addition, since I was allowed to shoot from the second floor, which was blocked off that evening, I took advantage of the situation and captured a bird’s eye view of the whole thing.



Suddenly I thought that someone was standing next to me. To my surprise, it was probably the most important person of the evening, and the founder of UNIVERSUM25 and IN EXTREMO, Micha Rhein. Before I could greet him politely, he had already extended his hand for a handshake. In general, I always admire his kindness and simplicity. Sorry, but sometimes you can’t get a handshake from some photographers, but Micha is very open to fans and calmly communicates with them to the delight of himself and others. Anyway, it was a very nice short meeting before the fantastic UNIVERSUM25 performance.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Ruf
03. Taub
04. Selbstiebe
05. Anständige Frau
06. Silberfuchs
07. Medley
08. Rassist
09. Jarnüscht
10. 18 Sekunden
11. Mama
12. Bunt

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

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Universum25

Behind the name UNIVERSUM25 are Michael Robert Rhein (IN EXTREMO), Rupert Keplinger (EISBRECHER, ANTITYPE), Pat Prziwara (FIDDLER’S GREEN), Gunnar Schroeder (DRITTE WAHL), Alex Schwers (SLIME), and producer Jörg Umbreit! Hard rock guitars, atmospheric electronica, and relentlessly frank lyrics that put their finger in the wounds of a planet on the brink of self-destruction: that’s the sound of UNIVERSUM25’s dark, dystopian sound cosmos. https://www.universum25.com/



Music & Performance
By the appearance of UNIVERSUM25, the hall was already perfectly warmed up. And, of course, when Micha asked the fans how they were feeling, the hall unanimously shouted with delight. Regarding the project, I can say that Micha has persistently started to do the same old thing, namely to create a special musical Universe as it used to be with IN EXTREMO. It is not clear yet whether the star project UNIVERSUM25 will become established and cohesive or will be limited to one or several albums, but the idea and content are impressive. For example, this project has recently managed to create some socially critical and political lyrics that probably wouldn’t be appropriate in mainstream bands of musicians. On the other hand, I get the feeling that Micha is a bit sad for the old days, and UNIVERSUM25 is a kind of inspiration and a kind of opportunity for him to return to his roots, namely to the sound of his first underground band from the times of DDR, NR.13.



UNIVERSUM25 started their performance with ‘Genug’, ‘Die neue Zeit’ and ‘Irgendwann’. The beginning seems to be successful and the audience gets into the swing of things. Besides the songs in the debut album, the setlist also consisted of songs from other artists like ‘Ozean’ (EISBRECHER Cover), ‘Ebbe & Flut’ (SLIME Cover), ‘Manchmal frag ich mich’ (NR. 13 Cover), ‘Runde um Runde’ (DRITTE WAHL Cover), ‘Der Traum ist aus’ (TON STEINE SCHERBEN Cover). ‘Vor Deiner Tür’ was the slowest track of the evening, reminiscent of a rock ballad. And the cover version of ‘Manchmal frag ich mich’ is faster than the 1986 original. Micha actively communicated with the audience from the stage. In addition, even talked about the fact that he himself, as well as the members of the MANNTRA band, originally declared as a support, recently had sick with Covid. This is the reason why part of the concert tour was postponed to January 2024.



The official concert closes with the classic TON STEINE SCHERBEN song ‘Der Traum Ist Aus’ sung by and featuring Rio Reiser. As an encore snack, the band played the singles that best reveal the UNIVERSUM25 style, ‘Nur Wegen Dir’ and ‘Am Morgen danach’.

New dates of the “Horizont in Flammen Tour” are also announced:
17 Jan 2024 Munich, Backstage Halle
18 Jan 2024 Frankfurt, Das Bett
19 Jan 2024 Stuttgart, Club Im Wizemann
20 Jan 2024 Cologne, Live Music Hall
Tickets: https://music.universum25.com/tickets



Setlist
01. Genug
02. Die neue Zeit
03. Irgendwann
04. Harte Kost
05. Wir warten
06. Ozean (Eisbrecher Cover)
07. Lichtgeschwindigkeit
08. Vor deiner Tür
09. Ebbe & Flut (Slime Cover)
10. Horizont in Flammen
11. Die Leichen der Zeit
12. Manchmal frag ich mich (Nr. 13 Cover)
13. Runde um Runde (Dritte Wahl Cover)
14. Der Traum ist aus (Ton Steine Scherben Cover)
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15. Nur wegen dir
16. Am Morgen danach

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

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All Pictures by Iryna Kalenska