Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany18th December 2008
Westernhagen, Battlekat
The weather on this Thursday evening was anything but appealing; I could barely feel my hands anymore, in spite of my gloves, but eventually we entered the huge building that was called the Lanxess Arena and the warmth embraced us again. We’d never seen WESTERNHAGEN live before and our first live experience with him would turn out as something special not only for us as it turned out later.
BATTKLLEKAT is a young band from London; still at the beginning of their career and who have no record deal so far. That’s about all information I could find out, except the one that front woman and shouter Mimi actually is the daughter of Marius Müller-Westernhagen. http://www.battlekat.co.uk/ / http://www.myspace.com/battlekatattack
Music & Performance
But you shouldn’t make the mistake to expect a similar kind of music from her. She’s doing her own thing and what we all saw of that small stage part in front of the curtain was nothing short than a clean Punk performance. Surely adding to it was that freaky dress of hers with red pumps if I saw that correctly. She screamed, shouted and rocked with her band mates and after three songs it was all over already and after wishing a Happy Birthday to her father they left the stage.
Setlist
1. Devine Vagine
2. The Beyond
3. The Ballad of Lilu Dallas
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.8/ 10
Westernhagen
He started his career as actor in a movie and decided to continue in the TV genre as the reception was overly positive. In the second half of the 1960s, he also started a music career and already at that point developed the shouting chant which would eventually become his trademark. In 1974, he signed a record deal with Warner Music. His debut ‘Das erste Mal’ then was released in 1975. With his fourth album ‘Mit Pfefferminz bin ich dein Prinz’ his career received a firm boos. The album has sold over 1,500,000 copies to the present day. After a not really successful phase in the 80s, his way led him to the top again with albums like ‘Westernhagen’, including the mega hit ‘Freiheit’ or ‘Hallelujah’ (1989) and as first German artist ever played in soccer stadiums in support of the album ‘Jaja’ (1992). The tour for ‘Radio Marie’ would become a superlative and simultaneously WESTERNHAGEN said goodbye to the stadium stages. With his most recent album ‘Nahaufnahme’ (2005) containing mostly melancholic and thoughtful songs, he celebrated his comeback in late summer of the same year. http://www.westernhagen.de/
Music & Performance
If you’re going to a concert of an artist like MARIUS MÜLLER WESTERNHAGEN then you have corresponding expectations and if it’s announced as 60th Birthday Bash on the occasion of his 60th Birthday then you’re expecting something really special. When the lights dimmed at half past 8 and the first chords of ‘Ladykiller’ swirled through the huge arena, everybody was in an ecstatic state and singing choirs could be heard when Marius came on stage looking nothing like 60, dressed in a black glittering jacket which he had - according to him - borrowed from Thomas Gottschalk. Later he took it off - much to the dislike of many female fans he said that it would remain the only thing he would take off that night. ;-). Well-known ‘Es geht mir gut’ continued the set which comprised songs the fans could choose prior to the concerts on Marius’s website. Marius dominated the whole huge stage right from the start. A real entertainer as he is, he swept over the stage, got even more close to the audience while walking over a short catwalk to a small stage at the front, which would later be converted to a little acoustic stage.
But WESTERNHGEN is no egomaniac who’s directing all the attention and applause to himself. Every now and then, he stepped back to leave the stage to one of his musicians for their excellent solo performances on saxophone or guitar for instance. With ‘Freiheit’ - quite early in the set - came one song I was really looking forward to hear. The lights were dimmed, sparklers and lighters lit up and accompanied by piano he sang this great song, but not alone, obviously. Everyone was singing with him, at times so loud he could stop singing himself, but he had a surprise up his sleeves for us, when he welcomed the German rapper CURSE on stage everyone was like “What the fuck is going on here?”, but I have to say. Even though I’m not a big fan of Hip Hop regularly, it was a really nice variation and none of this Gangsta Rap stuff or anything, but meaningful words.
If you thought that’s it with the surprises you got disabused later at ‘Mit Pfefferminz bin ich dein Prinz’ and even Marius was surprised or so it seemed, when Stefan Raab (German Comedian / TV Host) suddenly walked on stage to perform one part of the song. We were just looking at each other and then started laughing. No one really expected that, but the arena raved after all. I almost forgot to mention the unplugged block on the aforementioned small stage, presenting such songs as ‘Nur hier in der Kneipe fühl ich mich frei’ or the ode to an old friend ‘Johnny Walker’, again a song the audience nearly sang alone and Marius was hardly audible anymore. Another special highlight for me was the gospel solo during ‘Steh auf’ of singer Delia Miles. Man, that’s what I’m calling a voice; it flooded the entire arena with its power and emotion.
Seems, I’ve forgotten to write about the light and stuff so far. LED blocks of sorts hung left and right of the stage to display diverse patterns or parts of the lyrics, while some huge split screens showed different video clips, depending on the song that was played, or the musicians from different perspectives. The light show deserves to be mentioned as well. The lights were always adapted to the circumstances, that is, the mood of the songs and at every point you could clearly see what was going on stage even if you stood or sat farther away. When we had to leave, he was playing ‘Ich bin wieder hier’ and from the outside we could hear the sounds of LEONARD COHEN’s ‘Hallelujah’, a great song, but if you’ve seen Leonard live nothing could even get near to that experience. It was definitely much fun seeing Marius live and to celebrate a reunion with well-known songs; at times I was surprised to how many I could sing along with and I wasn’t the only one.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 9
Total: 8.8 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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