Live Review: Unter Schwarzer Flagge - Cologne 2023

MS Rheinenergie, Cologne, Germany
14th October 2023
Unter Schwarzer Flagge Cruise with Lord of the Lost, Stahlmann, Heldmaschine and Erdling

It was a though couple of days - especially for the fans of LORD OF THE LOST. After singer Chris Harms fell ill during a show in Lille, they cancelled the next two shows in France. Harms had lost his voice and was unable to sing. Whether he and his voice would be okay for the long-awaited event “Unter Schwarzer Flagge” was not safe until he was actually on stage and had performed some songs. You could see and feel his relief when he announced after half of the set, that he is now sure, that he’d be able to pull through and being able to sing clean tones - “as shitty as ever”.

But it wasn’t until then the fans had to wait for the good news, that LORD OF THE LOST would try to play the gig. Quarter past one, Jens Domgörgen, the presenter of the event, entered the stage on the MS Rheinenergie and spread the word, that the successful and super likeable musicians are not on board yet, but would enter the boat during the stop in Königswinter. But until then the stage belonged to two other acts: HELDMASCHINE opened the little festival and STAHLMANN, as a substitute for UNZUCHT, finished the first part of the day. Both NDH-bands with a long history and very dedicated fans. HELDMASCHINE was founded 2011 in Koblenz and Mart, the singer of STAHLMANN, announced on stage, that STAHLMANN are around for 15 years now.

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Heldmaschine

The intro of the show from HELDMASCHINE set the bar high for the other bands - especially on the visual side. They did not walk on stage, they drove, each on a board, while hiding their faces behind LED-masks that showed different faces. They started with the song ‘Flächenbrand’, which is also the name of their tour. With their pounding beats, hard guitars, but very fine melody lines they took over the boat within seconds. The stage was equipped with well-thought gimmicks, like a jerry can, from which René drank during the show. You could not feel or see that they have not really slept a lot the night before - their show was energetic, powerful and very pleasant. And luckily the fans laughed the suggestion off, that everybody should ran to the right side of the boat to create a wall of death with the board wall. So, although it was really close, the guys from HELDMASCHINE did not manage to sink the ship.

Setlist
01. Fläschenbrand
02. Hast du Angst
03. Bestie
04. Sein oder nicht sein
05. Luxus
06. Stumme Schreie
07. Das Argument
08. Übermensch
09. Springt!
10. Wozu sind Kriege da?
11. Tunnelblick
12. Where is my mind?

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Stahlmann

Next up were the guys from STAHLMANN, who were able to fill in the gap, that UNZUCHT created when they were forced to cancel their show. And again, you could not feel or see that they have had zero sleep the night before when they drove from Lübeck to Cologne. The show was energetic, a nice mix from old and new songs, spiked with anecdotes from the last 15 years. But something was definitely new: For the first time ever, Mart called someone while being on stage. And not just someone - he tried to connect to Daniel Schulz who would have been on stage with his band UNZUCHT that exact moment. The act of friendship was warmly welcomed by all of the music lovers. And it was something, this cruise stood for in general: it was a meeting point for lots of musicians and friends that worked closely together before. You could feel that they were not trying to surpass the others, but trying to create an uplifting environment not only for the other bands, but also for the fans.



The whole cruise held unique moments for the fans - stories they are still going to tell their greatgrandchildren. For example, a very funny soundcheck of LORD OF THE LOST, who had so much fun on stage and played the SpongeBob-theme in the end (and yes, we spotted some people walking very funny while they played it).

Setlist
01. Willkommen
02. Stahlmann
03. Kinder der Sehnsucht
04. Adrenalin
05. Hass mich
06. Der Schmied
07. Engel der Dunkelheit
08. Faust zum Himmel
09. Sadist
10. Stahlwittchen
11. Teufel
12. Spring
13. Tanzen
14. Schwarz
15. Plasma
16. Tanzmaschine
17. Nichts spricht wahre Liebe frei
18. Süchtig
19. Asche

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Erdling

After the shore leave in Königswinter and the passage around the Drachenfels, it was the turn of ERDLING to entertain the music hungry crowd. And again, the connection between the musicians formed a strong bond: Niklas Kahl, now drummer in LORD OF THE LOST, and Neill Freiwald founded the band when they were still both playing in STAHLMANN. And the first songs were recorded in the studio of Chris Harms. That’s why, of course, it was also the musicians who watched the powerful performance of ERDLING quite closely. It seemed to be very easy for them to win the audience over in a split-second - with their energetic German Rock tunes.

Setlist
01. Bestia
02. Blitz und Donner
03. Du bist Soldat
04. Absolutus Rex
05. Götterdämmerung
06. Supernova
07. Und die Erde singt
08. Khaos
09. Weissglut
10. Eis und Feuer
11. Phoenix
12. Leuchtfeuer
13. Über Bord
14. Mein Element

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Lord of the Lost

When it was, after a really long day, finally time for the headliner - the audience was smiling super happy, but wasn’t as enthusiastic as in the afternoon. Of course, the fans sang along and danced their asses off, but the attitude, the mood changed somehow. The little bit aggressive attitude was exchanged with a powerful, hard but very friendly notion. Under the thick layer of make-up, one could see smiling faces, having the most fun on stage. Before the show most people did not expect a lot quality-wise. But - and I am truly not a fangirl - it was perfect, even though Chris Harms was really sick two days before. The mix of old and new songs was really thought through, so the set did not become boring for a second. And, after having played so many stadiums, it might have felt for the musicians like a party with a lot of good friends. And even the lovely crew of the MS Rheinenergie partied with the fans, when LORD OF THE LOST performed their ESC-hit ‘Blood And Glitter’.



All in all it was a perfect day, not only music-wise. Good food and drinks for reasonable prices, lovely weather, lots of smiling faces. Thank you, Protain, for this well organized and lovely boat trip.

Setlist
01. The Curtain Falls
02. Morgana
03. Kill It With Fire
04. No Respect For Disrespect
05. The Future Of A Past Life
06. Dry The Rain
07. Under The Sun
08. Absolute Attitude
09. And It Was Night
10. The Gospel Of Judas
11. Destruction Manual
12. Full Metal Whore
13. Blood For Blood
14. Reset The Preset
15. Leave Your Hate In The Comments
16. Loreley
17. Die Tomorrow
18. Blood &Glitter
19. One Last Song

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All Pictures by Andreas Klüppelberg