today i was on an ärzte concert. actually, the concert took place around five minutes by foot from my apartment, which was pretty nice for the way back :)
die ärzte is a fun punk band from berlin (from berlin!), which is almost as old as me, and still alive after five year long break-up around 1990. well. i’ve already seen them twice, in 2001 in osnabrück and in 2004 in oldenburg, and i also own most of their albums. though i stopped listening to them in the last few years, i still wanted to see them again as i found out that they would play in zürich today, so i went.
the concert started with a support band, which unfortunately was played with way too low volume. i think they were quite good, but it sounded like background music in a pub while too many people are talking, and not like a band at a concert. that was really strange. but it turned out that die ärzte played with the “right loudness.” what was nice was the smoking ban, even though many simply ignored it. i really feel a lot better after concerts (and also on the next morning) if the air is not soaked with smoke…
during the support act, bela and farin appeared on the stage several times. for one song, they played all in panties with their trousers down (except the drummer and the bassist), which was somehow funny. the support played maybe for 30 minutes, and after that followed a around 30 to 45 minutes break. at 20:30, die ärzte entered the stage and rocked the house for the next 2:15 hours. even though i’ve never heard some of the songs before (probably from their newest album(s?) which i’ve never heard), i knew most songs and even remembered the lyrics. they played many classics, like der graf, schunder song, westerland (with wannsee replaced by zürisee), 2000 mädchen, rebell, …
the audience was really enthusiastic, and i had to back up a lot (from maybe 20-30 meters from the stage to something around 100 meters) to escape most of the mosh pit. probably i’m getting old, at least i prefer to stand a bit and enjoy the music without being thrown and pushed around all the time.
to sum it up, it was nice to see bela, rod and farin again. even if it’s just for the sake of reminiscence.
posts for 2007. (page 7.)
a very special, extraordinary band is the 3rd and the mortal, founded 1992 in norway. one of the first bands featuring a female lead singer, kari rueslåtten, they made a very atmospheric kind of doom metal, and later turned into more experimental stuff. unfortunately, kari left after the first two albums, the ep sorrow and the first full-length album tears laid in earth, which is considered to be the best album by the 3rd and the mortal.
it features eleven songs, ranging from only featuring kari’s voice, as the opener vandring, being somehow psychedelic, as shaman, being more heavy, as death-hymn, and instrumentals, as trial of past. the songs invite one to close the eyes, start dreaming. listening to kari’s enchanting voice carries me into a fantastic, gorgeous world. painted sometimes in dark, sometimes in hopeful colors, telling of love, death, sorrow. i’d say it’s one of the most beautiful albums i’ve ever listened to.
today, i attended fish‘s concert in the z-7. fish was one of the founding members of marillion, a british prog band which happens to be two years older than me, but left them in 1988, after marillion released the clutching at straws album in 1987. in the beginning of fish‘s gig, an intro video was shown, displaying all the 20 years from 1987 to 2007 with a famous scene from that year, with a subtitle relating it to fish in some humouros way. except 2000, when a picture of george w. showed up with the subtitle “what the fuck?!”, and 2004, when another picture of george w. showed up with “again? you assholes!” ;-)
well. the concert was really great; fish was in a great mood and told funny stories between the songs. i basically only knew the albums 13th star and clutching at straws before, but they played a couple of songs from these two, or at least i thought i recognized a few…
i originally planned to buy 13th star at the merchandize booth, but they only had a special edition there which had a way too high price for me… well. besides that, i was pretty tired and exhausted, had problems keeping standing, but survived till the end, had to run for the train, which almost killed me (running uphill while it’s freezing and when you’re exhausted and pretty dehydrated is not a good idea), but i caught the train and even managed to walk the way from the main station to my place in zürich (without running though). and now it’s time to grab some sleep.
good night.
