dreamdancer
I am a Fama Tuba
What a day for this last concert of this tour: hot and humid, just suffocating. And what a site: failing air con combined with closed doors during the concert. In the break you had to decide between getting something to drink and getting some oxygen. The queue waiting to get outside was longer!
I was very happy that the hall was furnished with chairs for this concert. IÂ’m sure I would have fainted under the given conditions. My brain felt like mash, which made it really hard to concentrate. I believe the major part of the audience felt very similar. Everybody wanted so hard to stay focused on the music that there was only little strength left for cheers between the songs. It must have been difficult for the musicians to deal with such a silent audience. At least Alexander complained about it after the first seven or so songs. The audience tried to comply with AlexanderÂ’s demand but too many cheers would have taken away what little oxygen was left. Sorry guys, this was not your fault. I hope the standing ovations at the end proved how pleased audience was by the performance and how blessed people felt.
But also Ernst and Alexander were not left unaffected by the circumstances. However they seemed to cope much better with them than their audience. Nevertheless, Ernst was a bit confused at the beginning about the things that belonged inside the grand piano (to create his special sounds) and about the time to take them out again. These first small mistakes made Ernst to check his preparation much more carefully than he usually does. So the audience could get a better look on the various parts that went in and out.
But let us now turn to the good part of this concert – the music! The set list was almost the same as in the concerts before (see this link, I took from the German forum: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/deine-lakaien/2012/theaterfabrik-leipzig-germany-53dfab89.html), I think, “Lonely” got replaced by “Return”, the latter was definitely in (as mentioned, I was completely brain mashed). It started with two ballades and the audience was drawn completely into the musical world of DL after “2nd sun”. Among the first six pieces were 4 ballades, which set a rather quiet mood. Perhaps this was another reason, why the audience was not as cheery as usual during DL concerts. This time I fell totally in love with the contrasts of “Follow me” that appeared much stronger in this acoustic version – so soft and so vigorously demanding. Much stronger compared to the old acoustic version of this song on the ’95 album. A sheet of paper (presumably the set list) had remained where it was not supposed to be after “The game” – but Ernst fixed that quickly.
“A fish called prince” is a lesson about the art of preparation. Simple but effective! I admit that “simple” is relative here – but compared to the two hours it approx. takes to prepare a Cage piano, Ernst’s way to get the desired sounds is way more practical for concerts. And who would have thought that an empty bottle of water put on the strings creates a different sound than an empty bottle of beer as it was used in the concert in Berlin (the tour 2008). The recording of this song from the Berlin concert can be found on the special edition of Indicator.
This time, I got a good view on Ernst’s hands, though I did not manage to catch a seat in the front. During “Mirror men” he is playing with almost everything fingers, the edge of the hand as well as the flat hand, fists, elbow, arms, and of course a stick to beat up the poor piano. But still this is not just brute force but strength used with amazing precision. (kind of direct development from the Russian piano school – no offense!) Adding Alexander’s eerie singing this remains one of the best DL pieces!
I can see that this is getting too long but allow me a few more words about the songs, which have not been performed in acoustic version before.
In “Gone” the tricky rhythms were captured very nicely. The harp-like sounds in the studio version of “Without your words” appeared naturally as arpeggios in the piano part but with some edge in the rhythm that created a surprising friction with the smooth flowing voice of Alexander. I’m afraid, I may have mentioned this too often: I really adore Ernst’s accompanying and, of course, his (re-)arrangements. In this concert namely the one of “Fighting the green”, which astounded me most. This song has many different synthesizer layers in its studio version, each of them rather simple but together they create a complex texture. That was the reason, why I was very skeptical: this was either too complicated or too simple for an acoustic set. What can I say? I was won over completely! The song got reshaped and here the contrast (again! Is this just me?) was set between being enormously forceful (this part is clear of course) and a very calm silence full of fear. Honestly, I never got this before. The acoustic set of “Blue heart” was straight forward with rhythmic stanzas and arpeggiated (is there such a word?) chorus but as captivating as ever!
I absolutely agree with the voices on the German forum that demand a new acoustic album after all these years!
Nevertheless, it is impossible to record the excitement that builds up before you get to listen to a new song or even new arrangement of a song, since with DL these are so different that they can count as new songs. This cannot be replayed in the living room.
So thanks a lot for this truly wonderful concert!
@ all the other colour-ize members who were there: please take my apologies that I did not mingle – besides my mashed brain, my legs felt like pudding so I was just happy that all I had to do was sit and listen
I was very happy that the hall was furnished with chairs for this concert. IÂ’m sure I would have fainted under the given conditions. My brain felt like mash, which made it really hard to concentrate. I believe the major part of the audience felt very similar. Everybody wanted so hard to stay focused on the music that there was only little strength left for cheers between the songs. It must have been difficult for the musicians to deal with such a silent audience. At least Alexander complained about it after the first seven or so songs. The audience tried to comply with AlexanderÂ’s demand but too many cheers would have taken away what little oxygen was left. Sorry guys, this was not your fault. I hope the standing ovations at the end proved how pleased audience was by the performance and how blessed people felt.
But also Ernst and Alexander were not left unaffected by the circumstances. However they seemed to cope much better with them than their audience. Nevertheless, Ernst was a bit confused at the beginning about the things that belonged inside the grand piano (to create his special sounds) and about the time to take them out again. These first small mistakes made Ernst to check his preparation much more carefully than he usually does. So the audience could get a better look on the various parts that went in and out.
But let us now turn to the good part of this concert – the music! The set list was almost the same as in the concerts before (see this link, I took from the German forum: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/deine-lakaien/2012/theaterfabrik-leipzig-germany-53dfab89.html), I think, “Lonely” got replaced by “Return”, the latter was definitely in (as mentioned, I was completely brain mashed). It started with two ballades and the audience was drawn completely into the musical world of DL after “2nd sun”. Among the first six pieces were 4 ballades, which set a rather quiet mood. Perhaps this was another reason, why the audience was not as cheery as usual during DL concerts. This time I fell totally in love with the contrasts of “Follow me” that appeared much stronger in this acoustic version – so soft and so vigorously demanding. Much stronger compared to the old acoustic version of this song on the ’95 album. A sheet of paper (presumably the set list) had remained where it was not supposed to be after “The game” – but Ernst fixed that quickly.
“A fish called prince” is a lesson about the art of preparation. Simple but effective! I admit that “simple” is relative here – but compared to the two hours it approx. takes to prepare a Cage piano, Ernst’s way to get the desired sounds is way more practical for concerts. And who would have thought that an empty bottle of water put on the strings creates a different sound than an empty bottle of beer as it was used in the concert in Berlin (the tour 2008). The recording of this song from the Berlin concert can be found on the special edition of Indicator.
This time, I got a good view on Ernst’s hands, though I did not manage to catch a seat in the front. During “Mirror men” he is playing with almost everything fingers, the edge of the hand as well as the flat hand, fists, elbow, arms, and of course a stick to beat up the poor piano. But still this is not just brute force but strength used with amazing precision. (kind of direct development from the Russian piano school – no offense!) Adding Alexander’s eerie singing this remains one of the best DL pieces!
I can see that this is getting too long but allow me a few more words about the songs, which have not been performed in acoustic version before.
In “Gone” the tricky rhythms were captured very nicely. The harp-like sounds in the studio version of “Without your words” appeared naturally as arpeggios in the piano part but with some edge in the rhythm that created a surprising friction with the smooth flowing voice of Alexander. I’m afraid, I may have mentioned this too often: I really adore Ernst’s accompanying and, of course, his (re-)arrangements. In this concert namely the one of “Fighting the green”, which astounded me most. This song has many different synthesizer layers in its studio version, each of them rather simple but together they create a complex texture. That was the reason, why I was very skeptical: this was either too complicated or too simple for an acoustic set. What can I say? I was won over completely! The song got reshaped and here the contrast (again! Is this just me?) was set between being enormously forceful (this part is clear of course) and a very calm silence full of fear. Honestly, I never got this before. The acoustic set of “Blue heart” was straight forward with rhythmic stanzas and arpeggiated (is there such a word?) chorus but as captivating as ever!
I absolutely agree with the voices on the German forum that demand a new acoustic album after all these years!
Nevertheless, it is impossible to record the excitement that builds up before you get to listen to a new song or even new arrangement of a song, since with DL these are so different that they can count as new songs. This cannot be replayed in the living room.
So thanks a lot for this truly wonderful concert!
@ all the other colour-ize members who were there: please take my apologies that I did not mingle – besides my mashed brain, my legs felt like pudding so I was just happy that all I had to do was sit and listen