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With the “Retrospective” show, Deine Lakaien take us on a journey through 30 years of their creative work including their side projects HeliumVola and Veljanov.
The premiere in Bochum happened to be a cool event but not due to the show that was possibly the best way to start into the new year. If it was the harbinger about what to expect from this year, we will be lead out of this depressive phase by dreams full of hope and joy reminding us that we all are loved and should not take ourselves too serious. For instance, it seems that Ernst wants to demonstrate that he is not as important as everybody believes taking some leaves from the keys. In case you have not yet booked a ticket, you should most definitely do so. The journey is worthwhile for sure.
But let me start at the beginning:
The Jahrhunderthalle is an impressive industrial monument as you find a lot in the Ruhrgebiet area of Germany. It was a huge machine hall that contained the compressors that ventilated the blast furnaces for steel production. Inside one would enter the concert hall through an “antehall” with catering and merchandize that contained – an ice rink decorated with an ice bear and a penguin! So the journey started at the North or South Pole. It felt real enough, since the concert hall was freezing cold. During the break, the staff of the hall would hand out blankets, which were gladly accepted. And Alexander mentioned that even after 30 years on stage there are firsts like being cold. Goran had to tune his guitar several times due to the unusual low temperature.
Nevertheless, the cold did not prevent the audience to be taken on the journey that starts with a magical moment. Ernst’s grand piano in the spot light is playing all by itself the beautiful ballade “Away” and Alexander is joining in. The song is blending directly into “Colour-ize”, Ernst now standing in his “synthesizer castle” accompanied by the band, Goran Trajkoski (guitar, electronics, backing vocals), Igor Zotik (piano, electronics), Slobodan Kajkut (drums, backing vocals), Katharina Garrard aka Sharifa and Ivee Leon (violin and backing vocals), b.deutung (cello). Thus, the feeling is set of someone, who cannot remain but has to find a way to stop living a lonesome nightmare life. But all too soon all hopes are “Gone” and after a stunning version of “Lonely” also the band is leaving the stage giving way for Sabine Lutzenberger. The expert for interpretation of Early Music is the leading voice of “Helium Vola”, Ernst’s side project. She is now performing “Mahnung”, a song of a woman afraid that her lover might leave her urges him not to be with other women. The atmosphere full of sorrow is lightened up by a sweet dream “Dormi” leaving behind all pain. Though reality is trying to break into it with dissonant accords, at the end everywhere is “Selig”. And I mean this literally, since Sabine fills the whole hall with this powerful but light spring song.
Afterwards, the band is coming back again for “Over and Done” and “Where you are”. For the latter song, Ernst is only starting the sequencer leaving the keys to Igor Zotig. We are on an accelerating journey through the ups and downs of life, where the ups are represented by the Lakaien side projects like the succeeding Veljanov songs “Man with the silver gun” and “Sweet life”. Once more, the band is returning as does the character in “Return” before the coldness is giving way for “Fighting the green”, which is sending the people to the break – now glowing from inside despite the frosty temperature.
The journey of the second part differs a bit from the first beginning with a “Walk to the moon” and “Contact”, a song inspired by Stanislav Lem’s novel “Fiasko”. Maybe we are on a different planet now, certainly the intimacy created by Sabine with the song “Begirlich in dem Herzen min” seems to come from somewhere not on earth. In contrast to the acoustic Helium Vola set of the first part, here Ernst’s playful electronics enter the game and while “Contact” is about failing communication, now it is working. “Omnis mundi creatura” is coming as great surprise gift with Katharina, Ivee, Goran, and Slobodan as strong support. Then, the band is coming back in full strength, before Ernst is leaving to make room for the “Veljanov” project again. With “Seraphim” we are meeting again something unearthly on our journey that has to go on, since “We can’t turn back” crossing the mesmerizing “Mein Weg”.
The concert is ending with “Reincarnation” followed by “Dark star” still keeping us in outer space. Of course there has to follow an encore as the audience demands. After the driving ballade “One night” in the acoustic version, one more time experimental electronics govern the “Mindmachine”, a song that never appears twice in same fashion. At the beginning of “Overpaid”, Ernst’s synthesizers suddenly seem to be malfunctioning. Only one “SOS” sound is produced. Alexander is making jokes about the hazard bonus he should receive while the technicians appear not to be very helpful. The last resort is that Ernst “Ernesto” Siebert, head technician since the beginnings of Deine Lakaien, jumps in with his bass guitar. Obviously, this setting is just an act to get him joining the band. Ernst in seriously played frustration just contributes the “SOS” signal every now and then, merging surprisingly well to the song. At the end, Ernst takes a thick stick and beats up the piano Igor is playing. One more proof for the self-irony and the good humor of the band.
Standing ovations bring back the band one last time for “Pilgrim” and with “Love me to the end” we finally arrive at the destination: not a foreign planet, but within ourselves, our hopes, our dreams, our heart.
Dea memorized the event with beautiful photos.
by CM