Deine Lakaien
Lackey duty: Deine Lakaien at the M’era Luna 2024

Deine Lakaien on stage at M’era Luna 2024

And just like at the band’s last concert at the airfield near Hildesheim, the sun shone down on the audience on Saturday and dazzled the artists on stage, who consequently wore sunglasses. Nevertheless, towards the end of their “Dark Star” set - just the two of them with electronics - the Lakaien managed to make the sun disappear behind a few clouds. And they had transported the festival audience to distant spheres.

Old and young alike enjoyed the songs from the second Lakaien album, listened attentively moving silently their lips reciting the lyrics. Often with their eyes closed. Because Deine Lakaien don’t need to put on a big show, there’s just a bit of fog and a bit of light to see. The music and the wonderful voice of Veljanov, who fills the huge festival stage with his presence alone, are enough. A welcome change from the pompous performances of the other bands.

At the Lakaien’s performance, the focus is entirely on the music

Deine Lakaien set the mood right at the beginning with the very calm, yet catchy “Lonely”. Then it’s straight back to the beginning with the dance floor sweeper of its time “Colour-ize”. It is the first track that Deine Lakaien released in 1985, Alexander explains. “My decision” was written under the impression of the USA’s first war of aggression against Iraq, but in view of the current world situation, it has the same power as it did about 30 years ago. They are timeless, the Lakaien, and this is one of the reasons why they continue to find new fans and are rightly regarded as one of the giants of the scene.

Ernst Horn plays on his analog synthesizers

While Ernst Horn has a lot of work with his synthesizers and plays with samples on “My decision” and “Night of love”, things are quieter on “Ulysses”. “Give me your love, give me your dream”, sings Alexander and has long since cast a spell over the audience.

The size of the stage meant - as the “old hands” know well - that the microphone stand had to be dragged back and forth over long distances probably causing it to break end of the gig. It was replaced discreetly by the technical team and was not commented on further. Microphone stands just lead a shadowy existence…

The last song was - who would have thought it - “Love me to the end”. And there was a goosebump moment when thousands simply sang along to the chorus without any animation. The fact that the sun had not yet set did nothing to dampen the mood. The audience were inspired and took a while to come back to earth from the distant spheres.

Alexander Veljanov casts a spell over the audience

Anyone who would have liked to be there now will have to wait until next year. The acoustic planetarium concerts in the fall are sold out. If you don’t have tickets, you can console yourself until next year with the NDR recording of the M’era Luna performance.

Text by CM

© for all pictures: Carola Meyer CC BY 4.0

Setlist:

1. Lonely

2. Colour-ize

3. Down, down, down

4. Reincarnation

5. My decision

6. Night of love

7. Ulysses

8. Dark Star

9. Love me to the end