Deine Lakaien
Dual flashed

At last, Alexander Veljanov enters the stage and takes his place. People are cheering but quickly sink back into quiet expectation. “Lonely” – the first song is a Lakaien classic. Oh yes, how lonely we have been without them in the past years! After two years waiting for this tour that had to be shifted again and again, it feels great to be part of the black crowd again that has finally gathered to listen to Deine Lakaien introducing their “new” two-years-old album “Dual”. Or better three albums as Alexander explains: one with cover songs, one with songs related to these, and then there is “Dual+” featuring the second song of tonight “Nightfall”. A rather typical Lakaien ballade, but with special harmonics that link it to the Pink Floyd song “Set the controls for the heart of the sun”. And with three guys playing synthesizer there is hope that this piece will be part of the set as well – spoiler: it is, but later.

The concert also shows that Ernst Horn is the master of the machines. After the first song, he had to help stopping the synthesizer Slobodan Kajkut was playing. Most of the time during the concert Slobodan plays the drum pad with a hypnotizing base – really, really nice in “Farewell” – while singing the backing vocals.

A lot of the other songs in the first part of the concert have been performed on the few acoustic concerts Ernst and Alexander played in the past two years. What an experience to listen to them in such an electronic garb! Deine Lakaien really never fail in presenting new interpretations of their songs. “Where you are” gets a very special touch when the electronics pair up with the piano played by Igor Zotik. Europe is a good example how timeless Lakaien songs are. Released in 2010 on the album Indicator it is more relevant than ever.

Despite the great performance, it took quite a while for the audience to warm and loosen up. We are all a bit out of practice, it seems. But “Over and done” finally broke the restrains. Finally, everybody remembered how to go with the music and “Because the night”, a Patty Smith cover, released the audience into a short break.

The Tanzbrunnen is located directly at the Rhine – here a little impression I took while taking in some fresh air preparing for the second part of the concert. Feel free to share your own concert (break) impressions in the thread of our forum.

Cologne Cathedral seen from the Tanzbrunnen in Deutz. The Hohenzollern Bridge spans the Rhine. Picture: ©Carola Meyer CC-By-4.0

As mentioned before, now is the time for the psychedelic “Set the controls”. Electronic music fans get ready! After the classics Reincarnation and Dark Star everybody is totally flashed. Not talking about the songs from Dual that dominate this part of the set ending way too soon with the exhilarating “Sick cinema”. But the audience is not willing to let the band leave. First standing ovations bring them back for an encore. “Happy man” is a song from Dual switching between difficult rhythms and oscillating between dark sluggish stanzas and a chorus full of false synthetic light. Great theatre! Before leaving the stage again, the musicians play “Return”. And this is what the people demand afterward. Now nobody is sitting anymore. And return Deine Lakaien do for a very last song. Ernst takes his place at the piano, the stage is bathed in red light and …

Yes, you guessed it “Love me to the end” opens our hearts before we finally have to leave.

What a wonderful concert – thanks a lot to “our” Lakaien!

Text by CM

©Teaser-Picture: Dea Pirlich 2022

Setlist:

1. Lonely

2. Nightfall

3. Gone

4. Where you are

5. Europe

6. Farewell

7. Unknown friend

8. Over and done

9. Because the night

- Break -

10. Set the controls

11. Because of Because

12. Reincarnation

13. Dark Star

14. Dust in the wind

15. Run

16. The Walk

17. Sick cinema

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1st encore

18. Happy man

19. Return

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2nd encore

20. Love me to the end