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Deine Lakaien
Deine Lakaien 15.04.2017 Hamburg Laeiszhalle XXX Retrospective

29.04.2017
Finally spring, bringing along more XXX concerts!

Travelling north though without traffic jam is still no fun with pouring rain. The sun is sending some rays through the dark grey clouds every now and then, „April Skies“ as taken from a picture book.

And while all other people in the republic are searching for eggs during this Easter weekend, Deine Lakaien fans search together with the band for the perfect sound experience ;-).

Deine Lakaien again selected some special location for this, like today the “Laeiszhalle” (info Laeiszhalle). The “Acoustic” concerts in December 2015 took place in the small hall. But today, Deine Lakaien perform again in the great hall like already in 2007 where they played together with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt.

The gates open today as early as 17.30 and thus the first fans start to arriving. We meet so many known faces right at the entrance. It takes a while to greet them all. More and more people are showing up in the foyer and slowly anticipation keeps rising. New mugs with XXX-label are available at the merch by the way – just a remark for the collectors :-).

In the hall, all but few of the 2025 places are taken now and people are ready to go. The musicians enter the dark stage with a delay of a few minutes and the journey through 30 years of musical creation is beginning with „Away“ indulging in the cosmos of Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov. „Colour-ize“, „Gone“ and „Lonely“ take the audience on a time travel from the very beginnings of the band to the year 2010 and back again into the early 90ies. The first songs are celebrated by the enthusiastic audience in Hamburg. The well-known “northern restraint” seems to be absent here :-).
This continues during the following Helium Vola part. Ernst Horn at the grand piano and Sabine Lutzenberger at the microphone, nothing else is needed to rise a storm of enthusiasm. „Mahnung“, Dormi“, and „Selig“ blend seamlessly into each other and it is a great pleasure to listen to those two musicians. The same holds for the rest of the band of course, who now are entering the stage again and change course to Deine Lakaien again with „Over and done“ and “Where you are“. Once more the steering wheel is turned, this time in Veljanov direction. The people in the great hall are enjoying the powerful interpretations of „The man with the silver gun“ and „The sweet life“ before getting back to the leading theme of the evening: Deine Lakaien! After the epic „Return“, and with a forceful „Fighting the green“, the band is releasing the audience into the break. The fans are thanking the band for this wonderful first part of the concert applauding, cheering, whistling, and stamping their feet on the wooden floor. The atmosphere is really great tonight.

The program continues about 20 minutes later. Deine Lakaien are going for a calm „Walk to the moon“ just to raise rougher tunes immediately afterwards with „Contact“. They are playing another Lakaien piece creating a reflective mood with „Where the winds don’t blow“. Then it is time again for Helium Vola. While Sabine Lutzenberger and Ernst Horn perform „Begierlich in dem Herze min“ alone on stage, they are supported by Goran Trajkoski, Katharina Garrad, Slobodan Kajkut, and Ivee Leon for „Omnis mundi creatura“. Quite some people would have loved to dance instead of sitting on their place restrained to nodding their heads and tapping their feet :-).
It is only three months ago that we saw the band but we missed them already. Thus, it causes even more enthusiasm to discover some cameras that are recording the event. Can we look forward to a DVD that will allow for indulging into memories long after this wonderful XXX-anniversary? We certainly hope so!

All musicians are now back on stage to play another Lakaien classic with “Cupids disease”. Mr. Horn is giving now way to Mr. Veljanov performs „Seraphim“ and „Mein Weg“ from his solo-works supported by the band.
But at the end of the concert, Deine Lakaien are turning back once again to the year 1991. With „Reincarnation“ and „Dark Star“ they play two pieces that many long-standing fans will certainly describe as the songs that lead them to addiction :-).
The band is leaving the stage for now and the audience is thanking them with stupendous applause. The people in Hamburg are in extremely good mood, every song is celebrated and spirits are high.

Of course, the gents Horn and Veljanov are showing themselves soon again on the dais. Before they play „One Night“ in the legendary Acoustic version, Mr. Veljanov has to say a few words. He emphasizes once more that this evening is all dedicated to music with only few words. He remarks that Hamburg is one of the cities where they played most frequently. This pleases the audience of Hamburg and is acknowledged with cheers.

Again, all musicians are back on stage for „Mindmachine“. Mr. Horn once more is tweaking his synthesizers following his heart’s deepest desire engineering fascinating sounds using his equipment. Afterwards, Mr. Veljanov introduces all band members individually and each is given a full hearted applause by the audience. Before the next musical acceleration with “Overpaid”, Ernesto is performing once more as the boss of techs at a loss and then as the man at the bass guitar. The band is rocking the hall, Mr. Horn is standing motionless just to beat the inner life of the grand piano at the end with his bare hands.

At the end of this encore the audience is standing up from their seat and celebrates the band accordingly. The stampings sounds as if the fans would like to tear down the old and venerable Laeiszhalle with their enthusiasm. Before this can happen, all protagonists of this evening are getting together on stage once more to conclude the concert with “Love me to the end”. Like in Stuttgart, tonight Sabine Lutzenberger is singing this absolute Lakaien-classic together with Mr. Veljanov as a duet. Then, the band is bowing to the audience that once more is giving everything to show its delight.

(Photo: Karli Scharschmidt)

The lights are turned on as a signal for the real end. One collects oneself and carries home the memory of an amazing concert.

Today we met so many people we know that there was not enough time to talk to everybody:
Andreas, Melanie, Nella, Rita und Nadine, Nicole, Anne, Franziska, tigress, Alexandra and even Bina, aka Fly, who had been working for CI for a long time. Sorry, if we forgot anybody :-).

Wow, this was again really great today. And on Sunday, it is Berlin’s turn. Let’s see, what is going to happen in the capital :-).

Here you can see Dea’s photos


Setlist:

1. Away
2. Colour-ize
3. Gone
4. Lonely
5. Mahnung (Helium Vola)
6. Dormi (Helium Vola)
7. Selig (Helium Vola)
8. Over and done
9. Where you are
10. The man with the silver gun (Veljanov)
11. The sweet life (Veljanov)
12. Return
13. Fighting the green

Break:

1. Walk to the moon
2. Contact
3. Where the winds don’t blow
4. Begierlich in dem Herze min (Helium Vola)
5. Omnis mundi creatura (Helium Vola)
6. Cupids desease
7. Seraphim (Veljanov)
8. Mein Weg (Veljanov)
9. Reincarnation
10. Dark Star

Encore:

11. One night
12. Mindmaschine
13. Overpaid

14. Love me to the end

text by Queeny (translation by CM)

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