26.10.2013 Blutengel

Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen (Germany)

After a short break for modifying the stage the so called Monument Ensemble entered the stage at 22:00 and began with a furious intro. Some candlestands and a chandelier, nothing else was on stage what could distract from the artists and the music. The intro slowly faded over into "Nachtbringer" and under great cheer the singer Chris Pohl came onto the stage. Later he was supported by singer Ulrike Goldmann respectively she additionally had a solo part later on.
Normally the Berlin dark pop band stands for dark elektronic music and so the curiosity was huge how this would sound with this classical cast (Drums, guitar, piano, clarinet, saxophone, cello and violins). But directly from the start you could hear: this symbiosis was perfectly working. There was a cross section of older and newer songs and no matter if it was "Über Den Horizont", the wonderful ballad "Ein Augenblick" or "Soultaker", the audience listened attentive the sounds coming from the stage. There was a premiere when Pohl announced the song "Die Zeit" who has never been performed live by them.
Overall it was not surprisingly that the audience was requesting for more loudly when the musicians left the stage after "Reich Mir Die Hand". But they did not need to ask for a long time and there was much more to come. It was nearly when the concert was over when the audience even rose and started clapping along during some of the songs which had not taken place before, other than during the concert of Staubkind. You could really feel that this was a very special night not only for the audience but also for the artists.
In my opinion this show could have continued for a longer time but someone does not want to seem insatiable. It have been wonderful 90 minutes with lots of goosebumps and have not expected that the conversion from electronic sounds into classical ones would work that good. For this i raise my hat highly for them!