Aussie Floyd

Think flying pigs, ugly teachers, and pink kangaroos... come again? Yesterday we went to the Australian Pink Floyd Show, a Pink Floyd tribute band from down under. Performing since 1988.

Not surprisingly most of the audience was 40+, and if there where younger folks present, they were likely dragged along by their parents. That was possibly the reason for the seated venue, us older people don't want to stand that long.

The band consists of no less than nine musicians, and they performed the Pink Floyd sound very authentically. Usually they seem to focus on one album from PF's repertoire, but this time it was a "Best of the Best" affair: after a rough start with the Syd Barrett pinned "Astronomy Domine" (possibly for final sound check purposes) they turned into "Shine on You crazy Diamond", a song that  Pink Floyd once wrote for Syd who had left band due to mental illness. Perfect sound!

After that the band presented an almost full overview of Pink Floyd's history, including "Time", "Wish you were here", "Another Brick in the Wall", "Comfortably Numb", etc. The music was accompanied by a show was that almost on Floyd level, but constantly using Australian content for reminding us that this was NOT the original: hence, the pink kangaroo (that actually rocked - literally), short clips from "Crocodile Dundee", "Neighbours" and "Skippy", and of course a few seconds of recordings from Kylie, Men at Work, and ACDC.

The audience was very pleased, and by 11pm we all left happy and ready to return to our nursing homes. We might be doing that again if our caregiver allows it!  ;-)

Freiburg Nightlife

Saturday night we were going to a rock concert in Freiburg. This city is an hour drive away from home, and we don't go there very often for some reason we don't quite understand ourselves. Because this city has everything we miss in the heart of the Black Forest: Bars, good food and entertainment.

First things first: Food! When we entered the Mexican-Californian fusion restaurant Sausalito's, it was already packed with young folks. Freiburg is a university town. Weirdly enough by German standards the waiter welcomed us with a familiar "Du" instead of the formal "Sie" and on a first name basis, as if we were regular visitors. It almost sounded as if we had entered the American sector  ;-) Nice touch.

We were treated to a happy hour special (half priced long drinks), and how could we say no to things called Indian Mojito and Summer Cooler. Bonus, they had vegan and gluten free options on their menu. While Roland went with a traditional burger, Sonja opted for the vegan version sans bun.

With culinary senses satisfied and bellies full we walked over to the event location, the Jazzhaus Freiburg. The age group was a bit different there... more mature folks (like ourselves). The performer was Laith Al Deen, a German-Iraqi singer and song writer.

The venue was underground, in a vaulted cellar, and the proximity to the singer was almost intimate. We had a good time, and it looked like everybody else had, too.

It wasn't allowed to take photos with a camera, but the cell phone pictures didn't turn out too bad either.

Song: What if everything went well

Food, Drinks and a Concert, and not necessarily in that Order.

Sunday had provided us with another opportunity to continue chatting, eating (and drinking) with Nick. Together we leisurely explored the area around Kings Cross station along the canal.

Guys, it's not even lunch time...

Shortly before 2 p.m. we parted ways, and attended a prog rock concert at Kings Place. In the afternoon. At a seated venue. The average age of the audience was certainly 50+.

The whole thing sounded more awkward than it actually was. This music was like a classical concert, with strings, bass, and brass instruments. The band BIG BIG TRAIN had asked to refrain from taking pictures and using cell phones, and the audience was very mature about it. They played for almost three hours (here a version of their song Wassail), and it was a feast for the ears.

After the concert we had another 'gig' coming up, involving once again food and good company. The venue was an excellent vegan Chinese restaurant in Archway, where we met with yet another moto-blogger: John a.k.a. El Diente.

Purely vegan!

Again, there was lots of chatting and eating involved, an evening full of stories of journeys, adventures and encounters. John is a well traveled chap, and had stories from around the world to share. And the evening flew by in an instant, and with the promise to meet him again. Next time maybe in the Black Forest?

Culture Clash: The Irish invade the Black Forest

With this year's celebration of St. Patrick's Day the Irish came into small-town Germany. Although culturally unrelated to any German holiday, the Green Day and its tradition is well known over here. Hence people showed up in green attire and green hats and scarfs.

Green became the colour of the night, and traditional Black Forest taverns turned into Irish Pubs, serving Guiness and Kilkenny, Irish Coffee and Whiskey.

And instead of oompah music you could listen to the sound of guitars, banjos, fiddles and harmonicas.

This first Irish Night was very well received in the village, beer and whiskey kept flowing, and you could hear the locals singing folk songs until well after midnight.

Rockin' in Switzerland

Roland: Concert Season has started again, and this time I was off to Switzerland (Pratteln just across the border on the South side of river Rhine) to see Neal Morse Band presenting their latest album "The Grand Experiment". The venue Z7 was very nice, but also very drafty due to the fact that most of the listeners appeared to be smokers, and almost constantly someone was leaving from or returning into the building, leaving the door open for seconds while the very cool outside air vented though the hall. Brrr.

Good thing that the music heated up fast. The band is full of fantastic musicians (Mike Portnoy has been voted #10 best rock drummer ever), and they tended to play shorter songs than usual (Morse generally writes lots of 'epics' with length between 10 and 40 minutes). Nice mixture of rock and some quieter moments. The final song of the regular set saw them really showing off by switching instruments - twice! The drummer started playing bass, Morse hit the drums, the guitarist soloed on the keyboard and the keyboarder played the guitar. Then the guitarist played a drum solo, and the bass player managed to do a solo on guitar and keyboard at the same time! I hate them...

Luckily the concert ended after only 2:20h (we watched the band in Seattle once playing 3:30h) so I was able to get home by 1 AM in the morning. Still getting up the next morning was no feat!

Coming up: Irish Folk in our hometown, Steven Wilson in Pratteln, a Jazz festival in Rottweil, Camel at the Loreley, Big Big Train in London... It is going to be a busy year!

Double Feature

Yours truly with the coolest guys you could ever hope to meet: Pete Trewawas, Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Roine Stolte

Roland: No idea why these things always come in pairs, but after months of not having any interesting concerts in the calendar there now were two great ones in a row within two days. Last Thursday Transatlantic were playing in Karlsruhe, and just 24 hours later Camel were on stage in Cologne. Obviously this meant a whole lot of traveling, plus we combined it with a weekend with our family.

The Band rocks!!!

Mike Portnoy in a rare moment of stillness

Transatlantic are considered as the Progressive Rock Supergroup, and are consisting of members and Ex-members of Marillion, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard and Flower Kings. Their songs are quite lengthy, usually touching the twenty minutes mark, and their concerts tend to be far over two and a half hours long. I had the chance for a short meet and greet with the band before the set and was rewarded with a photo with the guys. As expected, the concert was fantastic, loud, and very exhausting. Worth every second!

Camel on Stage

The night after I was blessed to see Camel's Andy Latimer one more time, something I actually never expected to happen again since Latimer was diagnosed with Myelofibrosis some ten years ago, but he bravely managed to win this battle.  So, now he put the band back together and celebrated the 1975 Instrumental album "Snow Goose" in remembrance of Camels former member, the late Peter Bardens.

This was another beautiful concert, with far less notes than the night before, but nevertheless touching and charming. After the heavy accustic meal the night before this was like a Digestif for the ears. Here's to another Camel tour in the foreseeable future!

Andy Latimer

Too Old To Rock'n Roll?!

Roland: The number one musical hero of my youth was Manfred Mann, who somehow appeared to be an old man already at the height of his Earth Band at the end of the Seventies. I remember visiting London in 1980 where a radio station played 'For You' and the voice on the radio explained that "he is quite old now: Forty already!".

Manfred Mann's Earth Band is known in North America pretty much only for their version of Springsteen's 'Blinded By The Light', but in Europe they were a top act in the Seventies and early Eighties filling the biggest arenas. While their albums changed from Rock to Pop over the years their concerts continued to be a tour de force in improvisation: usually the song lengths doubled or tripled in comparison to the album versions, fired by speed changes, solos and moog vs. guitar duels.

Manfred Mann is 73 now and the Earth Band still exists, but nowadays they play smaller cities and venues. When I read that they would give a concert in Appenweier, a mere 30 minutes drive from our home,  I decided to get nostalgic again, being fully aware that this would be a whole 'nother trip than the perfectionist Peter Gabriel concert two weeks ago.

So after surviving a disastrous one hour gig by Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd (another big act in Europe in the 70s) I was not sure what to expect from my old heroes. When they finally entered the stage it became obvious right away that these guys are NOT to old to Rock'n Roll. The two founding members, Manfred Mann and Mick Rogers, seemed to have as much fun as they always did, the new singer did not have the slightest problems with the catalogue, and the rhythm section was as precise as always. Being the keyboarder of the band Manfred Mann is usually stuck behind his equipment but still he managed to dance over the stage a couple of times, even shaking his booty once! Not bad for a guy in his Seventies!

Unfortunately the set list did not change a lot during the last two decades(!), but the band manages to breathe new life into each and every song whenever I see them. But as much fun it was seeing them again, there is always the sad feeling involved that there won't be many more of these opportunities in the future...

So - Old!

Roland: From time to time I am getting reminders that I am getting old. One of them occurred yesterday when I drove up to Düsseldorf (a mere four hour drive away from the Black Forest) to join a Peter Gabriel concert by the title 'So - back to front' for a late 25th birthday celebration of Gabriel's 1986 album 'So' (the one with Sledgehammer and Don't Give Up) and the accompanying 1987 tour. Gabriel managed to (inserting Blues Brothers quote) 'get the band back together', and he actually performed with the same musicians that made the 1987 concert so memorable to everyone who had the pleasure of seeing it. 1987... 26 years ago... half a life ago...

I got the impression that it must have been pretty much the same audience, too, as it appeared that there weren't many people under the age of forty around.

Obviously the musicians aged, too (and actually Gabriel himself did not age too well...), hence there wasn't as much jumping and dancing as in the Eighties. Instead we were rewarded with a really beautiful light show with loads of impressive pictures.

It was a good concert (albeit not even close to the original), but the best feature of the event was meeting my old buddies again who were there back then in 1987! And if you think four hours is a long way to drive to a concert: the couple in the middle traveled down from Sweden!