07.02.2012 Guano Apes

Stahlwerk, Düsseldorf (Germany)

The Guano Apes are back on tour. As you can see on my event list my very first concert was one of Guano Apes. To that time at the Ebertbad at Oberhausen in front of 150 they introduced their new CD "Walking On A Thin Line" and were on the climax of their carreer. Shortly afterwards the end was there and each of them tried to westle through with more or less success. 2009 the four from Göttingen reunited and the result, their current album "Bel Air" was forming the basis of this evening.
That was first also shown by the stage setting: four screens with palms on them. But the opener was an older song: "Quietly" before already the first release of their current album "Oh What A Night" followed. Singer Sandra Nasic swirled just like at the early days across the stage, henning Rümenapp educed lots of cool riffs from his guitars, bassist Stefan "Stude" Ude was doing the stage hog just as drummer Dennis Poschwatta behind his drum set. New for live gigs with them was Mirco Hildmann that could only be seen at the background. He was responsible for additional guitar support and supported Sandra as background singer.
Who came because of the older songs was getting his money's worth in the beginning with stunners like "You Can't Stop Me" and surprisingly "Open Your Eyes" already as fourth song made the atmosphere fly high immediately. Directly in front of the stage the first large pit opened and it was sang along loudly. Then the big block of songs of the current album followed of which I have to say, like many others too, that they are not so well done. The sound is extremely mainstream and significantly more supported by samples which were also used during the live show. Furthermore the new songs are way more quiet compared to crackers like "Gogan". Nevertheless it was a really perfect show during which the atmosphere was continously great.
Two things were not so nice. On the one hand the camera team scurrying across the stage non-stop to capture the show with digital cameras. That was partially extremely annoying. On the other hand the "fashion show" of bassist Stude roughly half-way of the concert which was not absolutely needful. That was a little bit lengthy. Overall a quite funny idea to give the band some time to take a breath but it does not need to be like that. Never mind! Towards the encore the band was again heavily turning up. First the guys could really let off steam during "Plastic Mouth" before it really got started in front of the stage by the last two songs "Big In Japan" and "Lord Of The Boards". Also Dennis thought he would have to help the stage crew and suddenly started to put his drum set off the podest whereas Stude tried to slash his bass into the base drum.
My conclusion of this nearly 90 minutes lasting concert is a little bit torn. Overall that was undoubtful a really terrific concert and really making fun. On the other side I do have some issues with the new album although it is live way better (thanks to Sandra's genious charism on stage). Personally I was missing this wild energy and intensitiy of former gigs which absolutely is not possible with the current material. So the Guano Apes found quite a good way inbetween. The band has developed further and changed themselves and their music with each album and I am looking forward how this will be continued.