11.08.2024 Schandmaul

M'era Luna

Hildesheim (Germany)

Back on the Main Stage where it was only me but also many others waiting for the performance of Schandmaul. And there you could see: singer Thomas Lindner was standing on stage again. Additionally, there was also Georgij Alexandrowitsch Makazaria, former singer of the band Russkaja. And why he was joining the band got obvious after the first song “Krieger”. It was then when Lindner directed some words to the audience, telling them from his cancerous disease which he, at least momentarily, got better of. Unfortunately, a wretched side effect of the therapy was, and that could not be overheard, that his voice was not yet back to old strength whereas he handed over the singing part currently to Makazaria. On keyboards and guitar he was already getting in on the act as if there had never happened something to him.
As is usual for Schandmaul they were working along the medieval topics via “Hexeneinmaleins”, “Die Tafelrunde” or also “Tatzelwurm”. Makazaria was replacing Lindner excellently and directly infected the audience by his lively way. Everywhere people were dancing and singing along and if it was not him that encouraged them than it was one of the two ladies Birgit Muggenthaler-Schmack who besides the wind instruments also took care of the backing vocals as well as Saskia Forkert who did that too besides playing violin and hurdy-gurdy. Musically, they were covering a huge range and during “Bunt Und Nicht Braun” of the 2014 album “Unendlich” a group showed a flag against right-wings which was immediately picked up by Makarazia in order to request a huge circle-pit in which everybody should take place that was supporting this request. Unfortunately, this topic is still very up to date. Towards the end it was getting livelily once more when they were letting the “Knüppel Aus Dem Sack” but the original closure was then very devoutly when the soft sounds of “Dein Anblick” were waving across the place in front of the stage.
I was very relieved to see that Lindner was so far well again and the topic regarding his voice I also already knew beforehand but was not 100% sure as this information was from May in which way the situation might have already improved. Makarazia did his job very well, but I personally had some hard time with him. Again and again his Russian and Vienna accent was coming through and I found it quite unsuitable although he was terrific from vocal point of view. So, I beg the bands pardon due to my opinion, but it may be due to the fact that it is that unusual to me. Generally, I wish Lindner that his voice might come back quickly and he may take pleasure of staying in pink health furthermore. Besides that, it was an usual good performance of the band, however, there could have been some more people in front of the stage as there were at some placed quite huge gaps inside what Schandmaul did not deserve in my point of view. Especially, as they want to make up for the birthday party of their 25th anniversary that was canceled last year due to the well-known unhappy reason and what could be better than having an amphitheater at Gelsenkirchen that is sold out for two days?