The Year Live Music Killed Covid-19: Concerts 2023 (Rückblick)
Thanks to the covid-19 pandemic 2023 was the first real year for live music in the twenty-twenties. I’d been to a couple shows the previous year, but the trepidation in the shadow of temporarily lifted coronavirus lockdowns was palpable. The pandemic wasn’t all bad: scoping out fresh produce or handmade garments at the local farmer’s market made me feel like I was part of something bigger than Amazon and Netflix. Crazy, I know, but it is possible. No doubt people were grateful to be out, but public gatherings in 2022 were pregnant with social reservation.
Nowadays masking and social distancing feel like ancient history, but the New Reality they ushered in, temporary though it was, left indelible marks on our psyches, collectively and individually. To be honest I’m still recovering from enforced social isolation. But believe me when I say live music made a serious comeback in 2023. It might have even slayed the pandemic.
I didn’t see any shows the first two months of the year. Yet while January and February were veritable dead zones, March came roaring back like a lion. So here is a brief look at the live shows I saw in 2023.
1
WHO: Elbland Philharmonie w/special guests
WHAT: The Legend of Hip Hop
WHERE: Alter Schlachthof, Dresden, Germany
WHEN: March 5th
With 2023 marking the 50th anniversary of hip hop, events were held around the world to celebrate the culture’s half-centennial. To that end I took in The Legends of Hip Hop, a show put on, oddly enough, by the Elbland Philharmonie. The event took place at the Alter Schlachthof in Dresden, one of the city’s top venues. Conceptually born by Karsten Gunderman, choreographed by Wilfried Ebongue, and directed by Ekkehard Klemm, The Legend of Hip Hop featured live breakers, stage design that tipped a hat to writers and sprayers, and musical accompaniment by the Elbland Philharmonic interspersed with live beatboxing. The show melded classic symphonic instruments with funk and Latino breakbeats, which were created without deejays. The highlight for me was Kana and Mavie, two emcees who rhymed in German, English, and French, often blending all three into one utterance. Polylingual rap is my kink, and the show’s producers had the foresight to project their rhymes on a big screen, which definitely helped me wrap my head around their raps. I totally dug their rhymes, but the show left me wondering how a hip hop honorific could be orchestrated without deejays. All in all The Legend of Hip Hop was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and it was cool watching young kids get up on stage at the end to showcase their own spins and freezes, a suitable closing for a show dedicated to the young people who birthed hip hop in The Bronx in the 1970s.
2
WHO: Olicía w/Lambert
WHAT: An evening to celebrate our blue planet
WHERE: Frauenkirche, Dresden
WHEN: March 10th
Five days later I had the pleasure of seeing Olicía at the Frauenkirche, Dresden’s famed Baroque Lutheran church that the Allied Powers rendered a ruin in the waning hours of WW2. Rebuilt between 1994 and 2005, the church is one of the city’s top tourist destinations. Dubbed “An evening to celebrate our blue planet,” the concert featured a massive, illuminated rotating Earth hung from the cupola. Olicía wowed the audience with tracks from their album Liquid Lines, which I reviewed in Oct 2021. While hearing Olicía’s mouth-made jazz ballasted by deep bass synths roll through the church was marvelous, I got the feeling that George Bähr, the building’s architect, didn’t exactly have 21st century electro-jazz musicians in mind when he designed the church in the 18th century. At times Olicia’s set was marred by muddy tones sequestered by the building’s interior design, but that was a minor issue. The real mishap of the evening was me shouting “BRAVA!!” at the end of a song somewhere in the middle of their set. Since these sorts of commendations are commonly saved for the conclusion of a performance, I messed up. But like true world-class musicians, Olicía have the power to coax spontaneous expressions of joy and gratitude from the audience. For me, this show came during a week of intense professional pressures no one should ever have to endure (yes, a police report was filed), so it was the type of catharsis I needed at exactly the right moment. To be honest, this was the first (and, to date, only) concert I’ve ever attended where I kept my eyes closed most of the time. Nestled in the pews, the church created a safe space, the result of which was me meditating while two immensely talented women conjured nothing short of magic. Lambert, a Hamburg-based jazz trio (whose eponymous front man donned a dramatic goat head complete with horns), closed the evening out. It was all brilliant, and if you are unfamiliar with either group, I recommend them heartily.
3
WHO: The Bug feat. Flowdan, Shackleton, Pole, Dis Fig & Gorgonn
WHAT: PRESSURE
WHERE: Gretchen Club, Berlin
WHEN: March 18th
With live music roaring back, concertgoers, irrespective of genre, were eager to get lost in sonic delight. There’s no better symbol for that than Kevin Martin aka The Bug. His PRESSURE sets are not for the faint of heart. Gretchen Club has housed Martin’s sound system for years, and experiencing his masterfully executed brand of Afro Euro dub electro grime on his very own rig is a must for bass freaks. PRESSURE shows typically get going around 11pm (early by Berlin standards) and run through the wee hours. After donning high-quality ear protection, I subjected myself to The Bug’s beats and signature builds for nearly seven hours. The next morning I wandered out of Gretchen at 6:30 feeling thoroughly reset. I had to walk a couple kilometers through a light rain to get back to my accommodation. Being pummeled by The Bug and his emcees curiously helped me appreciate the delicate tenderness of that morning rain. I’m still holding out hope that Gretchen will host a sound clash between The Bug and JK Flesh (Justin Broadrick), Martin’s longtime partner in the fine arts of aural assault. If such an event ever transpires, only the audience can win. Here’s hoping!
4
WHO: Big|Brave w/Aicher
WHAT: Nature Morte EU Tour 2023
WHERE: Ostpol, Dresden
WHEN: April 27th
The esteemed Montreal trio Big|Brave, whose bio attests “harness an earthen heaviness composed of distorted and textural drones, austere bombast, and [front woman] Robin Wattie’s heart-rending voice,” graced Dresden’s Ostpol at the end of April. Big|Brave have been at it for a decade, but their albums Vital and A Gaze Among Them came to my attention during the pandemic. This post-rock, post-metal trio “brandish sparseness and density like weapons, cast tense atmospheres with languid tempos and mutate feedback into eruptions of enveloping tempests.” In other words, just what the doctor ordered. Aicher, the opening act, was the highlight. A one-man show who delivers cavernous industrial dub, Aicher’s set was mesmerizing, hypnotic, and utterly enthralling. As with Olicía at the Frauenkirche, I found myself at ease in Ostpol’s intimate backroom to close my eyes and sway to the deep dark sounds Aicher coaxed from electronics and amplifiers. Oddly enough, Big|Brave only performed three or four songs, which means Aicher, who sat in on second bass guitar for Big|Brave’s set, played longer than the headliner. Most in attendance were miffed when Wattie apologized for cutting the group’s set short. Breaking their gear down while wearing a face mask, she may have been under the weather, and since the show only cost 20 EURO I didn’t, and still don’t, harbor any resentments. Nevertheless, a full set would have been nice. Rest assured I’ll be catching Big|Brave when they come around again.
5
WHO: In Extremo w/Manntra
WHAT: Carpe Noctem Tour 2023
WHERE: Festung Königstein, Germany
WHEN: July 1st
Like Jan and Feb, May and June were dead zones — not because there weren’t any shows happening, but because I couldn’t muster much beyond self-care, getting to school on time, and correcting an avalanche of student work. At the end of the school year, one of my colleagues told me that her husband had an extra ticket to see In Extremo at Festung Königstein. A 750 year-old fortrss perched high above the River Elbe in Germany’s Saxon Switzerland, the fortress is worth a trip unto itself. Drawing nearly 700,000 visitors each year, it was an ideal place to see In Extremo, a German Medieval metal band from Berlin whose Wikipedia entry claims create a musical style that blends the sound of rock/metal with traditional Medieval songs using historical instruments. They do! To be clear, I had already heard of In Extremo but didn’t know what they were about. While they are something of an institution in the former East Germany, they are not a go-to band for me. Their fans, however, were overjoyed. It had been a while since I’d seen crowds dance at a hard rock show, but dance they did. The opening act, Manntra (a Croatian metal group) did their best to warm up the crowd. Even though neither In Extremo nor Manntra are my cups of tea, it was refreshing to see people celebrate being alive. In retrospect, the concert felt like an elaborate beer and bratwurst fest. It was nice to be out and even cooler when Jens, my generous host, parked his van a few kilometers from the venue so we could bike through the forest and make our ascent on two wheels. Whether on foot or bicycles, winding your way through beer-addled Germans is never an easy task, but somehow we made it out after the show. I don’t think I’ll attend another In Extremo concert, but I’m grateful I had the chance to see them at the Festnung. It is quite a marvelous location. Put it on your bucket list.
6
WHO: Emma Ruth Rundle
WHAT: Engine of Hell Tour 2023
WHERE: Lukaskirche, Dresden
WHEN: July 30th
Emma Ruth Rundle at Dresden’s Lukaskirche was a highlight of my 2023 concert circuit. Playing in a number of groups since she got her start as a musician on a semester exchange in New Zealand, Portland-based Emma Ruth Rundle has been at it for years, but I’m something of a newcomer to her melancholic singer-songwriter effusions. On the day of the show I had just gotten back from a whirlwind three-day road trip with an old homie from southern California, so I was still in a bit of haze when he dropped me off at the church just before showtime on a late summer Sunday afternoon. This performance was the final date on her Engine of Hell tour. Like me, I had the feeling Emma was a bit road weary, but she did not disappoint. Rundle ripped through Engine of Hell with a minimal amount of chatter and left the audience, considerably bigger than I expected, quite speechless. (Think about it: Engine of Hell — in a church.) The opening act, William Fowler Collins, a solo performer who played a heavily treated electric guitar with brushes, was solid. If you’re unfamiliar with Emma Ruth Rundle, let your fingers do the walking at YouTube. “Real Big Sky” has got to be on the best pop songs of the last 20 years. I’m still holding out hope that Emma will collaborate at some point with Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Final, JK Flesh, Techno Animal, Jesu, etc.), but I’ve got a list of artists I’d love to see him work with, including Adrianne Lenker. Given how Broadrick collaborated with Anda Szilagyi, Christian McKenna, Frederick Keller and Daniel Louis D’Errico on Pynuka’s Not in the Sense We Did Something Wrong (2023), Rundle and Lenker just might be excellent collaborative partners. Time will tell.
7
WHO: The Bug feat. Miss Red w/ Andy Stott, Coki, and Digital
WHAT: PRESSURE
WHERE: Gretchen Club, Berlin
WHEN: Sept 2nd
Around these parts July and August are referred to as der Sommerloch (the summer hole), which means there is nothing to do indoors. Translation: get outside and get some! August came and went in blur, which was ideal because September brought an encore presentation of The Bug and friends at Gretchen. Like the show in March, this was no disappointment: another long, exhausting night dancing until the sun came up. Rather than slinking back to some dodgy accommodation, I skipped renting a bed entirely, opting instead to stay out all night and swashbuckle my way back to Berlin-Südkreuz to catch the first train home. It was a curious experience. On more than one occasion during my walk I could have sworn I heard random strangers mutter “I love you” under their breath after they spotted an exhausted me wandering the streets alone. There are worse ways to start a Sunday.
8
WHO: Bonnie Tyler
WHAT: 40 Years ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ Tour 2023
WHERE: Kulturpalast, Dresden
WHEN: Dec 18th
Born the year hip hop boomed out of a rec room on Sedgewick Ave in The Bronx, I’m an 80s baby, which means my formative years were shaped by singers and songs I couldn’t necessarily name but who nevertheless had an impact. Welsh-born singer Bonnie Tyler is one of them. I didn’t attend this show of my own volition but rather because an old friend was juiced she was coming to town. As luck would have it, someone who scored tickets but couldn’t go was selling a pair for less than box office prices on a local swap website, so we snapped them up and went. I’m glad I did — not because the show was particularly awesome (the sound at the Kulturpalast, while possibly ideal for orchestras, is not well suited for rock concerts ), but because I had no idea how many hit songs Tyler has chalked up over her career. For instance, I spent most of my adult life thinking Kim Carnes sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” ditto “It’s A Heartache.” Actually it was Bonnie Tyler who brought those tunes into our collective consciousness. Did you know she recorded “Holding Out for a Hero”? I didn’t. The same goes for “Straight from the Heart,” made famous by Canadian rock mainstay Bryan Adams, and “The Best” (1988), which mega icon Tina Turner turned into the smash hit “Simply the Best.” All in the all Bonnie Tyler’s show was decent, but nothing I’d brag about having attended. (Although to be fair my dad was properly impressed.) But let’s be honest: Bonnie Tyler at 70 can still sing. In the end, I doubt I’ll catch her live again, but it was cool to see Tyler belt out her hits with passion.
That’s my 2023 live music experience in a nutshell. Why not get some dialogue going? What were your best live music experiences in 2023? Hit me up in the comments and we’ll chew the fat. Frohes Neues!!
