Up until now anyway, there has only ever been one musical superstar from Bonn. Outside of Ludwig von B though there have been a few stars of a more local folk-pop variety, and two of them were shining at Konrad Beircher’s home, Katharinenhof, this week. Cynthia Nickschas re-located away from here not so long ago whilst Götz Widmann headed for Berlin in 2008. Both have their musical roots here though, and it was a pleasure to hear them, both individually and collectively, in what really is a unique setting.
When Cynthia Nickschas steps, barefoot as always, onto the Katherinenhof stage she is not alone there. To her right, and looking hungrily on, is a dinosaur. Behind in the distance are various sculpted heads, and to my right is what could pass for a victim of Pompei except that the plaster figure is holding a pistol in each hand. Not your average concert setting, but then neither Nickschas or Widmann are your obvious folk-singing troubadors. Both have dinstinct ‘Ecken und Kanten’ as the German language would describe. ‘Quirky’ is what my dictionary throws up. It’s close enough.
Despite her being absent from Bonn for some two years, I still expect to See Cynthia Nickschas popping up on streetcorners playing for change here. One of those quality of life experiences that you don’t appreciate until it’s gone. But times change. Missing tonight is Cynthia’s trademark top-hat. “I like to move around a lot during shows and it feels better when my hair can fly about too” she smiles. Move around she does too for the next forty ninutes. It seems like nervous energy, but how can she be nervous when she’s facing so many friends and friendly faces? There is a new disc on the way I’m told, but today, with only a half-hour slot, it’s best to stick to old gold. ‘Is halt so!’and ‘Blattpapier’ are amongst those gold-standard Nickschas melodies.
Forty minutes of heartfelt music and frenetic energy. was that really Cynthia saying before her set that she was feeling tired after a busy period of shows and then today travelling down from Berlin? By show’s end she seemed to have been totally re-charged – as if all that audience energy coming back in the form of applause, was like a battery pack.
It’s just as well that Cynthia was re-energized because she was soon invited back onstage to accompany Götz Widmann, whose set this evening was dedicated to Martin ‘Klienti’ Simon. Widmann & ‘Klienti’ were an oddball but succesful duo under the name ‘Joint Venture’ until Klienti’s sudden death on 5 June 2000 from a heart attack at only 34. The duo made their debut in Bonn’s ‘Anno Tubac’ in 1993 and Kleinti is buried at the cemetry in Venusburg. Did I say ‘oddball’ earlier? well that’s certainly evident from an early song with Cynthia singing whilst Götz Widmann keeps percusion by striking his throat and gurgling. Not something you want to do every night on a 30 date tour of course. Despite it’s title, the song isn’t about donkeys but about marijuana. And how can you call a song about a man being pregnant (‘Ich bin Schwanger’) anything other than oddball”
Like or hate them, you can’t easily ignore the lyrics of Widmann’s songs. Even in quieter moments such as the ballad ‘Tiefes Leiden’
“Oh, seit Tagen schieb ich Frust
Hab auf nichts und gar nichts Lust
Nicht auf Saufen, nicht auf Frauen
Bin einfach bloß superdown“
…
“Ich würd so gern auf alles scheißen
Und mich nicht mehr zusammenreißen”
Beer an drugs seem to have formed a large part of Joint Venture’s musical topics. Widmann still finds inspiration in the former. His latest disc 2024’s ‘Blütenduft’ (The scent of flowerblooms) was created in La Palma and he fondly recounts “Where else in the World can you buy 1 litre beer bottles?!. The time-saving beauty of not having to constantly go back to the refrigerator for yet another can… but beer is not always a friend, as his songh ‘Bier in meiner T’statur’ (‘Beer in my computer keyboard) wonderfully points out with it’s lyrics clipped to represent the characters that don’t type properly afterwards: “wa scheinlich mus ich n neuer aptop kaufen!”
Yes, it’s taken a while, but I’m gradually warming to Götz Widmann’s somewhat earthy and irreverant lyrical style. I can certainly imagine him retiring from music to run a small pub in abroad in the sun, and ‘In meine kleine, geile Bar’ (In my small but wonderful bar’), like so many of Widmann’s songs just seems to roll happily through my ears whatever the subject. The easy nature of the evening is also evident when Widmann is joined by his brother on vocals for a lively rendition of ‘Und tchüss!’
The 140 0r so people listening are mainly die-hard Götz Widmann fans, so it’s not surprising that when he comes to take song requests at the evenings end there are a lot of call-outs. He decides on one with the caveat that he doesn’t do oi often because it has a lot of verses and either people already know the story or they get bored hearing it for the first time as its so long. It turns out that they do indeed know the text well, and that’s a lifesaver, since around about verse 8 Widmann himself has forgotten the next words. There’s a songbook for sale at the merchandise stand which is consulted and finally all’s well that ends well.
It’s always strange being unfamiliar with someones music whilst surrounded by people who seemingly know every word. I’m left thinking it would have been fun to hear Widmann and Klienti aka Joint Venture back in the day in a ‘kleine geile’ Bonn Bar. If I close my eyes I can almost see the duo at Bonn Folk Club. Widmann hitting his throat and shrieking rythmically as Klienti sings “Ein Krümel ist genug. Ein Krümel macht dich klug. Jedoch ein dicker Brösel macht dich dafür zum Esel”. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. and you can forget the words, and you can be irreverent, and you can sing about taboo subjects. Just as long as you do so from the heart and with honesty.
Hopefully then it will still be a while before Götz Widmann follows his threat to leave making music behind:
“Und Tschüss, hier können mich alle mal,
Ich hau jetzt ab, wohin ist völlig egal.
Und Tschüss, ich sag dem Kaff hier ade,
Und Tschüss, ich bin auf Welttournee.
Und Tschüss”.
– Und Tschüß!
