This week 2/3 August was the first of five weekends of free live music in the Stadtgarten am Alten Zoll in Bonn. Tthe popular Stadtgarten concert season will be inviting visitors to discover and enjoy music from August 1 to 30, 2025. Bonn’s Cultural Office is presenting a varied and diverse music program – ideal for anyone spending Summer in the city.
The stage down by the Rhine will be presenting artists from a wide range of genres but the focus is on one thing above all: authenticity, beyond established listening habits. The audience can look forward to Bonn punk legends as well as lyrical jazz pop, danceable folk fusion and classic hard rock. Local newcomers, such as the Fountain Cave Basement Orchestra will aim to inspire with their energy and enthusiasm, while international guests such as this evening’s US singer McKenna Michels will be providing special accents. Also on hand with varied musical styles on Saturday were Offenbach Disabilities project band Blumenstrauss and International Fusion Folk band The Trouble Notes. Enough talking – let’s get down to Alter Zoll, I hear Festival Organizer Hajo announcing the first band…
The five-piece formation Blumenstrauss is organized through the Behindertenhilfe in Offenbach and has been around on the German Indie scene for some six years now
The fact that the five band members also see themselves as ambassadors for a diverse and colorful society is made clear by their band name: a bouquet of flowers, in which the composition of the individual flowers ultimately expresses something more diverse than just the sum of the individual blossoms.
Working as I do at the International Paralympic Committee I’m very aware of the fact that ‘disability’ merely refers to one aspect of the individual. What counts is not their disabilities but their abilities. This band exhude attitude and, above all, enthusiasm. Oh, they also put together a mean Indie-pop groove. playing live is definitely one of the group’s strengths. With lots of energy, an infectious charisma and a great sense of humor – who else would put on a face mask with blinking lights and jump down into the audience to dance? Mad, but great fun.
The Trouble Notes style can best be described as traditional folk, gritty progressive rock and explosive dance music. A prime inspiration is clearly Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull, and not just on violin – even guitarist Florian Eisenschmidt can regularly be spotted banging out guitar accompaniment balanced on only one leg. The band has already made numerous appearances in Cologne, where they came to the notice of Bonn photographer Sabine Büttner, who convinced them to travel a bit further this year – to Bonn.
I can particularly associate with violinist Bennet Cerven who spent his early working life on Wall Street with, as he described it, the aim to make enough money to be able to get out and do just what he truly wanted. And so he has. Although this week that meant a gruelling journey from Chepstow’s ‘Green Gathering’ Festival in the UK, straight down the motorway and onto a Dover ferry to get back here in Germany and finally to Bonn. Was this one of those times when working on Wall Street seemed an easy option I wonder?
Life is about more than money though and The Trouble Notes clearly value being true to ones-self and ones beliefs. As Bennet pointed out – the real us isn’t the face we wear in the office. We should embrace truly being us, and being different. Which actually tied in nicely with the rally for sexual diversity that was running in Bonn main square and also the coming set from McKenna Michels. Along the way, the the band has also raised a considerable amount of money for SOS Kinderdörfer through its (the bands) ‘More Violins Less Violence’ campaign.
So people, if the likes of Nigel Kennedy and Jethro Tull are your musical style, The Trouble Notes are a band you need to check out. If you’re the type who thinks that Violins shouldn’t escape the orchestra then they are also someone to check out. Two bands down this evening then, both with something special and different to say. The evening’s final music belonged to a young singer from Texas, and she certainly brought emotion and a very personal perspective on life onto the stage as the sun went down on a memorable evening of music.
McKenna Michels hails from the vibrant city of Austin, Texas, where creativity can be found on every corner. I would imagine though that she still managed to stand out. Her melodies and lyrics resonate deep and her heartbreaking songs give voice to the traumas she has endured trhrough her bisexuality and her Autism. Add in childhood abuse, and you have a ptetty heavy mix of life pressures.
The lady makes for a spirited figure onstage though and has seemingly brought quite a few fans with her. Many of the songs are inspired by her experiences, but even when not, they are inspired by her very particular perspective – take as an example a song about a bisexual mermaid. Certainly the best song on the subject that I know. When she sings ‘I’m a Survivor’ though I begin thinking of the late, great, survivor Candye Kane who went through a similar background but came out of it as a very gracious and warm-hearted person. Right now though McKenna Michels is coming at many of the same challenges from a younger and therefore somewhat angrier angle. She asks the audience if they know what bisexuality means, what Autism means. She has a lot to say about fighting prejudices. There’s anger in her tone. Anger at how society percieves her situation. Hopefully she too, like Candye, will find a way to come to terms with these many battles.
Such a heavy mix of emotions can only reach a wide audience if it’s underpinned by good music and an excellent voice behind the texts, and this is the real secret of McKenna Michels – shedoes have a wonderful and powerful voice. It’s used to great effect on the ballad ‘Ghost’ (see the end of this review).
Three very different acts this evening then – but with one connecting feature. Authenticity. Blumenstrauss showing the power that turns disability into ability, Trouble Notes showing that we are individuals defined by our hearts rather than our jobs, and McKenna Michels showing that we can not just survive being different but embrace that survival. Heady stuff then on the first Saturday of Stadtgarten Concerts – but held together by excellent music played from where it resonates best – The heart.
