Formed in 1986, by the early 1990’s Fury in the Slaughterhouse were topping the mighty Scorpions as Germany’s premier hard rockers. So how come 40 years on there are only around 3000 people at Kunstrasen to see them? Last year saw 8000 fans celebrating the return of their musical heroes. It can’t be that 5000 of them went instead to see Nick Cave last night. Whatever the reason, those absent people missed an excellent set that showed FITS to be far from a spent musical force.

Right from the start singer Kai Wingenfelder laid out the evenings musical plan. Eight songs you want us to play. Eight songs from the new album. Eight songs “That we want to play!”. Not that the audience had any say in the matter, but it proved to be an excellent mix that prevented the evening becoming a case of ‘Thanks for the memories’. Of course the hits proved popular. “Radio Orchid” and “Every Generation Got Its Own Disease” from the 90’s and the audience were as certain of the text to megahit ‘Won’t forget these days’ as the band was. But I’m jumping ahead.

Wingenfelder hopped over the barrier and into the audience with his microphone as early as the third song ‘Milk and Honey’, Much to the dismay of those of us with only three songs to shoot in the photopit. He wisely preferred to walk rather than count on being carried on the hands of fans in the manner of Nick Cave, but the intent was clear – these are our fans, since they were kids. Let’s celebrate still being together!. And celebrate they did.

Not only does the band have something to say still, but the sound quality this evening is amongst the best I’ve heard at Kunstrasen. Hats off also to both Kai and brother Thorsten with their vocals. I could clearly hear every word and can only imagine that the band’s breakup a few years back enabled them to recuperate their vocal chords because they sounded as strong as if they were singing back in the early ’90’s. Whilst I’m on the subject of singing, it’s curious that a band out of Hanover sings exclusively in english. Apparently that comes out of a desire not to be associated with the Neue Deutsche Welle sound of the time that featured German texts. No complaints from me on that score of course – and the texts are solid.

It’s not an evening purely of hard rock though. What pleasantly impressed me surprisingly was the band’s vocal harmonies, not something I would have expected to say at a rock concert. Again, kudos to the sound engineer. ‘Trapped Today’ saw Gero Drnek step away from the keyboards to showcase his excellent talents on acoustic guitar. The song also delivered something of a contemporary comment in its lyrics, as Kai Wingenfelder wryly observed, with the line “Sorry, my train won’t stop at your station”. The song is from 1991. Seems like some things never change.

If like me you are of a certain age then you will also have appreciated a couple of the MTV style videos on the backscreen. Particularly of note were the dancing airhostesses on one track. Dancers of a different sort – pink leotarded pussycats, also made for a break from watching the band during ‘Party Girl/Pussycat’.

We came to the end of a powerful set proper with ‘Time to Wonder’ and again I’m impressed by the vocals as much as by the audience knowing the song word for word. As Kai Wingenfelder pointed out earlier in the set – “We’re not ready to be assigned places in the old-peoples home (Gnadenhof) yet!”. I have to say that they may not be new kids on the block but FITS still have something to say and are damn good at saying it still after all these years.

NOTE: Apologies for not reviewing the set by Pohlmann but after photographing his opening songs photographers were led out of the Kunstrasen and not allowed back in with their cameras so I couldn’t really take in much from outside. What I did hear sounded like a solid set though!