Concert reviews
For lovers of American southern rock music, The Harmonie was THE place to be last Sunday evening. Hailing from Orange County, California Robert Jon and The Wreck were really on fire for the closing night of their European tour. The only complaint I could make is that Sunday shows have to finish so damn early – who wants to go home from a concert at 9:30 pm? Not when there’s a great band onstage who seem like they would happily play all night!
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Back to Kunstrasen’s ‘Klein aber Fein’ Vsecond Stage. Roxanne de Bastion and Daniel Bongart were on the bill on a day when all the threat of rain during Sunday’s VIP lounge concert arrived with a vengeance from early afternoon on Tuesday evening. An hour before the music was due to start there were regular peals of thunder from the Rheinaue direction. A wise man would have stayed home. I set out – with a raincoat and strong umbrella. Well, there was an English lady waiting for me. Waiting for an audience of any sort I suspect as the lightning lit up the early evening sky.
Not having been back to my home country for over two years it was rather pleasant to walk down to Kleines Theater in the Bad Godesberg Kurpark on Monday. For one, it was slightly drizzling with rain. ‘Even the weather will be Best of British’ I sighed happily inside my waterproof jacket. Music from the British Isles was what it said on the flyers. But what exactly was that? I mean, we all know Irish jigs and Scottish bagpipes, but can you fit four individual territories into one evening, indeed into an evening ending at 10 pm, in the park in one evening? If anyone could, it would be the man stepping promptly onto the stage at 7:30 pm.
“Die Bühne hier gehört jetzt mir. Ich könnt‘ hier wohnen!“ – from ‘Jamsessions‘
For Cynthia Nickschas a stage, any stage, seems like a second home. Even no stage, when she is playing on street corners for change collected in her famous ’Mad Hatter’ top hat. So why tonight, for her Unter der Zeder concert, is she nervously plucking at her guitar strings and chattering like a nervous sparrow in a tree full of sparrow hawks? Looking round at the sold-out seats in front of her, Cynthia explains her predicament. “I know everyone here personally!” It’s a ‘home concert’ for Cynthia, playing in her own backyard of Bad Godesberg, and that’s the source of the nervosity. She’s actually relieved later on when the light dims and the stage lights mean recognizable faces are hidden from her sight.
On Monday the new Unter der Zeder season got underway in fine Bossa Nova style with Astatine and her special guests Michael Heupel and Uwe Arenz.
Music is indeed coming back to Bonn this week, and in the Kurpark Bad Godesberg it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
From “Kultur Blüht Auf” in Coburg. Marion Lenfant-Preus and Alexander Sobocinski prove here, with the talented help of Radek Stawarz (violin, Bratche-Cello), Stefan Berger (double bass) and very special guest Joscho Stephan that they are amongst the best bands around, and not just in the Bonn area. Enjoy this World-class performance from the Bonn duo – with a little help from their friends.
Just days before live music disappeared from our daily lives, Baum’s Bluesbenders gave us a powerful reminder at the Harmonie of what we would be missing – as well as a reminder of what we are still missing compared to those carefree concerts that we were still enjoying at the start of the year.
So, ladies and gentlemen, who was that masked man behind the microphone on the hockey pitch stage on Friday at Dotty’s? One thing is for sure, it wasn’t the Lone Ranger, or Batman either for that matter. A Superhero was not required. No one needed rescuing on this 114th edition of Folk Club Bonn. Or was it the 2nd edition of Folk Club Bonn Lite? Historians are feverishly working on this conundrum as I write. They will be in agreement at any rate that it was a relatively warm breeze which blew across the Hockey Pitch and that when raindrops did fall occasionally, they were generally warm, soft and far between each other. Much better in fact than an evening pre-named ‘Woodstock Revisited’ had any right to wish for. Again, I say unto you: God is a Folk Club fan.
