To the bitter end! - Die Toten Hosen in Basel

Nothing lasts forever: Campino & Co. are no longer the anarchic punks they used to be. The once rampant band has given itself more and more rules. While a concert rarely started soberly in the past, alcohol before the performance has long been frowned upon. Anything that could jeopardize success is banned and although their current tour looks back on the good old days and the punk attitude is a bit dubious, it remains the dead pants living legends. Now the Toten Hosen are on an anniversary tour with titles from three decades of band history, the large audience in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel is captivated. After thirty years of punk career, the Toten Hosen played in Basel for the first time on Tuesday as part of the "Der Krach der Republik - Tour". Frontman Campino didn't step on the brakes for two hours and immediately found the connection to the audience.

Support was provided by the Swedish alternative rock band Royal Republic with at the start. Singer Adam Grahn, guitarist Hannes Irengard, bassist Jonas Almén and drummer Per Andreasson have had a considerable fan base since their first album "We Are The Royal" and are an absolute live band, at least they made it to the Hosen fans with their punk rock music bring to operating temperature. The gig itself was a bit short, but that's the way it is when you're on stage as the opening act. After Royal Republic had cleared the stage, there was a fairly short break for conversion, the end of which was graphically represented by the imperial eagle skeleton, which was projected onto the screen, slowly moving downwards and after a good 30 minutes the lights finally went out and the dead pants entered the stage. The show of the Düsseldorf heroes began with the intro "Three crosses (that we are here)" and the obligatory procession of the "Until the bitter end" logos to the ceiling of the hall.

Die Toten Hosen - Old Fever [December 18.12.2012th, XNUMX, Live at St. Jakobshalle, CH-Basel]

The St. Jakobshalle was completely sold out when the icons of German punk stormed the stage at nine o'clock. Thirty years in the business and a little tired, they proved that from the first note of the opener "Ballast der Republik", the title track of their current CD. The logo for this is a mixture of the federal eagle and hammer and compass, the coat of arms of the defunct workers' and farmers' state of the GDR. The role of trousers in German music history can hardly be symbolized more aptly. Just five minutes after the five musicians entered the stage, around 9000 people sang along in the sold-out hall. Many in the crowded tiers never took their seats: they sang, they bawled, they stretched their arms, they stomped. The band was not only in top form musically, the gigantic multimedia show on the huge LED screens behind the band also caused goosebumps.

Days Like This - Die Toten Hosen

It was less than half an hour after the concert began when singer Campino also greeted those who were attending a Toten Hosen concert for the first time. It couldn't have been many to whom these greetings were addressed: The show by the Düsseldorf punk rock band, which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, was a home game, a triumphal procession. Campino and his band threw the steepest punk party of the year for 9000 fans, oh what, for 9000 buddies in the sold-out St. Jakobshalle. Even at 50, Campino is still a gifted entertainer. An energetic punk conductor who has his human choirs under control with his little finger, who provides the emaciated pack in the first row with drinks in a fatherly manner and who tips the water over his bare chest himself. So I saw how Campino climbed the cross brace of the stage structure on the Gurten in the nineties and was still singing. Another time the band said goodbye to the stage around 10 minutes later in the spotlight in a completely different place in the hall, in the midst of rows of fans. And this is exactly what is important to the Toten Hosen - closeness to the fans.

Christmas with the dead pants. Live in Basel.

I was a bit surprised that they started with one of the best songs on the new album - "Altes Fieber" - a very strong piece that just speaks from my heart. But that's how it is with many of the Toten Hosen's songs, you recognize yourself... The first big surprise for me came when I saw the cover of "Schrei nach Liebe", the original of which, as is well known, comes from the former rivals "Die Ärzte". , from the actual text passage "Between disturbing force and the Onkelz is a cuddly rock LP" Campino sang "Between disturbing force and Bushido". As far as I know, the doctors are now singing the song with this or a similar wording, in any case I thought it was good that this line of text breathed some topicality into the song instead of still pouncing on the past of the Frankfurt Onkelz.

Master Campino and his faithful companions Breiti, Andi, Kuddel and Vom threw hits around this evening, "Love Song", "Bonnie & Clyde" or "Here Today, Tomorrow There" hijacked by Hannes Wader, by "Alex" , not to mention «Everything for love» and «Days like these». With "Hang on Sloopy", "The Little Drummer Boy" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" the Hosen also played a few more cover versions that evening. Torches were burned in front of the stage and many people waved the flag with the skeleton of the federal eagle again and again. The revolutionaries of the XNUMXs, who tirelessly sang against social conventions and right-wing violence, who mutated into common music in the XNUMXs, are more topical today than ever. Sometimes pure punk rock, sometimes accelerated hard rock, sometimes a rough sixties beat, which the band pumped out into the hall. Frontman Campino limited himself to short transitions and vocal and physical exertion, the rest of the band to wonderfully barking up the songs and the audience proved to be thoroughly lyrical.

DTH @basel

Campino raged across the stage for two hours like there was no tomorrow. Where other bands laboriously wear out three encores, the Hosen threw out three whopping blocks of encores, which made up a third of the concert. Even after they had actually clearly signaled with "Schöne Gruss, Auf Wiederseh'n" that there is nothing left now, the audience continues to cheer tirelessly until they come back again for "Paradise". Campino brings a twelve-year-old boy onto the stage and lets him sing along. Just like at the family concert. But when a band that represents such a clear message of tolerance and freedom becomes a mass phenomenon, one can only be thankful that things are going the way they are. Luckily, they largely do without the songs, which are more reminiscent of hits than rock music, only at the very end, when almost all the glory is over, does the unspeakable "Ten Little Jägermeister" come and is frenetically cheered.

setlist:

1. Ballast of the republic
2. Old fever
3. away game
4. You only live once (before)
5. All that happened
6. Madelaine (from Lüdenscheid)
7. Here today, there tomorrow (Hannes Wader Cover)
8. Hang On Sloopy (The McCoys Cover)
9. Bonnie & Clyde
10. Call of the wild
11. That's the moment
12. Never agree
13. Europe
14. Pushed again
15. Cry For Love (The Doctors Cover)
16. Love song
17. Get up when you're on the ground
18. Everything will pass
19. Here comes Alex
20. Make a wish
21. Days like this

Again:

22. Outside the door
23. What a shame, how can that happen?
24. All out of love
25. Friends

Encore 2:

26. The Little Drummer Boy (The Von Trapp Family Singers Cover)
27. Still, still, still
28. All these years
29. Greetings, goodbye

Encore 3:

30. Paradise
31. ten small
32. You'll Never Walk Alone (Gerry & The Pacemakers Cover)

DIE TOTEN HOSEN live in basel December 18.12.2013th, XNUMX by THE GRAVEYARD SCENE

All this with a repertoire that spans 15 albums. The mix of old and new songs was very well received by the audience, the performance itself was great cinema from start to finish and up to and including the devoutly celebrated Liverpool sanctuary "You'll Never Walk Alone". The setlist contained everything from really old to completely new and from wild to romantic songs. A perfect blend of highly digestible stuff. The new songs may be a bit softer, the lyrics more profound and the guitar riffs a little more varied - on stage the punk rockers radiate pure energy, play their songs faster than on the record as usual and Campino rushes across the stage almost like ten years ago, twenty years ago, but only almost, because I remember concerts from earlier days where Campino showed a little more power. Whether this is due to his age or the fact that he had to tread water throughout the day and took part in a crispbread test, I'll leave it open, after all Campino is not twenty anymore and this did not detract from the appearance of the trousers in any way. Below is a small summary of the activities just mentioned. On days like these... when one of the best live bands ever gets together for an intense and sweaty party... you wish for infinity.

Die Toten Hosen // Basel

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