Jim Kroft – Cord Club, Munich; February 1st, 2020
The JIm Kroft concert in Munich felt totally different from the one in Dresden the previous day, but was just as much fun. While the setlist was the same, everything else wasn’t and offered an interesting contrast to the previous night. I enjoyed this one just as much and was happy I got to see it.
Starting in Dresden around 10 in the morning I had a 7+ hours train ride ahead of me, thanks to trains between Erfurt and Nuremberg not running for some reason. Six hours in I was utterly tired of being on a train, but tried using the time to get some stuff done. Once in Munich, I took shelter at the DB lounge and blogged for a while before finally making my way to the venue. Arriving an hour before show time, I still had to wait over 30 minutes to get in. Around 8 Jim, Jonas, Lucas and Dan walked out, telling us they were going for dinner and would start a little later.
The club looked cool and was nice apart from the annoying artificial smoke machine that became the butt of many jokes that night. There were lots of mirrors on the ceiling which made for interesting photographs. I had not expected them to start before 9 pm, but when “a little later” turned out to be an hour, I got a bit nervous regarding the midnight train I had booked. It all went well in the end, but I had a lot less time after the show than I’d expected.
Once the guys were on stage, people who had been chatting a moment ago, grew quiet and the concert started with a screechy guitar and rolling drums, welcoming us to the show. Most of us stood far from the stage, but this time we were not invited to move closer, at least not yet. Everyone listened though and the sound was good. The fog machine, however, was not and soon Dan was so engulfed by it that Lucas put his hands above his eyes, pretending to search for him. With ‘Love in the Face of Fear’ and ‘Trying to reach the Earth’ I cannot yet sing along as much as I’d like to, but I’m gettin there. For ‘I hope you know’ it got better and with drums that made it impossible to stand still, I was fully into it. 🙂
Up until this point, Jim hadn’t said much, but now he thanked us for coming after not playing in Munich for years. He noted that the last time with with ‘Lunatic Lullabies’. It’s hard to believe that was seven years ago already. Much has happened since and as he sings in ‘Through my Weakness’, “You learn how to love, learn how to give, learn how to hurt, heal and twist” and there’s been a lot of learning in those years on my end for sure. The words ring true, every time I sing them. He then spoke about his love of playing Rock clubs and finally asked us to come closer, mentioning he could not see as anyway, because “apparently the department store downstairs is on fire” and concluded if the world is ending anyway, it might as well end during a Rock show.
Things got more serious with stories about the rfeugee camp on Lesvos and Sara, the little girl who was exhausted on the beach after fleeing across the sea. Knowing it is a true story makes the song even more powerful. Moments later we were all moving with the music again to ‘Birthrights’ and people were not standing so far away any more. Jim noted he loved seeing us all so happy despite the end of days and gave us ‘Beautiful Ways’. After that, he spoke about his latest album and introduced Jonas to us who was “younger when we met, but has caught up with me now”. He joked that Dan had been born with a beard and him and Lucas was “from the dark ages”. More beer was needed and he had to pass the time until it arrived. 😉 With ‘Obstacles’ the band got a clap along going for a while. This was working well. 🙂
I tried to film a few songs, but a photographer friend of Jim’s choose to walk by in front of me every single time, so I gave up eventually and just enjoyed the show. It was an interesting venue to take pictures for sure. Jim wondered if he had already finished the new beer, but had just grabbed the wrong bottle. 😉 Again he asked us to come a bit closer, because we needde to sing along for ‘Redemption’. We gladly did. “I’ve got one life and I’ll live it loud and proud!” We continued rocking with ‘The Jailer’ and it looked like everyone had fun.
‘Yes we are still human’ started with a short speech reminding us what a miracle it is to even be alive somewhere on a rock in the universe and that people tend to forget this. We all need to hear that from time to time, make connections, feel that we are not alone out there and that there is love after all. Sometimes these connections I feel for the time I share a concert with others is all I need to keep me going. ‘The Hero’ had me dance again and I still felt distinct ‘The Passenger’ vibes which I love. 🙂 I’m glad he resurrected this older song.
We heard a few comments on Brexit, coming down to “you’re not getting rid of me anyway” and that it’s no use crying about the things that change. ‘Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse’ is the song collecting all the memories from Jim’s early days in Germany and we learned that he lived near there, close to a house full of Artists / Squatters. He shared a funny story of first arriving in a van and holding up all traffic trying to get the car into the yard of a house. I love the song, it brings across thefFeeling I get associated with good memories. 🙂 With ‘Tell me’ we were back to singing along and it was so much fun.
They joked “see how the Brexit goes” when introducing ‘See how the Darkness grows’ and we hear that im got his “Aufenthaltsstatus” (residency) so he can stay. “Take back con trol” Dan counted and off we went. 😀 ‘Favorite Kind of Sinner’ brought the set to a rocking end before they walked off. We cheered and clapped for them to come back, but Jim wasn’t satisfied until someone actually said “Zugabe”, joking that he would play only for her now. We got ‘Waiting for a Healing’, sang along one last time and then listened to ‘Not in my Name’. It was a lovely gig overall. 🙂
Afterwards I just had enough time to say goodbye, briefly chatted with Jonas about the next gigs and then left for the train station. On the long train ride home, I still heard the music playing in my head.
Setlist
Love in the Face of Fear
Try to reach the Earth
I hope you know
Through my Weakness
Sara
Birthrights
Beautiful Ways
Obstacles
Gravity’s gone
Redemption
The Jailer
Yes we are still Human
The Hero
Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse
Tell me where to begin
See how the Darkness grows
Favorite Type of Sinner
Waiting for a Healing
Not in my Name