Martin and James – Die Pumpe, Kiel; March 2nd, 2014

The concert in Kiel brought a fun support act, a song I had missed for a while and many funny moments. I was sure it might be difficult to top Bremen, but this one was a strong contender: Great location, good audience and a general relaxed mood. I was quite happy I had decided to attend this concert. 😀

A. and I both arrived in the afternoon. The weather was somewhat ugly so we rested at the hotel before getting some dinner. At the venue we met S., N. and K. who had just gotten a small tour of the premises. It was an old industrial building with a huge pump still in the middle of the room. We didn’t have to wait outside for Long before they told us we could come in to the bar area. Nice. 🙂 Unfortunately there were no drinks yet, they only opened the bar after the doors opened. We walked in and got good spots at the front. More People arrived soon. Again, it was not sold out, but not completely empty either.

While waiting we had already heard that nights support act, but did not quite know what to make of them. At first only one guy stepped on stage, even though there were two microphones. When someone yelled “Who are you?” he explained tat he was “The support act of the support act”. He played a few singer/songwrier style songs in German and English – I liked it. Soon, the other guy walked on stage too and they explained they were “Trockeneis”. I don’t quite know how to describe their music, but I had lots of fun listening to them. Their lyrics were often hilarious; the songs always tongue in cheek. For the last song, they asked all of us to sing or rather yell along – the keyword was “Keks!” and the sound of taking a bite of a cookie. Most of us laughed a lot and cheered when they left. Now this was a good warm up. 🙂

During the break before Martin and James started playing, I grabbed the setlist off the stage and N. wrote ‘Where I belong’ next to ‘All over the news’ and “Thank you” next to ‘What I’m searching for’. I went further and scratched out “News” – the guys had not been playing it anyway and they can take a joke. 😉

They did not make us wait long and put a smile on my face when they walked on stage. After the previous day’s amazing concert and venue I tried not to expect too much. So far this had been fun, but I didn’t think it could come close to Bremen or even top it. Like so many time before I was wrong. It was at least as good as Bremen, if not slightly better. I certainly had a lot of fun and the guys deserve bonus points for putting ‘What I’m searching for’ back on the setlist. They started the usual way though with ‘She’s light guiding’.

A few songs into the set while the guys were switching guitars and places, Martin took a closer look at the setlist and noticed it had changed. “Did someone hijack the setlist? It does not look like I remember it.” I shared a look and a smile with my friends and he was smiling about it too. The concert went along nicely and I enjoyed hearing all the familiar songs and singing along. The usual “Können Sie klatschen?” was the introduction to ‘I have to fall’ and yes, people knew how to clap. ‘What I’m searching for’ was next on he setlist and James announced it as one song that did not make it on the record but they like anyway. It was a beautiful rendition too and made this concerts stand out among the others I had attended this week. <3

For their February tour Martin and James had asked people on Facebook which coversongs they wanted to hear and apparently played some of them. My friends told me that they also had made fun of some of the request they got. So far, they had not done any of this during the tour so I was quite surprised when they mentioned the requests and proceeded to make fun of Justin Bieber. It was hilarious and not the only joke that night. They also joked about their age, guitar tuning and many other things.

We all got lots of laughs during the course of the evening. Somewhere in their set James kicked over a beer that was standing on the floor and Martin got tangled up in the guitar cables and pulled one of the guitars of its stand. Luckily, he didn’t fall in the process. I enjoyed every bit of the concert though, not only the funny parts. All the songs were wonderful and the sound wasn’t bad either. The audience liked it and made some noise too.

They really left out ‘All over the News’ as they had done all the previous nights, but didn’t replace it with ‘Where I belong’. ‘My last prayer’ turned into laughter. When James started playing Martin could not follow him on the piano, looked very confused and just stopped. James continued playing it alone and when it ended they were debating whose fault it was. It seemed James had started in the wrong key and thus the piano playing would not fit. Shit happens. 🙂

Overall the mood was great and I was a little sad when the concert ended. The three days on the road had gone by so quickly. Of course e stuck a round, chatted a little and got hugs when we said goodbye. Outside we bumped into Trockeneis again and joked around with them for a bit before we left.  It was a fun night!

Setlist:

She’s light guiding
Maybe it’s time
Tides
Cold Heart
My Dog don’t like the rain
I have to fall
What I’m searching for
Cynical Skin
The Rope
Wrong Directions
Bad Dream
You’re a window
Little bits of light
Crashing into Love
My last prayer
You’ll be gone and I’ll be here

Encore:
Matilda
Life’s a show