The Anatomy of Frank – FahrradKino Kombinat, Kiel; November 8th, 2017
Only one day after returning from Iceland Airwaves I was on the road once again for the first show of The Anatomy of Frank’s European tour. Considering I had only gotten home around midnight, traveling again didn’t feel like much fun, but I did not want to miss the gig so I took a train to Kiel. It turned out to be a lovely concert that almost felt as if it was taking place in someone’s living room so I was glad I went.
Upon arrival I rested a bit at my hotel and went in search for the venue. It was a bit hidden, but eventually I got there and met J. whom I’d last seen in Bordesholm. I wondered where P. was. She arrived much later, having train delays all the way. Luckily they did not start in time. 😉 It was a nice, cozy venue and we had quite some time to chat and drink some tea before the concert.
The support act were Roots & Reeds from Hamburg, playing folkish songs. I liked some of them, but not all. They played traditional songs they adapted to their style and some of their own material. I liked the latter better. Overall they were OK, but nothing to write home about, just passing the time until the band I really wanted to hear would be on stage.
It took some time, but finally everything was ready and they jumped right into it with ‘Scandinavian Moon’ followed by ‘Girl from Ipanema’. There was no real break in-between those two songs, but people clapped anyway. The three of us were sitting in front row smiling at each other. This was a good start already. 🙂 Of course at the end of the song they rocked out like they did not on the last tour and the smile on J.’s face grew bigger. It was just like my reaction the first time I heard them like that just a week earlier.
They kept rocking with a few slower songs thrown in the mix as well. I loved them all and enjoyed the sing along for ‘La Llorona’. Even though the album has been out for a couple of months now I’m still getting familiar with the new songs and know those better that were already on the setlist last year. After an initial week of listening to the album all the time, I did not much get around to it any more, which is a shame because it is brilliant. I’m sure i’ll get back to it some time during this tour. Anyway, I did my best to sing along where I could and tried to memorize the lyrics otherwise.
Kyle did not talk much that night, nothing really apart from the usual ” we are not only selling you an album, but also a poster” speech. The music spoke for itself though and once again I marveled at the amazing lyrics. Some of the songs are rather quiet, some truly rock and some like ‘andes’ start softly and than have this furious, rocking finish that completely blows you off your feet. I loved every minute of it and judging by the cheering the other people in the room loved it too. They ended the set with ‘Svalbard’, one of my favorites and everyone loudly demanded more.
For encores they gave us ‘Sunken Coast’, including a fun sing-along, and a crazy, rocking ‘Leavenworth’ with each of them hammering away at their instruments. It did not want it to end there, but that was it. Already I could not wait for the next one. We chatted a little with the guys after and I pointed out to Kyle how their sound engineer reminds me of “Silent Bob” from ‘Clerks’. He totally agreed. Eventually we said goodbye, hugged and left. Until next time!
Setlist
Scandinavian Moon
Girl from Ipanema
Diagonal North America
Patagonia
How do we lose it
Holy Mountain
La Llorona
Andes
Svalbard
Sunken Coast
Leavenworth