Milow – FZW, Dortmund; May 2nd, 2023
Seeing Milow is always fun and after missing last year’s show in Bochum, because it was move to a date where I could not attend, I was thrilled to see the show in Dortmund. It was everything I had hoped for.
I arrived about two hours before the doors open and was alone for a while. I had not expected people coming so late. Didn’t mind though, it guaranteed me front row center. 😀
Support Ahi started even before 8 and I really enjoyed his music. He had a nice voice and his songs were lovely. One especially excited woman in the audience kept cheering him on and made him smile. He also told a fun story about the cool riding hat he was wearing and got a god sing along going for his final song. 🙂 It was a nice start to the show and a good warm-up for Milow.
There wasn’t a long break before Milow stepped on stage, together with Nina and Tom, starting the show with an acoustic set. First was a beautiful version of ‘Tomorrow comes too soon’ – it instantly made me smile. Milow apologized for skipping Dortmund on the last tour and promised to make it up to us. He told the story of Nasa astronaut Christina Koch who broke the record for the longest space walk and her way of looking at the world and thy played the beautiful ‘Christina’s Eyes’. It was the first time that night I was moved to tears.
The rest of the band joined them on stage and he promised us to fill us in on everything that had happened since the last time they were in Dortmund. ‘Nice to meet you’, the song he wrote for his two kids, was next. It was lovely and the band sounded great. They joked about Tom’s recent birthday and he said he was celebrating for a full week.
After not being able to play live for so long they are thinking bigger now, Milow said, before thy launched into ‘Thinking big’ where Nina got a lovely solo part. We learned that Nina, Tom and Milow have been playing together for 15 years. Wow.
‘De Lorean’ was fun and had me moving along. I knew it was going to be a feel good concert and it really was. 🙂 ‘Lean into me’ followed and reminded me of how much I had liked that album. It’s a wonderful song and brought us an amazing guitar solo and an even better singing solo from Nina. Wow.
‘Never too late’ was brilliant, done acoustically. <3 From those soft tunes we went right into clapping along to a wonderful version of ‘Lost Boys’ 😀 Then it was time for a few serious words and a sad story about their former drummer Oscar passing away due to cancer and how the band is like a family to all of them. “Profound sadness teaches you to really enjoy the happy times afterwards,” he concluded and therefore they wanted to play some happier songs. The uplifting ‘ASAP’ followed. 🙂
Next was ‘You and me (in my Pocket)’, a song I’ve never liked much, but it is always fun live and we got a good sing along going. while we were at it, he got us to sing “ohooohoohoo” and it took my a moment to recognize the song – ‘Nobody needs you like I do’. Beautiful!
Tom sang the next song, a cover of John Hiatt’s ‘is anybody there’ and he did it brilliantly. ‘How love works’ followed, with a great clap along, amazing vocals by Nina and a nearly perfect sing-along in the end. Milow told us (in German) that in his head he was speaking German the entire time. 😀 He told us about the first time he played in Germany and the song that he had not written himself – it way ‘Ayo Technology’ of course, always a crowd pleaser and a fun sing-along. 😀
‘Howling at the Moon’ followed and he replaced “Cuba” with “Dortmund” in the lyrics. We all sang and howled along. ‘Whatever it takes’ kept the good vibes going and I doubt there was anyone in the room, who didn’t enjoy the show. Milow introduced the band and they said goodbye for now, but of course we did not want to let them go just yet, clapping and cheering for more.
They all came back out, gathering around one mic at the center and played ‘Until the Sun comes up’ for us. It was awesome. Milow told us that they rehearsed one of the first songs he ever wrote during soundcheck and wanted to play it now. It turned out to be ‘One of it’. I had forgotten how good this song is. <3 He thanked the band, the crew and all of us in the audience and they ended with ‘You don’t know’. The song is always a highlight for me and was a perfect ending to the show. Full of joy and still smiling I went home. Thank you, hope to see you soon.
Setlist
Tomorrow comes to soon
Christina’s Eyes
Nice to meet you
Thinking big
De Lorean
Lean into me
Never too late
Lost Boys
ASAP
You and me (in my Pocket)
Nobody needs you like I do
Is anybody there (John Hiatt)
How love works
Ayo Technology
Howling at the Moon
Whatever it takes
Until the Sun comes up
One of it
You don’t know