Anneke van Giersbergen – Kulturkirche, Köln; Mai 7th, 2024

When Anneke van Giersbergen’s Heavy Strings tour came to Germany, I bought a ticket right away, even though I already had one for the Netherlands. It was wonderful to see the show again closer to home.

I arrived an hour or so before doors opened and was surprised to almost be alone. There were only a couple of people in front of me. We passed the time chatting and when they let us in got good seats at the front. I went and bought a T-Shirt, then waited for the show to start. The church was pretty full already – was going to be great. 🙂

Around 8 Anneke and her band stepped on stage to great cheers and started with Faith No More’s ‘From Out of Nowhere’. I loved the string intro especially, but everything about the song was great. She greeted us in German, asking how we were doing, so when we all cheered, she replied “good answer”. Then she told us their van got stuck in the mud and for a moment they thought the’d have to live in the church. 😀 Last time she’d been in Cologne had been two years before – yep, I had a ticket and then had other plans and missed it.

She spoke about playing the tour in the Netherlands only in theaters and how that attracts a different crowd, an interesting mixture between regular theater goers and metal heads. When she was young she listened to a lot of music with her older brother and lots of it was progressive rock. Their parents had large and divers record collection too, even Hansi Hinterseher. Since some people knew who he was, she mentioned how at a show in Austria they shared a merch space with him and they stole some of his merch like stationary. Then she came back to her love for progressive rock and heavy metal, playing a brilliant version of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’. I was having lots of fun already.

Next up was ‘Still Loving You’ by the Scorpions and it was just beautiful. They had not played that song in Amersfoort and I loved it. Anneke’s voice really fit the song. She announced he next song as being from one of her favorite progressive metal bands – Mastodon. It was called ‘High Road’ and really heavy. That sounded so cool in this arrangement.

She remarked how great the sound at the church was. The next song was dedicated to her parents, who had both passed away recently and she told us how she thought about them every day and missed them. A fabulous version of Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ followed, one of the few songs i knew. It was so gorgeous it brought me close to tears. <3

Anneke mentioned how she has been pretty in the metal scene, starting with being the singer of a speed metal band when she was a teenager. She spoke about her dad asking her to sleep outside the ticket  office for Dire Straits and she went with her bestie, got drunk never got the ticket. However, she met someone who knew The Gathering and so she ended up in that band. Then she went solo and often worked with Devin Townsend Project, so now she covered their song ‘Supercrush!’. It sounded great.

She gave us a history of the Heavy Metal genre, told us how it has grown from the first bands into many genres and sub-genres and just as a refresher, she had brought a list of all of them, that she now read to us in alphabetical order. It was great fun, especially, because she told us to “pay attention children” and got out her glasses to read the list. 😀 After we had applauded, she added “also we have rib-crushing, blood-curling, brain-damaging, no bullshit thunder Rock!” before launching into AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’. Of course we all supported them with a chorus of “ahahaha hahahaha” and  “thunder!”. So much fun!

The show continued with Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’, followed by Slayer’s ‘South of Heaven’ – both awesome. When she mentioned Slayer, I could not help but think about her shows with Árstíðir, where inevitably, every night, someone had asked them to play Slayer. 😀 Anneke introduced us to Ruud Peeters, who had written the arrangements for all the songs of the night. She then spoke about her own Heavy Metal band Vuur and they played ‘Helsinki’ – I loved it.

She mentioned how she always felt understood in the world of metal and how it was a community of black sheep, who listen to music with lyrics that actually make sense. It helps people express who they are and thus she was grateful to be playing these songs for us. The set ended with a fantastic version of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ ‘November Rain’. <3

We all wanted more and cheered loudly for quite some time. First Anneke came back alone and stated singing Black Sabbath’s ‘Changes’ on her own. Then she was joined by the cello and later by the rest of the strings. In the end the piano joined in too. It was beautiful. 🙂 She introduced the band before they launched into ‘War Pigs’ – another amazing arrangement.

One more time she thanked us all for coming and asked us to tip the merch guy, her son, who was saving for a holiday with his friends. As a last song, she wanted to play something happy – ‘Love is all’. Many joined in singing with her and I felt I was the only one who didn’t know the words. It was still wonderful and the perfect ending to the show.

Sadly I didn’t have time to go to the merch and say hello, because I had a train to catch, but I was glad I had come.

Setlist

From Out of Nowhere (Faith No More cover)
The Trooper (Iron Maiden cover)
Still Loving You (Scorpions cover)
High Road (Mastodon cover)
Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover)
Supercrush! (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Thunderstruck (AC/DC cover)
Kashmir (Led Zeppelin cover)
South of Heaven (Slayer cover)
Your Glorious Light Will Shine – Helsinki (VUUR song)
November Rain (Guns N’ Roses cover)

Changes (Black Sabbath cover)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
Love Is All (Roger Glover cover)