Jim Kroft – Luxor, Cologne; May 28th, 2012

After seeing Jim supporting Martin and James on their February tour, I thought it would be fun to see a gig on his first ever headline tour. I like his music, watching him play is quite entertaining and he’s a really loveable guy too. So I headed out to Cologne to see him play with his band. Due to a Springsteen gig the previous day, I had spent the night at a friend’s house and didn’t have to travel from Dortmund. It was all nice and easy.

Met up with my Martin and James tour family at 5:00 p.m., had dinner and arrived at the venue at 18:30 to a long line. They let us in soon, made a bit of a fuss about my camera, but could be talked into asking Jim if it was OK and it was. Thank you! Once inside we stood in the back where the floor is raised a little bit and had a good view from there.

The support act, The Arkane, were nothing to write home about. Too loud, too hard to understand, not really my cup of tea. I’ve seen worse, but I have seen a lot better too and was glad when they were done.

Jim started at 9:00 p.m. with ‘Memoires from the Afterlife’. The band sounded great and I knew it would be a fun night. The Luxor wasn’t completely packed, but quite a few people had come and greeted them enthusiastically. The setlist was a mixture of tunes from both of his albums plus a few new songs that at least I had never heard.

Hearing ‘Birthrights’ and ‘The Great Doomsday story’ backed by a full band was surely different than on the February tour. The songs gained more drive and power that way – it worked well. ‘I hopey you know’ was the first new song of the night… ‘Modern Monk’ followed and another new one with ‘See how the Darkness grows’.

Jim played and acoustic set (i.e.without drums) next starting with ‘Falling apart’, one of my favorites, the ‘Ulysses’ and ‘Canary in the Coalmine’, a favorite of my friends. The mixture of acoustic songs and full band was great. I hadn’t expected that, thinking now that he had a band with him, he would use them on every song. It was time just listen for a while before they rocked out again.

The full band came back for the amazing ‘Guess that’s what the gods said’ and three more new songs, ‘The Loneliness of the Vampire’, ‘Tell me where to begin’ that Jim introduced by saying it was not by Dr.Dre, but by Jim Kroft and ‘Through my Weakness’, before they ended the main set with ‘The Jailer’. It is a great sing along song and perfect to lead to the encores. As we walked in, one of Jim’s support teams had given everyone colored A4 papers with eth words “Danke” or “Thank you” printed on them to hold up during that song. It worked beautifully. 🙂

The concert ended on a high note with ‘If I’m born too late’ and ‘Waiting for a Healing’, both enthusiastically received by the crowd. Through the whole show, Jim and the band brought great energy to the stage and had the audience clapping along. There was even some dancing going on in the back. At one point Jim mentioned how great it was to hear people sing along to new songs. I had fun and liked the new songs I heard, especially ‘Tell me where to begin’  – it totally rocked. I had been hoping for ‘Cracked Polaroid’, but didn’t get to hear that. There were so many other good songs that I can’t complain though. The ones I knew from the February tour were the ones that I liked best, mainly because I am used to them and I have not listened to the albums all that much. Overall it was a fun show and I enjoyed it. 🙂

Next to us stood a boy of 6 or 7 with his father. I asked if it was his first concert and I learned he had seen Jim Kroft twice before. He was sitting on barstool and later on his father’s shoulders, apparently being elated by the concert and watching the going-ons on stage closely. After the gig I witnessed how he got his ticket autographed and Jamie high-fived him and thanked him for coming.

I briefly thanked Jamie after the show, got hugged and said hello to Ryan. Then I had to say goodbye to everyone and hurry to catch my train. After four days on the road it felt good to be going home. This was a good ending to my mini tour around Germany and I’ll certainly go and see them again when I get a chance.

Setlist

Memories from the Afterlife
Birthrights
The great Doomsday Story
I hope you kow
Modern Monk
See how the Darkness grows

Acoustic
Falling apart
Ulyssess
Canary in the Coalmine

Guess that´s what the gods said
The Loneliness of the Vampire
Tell me where to begin
Through my Weakness
The Jailer

Encore
If I´m born too late
Waiting for a Healing