The Anatomy of Frank – Nebbiensches Gartenhaus, Frankfurt; October 14th, 2016
I’ve seen a few venues in Frankfurt by now, but none quite as small as the Nebbiensches Gartenhaus, a cozy gallery / venue at a park that was completely packed the night it housed The Anatomy of Frank. It was a fun concert in front of a happy audience, too short as usual, but once again worth the trip. I always love seeing the guys and have not quite seen enough shows yet. 🙂
As usual I arrived too early and waited for P. before walking in. It took some time until more people arrived, but then the hosts had to get more and more chairs and in the end there were even some people standing in the back. The place looked nice with all sorts of paintings on the wall and windows looking out towards the park. 🙂 The “stage” was situated in a half-circlular part of the building and in front row we almost sat on it, right in the middle of everything.
After the host had announced them, Kyle started alone, playing ‘Blurry’ before Max and Jimmy joined him for ‘Diagonal North America’. Without a break they went straight into ‘Minnesota Part 1’ from there. People got slightly confused as to when to clap when they finally ended the first three songs. I had been smiling and sining along from the get go, their music instantly making me happy.
This time I cannot remember much of what the guys said to introduce songs or which stories they told, but I know that I was laughing quite a few times. I recall something about the strange country they come from and the drunk guy in Cologne who told Kyle that “Germans hate Americans” and about cabins in the cold north. For ‘Minnesota Part 2’ Kyle said how he wrote it for a 65 year old guy who was marrying his girlfriend after 16 years. Finally it clicked. Until that momentI had never realized that the song this story belonged to was ‘Minnesota Part 2’. I had heard it a few times when Kyle toured with Árstíðir but somehow filed it under “That love song with the cute story”. Later, I had always wondered why ‘Minnesota Part 2’ seemed so familiar, because I had not recalled that I heard it before Kyle’s second tour with Árstíðir. It almost made me giggle at how strange my memory is at times. 😀
The new song they had already performed in Stockholm was introduced as ‘Katja’s Song’ and sounded even better than it did the last time around. Their small amp may not provide the best sound in the world, but it’s fine and they make up for lack in equipment with great passion and enthusiasm in performance. I cannot imagine anyone refusing to sing along or not having a smile on their face when an Anatomy of Frank concert is over. 🙂
Next we got the two South America Songs ‘Ecuador’ and ‘La Llorona’ with Kyle telling us that he believed it was a scary story until people told him about the German book ‘Struwwelpeter’ – yep, we know how to scare our kids alright! 😀 The sing-along worked beautifully and was just a test for ‘Vancouver’ the encore. They only left the stage shortly, explaining they did not want to make people wait with the example of Radiohead who made their fans wait 25 minutes in the rain. So we should remember these guys as a band that does not make their fans wait. OK then. 😉
I did not want it to end, but after a last round of singing it did. Everyone stuck around, threw some money in the collection hat, had a drink and chatted with the guys. Eventually P. and I said goodbye, hugged everyone and left, telling them we’d see them soon. It was a good night.
Setlist
Blurry
Diagonal North America
Minnesota I
Photographs of Inuvik in January
A Bridge over Lake Champlain
Minnesota II
Katja’s Song
Ecuador
La Llorona
Vancouver