Lake Eyre after rain

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The Anatomy of Frank –  Die Wohngemeinschaft, Cologne; November 29th, 2017

Cologne has never failed me when it comes to good concerts. No matter which band or venue, it is always fun. Thus, I was looking forward to see The Anatomy of Frank at Die Wohngemeinschaft and it turned out to be a good and happy evening. The tour was slowly coming to an end, at least for me with this being the next to last concert I was going to see. My plan was to enjoy the hell out of this one and it worked. 🙂

Got to Cologne and the venue too early due to conflicting information as to when it was supposed to start. Soon found out it was not going to happen at the bar, but at the small theater and would start a bit later than I had thought. Met up with P. and just sat around talking. The guys walked out from sound check and happily accepted the cookies I had brought. The doors opened, we found seats and more people arrived, among them A. We talked some more until the support band, Fallinn Wolff walked on stage.

Fallinn Wolff, a female due with a cello, a piano and animal masks looked interesting so I was curious about their music. It was very listenable and nice. I liked one or two songs and thought the stories they told to introduce them were fun. Overall though, they did not leave a lasting impression.

Soon after they were done the guys walked on stage. “We’re The Anatomy of Frank, nice to meet you.” Kyle introduced the band and played  ‘Lake Eyre’ solo. It was lovely to hear that song again. Their setlist always bring surprises because they often play unreleased songs or resurrect the ones they have not played in a long time. Next up was ‘Photographs of Inuvik in January’, right into ‘Minnesota Part I’ which is still one of my favorites. The images in that song are so well described they almost appear in front of my eyes every time I hear it.

When they started playing ‘Diagonal North America’ straight away I thought we were not going to hear them talk at all that night. Granted the theater was small and not even full, but some nights Kyle is a lot more talkative. He did not say anything until after ‘Holy Mountain’ was over. It didn’t matter though. I love the stories, but I come for the music and I got lots of that. 🙂

Jimmy told us they were introducing their South America album which prompted Kyle to talk about his best friend David and his first trip to Ecuador. It was full of gestures showing what he did and how people looked. I had not heard the story in a while and I loved the description of David’s bodyguard Giovanni with x-ray eyes and the car with bulletproof windows. We heard about David’d younger sister, about Kyle feeling nice about himself with new sunglasses and the dangers of using the wrong words in Ecuadorian Spanish. 😉 It was funny as ever. ‘Viteri’ followed and gave me goosebumps. I absolutely adore that song. <3

Before ‘La Llorona’ Kyle thanked everyone he had to thank for help and support and dedicated the song to Fallinn Wolff. The song always makes me smile, because it has such a happy melody. Of course I realized the lyrics are rather dark, but that’s exactly what I love about it. A contrast between music and lyrics has always worked well for me and this song has especially smart lyrics too. 😀

The guys walked out briefly, but were back soon to give us one final song. They were debating what song to play and told us how they have a song from the first album they want to play, but can not really remember how so they never play it. I wonder which one that may be. Thus they did ‘Vancouver’ instead. First Kyle had to talk about hard German bed with soft pillows though and about dreams we have when we growing up, complete with a terrible German accent. Of course we got us to sing. No venue or crowd is ever too small for that. At first Kyle wasn’t satisfied with our singing and told us we could do better, but then we got the hang of it. Yay! 😀

Sadly it was the last song of the night. The show felt way too short, but it was a good one. The positive effect for me was that I could catch an earlier train to go home. I said goodbye to everyone, shared a few hugs and left, knowing there was one last show for me to go.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Lake Eyre
Photographs of Inuvik in January
Minnesota Part I
Diagonal North America
Patagonia
Holy Mountain
Viteri
Ecuador
La Llorona

Vancouver

A mirror, a German song and a special guest

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The Anatomy of Frank – Swamp, Freiburg; November 25th, 2017

“This is so magical” a happy Kyle exclaimed after The Anatomy of Frank’s show in Freiburg when he looked at the downpour of snow outside the window. It was a perfect summary of the concert we had just seen. Sometimes the best concerts happen in the most unexpected places and this was one of them. The air was charged with good vibes right from the start and the guys delivered a great set with a few surprises. It was impossible not to be drawn in and in the end we cheered so much we even got an extra encore. Every concert should be like this one. 🙂

As I walked to the venue it was raining heavily and I the first thing I noticed is how small it was. There were not many tables or chairs, which gave us a little more space, but overall the darkish bar did not look very inviting. Also people were allowed to smoke inside which didn’t make the air any better. All this made me think I should have skipped this one and gone to Barcelona to see Árstíðir and Sólstafir instead. Yet I was here and decided to make the best of it. At least the mirror behind the stage made for some interesting pictures. 😉

P. and A. arrived, but it was still a long wait. Around 30 minutes before the show the venue filled up and everything looked better already. L. arrived, ready to film and we got into a discussion of red lights and dark venues. The light we got in the end was not read, but very dark indeed. It didn’t feel much brighter than candles. Either way, we were ready, the mood was good and people seemed excited about what was to come. 🙂

They started with ‘Blurry’, just Kyle on guitar, soon joined by Jimmy and Max. The room instantly grew quiet and attentive, people seemed to move in even closer. In the mirror on the wall I could see how packed the venue was and knew that I’d been wrong to have such low expectations of this show. People showed up to see the guys and it became clear during the concert that many were fans who knew the lyrics and sang along. It put a big smile on my face. 🙂

The music sounded wonderful and when I was not watching the guys I watched L. do her job. Photographing was hard because it was so dark and I once accidentally blinded Max with my focus light. (I’m so sorry Max!). I pretty much gave up after that and just enjoyed the show instead. It was so much fun. The longer they played, the more the guys got into it, feeding off of the energy that came from the audience. Everyone in the room was right there un the moment, enjoying the songs, many moving or singing along and it gave the band the boost they needed to perform even better than they usually do. I was completely caught up by the mood, letting the music carry me. It was exactly what I needed.

Slowly but surely I am falling in love with the live versions of all the South America songs, especially the ones I did not know before the album was released. Not only is the music amazing, but there are so many great lyrics that I am still in the process of discovering them. They play such catchy tunes that one could easily suspect forgettable pop songs, but the words go so much deeper than that. every song tells a story, sometimes openly, sometimes between the lines and it’s these stories that makes me come back time and again. As with many other bands it was the music that drew me in, but the lyrics that made me stay. Currently ‘Holy Mountain’ and ‘Andes’ are my favorites.

At one point, I think it was after ‘The landing of the plus ultra flying boat’, which had a nice “Lalala” sing along from the crowd, Kyle announced that he knew we were all in a happy mood, but he wanted to do a sad song for us that he’d just learned. I wondered what was coming, but not in a million years would I have guessed this one. He launched into a cover version of ‘Alles nur geklaut’ bei Die Prinzen. In perfect German I might add. It was as hilarious as it was great and prompted the crowd to spontaneously help out on the “oohohoho” part. If I had not been so busy singing I would have been laughing my butt off. Well played Kyle!

Time flew, because this concert was so perfect. I felt myself smiling the entire time and no matter where I looked, people had equally happy expressions on their faces. This night, they had a special guest named Lou on trombone. He was great, really got into the grove there. He joined the first for ‘Andes’ I think and then again during the encores. It was just really cool to have an additional instrument and he did an amazing job, even unrehearsed. 😀

The main set ended with ‘Svalbard’ and I could not believe it was over already. Where had the time gone? Why could they not play for another hour or two? Before walking off stage Kyle introduced and thanked everyone who worked behind the scenes and we cheered for all of them. We kept cheering until they were back on stage and played Vancouver’ for and with us. The trombone helped us out, but of course we had to sing anyway. For the second night inna row I was part B. While Kyle explained what we had to do, Jimmy motioned with his hands, showing the letters and pointing. It was all great fun, but it was still not enough and we yelled and clapped until Kyle came back.

Someone shouted for him to play Elvis and he pretended not to know anything about him. That made me grin because it reminded me of one of Svavar Knútur’s concerts back in September. 🙂 Anyway, he finally gave in and said he would do one final song which turned out to be ‘Fools rush in’, otherwise known as ‘Can’t help falling in love with you’ by of course Elvis. It was great and everyone sang along once more. The perfect ending to a perfect show.

Afterwards I just watched everyone, but did not engage. Said goodbye to P. and A. who had a train to catch, waited a bit and realized I was not in the mood for conversations or crowded, smoky places so I left, carrying some happy memories home with me. Thank you guys, see you soon!

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Blurry
Girl from Ipanema
Diagonal North America
Patagonia
Holy Mountain
How do we lose it
The landing of the plus ultra flying boat
Alles nur geklaut (Die Prinzen cover)
La Llorona
Andes
Svalbard

Vancouver
Fools rush in