romantik!

i'd been looking forward to last night's element of crime concert since i first heard about the 2010 tour. it was my 4th - the venue once again gasometer, which is far from perfect, but unfortunately vienna doesn't seem to have any decent venues of that size. anyway: the band was great - as usual, i should add. i'm tempted to say that this was actually the best EOC concert i've been to. the musicians are all very, very good, i'm smitten with sven regener's trumpet(-playing). they've been playing together for ages, which could lead to boredom, i suppose, but boring is not a word that comes to mind when i think of last night's performance.

it was so very cool that they played really old songs, even some of the very early days EOC songs in english, in addition to many songs from the latest album. i was particularly pleased that they played "am ende denk ich immer nur an dich", which is my favourite song on their latest album - such delightful lyrics; "jetzt musst du springen", which is an old fave of mine; "schwere see".

EOC are not a band for those who are looking for something new on every album, let alone in every song. sven regener (songwriter, poet, writer, mastermind) himself says that he's been writing the same few songs over and over again since the early 90s. but then they never sound exactly the same, there are no identical twins. there's always a twist somewhere (both in music and lyrics), a fabulous new phrase or pun, an image that is striking in its simplicity and/or its "i've-never-looked-at-this-in-quite-the-same-way" originality (for want of a better word). regener is a keen observer of the everyday, and - in my opinion - the most poetic german songwriter. there are quite a few lines in his lyrics that have made me think "i wish *i* had thought of that!", which is a great compliment.

of course, being a poet myself, i have a weakness for wordplay, for unexpected word choices in strange places that can open up whole new worlds. and something i loved about last night was the fact that there were visible and audible reactions to certain images regener painted with words: a smile, a laugh, a snicker, a "ha!", or clapping - occasionally i could tell that the person had probably never heard that song before, or never paid attention to that particular part. it's fantastic to be among people who appreciate that. it's a sign that poetry IS appreciated, enjoyed.


thanks, sven regener, thanks element of crime, for a lovely evening: "vielndank!"

review & set list in german @ fm4: Agentenfunkchansons und Zahlen


song of the day: am ende denk ich immer nur an dich by element of crime.