EISBRECHER: On Stage
Eisbrecher
Support: Schattenmann
29.06.2023 – Wiesbaden, Schlachthof
After Schattenmann had really heated up the Wiesbaden Schlachthof, it was time for an icebreaker-ish cool down.
To anticipate as much: The program at the Wiesbaden Schlachthof was a show of the ingenious kind. – In keeping with the encore’s motto, “What’s going on, what happened?” This is perhaps a bit like eating dumplings, one building block of songs sat on top of the next. Eisbrecher, a band that addresses hard facts in their lyrics – and does so with merciless, in places relentless irony.
This was also expressed, for example, in “This Is Deutsch”, the last song before the encore. In an almost typical manner, one would like to think, Alex Wesselsky received from a crew member the “ingredients” apparently needed here in the form of a Bavarian janker including a matching hat. Yes, the Eisbrecher frontman can yodel at the top of his lungs and heart. You haven’t seen that before either. Loss of quality after this unusual intro to the actual song? Wrong, it remained top!
Apart from that, the announcements for each song were communicated sympathetically, which not infrequently sprang from a little anecdote. Especially when you consider what is coming at you with all clarity, perhaps urgency, and all due rigor. Because at some point the tap is closed and nothing flows anymore, except possibly tears of realization. Finally, it was also always stimulated to think or reflect. To what extent this reaches beyond one’s own horizons, stimulates one’s own horizons, remains open, of course, and is ultimately up to each visitor.
Nothing was glossed over … Musical delight in its purest form. And this can be felt from the very beginning, a special flair for which one cannot find words. There’s no need to pick apart each song in detail either, because the pieces stand on their own. The music, moreover, testifies to sometimes profound cynicism, which surpasses the irony a bit, and well-geistered musical passion. You can feel it with every guitar stroke of Noel Pix, and with the almost heroic, determining way of reciting the lyrics of Alexander Wesselsky. These texts do not seem threatening at all, they rather creep into the subconscious “with the hint of the fence post”.
Text & Photos: Fred Gasch
Setlist:
“Full speed ahead” – “Pious man” – “Mistakes make the man” – “Holy” – “Eyes Below Zero” – “Amok” – “Anna Lassmichrein Lassmichraus” – “No Thanks” – “Ice Age I” – “For Good, For Bad” – “Black Widow” – “Storm Ride” – “FAKK” – “1000 Scars” – “Heaven, Ass and Twine” – “This Is German” — “Crazy” – “What’s Going On?” – “Bitch” – Out of the Dark”
