The Notwist at Village Underground

The Notwist’s gig at Village Underground was so intense that 500 words are not enough to express the feelings of euphoria, love, happiness and sadness that were felt last night. The Notwist from Germany reminded us of what it means to be one of the finest and most musically educated names in the world. As the band have been playing music for more than 25 years – starting from heavy metal sounds, moving to indie post rock, then electronic jazz and now proper kraut rock – their live performances are more like style lessons than simple live shows.

The gig started with some jazzy kraut sounds with They Open Me and Close to the Glass – both from the latest record Close to the Glass – followed up by the brand-new single Kong, a indie rock power song in the shade of J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr and the poppy Pick Up the Phone, from the band’s 2002 masterpiece Neon Golden. Then something amazing happened: The Notwist morphed into Can and Neu! and took us to 70s Cologne with psych-kraut Into Another Tune and the intro of One with the Freaks (pure Hallogallo). This Room moved back into more familiar The Notwist landscapes (Morr Music) while Signals skims free jazz areas à la Coltrane, and Run Run Run was again indie rock sounds. Time for five encores (divided in two parts): an incredible electro dub version of the famous Pilot and the lovely Consequences at the end of the night.

Onstage the band shows six educated and sophisticated musicians playing several instruments (together with the classic guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, xylophone and sequencers, the band were playing music with the remote controllers of the Nintendo Wii…) for almost two hours in front of a crowd at Village Underground, always a nice venue. Special mention to the visuals of the gig – very simple but at the same time very well calculated.

Definitely one of the best gigs in ages, so please remember: no matter what your resolutions are for this year, one of them should be to attend a brilliant The Notwist show.

Lorenzo Cibrario
Photos: Guifré de Peray

For further information and future events visit The Notwist’s website here.

Watch the video for Kong here: