2023-08-19 07:26:57
In the middle of the concert, Henning May wants to know how old the Berlin audience is. The front singer of the band Annenmay Kantereit, who was born in 1992, asks everyone born after 1995 to shout out loud. Right after that, those born after 1995. After this test, Henning May says: “Then it’s evenly distributed.” In the sold-out Parkbühne and Wuhlheide, some of the audience are surprised that they clearly heard more older people.
The question of whether more women or men were present would have been more interesting. This question would have been clearly decided for the women, at least on Friday evening. The music by Christopher Annen, Henning May and Severin Kantereit is something like the younger, dreamier and perhaps a little more sensible version of German folk-rock-pop: Slightly catchy lyrics that often, but not only, deal with past relationships.
One of their first hits, “Pocahontas,” is such a song. It was on the album “Alles Nix Konkretes” that was released by her Berlin label and suddenly made her famous. “I’m sorry, Pocahontas,” Henning May sings, “I hope you know that.” They usually sing the song further back in the set, May says, but in Berlin he wanted to sing it earlier. It ends with, “I’m not holding you, but I’m not letting go.”
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This is roughly how the relationship between the Cologne band and Berlin can be described. They never got really warm, the Spree isn’t the Rhine, and Henning May says during a break: “In Berlin, even the deaf eat doner kebabs.” Then he praises the ambivalence of the city and says to the audience: And there is You, we are moving to Berlin because of you, we are here because of you, thank you Berlin, you faithful soul.”
08/18/2023, Berlin – Germany. The band AnnenMayKantereit gives a concert on the Wuhlheide open-air stage.Sabine Gudath
For you, the park stage in Wuhlheide is also a step back to its beginnings. They have already played here four times, the first and second time in 2014 as the opening act for the Berlin band Beatsteaks. That was long before “Pocahontas”, but after her most famous song, which Henning May wrote in 2013: “Often asked”. The stage shines like a single ball of fire with this song and the whole Wuhlheide sings: “At home – it’s always just you.”
AnnenMayKantereit brought the big hits with them for their one and a half hour show: “It’s evening” (sounds like THE Berlin song), “3 days by the sea” (best Usedom mood), “Ocean” (May: “And now everyone cuddle, please “). In general, the lead singer keeps giving instructions between the songs on how the audience should behave: smooching, cuddling, dancing like before. “And above all don’t forget the water between the Kindl and the sparkling wine.” There it is again, the reasonable element of this well-behaved boy band with sensational charisma.
Media criticism or just a summer song?
Not all lyrics make sense, even if they are breathed several times in a very deep voice: “The birds are shitting from the sky and I’m watching them”. Is that media criticism or just a nice summer song about (once again) an ex girlfriend, this time “Marie”.
The prettiest of this category is “Barefoot at the Piano” and suddenly everyone around you is cuddling without anyone telling them to. When May has played the last note on the piano, he looks up and smiles. In the middle of the Wuhlheide on a summer evening, this sea of lights is the beginning of a moment that could have lasted a few moments longer. The last song they sing is “Ausgehen” – and Henning May, very much the Berliner, wishes those born after 1995 “a lot of fun in the Kitkat”.
#concert #Friday