Campino reclaims the stage
Toten Hosen concert in Cologne
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Campino reclaims the stage
Cologne The Toten Hosen started their stadium tour in Cologne. A double comeback could be experienced: the band returned to the stage and the fans to the stadium. Thoughtful tones mingled with the joy of seeing each other again. We were there.
The concert has already been running for almost an hour and a half when darkness falls over the sold-out Rheinenergie Stadium. With the exception of drummer Vom Ritchie, the band comes together to the front of the stage. She begins a song, everyone here knows it, 40,000 people raise their arms. Campino puts his left foot on the monitor, his right leg pushes through a beam, he sticks his chin out, he wants to go far out into the audience. Red light flashes from the stage over the throbbing fans, the sight is reminiscent of bubbling lava, crowd in motion. You know what’s coming, the noise is enormous, but the singer’s voice stands out, the time has come. “Hey,” he yells, they take the rest off him. They answer, they throw back his song, they call out: “Hi Alex is coming”.
Die Toten Hosen perform in Cologne and it’s a double comeback. The group gave their last concerts three years ago, then Corona came, and only now are musicians and fans returning to the arenas. This is also something like family reunion, like rehab graduation party and kick-off meeting for future ecstasies. In any case: finally back in the plural. We are in the sound. “You wouldn’t believe how happy we are to still be here,” says Campino. “And that you’re here is a huge gift.”
You can tell from Toten Hosen that this tour start is a special evening. They’re also celebrating their 40th birthday with the concerts, and Campino is running at such high speed that you wonder how he’s going to keep it up. He runs up and down, you can watch him reclaim the stage, continuously going into larger than life. Andi grins as if he’s happy that everyone is there. Kuddel seems highly concentrated, and Breiti dares to use the left arm of the stage. The sound is a bit flat at first, the vocals far behind, but after about a quarter of the roughly two and a half hours of playing time, everyone has found their rhythm and the sound becomes broader and more cohesive. They’re on track with Bonnie and Clyde.
Now this is a great concert experience and the audience is amazing. You can tell that many of them missed that: coming to a stadium that was already vibrating from the sound of the supporting bands. Noticing how the tension increases the closer you get to the grandstand. Wondering whether to buy a t-shirt now or after. And then stepping into the interior, feeling the energy. Some have children with them. A girl who is maybe eight years old occasionally lies down on three seat shells because everyone is standing in her row anyway. When the pants sing “Wannsee”, their mother calls out that it’s their favorite song, and the little one gets up and films with their mobile phone and sings along. A father happily pats his son on the shoulder several times, but in exuberance so hard that the boy avoids the next time and the father hits nothing. Many have put on trouser shirts from long-ago tours. Others are wearing Fortuna Düsseldorf jerseys in the 1. FC Köln stadium, and it seems totally logical.
Campino talks about the war in Ukraine, how it escalated and that you can’t know if a bomb will fall on a nuclear power plant tonight and a concert like this won’t be possible anymore. “Freedom is a precious commodity,” he says, and everyone, at least here in Germany, can see that everything remains stable and that extremists don’t get a chance. They play “Welcome to Germany” and everyone sings along: “It’s my country too / And I can’t pretend it’s none of my business.” Another highlight is “Pushed Again”, amplified with red pyrotechnics. In general, the darker it gets, the more beautiful it gets.
People see each other again as an enrichment and not as a virus bringer or bacteria slingshot. Here it is no longer divided, but exponentiated. Contagion is desired, with euphoria. Campino sings the new song “112” in a jacket that the Düsseldorf fire department, immortalized in this song, gave him. The other pieces, “Amore Felice” and “Alle say that”, fit well into the set, which is dominated by the classics. It’s amazing how quickly “Unter den Wolken” has become a fixture. In the second block of encores they bring “Ice-cooled Bommerlunder” and shortly before the end the song that is particularly suitable for this place and right now: “Days like these”.
The last song of a concert is usually the one that you take home with you as a catchy tune. Those who experience this evening will fall asleep with a beautiful sentence in their heads: “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
Here is the photo gallery: This is how the Toten Hosen’s anniversary tour kicked off in Cologne