S'NIX TOUR 2008-09
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.comHubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.com
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Oskar Neubauer www.neubauerphotos.comHubert von Goisern's tour finale in Ischl
Bad
Ischl - "In order for something new to develop, something
has to be able to come to an end too", the well-travelled sound-collector
and multi-instrumentalist Hubert von Goisern put it in a nutshell for
his three finale concerts in Bad Ischl, bringing the Europe tour to an
end.
It had been his vision to unite people of different cultures and generations with music, as he travelled the Danube upstream and downstream during a two-year European tour as ambassador for Linz 09.
In Bad Ischl he once more showed his whole repertoire: at times loud, at times quiet, but always full of life and passion. Hubert von Goisern and his band delighted the fans who came to the three concerts at the Lehartheater in Ischl.
And now for the time being Hubert von Goisern is taking a break. "God willing, we'll be going on tour in the same lineup in 2011."
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 14th August 2009
Photo: © Elli ChristlFarewell concert
BAD ISCHL. It was in the Bad Ischl Lehártheater, where Hubert von Goisern started his S'nix tour three years ago, that the bard from the Salzkammergut brought it all to an end on Friday. The auditorium was full to bursting and Hubert and his band gave their all til midnight. "In order for something new to be able to develop, something also has to come to an end", said the musical globetrotting Goiserer, who will now be taking a two-year break.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 13th August 2009
Photo: © Elli ChristlShowtime in Austrian
Hubert von Goisern gives a concert in the Hanau Amphitheater
Hanau. "There's no German word for showtime!" So Hubert von Goisern - the Upper Austrian whose apparently gentile title is no such thing, but rather a reference to his town of birth, Bad Goisern in the Salzkammergut - begins his piece of the same name. It doesn't need many words, or even a translation; the Hessians at the sold out Amphitheater in Hanau know who stands before them: a musician who with his river tour on a barge along the Danube, Main and Rhine musically touched tens of thousands of people in all the countries of the "old" and "new" Europe and combined their ethnic and musical culture into the sound of his band.
Accordingly versatile sounds come from the accordion, trumpet, electric guitar and in particular the lips of his singers and from his own.
Eight musicians create their very own worlds of sound, bringing in rock and jazz, folk music and yodels somewhere along the way, but always with a tic in between and very homogenous, celestial, rhythmic and entirely changeable. Hubert von Goisern, whose musical experiences go far beyond European borders, who has played with musicians from Tibet, India, Egypt and numerous other farther Asiatic and African countries, has now arrived "back on land" again with his band after his almost legendary two year tour by ship from Linz to the Black Sea and back to the North Sea. But they haven't done so in order to stand still, but rather to transform the musical experiences of the tour into a show, for which you would be hard pressed to find a comparison in Europe.
Between
songs such as Regen, Juchitzer or Siagst
as - the Austrian language always remains - Hubert von Goisern
tells of his tour, of his previous experiences at Lake Tanganyika, or
in Rwanda, Burundi, in the Congo; in refugee camps of civil war-torn
Africa: "In an almost magical way, you always find musicians wherever
you go". Then he tells the story of how he became a "rainmaker" in
Burkina Faso: "Four bars with the accordion and it promptly began
to pour with rain". Regen (Rain) follows,
speech song and lyrical refrains, a supporting acoustic guitar from Severin
Trogbacher, tapestries of sound from David Lackner's keyboard and fine
background singing from the three ladies in the orchestra, Maria Moling,
Elisabeth and Marlene Schuen.
But von Goisern also describes the fear of Romania and Bulgaria's entrance into the EU in the song Herschaun. Not the fear held by the "old" Europeans, but that of the "new" Europeans. For their fear of the "behemoth" of Europe and its great economic power was palpable.
"You'll take away what little we have," he translates what he heard just three years ago. "Our fear of each other is the common denominator," he analyses and with his music takes away part of this fear.
But it doesn't all stay so serious and political during the concert, because after all people want to have their fun. And they get it - and in no small amount: a yodel course a la Goisern, hearty alpine rock and the well-known pieces from the trumpet player, accordion player, guitarist, singer and entertainer. The Austrian's almost three hour-long concert thrills even the Hessians, Goisern spots with a wink. "Maria asked earlier: 'What are the Hessians like?' - That's what the Hessians are like!" The audience goes wild; and the organiser, the Frankfurt firm "Shooter", prove once more that they have a hand for an excellent use of a Hanau treasure: the Amphitheater on the banks of the Main.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli Christl
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Elli ChristlYodelling is as easy as riding a bike
The Austrian folk music rocker Hubert von Goisern sang, wailed and whooped at the Amphitheater in Hanau.
It all began in the Austrian town of Bad Goisern. The idyllic spa town in the Salzkammergut is equipped with seven brass bands and in one of these the young Hubert Achleitner learned to play the trumpet. But his hair was too long, his thinking too revolutionary - both incompatible with an average brass band that plays Austrian folk music: Hubert was thrown out. Perhaps even back then he thought: "I'll show you all how differently folk music can be played!" And as revenge or joke, but perhaps also out of love for his homeland, Hubert Achleitner took the stage name Hubert von Goisern and over the years created a music that was even given a label with the term "alpine rock", although that is insufficient as a description. Folk music is certainly a source of inspiration for Hubert von Goisern; but by no means is it only that from Austria. South Africa, Canada, Tibet and Tanzania are just a few of the countries whose musical traditions find expression in his music.
In the Amphitheater in Hanau Hubert von Goisern stand on stage with an excellent band. The Austrians are enhanced by three singing, yodelling and violin-playing young ladies from the little highland region of Ladinia, south of the Brenner Pass. The listeners in Hanau are offered hot rock and solemn ballads and at times they can even yodel along. "Because in order to yodel," as Hubert von Goisern explains, "you don't have to come from the inner alpine region, or even be Japanese. Hessians can do it too!" And actually yodelling is like riding a bike: "just stylish!" The Hessians in Hanau listened to him and happily yodelled along.
The whole two and a half hour concert that Hubert von Goisern gave on this warm summer evening was great. The boss himself was in the best of moods and gained extra sympathy points with occasional walks with his accordion into the audience. And each of the eight musicians displayed a real joy in their playing, which is not to be found with every group.
Von Goisern did not have his first and biggest hit Koa Hiatamadl in the programme, but instead had the lyrical Heast as nit and Weit, weit weg. The enthusiastic audience at the Amphitheater in Hanau said thank you for a first class concert with standing ovations.
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. Handlechner
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. Handlechner
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. Handlechner
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. Handlechner
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. Handlechner
Hubert von Goisern: Live in Bad Ischl - 12th August 2009
Photo: © Josef H. HandlechnerBombastic avalanche of sound
Hubert von Goisern rocks the sold out Kulturarena in Jena
A
lady in her prime and someone much younger appear dressed in dirndls,
an adolescent boy is wearing lederhosen. A well-meant homage to the Austrian
guest at the arena on Saturday evening. But when Hubert von Goisern comes
on stage it is well known that you should be ready for anything - except
the schunkel-like ideal world melodies of Musikantenstadl events. The
master himself is dressed in casual summer cotton and uses all his fire
power right from the off.
Electric guitars whine, the drummer thrashes the skins, synth sounds shimmer. It's showtime in Jena and it goes on for a full three hours. But nobody has noticed, von Goisern's bombastic avalanche of sound takes everybody with it - it's inescapable.
Von Goisern, one celebrated as founder of alpine rock, offers much more than one could with a clear conscience put in this pigeonhole. In fact you can't clearly capture him musically anywhere. The well-travelled guy eagerly explores foreign tonal paths and the treasures found there are mixed by the artistic solitaire in unconventional ways with native sounds and thumping rock into rich, grooving world music. It sounds crazy, this virtuoso-independent conglomerate of crisp roots, embedded pieces of jazz, massive Balkan brass, alpine yodels and balladesque melancholy. Here and there he even borrows from classical symphonics. And sometimes, as if from nothing, a soulful tapestry of sound develops, on which the whole arena lays down, awestruck.
With his young band and three really pretty, multitalented girls in the background von Goisern has dependable partners on board for his perfectly composed down to the finest detail, but never strained-seeming performance. The team will be disembarking on 14th August and having a break for a year and a half. But afterwards von Goisern would love to come back to Jena. Until then everyone in the arena will have to live off the memory of an exceptional concert evening and its charismatic protagonists. That will easily carry over time.
Hubert von Goisern between folk and world music
Wattenscheid. The Austrian Hubert von Goisern makes a stop on his tour in NRW and once more thrills his audience. Afterwards is it the end for music of all styles for the time being - until 2011. For that time the man with the accordion, who is master of another 186 instruments, is travelling.
The
songs of the people of the mountains were foreign to us for a long time.
People who returned from an expedition to Bavaria or Austria told of
wonderful squeaking, also called "yodelling", performed by
fellows with accordions and girls in bodices. Oh my, we thought, if only
we could hear the songs of the mountain folk. Schunkeln with lederhosen.
At some point in the eighties a man in lederhosen climbed on stage in a rock arena. He didn't just pump the air through his accordion, but also put the power to a Fender guitar. Rapped to the beat, as if the Salzkammergut was in the Bronx and with his next breath sang of the peace and calm of the mountain pasture, as part of a three-voiced angel choir in light spheres too. His name was Hubert von Goisern, that fellow, and on Sunday he was in Wattenscheid.
Lappland, Tibet, Africa
The open air stage there is an underrated jewel. As if made for someone like Hubert von Goisern, whose real name is Hubert Achleitner and who took his stage name as a tribute to his home town of Bad Goisern. Something that in hindsight was perhaps not so felicitous when you consider that Jörg Haider comes from Bad Goisern too - and Hubert really doesn't stand anywhere near Haider.
But we digress from what perhaps is the reason for this wonderful evening at the open air stage. The great trees moved in time and the darkness lay softly over the congregation of Goisern fans who had gathered in front of the stage and sang along with everything, everything. Between the songs, when Hubert told stories about his journeys and the time he was in Lappland, or in Tibet, or in Africa, a dog barked and a child crowed. And as he told of an appearance in Burkina Faso, where after terrible drought after just one song, of course the famous Regen (Rain), the heavens opened and the people there wanted to buy his accordion for the next drought - we looked up to the sky, although no clouds were to be seen, but anything seemed possible on this magical evening.
187 instruments
The man, who brings together folk music and world music and rock and reggae and rap with the greatest of ease and who masters 187 instruments put together a new band again for the S'Nix Tour, which is now coming to an end. The musicians were splendid like the legendary Alpinkatzen and the sound during classics like Weit, weit weg or Heast as nit, which we discovered from a reliable source means "Can't you hear", was wonderful. Even if you have to defer to certain sound levels in Wattenscheid.
The tour is now coming to an end, afterwards Hubert will be travelling (Lappland? Tibet? Burkina Faso?), but in 2011 he will return to the stage. So, dear people who missed this great evening, don't say we didn't tell you in time.
Rain is conjured up and a soft yodel-ahuh is taught
Jena (tlz) Stiff breezes from south, southwest always get caught up punctually from 7pm in the Kulturarena. They make stage mist dance wildly, and for those who dance in it - Hubert von Goisern, his musicians, his three singers - it gives them something sylph-like, something earthily ethereal. It might underscore the status of this concert poetically: you can confidently take it as the highlight of Kulturarena 09!
Anyone who brought von Goisern's alpine rocker image with them to the concert in the back of their mind, quickly had to tell themselves: you haven't examined him for an eternity. Alpine rocker - what an understatement! Compared to the photo in the programme, the true face of von Goisern seemed weatherbeaten by a few more years; with his stubble the Austrian seemed very reminiscent of Anthony Quinn in the role of Alexis Sorbas.
And like the great Greek literary figure von Goisern has - looking at just the last three or four years - led an intense life: this concert boat tour between the Black Sea and North Sea to pay homage to the Danube city of Linz as European Capital of Culture 2009 was magically crazy. Von Goisern, the man for the complete delimitation of all music, to which not just the Balkans contributed, but nearly every corner of the earth, whose sounds von Goisern seems to have assimilated. So the idea that yodelling is just "inner alpine" is rubbish! While visiting primate research scientist Jane Goodall in Africa the observation was made that the natives have a kind of hunt yodel. However at the riverside in Jena von Goisern invited the natives to yodel, "not so hunter-like", but rather very softly: dibiri, dibiru, dibiro - and now it comes: Ahhhhuuuhhh!
What a journey through world music! In another piece von Goisern is singing in harmony with the beautifully vocally-trained South Tyrolean singers Elisabeth and Marlene Schuen and Maria Moling; the stringing together of the syllables does contain the alternation between chest voice and falsetto, typical of yodelling. But the whole thing seems like a foreign language. Swahili for example? Or as von Goisern takes hold of not just the accordion, trumpet or horn, but also the acoustic guitar: he softly strokes the strings in such a way that their flageolet sounds escape and remind you of the cling-clang music in a Chinese tea house. And at another point anyone who in recent years had maintained a musical intake far from Goisern was surprised in quite a different way: no way was this just fairings from around the world! Maestro and band strike up Weit, weit weg, one of the most well-known von Goisern songs. And 80 per cent of the "over 40"-dominated audience, as well as the south-southwest breeze, joins in.
One thing remains to be explained: Von Goisern told of an adventurous appearance in Burkina Faso. As it began to rain over the village "four bars" after the beginning of the song ", he and his band did justice to the African role of music as an incantation for the weather. Despite "Rain, rain ..." in the Kulturarena the three-hour concert remains dry. Only as the spectators - now relaxing in the garden - looked towards the sky around eleven, did drops of rain fall into their good summer night's wine.
Beyond lederhosen clichés
Hanau
- It is difficult to find a fitting description for the atmosphere that
prevails at a Hubert von Goisern concert: people dance and yodel, without
fulfilling the kind of laughable lederhosen clichés that are familiar
from many garish folk music programmes.
There's rock, but at least as often feelings are sung about, but it never becomes kitsch. A concert from the Austrian is an experience. So it's no wonder that the Amphitheater in Hanau was completely sold out last Friday and a few people nonetheless still waited at the box office, hoping for returned tickets.
Right from the opening song Hubert von Goisern and his band really let things band and during the course of the evening prove their staying power: for almost three hours the spectators are offered a mixture of old and new songs. Rock alternates with calm. The audience doesn't even have to understand every word from Hubert von Goisern to be carried away by the sentiment of the music.
During the concert the singer proves his instrumental versatility on the guitar, accordion and brass instruments. However he could always rely on the sure foundation of his four musicians and three backing singers.
Between the individual song the well-travelled Hubert von Goisern, who in recent years was on a musical journey of discovery on a cargo ship converted to a stage, tells of his experiences gained while travelling. Towards the end of the evening he even manages to get the Hessians to yodel: alone on stage with his guitar Hubert von Goisern sang together with the audience. During the many requested encores nobody could keep to their seats and with standing ovations the spectators showed their gratitude to the band and singers for a fantastic concert evening, which will remain with many of them for a long time.
Alpine rock sparks in Pott too
1300 spectators visit the open air stage
Blimey: alpine rocker Hubert von Goisern celebrates an audience record in the open air season with 1300 fans. Yesterday's show marked the last stop on his current S'Nix tour.
Claudia Saebruck from Kulturimpuls, together with Bahnhof Langendreer and the town's culture office organiser were not surprised by his popularity: "I have arranged many concerts with Hubert von Goisern in the region and he always pulls in a good thousand people." Particularly as he was often on television in recent months as cultural ambassador for Linz. "With a view to the coming year of course he fits well into our programme," said Bertram Frewer (culture office) happily.
Crystal clear sound
The musician from Bad Goisern was a guest for the first time in the Alten Freiheit. Von Goisern opened the concert with a simple "servus, showtime" and immediately a crowd of people gathered in front of the stage. In particular the crystal clear sound made a positive impression from the very first song.
The globetrotter, who has studied in Toronto and lived in South Africa and the Philippines, had his breakthrough in 1992 with the album Aufgeigen stått niederschiassen. Von Goisern voluntarily performed a "soft" programme on the open air stage, in deference to the noise regulations. No problem, the spectators were still enthused from the very first song.
KulturArena on Saturday: Hubert von Goisern
Rock music doesn't go with accordion and trumpet? That's what you think - it does indeed go! On Saturday evening Hubert von Goisern presented three hours of the finest alpine rock in front of 3000 people at the Jena KulturArena.
Hubert von Goisern stepped on stage at the Jena KulturArena dressed all in white. Three words from him are enough: "Hello Jena - showtime!" ...and immediately the audience are with him, ready for rock 'n' roll. Or for alpine rock even, which is to all intents and purposes completely incidental. Music is music is music. Especially when it's good.
"There's no German word for showtime ...", he calls into the microphone at the beginning of the second piece. At this moment the audience has already begun the celebration of a great party. No wonder - there is soon a spark between the musicians on stage and the audience. It seems as though von Goisern is laughter personified when he plays, so unbelievably fresh does he appear. With a winning smile to the crowd he plays with great concentration the horn, accordion or trumpet and exudes high spirits from the very first beat. Pure showtime.
Between the songs Hubert von Goisern, whose real name is Hubert Achleitner, tells little stories from his life, letting the audience share in his very personal views on globalisation, EU expansion, or such trivial things as love. And time and again the alpine rocker from Bad Goisern in the Salzkammergut makes the 3000 guests in the KulturArena laugh.
In November von Goisern will be celebrating his 57th birthday - he forms his songs from an accordingly large of life and world experience. Music critics put them in the genre of world music. But von Goisern can do much more than yodel to electric guitar. Elements of jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll meld together in combination with lyrics in German (ok, they're in Austrian, if that's a language...) to original music that in can probably only come in this form from Hubert von Goisern's pen and peaks in a new definition of the term "folk music": far beyond any swaying romanticism von Goisern always has messages to communicate with his songs.
After three hours of showtime Hubert von Goisern and his comrades leaves the stage and no small number of spectators will have thought: my God, it must be beautiful up there in the Alps, to have inspired such good music as that.
The hour of the touched up yodels
Hubert von Goisern charges up the castle with hearty alpine rock
Burghausen. He has filtered out a good amount of sweet kitsch from the alpine sounds and lyrics. He has made the yodel a powerfully expressive style element beyond Musikantenstadl. He has written and performed lyrics, some with philosophical background, in such a way that alpine consonance can be compatible with rock and pop. For many, who like one or the other, the juchitzer and the yodel, rock, show, fun and dialect lyrics, Hubert von Goisern is quite simply the messiah. It was for that reason that the fans gathered en masse at the Waffenplatz in front of the Hauptburg.
The first phase of the two and a half hour concert, played without a break, serves as acclimatisation. When the three "Mentscha" (as Goisern calls his three graces) bounce on stage with brightly-coloured inflatable guitars, one sets up for a show that serves above all to please the eye.
The girls turn out to be high grade singers and instrumentalists, there's an opera diva, who yodels to the highest peaks and lets the mystical sound stand like a monument in the night. The violinist shows herself to have a virtuoso musical soul and the third in the band delicately takes care of the percussion instruments. The rock band, who fare in polka, ska, reggae and Balkan and oriental elements have a number of surprises up their sleeves too. A guitar that catapults the elaborate solos and fastest riffs into the audience, a polyrhythmic drummer, a keyboarder, who understands how to wrap the whole thing with tapestries of sound. He is also responsible for preparing an esoteric-seeming backdrop for a good many touched up yodels.
All this stands at Hubert von Goisern's disposal as a backdrop of sound. Bit by bit the beautiful moments develop, the highlights in which the singer becomes poetic and contemplative. He builds in his accordion too, a horn or a trumpet, only for the sound, not to shine as a virtuoso. The slower phases finally win the upper hand. In one such phase comes the contact to the audience and with a witty invitation he is able bring them to yodel during Wann i durchgeh durchs Tal. If he was sat in the audience, he says, he wouldn't sing along, but then he'd be annoyed later that he hadn't sung along. Goisern deftly brings a few messages to the people: one of them is about the dismantling of borders, mistrust and fears. The "rain song" has something meaningful to offer too. At a concert in Burkina Faso the Goisern band had brought in the long hoped-for rain and thus received recognition as musicians.
Kulturarena Jena - Hubert von Goisern
One almost considered building the stage for the opening spectacle Tell again. But musically at least the Austrian Hubert von Goisern relocated his audience into rustic alpine country. The musician who became famous with his songs yodelled to electric guitar and accordion gives everything on stage: from boyish alpine rocker, to lady charmer, sensitive world musician and folkloric storyteller. And for three hours long. No song is like the other. Von Goisern impresses the 3000-strong audience with a versatile voice, which he - supported by both his band and the female trio Maria Moling, Elisabeth and Marlene Schuen - dips variously into jazzy passages, classical singing and alpine yodelling.
Even rain fits into Hubert von Goisern's concert
FRIEDRICHSHAFEN - Loud at times, quiet at times, but always full of life and passion: on Monday evening Hubert von Goisern and his band thrilled the audience at the Kulturufer in Friedrichshafen. The big tent had been sold out for weeks.
Sometimes it just fits. Just as Hubert von Goisern and his band played - no, celebrated - Regen, someone up above chipped in - and let fat drops drum down onto the roof of the tent. Anyone who has such a director on his side can't do much wrong any more. And so the audience in the big Kulturufer tent experience a wonderful, atmospheric, impressive show from the 56 year old from the Salzkammergut.
The fact that Hubert von Goisern, who in the last two years travelled the Rhine and Danube with a ship and lots of guest musicians on board, has seen a lot of the world can be heard in his music. Therein resounds together what at first doesn't go together and yet nonetheless somehow fits. Yodels, electric guitar, African rhythms and classical singing, for example. What Hubert von Goisern and his seven member young band conjure up on stage are not songs, but rather pictures of sound that are rousing in their loud passages and really touch you in their quiet places. All that would probably even work with witless lyrics. But it need not, because the Upper Austrian is a fine observer of life, who packs his great and small messages in catchy, clever words. An example: Weit weit weg - one of the few pieces on this evening from his early days, the Alpinkatzen time, without a doubt the most beautiful of all Austrian love songs. Other than that the singer and his band mainly draw on new material, playing nearly all the songs from the current live double CD Haut und Haar during the two and a half hour show and earning much applause and plenty of juchitzers from the audience.
The hero of the evening though is Hannes, the band's backliner, the roadie responsible for the instruments on stage. The man whom God didn't actually send into the world as a dancer, stands at the edge of the proceedings and gives it his all. Hannes hops, wiggles and waves his arms - pure "showtime". But his big appearance comes towards the end, when Hubert von Goisern summons him to the middle of the stage as lead dancer. Now clapping, now shouting, now jumping - Hannes leads the way, the tent follows. Fabulous. Seldom before has anybody made the audience at a concert so out of breath without having played a single note.