Germany 2009

Kaki King is visiting Germany march '09. I already got my ticket and am really looking forward to the concert

hi clemens, which show were you going to?

i was taking the train from frankfurt to cologne on friday, catching her at the "konzertsaal im stadtgarten"...and i really must say, this went far beyond my expectations..omg, how gorgeous is she

the konzertsaal appeared to be a rather tiny, yet very intimate downstairs venue, when i dropped there i was wondering at first if i had taken a wrong turn, as the room was filled with that artificial fog, there was a giant illuminating disco ball rotating on the ceiling, and it's been jacko "billie jean" from over the speakers a crowd of 200, 250 maybe, but it had sold out

i could hear some dudes standing nearby talking, the one was like "kaki king, who is she?" and another guy said "ah well, you know, she's like some nutgone guitar chick, known for doing weird stuff with her instrument, that's all i've heard, might be a bit more of a jazzy sound, perhaps" and a girl with a brochure next to him was like "it says here, she does like neo folk" and the guy replied "well, how neo folk can it be, i mean she's hailing from the uk" haha, i'm still glad the lights went out at that point, shutting up mr wiseguy and his friends, they started clapping politely gosh i just dont get it, how people do always seem to feel the need to file any sounds they get to hear into bloody categories, cant they just enjoy the experience as what it is, none of those labelling would do kaki justice, i knew it right away

actually didnt mean to write like some review, as i am pretty sure i would be failing on finding bthe right words (haha, i would, even in my own language) anyways, here's some trivia from that night

it's been the "mexican teenagers" lineup, matt hankle on drums, dave brantigan playing the evi and occasionally blowing the trumpet, they kicked off with "ingots" followed by "bone chaos" and "life being what it is", that all i can remember sequence-wisely, the setlist was mostly from uwfr and dor, plus nearly the entire mexican ep...

and trust me, i really did have one big blast, can hardly remember ever having been..like "blown away" by an artist, really, i say it again, this beat anything i was expecting by far, such a stunning performance, it was really...breathtaking, haha

kaki did own the stage, she did own the crowd after like half an hour, to me it was like she was eating up the entire location, to spit it out again, filling the room with her wonderful presence and that...pure genius... haha, shall better stop here, but trust me, it was such a perfect night, she was playing for like over two hrs, then doing three (!) encores

the first encore was "armies of the tyrannised" and "montreal", then she returned facing the crowd without the boys, doing like an alternate version of "gay sons", so unbelievably amazing, and as the crowd stiil did behave somewhat demanding more, she did return for a last time, playing a song, i think i dont know yet, maybe some of you experts can help me out, i capped and put it on the tube, here it is, sorry so shaky, but i was standing on an empty bottle of lager trying to keep my balance, for a clearer view



any ideas, anyone...? i really like that song

and there was many funny banter along the way; at some point she asked the physically taller part of the audience to have a look around for any not so tall persons standing in their back, so why not being just nice and let those of smaller height step in front, she would know about the drag this could be from her own experience...and last but not least it would be a pretty smart method for getting to know some nice people and she said, that she always did like that diversity of ages in the german audiences, she pointed at some guy in front of the stage, being like "you...you do look indeed as if you had grandchildren already....aaand you..." she pointed at another one and so on, it sounded like she had been to germany before, away from the actual tour, does anyone know if she had been here before?

oh, and, haha, one of the coolest things i've seen in ages...she was having abottle of "kölsch" lager with her on stage, and to anyone not from germany, here's a little explanation, a kölsch lager is the kind of lager they are brewing down in cologne, and the entire german people not hailing from cologne consider a kölsch lager as what it actually is, nothing but an awfully dull tasting leach, haha, sorry to anyone from cologne, but let's face it, you're the only group of ppl still insisting they really do have a beer when drinking it anyways, drinking kölsch lager is part of the cologne identity, telling the cologne folks their beer's a sucker, sometimes might cause a riot, so it was a quite remarkable thing to say it in public

however, kaki was just telling that story of her mom spotting her on youtube when having a beer on stage, being concerned about her daughter downing alcohol in public, then she was raising that bottle up, saying "ist das gut?" (is that good) and there was more like a mixed echo from the crowd, she was drinking, raised the bottle up again, saying "ist das scheisse?" (or is it shit) which had me holding my breath for a second, but it only was like a mixed echo from the crowd again, and when "jessica" started, i was thinking to myself like...wow,she steps up on a stage right in the middle of cologne, hinting that this very lager might taste really awful and...got away with it, am not sure if she was aware what she was actually on about, haha, but that was sooo coool

after the show there was a merch booth in the lobby and it was funny watching matt and dan being busy calculating €uro subtotals, there were all regular cds on sale (15€ each) the new ep (5€) tshirts (20€) and that wonderful new (?) poster (is it new? here's a pic



the poster was 15€ but it is like a hq print on cardbord-like paper

anyone who ever attended a tegan and sara gig in like the pre-con period, might have a pretty good idea of that merch booth, as i was very similar to that tns situations, haha, that merch booth did just happen, know what i mean ; kaki was sitting on a stool next to the counter, patiently signing cd booklets, tshirts and posters and all, and she even agreed having some pictures taken with fans who asked for it, it was so wonderful watching her from small distance, she was making faces at those cameras, and all the while she was soo professional..and so down to earth at the same time...oh what a wonderful person she is

and sorry, just cant hold it back, pls allow me stating some "typical male" point of view, i've been into her music for quite some time now, but somehow never did realise...what a charmer she actually is trust me, i'm meaning this in the most respectful way, but her simple beauty nearly made me feel dizzy...haha, im i love kidding *straightens up* sorry guys

well, matt had already told me at the counter that they had run out of rubber bands for rolling up those posters, and when it was my turn for getting my poster signed, i stepped up to her, wondering what to say, if saying anything at all, and when she returned that poster to me with a wonderful smile, i was like "thanks alot, oh and...do you possibly have like some rubber band for the poster, perhaps?" she said there would be no rubber band anymore and i just said "well, i know" she looked at me for a second, then we both started laughing, and she gave me a light slap on my arm..and i went off

yesterday back home 8:30 in the morning i was walking home from the station, i've had no sleep, i was running low on funds and some high pitched beeep still did echo inside my head, haha, the usual side effects of concert tourism, and on top of all that slight drizzle did turn into hard rain, i got soaked completely, people on the sidewalks staring at me, as i had to walk in a strange way trying to keep those xxl posters completely under my jacket, to keep my trophies dry but i didnt mind, as i've had the most amazing night watching a show in ages

ah, i so hope to get to see her again soon

Don't know if you're still wondering but it is a cover of Plea for a Good Night's Rest by Devon Sproule

aww thank you so much sajhu

never had heard about her before, but i so love that song, and was so hoping for someone to hook me up with some info about it...am about to purchase "upstate songs" in a second browser while typing, so again...cheers mate!!

on a side note, the other day i was having my 2010 ticket for kaki in the mail, late march again, cologne again, but this time she is going to perform in a church.....

...well...guess it'll be "thank you for not smoking" inside, this time woo, am so on the edge of my seat!

Maybe we should change this to Kaki 2010 now?

how about "kaki in germany" without a certain date?

but actually i didnt start this topic, so i dont want to be cheeky

if it'll be ok to take a camera inside (inside a church?) i shall be posting some pics and/or vids here. i have a dvd of joanna newsom "rocking" the first unitarian church somewhere in the states, great stuff, but all those folks in the audience are seated....cant figure out myself walking down the aisle, taking a seat and straightening up for watching a kaki show, haha

just found a tracklisting of "junior", track eight is called "hallucinations from my poisonous german streets"....??? bet it is an instrumental, still wondering what she's referring to here? drug abuse?

well whatever, gosh, i just cant wait

Oli, thanks for this great review of the cologne-gig last year, though its been a while since then. How was it this year? Okay, i assume it was great, what else could someone say about a Kaki King concert

Anyway, the reason for me posting in this thread (why start a new topic if there already is such a nice one? ) is that i got totally thrilled by her last Monday (03/22/10) in Dresden (and somehow forced to visit this forum again after 18 months of inactivity - sorry )
So i decided to write a short review of the gig myself, maybe someone wants to write a few words about the other german gigs?


Okay. The last time Kaki was in germany i couldn't see her on stage - i was very busy back then, and the nearest venue was like 4 hours away. Considering that i am really overwhelmed by her and her music you could imagine how happy i'd been when i read that she's coming to germany again and, on top of it all, to Dresden, witch is the city i live in.
The "beatpol" is a great location for so many musical events, they have awesome bands and artists performing there almost weekly. So i already knew it quite well but i never been there in such great anticipation.

The night of the concert i got there with two friends of mine. As we got in there, almost noone was in the room but Kaki - sitting on the dark stage checking her guitars an equipment. Thats what i like of those artists who are not on MTV everyday: you can see them building up their own stages, tuning guitars by themselves, just like such "small" and "unknown" bands as i play in do - amazing!

Kaki was supported by a local artist, a girl with a guitar playing some sweet songs. When Kaki, Dan and Jordan entered the stage there were about 150 to 200 people in the room. They started with "Falling Day", which is indeed an absolutely great song to open a show. We wondered about that interesting instrument Dan played - some electric trombone-like bass-bagpipe. (I never saw such thing before, if anyone knows how to call it, let me know )
The second song was "bone chaos" followed by "life being what it is", witch wakes me in the morning for almost two years now, so i'm really happy i finally heard it live from Kaki.

She was absolutely marvelous on stage captivating the audience. In between her songs she told a little bit about the tour, about performing in Japan and wondered who invented the applause. She asked if it is hard to speak "saechsisch" (that's the german word for our strange accent in this part of germany) witch was responded by the audience with the word "nu" (thats a weird word for "yes" in our "saechsisch" language - i think most of the germans here know what i mean )

After the regular show she played one encore, "gay sons" and "gouge both your eyes out (but eat only one)". After that the audience wanted one more encore, but the beatpol staff turned the lights back on telling us that there wont be another one.
A few minutes later i saw Kaki standing aside of the merch booth looking a little exhausted from the show but very satisfied. I couldn't understand why nobody wanted to talk to her and why she's standing there all alone, so i went over to her and we had a little chat about the show. She signed my Dreaming of Revenge-booklet and i asked her if i can have the guitar pick she was using during the show. She said that she only got one pick that she has to keep, so i offered her all of the picks i had with me and she picked one. What an amazing moment, changing guitar picks with Kaki King! And what an amazing thought of her using my pick for her shows A few minutes later she was surrounded by people taking photos of her and she was busy signing CDs and T-Shirts, so i think i have to be thankful for my own little moment with her

So, all in all it was a wonderful evening, as oli wrote - far beyond my expectations. Yesterday i bought the ticket for her show in Berlin on April 3rd. I just can't believe that i'm going to see Kaki live on stage two times within two weeks. Now its seven days left until Berlin, hopefully they will pass fast enough

PS: Unfortunately i forgot to bring my camera, so i don't have pictures... Hope i can take it to Berlin next week

hey goby, ahh, finally someone to share a bit of their experience

..started wondering if kaki is leaving her audience completely speechless each time she's touring germany, not even a simple "i've been there, she rocked my socks, and it was so a.w.s.o.m.e!!!"

say, did she wear that hat in dresden too? awww, she looked sooooo sweet wearing it pics to follow as soon as i spot my sd card in the chaos surrounding me at home

am in a bit of a rush atm, ever since i got back from cologne, i've been committed to help my sis moving house i'm at her comp now, her hubby is passing by in my back, taking a giant aquarium out to the staircase, as i'm typing, shall better go give him a hand

hopefully we'll be done still tonight, so i can post some impressions/thoughts from the cologne show, and about my own "little moment with her", haha, i was so focused on not "screwing it up" this time and ...kölsch lager on draught, once more has been a big help keeping sober all night for any merch booth encounters to happen

back tonight or the next weekend

uhm, actually she left me speechless with this great performance...

and yes, I remember her wearing the mentioned hat while tuning her guitars before the show, but when she was performing the hat was gone

the next weekend i'll help a friend moving into a new flat (lets hope he hasn't got an aquarium ), thereafter I'll drive to Berlin for the Kaki-concert. And on sunday there's the traditional family-dinner for Easter on schedule. Same procedure as every year. So Kaki will turn this hectic weekend into a musical, outstanding, amazing one

Looking forward for your impressions from cologne

Hey guys! Just wanted to tell you you're not alone I saw Kaki last year in Hamburg and some days ago in Hannover. Chatted with her both times. And got my Jacket signed both times. This time i got an additional heart. That's 3 hearts in total. Dunno if that helps me attract girls or makes people think im gay Whatever. And just like last year from all the things i wanted to ask i just recalled like 30 % cause i was kinda blown away by the gig and nervous as usual. So i ended up talking like 50% nonsense. Sadly from the 3 gigs that were planned for this year i only made it to the one in Hannover. But it was just amazing. Great performance and i stood right infront of her surrounded by polite and rocking lesbians and a father with his cute little daughter that danced and jumped around and stared at kaki Was lovely to watch.

So long

J

oh jan, it was taking only two of those meet and greet situations (hence, two hearts only) to convince me, the next time it’ll be my best bet to only just hand her a bunch of flowers, very decent and old-fashioned, and saying something like “ms king, in my humble opinion, there’s only two types of artists out there actually, the one type is you, the second type is all of the others, and thank you so much for being there” instead of desperately aiming to express how much her music means to me… haha, yes, i’ve started counting my kaki hearts too, wondering if there will be like a free hug at a total of five?

goby, if you read this, have a wonderful evening tonight in berlin, enjoy yourself, wish i could be there with you…

Cologne--a church full of perverts last night! Right on! Dankeschon, lieblings.

(kakitwit, 9:38 AM Mar 25th)



germany fucks with the brain

(kakitwit, 9:44 PM Mar 31st)

review of the cologne show, more pics and video to follow whether tonight or tomorrow night at the latest,

happy holidays everyone

Hey Oli,

i love the picture You're on twitter? Add me so we can arrange a meeting for the next tour!

http://twitter.com/Sitzriese

@kakitwit wrote:

Hannover. Regen. Gig. Zwei Zugabe. Meows. Meet and Greet. Kalt und dunkel en mein hotel. Dankeshon fur die koncert lieblings!
4:06 AM Mar 27th via TweetDeck

not (yet) on twitter, but count me in, meeting up would be great, next time she’ll come around i was planning on taking like a whole week off anyways, so i might feasibly make it to a couple shows in a row, instead of only just a single one, haha, how about getting ourselves some corporate-identity long sleeve shirts or hoodies, saying like “kaki’s lieblings”

ah, i feel such relief, because the bad news is that all of those vids i was shooting that night appeared to be….well, they were not such a pleasure to watch, to say the least

good news is that some very nice person was willing to help me out, so any of the video material to follow is not my own, but is used by the kindest permission

the idea of trying to re-tell kaki stories in my own words, with my own half arsed english did somewhat scare me, stories like this one






i must quote another one of ms k’s tweets from like a year back, she’s been in germany back then too, and she put the following:

balisto!!!

(4:30 AM Mar 26th, 2009)

(haha, pasting this just took me like half an hr of scrolling down the kakitwit page)

…nothing else, just

balisto!!!

(4:30 AM Mar 26th, 2009)

….ok, anyone not knowing what a balisto is, it’s like some candy bar, pretending to be of the more healthy kind, mostly corn, cereals and stuff…no idea why, but this somehow seems to have come to my mind on the train ride to cologne……”balisto?? wtf….did she have one at some roadside break for a snack, and did she like it, or what? ….dont they have balisto over there in brooklyn?”
I was dropping to the central station snack stop on arrival, getting me balisto (one of each taste) thinking it might be nice to slip her one, when getting my kaki heart that night….haha, sorry had to tell this in advance, it’ll all make sense later on, so…

…well equipped with candy bars and all, i was hopping the kaki trail, all down that poisonus german streets, which led me to…a church. sure, it was supposed to be a church, but i had figured it more to be like some community home or such aside the actual church, but no…this might give a little idea



kaki was like 40 mins late that night, no supporting act, enough time to have a closer look around…am not a religious person at all, therefore it was a not so familiar environment to me anyway, we were seated on those church benches (haha, did i expect the church guys to get those out before the show?) and only just thinking back is still making my bum ache, but the most funny thing was watching the people filling those benches and the floor all around, talking down their mobiles, operating their wii, some guy in my back was like dealing out cards to his mates, most of them were having a beer there…right there, in the church (i was having sparkling water, but i wont be commenting on the beer now ) all in all some strange kind of scenario, yet somewhat amusing

the lady to my left kept talking and talking to her friend, listing all songs she wanted kaki to play the most, her friend was occasionally adding his own preferences, and both of them agreed that “junior” would be such a disappointing and weak record…having a short glance their way, convinced me that those guys were most likely happy about anything they could agree on…the lady was wearing a poncho, those yoko-ono-style glasses and a piercing through the labret, she was quite skinny and…well, somehow she was looking like my worst nightmare at that moment

they kept on talking about “junior” extensively, comparing it to kaki’s earlier work, and they seemed to try to get people around involved in the discussion, then the skinny lady turned to me “hi i’m emma, this is ralf” and some moustache guy was bending over nodding my way, then she asked “well what’s your opinion on junior?”

this was a bit déjà vu-like, as i remembered being surrounded by quite an annoying bunch the year before too, but i was putting a most composed look on my face, and from what i recall i was telling her this…

“hi, nice to meet you, i’m oli and…junior, well…i just love it. absolutely. and i do not love it because i feel like i should be loving it. it didn’t take any extra time for like growing on me.
also i don’t see the necessarity to always compare it to any of kaki’s other work. a plain clone of “dreaming of revenge” would have made the music writers happy, because redefining what there is about kaki with every new record is too much of a challenge for those guys. in the end they simply put her on some bloody list of guitar gods. to me, i think, that the turn she was taking with junior, is part what’s making her so…uniqe”

ralf seemed to have changed his mind, as all of a sudden he was like “there you go, bloody journalists” i was leaning back on the bench, trying to ignore my aching bum, drinking some water, then bending over to ralf again, saying “i mean…we’re not talking about fucking britney, do we?” and he was like “absolutely”

and then…finally….

ahhh, sorry this is so torn apart, i know i tend to go rambling easily, am off for some easter activity, this is to be continued…in the meantime…

pal of mine just sent me this



stuttgart, few days back

sorry this is coming in bits and pieces, but i didnt expect the easter weekend to become such a hectic one, also i’m having my four year old niece around, she’s pulling my leg all the time and has just learned that the best way to get my full attention, is to crawl behind my desk and pull the plug of my computer…but i cant be mad, she’s way too adorable

(^ ^ didnt mean to be ranting about those guys before, they were nice people actually, i think; and of course any opinion on junior is fine, that night i just didnt like the way they seemed to try and persuade anyone around that junior would be like “a step back in evolution” and what not…terms of “typical / not so typical kaki albums” were floating around, and…a typical kaki album?? honestly, what the hell is that?)

ok, on the show, i might be wrong, but kaki seemed a bit uncertain in places that night, which was due to the location, i think, the church was really packed, and there was so little space between the single benches, it was difficult to even stand up, so when kaki was entering the “stage” (she was mostly standing on the spot, where you’d expect to find the altar) her sights must have been quite similar to those of the preacher man on any given sunday…sure, it was “falling day” instead of “ave maria”, but only just watching the crowd from above, wouldnt have made such a difference between the two, i guess…except for the beers maybe, but then again, in some of the quieter moments of the show, that church-environment was just perfect, whole new experience..

so assuming that the current shows in parts are to back/promote the new album, seeing if the new material will be well received and such, the cologne show might have not been that helpful, as the ways to show appreciation sadly were rather limited that night, no way to get up and… well, “dancing” or moving to the beat, jumping around, whatsoever, and the obligatory clapping at the end of each title somehow didn’t make up for that lack…it was like there was no way for kaki to somehow estimate, if people liked the new stuff or not…and this might have been a bit disturbing, i dont know…

when she was doing “all the landslides…”, you know it has this short part of nearly complete silence in it, easily to be confused with the end of the song, by everyone not so familiar with the music…people start clapping, thinking it’s over, but it is actually not; anyone here knows that certain part i’m sure, and i’m sure that every time kaki is playing this live on stage, she’s having a good deal of people clapping “too early”…when it happened in cologne that night, she really was like “forget it” and cut the song



i dont think she was seriously annoyed then, more like amused, like she knew, she wouldnt escape that “running gag”

but in the end, like 30 min to go to the end of the regular set, there was not a single bit of uncertainty left, to me, it was like the entire thing had slowly but surely turned, i’m sure none of us in the audience did feel anymore pain in the back or sleepy legs no more, it was all just kaki, haha, not the slightest idea how she did and when she did it, but she had turned it…and it was sooo awesome, i’d be failing on words to describe it…haha, and if kaki really had felt a bit estranged in the beginning, now it was shepherd-kaki, overlooking the flock…can not speak for everybody that was there, but I’m sure that many others would agree that there was like some turning point in there somewhere, and from that moment on, to me, it was like she got us, all of us, lock, stock and barrel…

so when it came to call her and the guys back out for the encores, that was really amazing, it was a really (!) demanding crowd this time, everybody was standing now, no matter how much it would hurt, people were stamping their feet, some even stepping up those church benches, trust me, considering how it was starting, this was absolutely unbelieveable , one long-enduring hell of a noise…guess i only have a vague idea of what “professionality” means, and i might be wrong, but i really do think, kaki had not expected it to turn out this way and she was like a bit moved when she came back up…well, i was and it was funny somehow, that when they started the first encore, at the first tone played, the crowd was silent all of a sudden, those “kaaakiiiii” screams were stopped as if somebody had turned the volume down on the stereo, everybody was taking back their seats, but this time… it was ok

shall see if i’ll be back to tell about how the meet and greet went…excellent preconditions, as kaki was throwing that black pantie from that first clip into the crowd, it was to come down somewhere behind us, as it flew above our heads, emma was dugging down, spilling her beer over my pants…excellent preconditions

just one more video, anyone wanting to see the entire show, head over to bennys yt channel, she’s a true kaki-follower, not on twitter, but in real life and she has loads of shows up, like some recent ones from italy and the uk




https://www.youtube.com/user/Crazyben1969

thank you so much benny

bye for now