Sunday, February 12, 2017

Live: Einstürzende Neubauten @ Gazi Music Hall (Athens, Feb. 11th, 2017)


Einstürzende Neubauten, the pioneering German industrial group led by Blixa Bargeld, returned to Athens after seven years with an impressive, two-hour plus show, presenting the "Greatest Hits" of a unique carrier that started in West Berlin in the early '80s.


The set list of this show didn't go this far back, but started around 1988, when they recorded their fifth album "Haus der Lüge", and proceeded with some of their most memorable songs from the last three decades, including "Die Interimsliebenden", "The Garden", "Sabrina", "Silence Is Sexy" (featuring the sound of Blixa smoking his cigarette in total silence for several seconds), "Total Eclipse of the Sun", "Youme & Meyou", "Nagorny Karabach", "Susej" (a 2007 song based on a recording of Blixa playing his guitar in the flat cellar of a Hamburg recording studio in 1982, which takes the form of a dialogue with his younger self) and "Salamandrina" (their most covered song according to Blixa's introduction).



The bass of Alexander Hacke provides the backbone for all of Einstürzende Neubauten songs, from the most tender moment to the most extreme industrial clatter, but it's the impressive variety of custom-made instruments that N.U. Unruh and Rudolf Moser use for percussion, from a simple plastic barrel, to a tall construction used to gradually throw down metal scraps, that leave the strongest impression and create the unique sound signature of one of the most inventive bands of the last four decades.



Without a doubt, Einstürzende Neubauten's "Greatest Hits" show was a huge hit among all their Greek fans who filled the large Gazi Music Hall on Saturday night.

Check out below two of the highlights of the set: "Die Interimsliebenden", a song featured in 1993's "Tabula Rasa", and the more recent "Youme & Meyou" off 2004's "Perpetuum Mobile".

Einstürzende Neubauten - Die Interimsliebenden (live in Athens)


Einstürzende Neubauten - Youme & Meyou (live in Athens)

Einstürzende Neubauten, live @ Gazi Music Hall (Athens, Feb. 11th, 2017)

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