Woah, the New Year’s first show and such a surprising one. Nah, this show was breathtaking! I guess no one knew what to expect actually. Another reunion, for the umpteenth time. And as we remember, one was worse than the one before. But… enthusiastic feedbacks and a sold-out tour kick off in Berlin raised expectations and anticipation ;)

Founded back 1978 in the valley of the river Wupper, DEUTSCH-AMERIKANISCHE-FREUNDSCHAFT quickly turned the German republic provocatively upside down. With its harsh machine sounds DAF are considered to be the pioneers of EBM, Neue Deutsche (Punk) Welle and Techno. As fast as DAF became a legend, as fast they crashed. They split up and reunited, split up and reunited, slit up… In between they released records, not even rudimentarily coming close to the classics Alles ist gut, Gold und Liebe and Für Immer. 30 years later, and despite of various statements that DAF is dead forever, the duo Gabriel „Gabi“ Delgado-López and Robert Görl got together again, ready to paint the towns red. A triumphal procession through the clubs… as they will prove ;)

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Make 2 out of 3 (support act Essexx got disinvited), what led to later show times. Good for us, since we were quite late, even better for the KuFa, since the location was really crowded, even though not sold out.

Before it was time for the moment of truth, the “whores of electro” :: TYSKE LUDDER :: were about to enter the stage. Live this trio is rarely seen, which I think is really a shame. Having released an excellent comeback album (Sojus) TYSKE LUDDER came up with a new EP entitled SCIENTific technOLOGY, playing 2 of the 3 new songs and let the crowd dancing. The guys played for around one hour with songs across the band’s history. Only the EP Creutzfeld was left aside. Harsh, heavy pounding EBM, and regarding content as acid-tongued as usual. Drummer Z67 got out of tune in between, while key wiz Olaf hid behind his machines left in the shadows. Generally speaking there could have been more lights. TYSKE LUDDER’s old school EBM is perfectly made for a great lightshow (and I don’t mean that kind of Christmas-tree-lighting…)
Frontman was downright lively, heating up the audience. Veteran DAF fans surely were much skeptically, but the one or the other was visibly captivated by TYSKE LUDDER’s performance ;) Another great show! Really!
Setlist: Frisia Non Cantat, An Vorderster Front, Bionic Impression, Wie der Stahl gehärtet wurde, Thetanen, KinKat, Manipulation, Khaled Aker, Canossa, Monotonie

A quarter of an hour for the change-over an then Gabi Delgado-López was going wild opening with the classic par excellence: Verschwende Deine Jugend. People in the KuFa downright freaked out. Completely. Prompt and strongly. In a twinkling of an eye, mosh-, dance- and pogo pits were created, lasting for the entire show and bringing a lot of bruises, black and blue marks to the first row, I tell ya… ;) :: DAF :: is back! Without a doubt. Stronger than ever before. Songs seemingly got reworked or new recorded respectively. They sounded extremely powerful and crispy, not any bit dusty. Only Ich und die Wirklickeit didn’t want to play along tonight. The CD was jumping every time they tried it and was eventually skipped. At the first dropout Gabi tried to bridge the break encouraging the crowd to sing. But… Die lustigen Stiefel (marschieren über Polen) was a dodgy choice. Fortunately the thread was quickly picked up again for the regular set. The duo apparently had a lot of fun performing; they truly enjoyed everything, most of all the frenetically reactions of the audience. Gabi enthusiastically snatched off his shirt and pours out water in gallons over his body, while still going wild. Ha... hot! What expressiveness! What sex appeal! HOT! Robert was naturally bound to his drum kit, but used every chance to present himself, gaining a lot of “Robert, Robert” screams.
No, I think, such show no one did expect! DAF as in the good old days! Hardly to believe… but true! ;)
Setlist: Verschwende Deine Jugend, Ich und die Wirklichkeit, Der Mussolini, Sato-Sato, Mein Herz Macht Bum, Alle Gegen Alle, El Que (Acid Trance Version), Muskel, Osten Währt Am Längsten, Nacht Arbeit (mit Text von Im Dschungel Der Liebe), Greif nach den Sternen, Moschino, Heckler, Koch, Liebeszimmer, Sex unter Wasser, Kebab-Träume, Verlier nicht den Kopf, Ich will, Tanz mit Mir, Liebe auf den ersten Blick, Die Lüge, Als Wär's Das Letzte Mal // Der Räuber Und Der Prinz // Alles ist gut // Algorithmus (in no order)

Ha! As I said: the first show in 2009 and an absolute highlight and already a candidate for the top 5 shows in 2009. Seriously, it was a breathtaking show! 75 minutes plus 3 encores and the show was over seeing the fans still screaming for more. Yes, DAF could have started right from the beginning again ;) Where’s the “repeat-button”? The band’s repertoire is huge and I bet they also had enough CD’s in their bags (every encore was one song on one CD)
And now I’m convinced, after this tour these both guys will work together again, releasing something new sooner or later. Sometime. But they will… I’m sure ;) Ok, the new year started amazingly. Let’s look ahead… erm… let’s look North *lol*

story Dajana & Psycho • pics © Dajana