12/14/2009
Yellowman in Munich, Germany @ Backstage 12/11/2009
King Yellowman performed a great show in a small club in front of an audience of just 150 people
Yellowman gave the second last concert of his five week long European tour inside Munich’s Backstage. Originally, he was supposed to appear in the Backstage’s “Werk”, a concert hall with a capacity of 800 people. Due to an exceptionally weak advance booking, the show was relocated to a smaller club with a capacity of only 200. According to Revelation Concerts, the tour organizer, all other shows of this tour sold better and were attended by at least 300 people.
When warm-up act Medassi opened the show at 20.45h, not even 40 spectators were there. None of them had the heart to enter the dance floor in front of the stage. Medassi had a hard time trying to change that. In the end, they succeeded somewhat.
At a few minutes past ten, the Sagitarius Band introduces King Yellowman with “Rockford Rock”. About 150 fans are present now. The band, consisting of just four musicians – drummer, bassist, guitar player and keyboarder – is obviously tired. No surprise after five weeks of touring with just one day off. Fortunately they are so experienced that their fatigue can’t be heard. The sound is great, but overshadowed by painful interferences again and again.
Yellowman makes good use of the extremely limited space on stage, dancing and jumping on about 30 square ft. He captures the massive with his Dancehall classics such as “Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt”, “Letter to Rosie”, “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng” and more recent tunes like “Freedom Walk” from his “New York” album. His beautiful interpretation of Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” is exceptionally well received by the crowd. Lighters are up unasked. “Oh Carolina” and his “Country Roads” version are sung along by everyone. The vibes are great. Due to the size of the club the ambiance is rather intimate. King Yellow shakes hands and interacts closely with the Munich massive.
He leaves the stage after one and a half hours shouting “No discrimination, no prejudice, one love” – what a long way from epitomizing slackness lyrics in the 80s to uttering statements like this!
He announced to be back in Germany in 2010. “I love Germany, it’s my number one country!”
more photos from the show here
