the notwist @ bimbo’s (photos, review)
Last night, six years after getting Neon Golden I finally got to see the Notwist (myspace) live at Bimbo’s. Previous attempts had been foiled by various circumstances.
On the bill were Odd Nosdam and Jel but when I arrived, an hour after the start time, the next band being set up on stage was already the Notwist. After a sample of an old song played and was awkwardly cut off, the band launched into their their latest single, “Boneless”, a catchy tune off of The Devil, You + Me.
I’d heard–mostly from previous tours–that the Notwist were actually not great live. Among other things, I heard that they often went back to their roots and went into extended noisy interludes. For fans that came to them in the Neon Golden era of rich pop melodies mixed with electronic influences might find that off-putting. It seems that in their live show they still do extended instrumental sections of songs, but these are now much more likely to be filled with electronics. Besides a version of “Neon Golden” that was about five minutes too long, I felt these worked really well within their set. While the song selection was fairly limited, almost all of it coming from the last two albums, this fan was just fine with that.
The five Germans rocked out on stage, rhythmically moving back and forth or side-to-side. Martin Gretschmann aka Console, the master of the electronics, controlled all of that, for most of the show, with two wiimotes.
They came back for an encore. From a fan’s perspective, it was nearly perfect. I sort of feel that if they’d stopped after “Consequence” it would have been perfect. After that song, Doseone and Jel of Themselves joined the band on stage to form an incarnation of 13 & God for one song. It was certainly not bad but the previous four songs were among the best cuts in the Notwist catalog.
Encore:
- Good Lies
- Chemicals
- One with the Freaks
- Consequence
- [anyone remember what track this was?] (as 13 & God, with Doseone and Jel)
