As December Falls 8.11.2022 - Wiesbaden

As December Falls is one of those bands that offers you to give their CD for free, if you pay the shipping. It’s a cool idea in itself, but above all it leads to people having a closer look at the band, as it was in my case. That was a few months ago. Now they happened to be on tour through Germany as part of their very first EU tour. Since the pop-rock/punk songs somehow caught me and, thanks to Brexit, smaller English bands will rarely come to Germany in the near future, I didn’t miss the opportunity to go to the Kesselhaus at the Schlachthof in Wiesbaden to see As December Falls. Crossing the long line for the concert of The Script, I was able to quickly go into the small hall. All in time to catch Cadet Carter‘s unannounced support of the support act. That’s how Abi Williams was announced by Nick Sauter, the singer of Cadet Carter. Abi is actually the merch lady from As December Falls. Nick and Korbinian (Cadet Carter‘s other guitarist/vocalist) convinced her to perform a song with them at the very beginning, before the actual start of the evening. An electric guitar, an acoustic guitar and an enchanting voice. It’s a pity that it was already over after one song, there could have been more, even if it wasn’t rocking at all. But gentle and adorable. There was a lot of applause for the short performance.

So it was ten past eight as Cadet Carter entered the stage. What followed was half an hour of solid alternative rock that got the crowd pumped up. With In the Clear they started with a song which is rather pop than rock, but still cool. It is also the first song from their last record Anthems for the Weak. With Stumbling, followed by The Best Part, they stumbled further and further into rock. Windshields was the first song not to be found on the Anthems Album, but it is their most successful song on Spotify. But then Blinding City Lights takes you back to it. A really good rock number to go off on, which the band also demonstrated on stage. This was followed by two older songs before Break Away closed the show, just like it does on the album. With the performance, they showed that they can not only be gentle, but really rock, with a lot of fun. They showed that they had it on stage and really took the audience with them. Especially since it was the last concert for the guys on the tour. They squeezed the eight songs into half an hour and really made you want more. Of course, the obligatory crowd photo could not be missing at the end.

Setlist Cadet Carter:

In the Clear
Stumbling
The Best Part
Windshields
Blinding City Lights
Car Park Song
A bad few Weeks
Break Away

After half an hour, the lights went out again. Knowing that only the first three songs could be photographed, I moved forward to get a good position. The other spectators let me do it, knowing that after three songs we would give them their place again. A ditch would have been more pleasant, but on the other hand it would have ruined the club character of the Kesselhaus. But I don’t want to complain. Let’s get to the actual, the performance. It started with Go away. Of course, that didn’t mean the spectators, anyone who would have followed it would have missed a really cool and brilliant performance. Bethany twirling across the stage again and again, with very expressive facial expressions and involving the audience, just like in No money, where the specatators where asked to sing No or No money along. Which also worked very loudly and successfully. You could also see her singing lying down … if you stood in the first few rows, further back it was difficult, the stage wasn’t that high. Another funny anecdote was how guitarist Ande asked a spectator not to put his beer on the edge of the stage because he might kick it and said spectator could then probably, understandably, be quite angry. And that would be uncool. After the short request, however, it went straight on and the beer also disappeared from its place. Ride, the band’s most famous song, should also be the end of the evening. In theory, because the headliner leaves the stage after the announced last song, lets himself be celebrated and then comes back for one, two or three songs. Only the band made the rules a little different. To quote Bethany loosely: “Now would actually come the moment, where we leave the stage and wait for you to call us back and then come back. Only this time we’ll just skip it and just stay on stage.” But Ande still wanted to be celebrated and asked the audience: “How do you say ‘One more song’ in German?”, to then initiate the “Zugabe” call, enjoy it briefly and then to really end the evening with More to you. Which was then also crashed by Abi and Cadet Carter, in which they threw heaps of POM-BÄR and other bags of chips onto the stage, which even meant that Bethany couldn’t continue singing as she laughed so much. Unfortunately, after 50 minutes it was really over. Could have gone longer but it will be a night remembered.

Setlist As December Falls: