ZSK - 16.02.2023 - Das Bett Frankfurt

ZSK have now been on tour for 25 years and to celebrate this they stopped on Thursday, February the 16th, in Frankfurt in the fine club called Das Bett. According to their own statement, the smallest club of the whole tour. More on that later.

But first the three guys from Friedberg, with the name Elfmorgen, came on stage shortly before 8am. Actually, Bon Jovi‘s Living on a Prayer was first played as an intro. Completely. It shows that with Elfmorgen everything is somehow different than usual. Then they came on stage and started with the song Tanz, to mark the beginning of a fantastic evening. Not in any way careful and slow, no, but they set the direction straight away. Punk, against Nazis, for a better world, but also for more positive irony, as can be heard clearly and distinctly in Oberlippenbart, even if, according to their own statement, they are always misunderstood concerning the meaning of the song. Well, not everyone understands irony. Elfmorgen does tho. Actually, there is another band that would have fitted very well into the evening, namely the 8Kids. They were also involved indirectly, since Elfmorgen and the boys did the song Halt die Welt an. Before they played it, they asked who all knew the 8Kids, which only led to a few cheers, including mine. Maybe after the evening there will be a few more people who will pay attention to this band. They played for 40 minutes and ended the set with Kapitän and the included wish to be the captain of the MS Lick my ass at some point. Attached is the setlist, which, according to the band, was for once played in the right order.

Setlist Elfmorgen:

Tanz
Bei aller Liebe
Kind
Junger Mann
Scheisse Schön
Halt die Welt an
Oberlippenbart
Nur für dich
Nazis bleiben Nazis
Brauner Bär
Kapitän

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9:05 PM. The banner with the celebrating skull hangs, the lights go out, spotlights like at a prison in hollywood films shine from behind and move back and forth. Short messages are played, which speak of the racist attack in Hanau, the Russian attack on Ukraine, the evacuation of Lützerath and an excerpt of Greta Thunberg’s speech before the UN climate summit. Then the banner falls, confetti flies through the air and appropriately Darwin starts, which is also the first song on the Hass/Libe disk. And so the final demolition was startet. The four of them went to work with a lot of humor, wit and joy in what they were doing. Before playing Küsst die Faschisten, Joshi mentioned that before the tour they let the fans vote on which songs should be on the set list. They expected around 20 votes, but in the end it was over 700. And one of the most desired songs was that one…which is so old that they had to download the tabs from the internet first…at least that’s what Joshi said 🙂 He also sings with and without a guitar. Every time he hands it over, it’s not like he just gives it to Hannes, he just throws it at him. Which then leads him to bet that he’ll be able to throw the guitar from the merch stand to the other side of the stage. And what do you do with bets? You see if it fits or not. No sooner said than done, he climbs off the stage onto the merch stand and throws. In the meantime, Hannes did go onto the stage a little more and then caught the guitar to thunderous cheers. Bet successfully converted.

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Das Bett is also the smallest club of the whole tour, but the feeling comes up that it could still be the best show of the tour. Definitely as cool as usual in Frankfurt. Joshi also briefly praises the “Hools” from Eintracht Frankfurt, even if he doesn’t actually like football, but he thinks it’s good that they’re beating up Nazis. Although I personally don’t think much of violence, it’s a situation where you can make an exception. Before Punkverrat, Joshi has to make an announcement, which he began with “That’s absolutely unpunk”. Apparently a few cars had parked so stupidly, that the ambulance couldn’t get through. In between, the audience was also allowed to sing, because it was Merchlady Anja’s birthday and so she was serenaded. There is also a short impro song when Arne breaks a string and has to change it first. To bridge the time, Joshi gets an acoustic guitar from Hannes and they play The Passenger, which they then play through, where Arne then joins in after his guitar has a new string.

The whole time, actually, half the hall became a moshpit, and after so many people bought tickets and Das Bett couldn’t dig a ditch, which Joshi announced with great joy, stage diving and crowd surfing were the order of the day. There were only two rules, the most important being that no teeth should be cut out of the musicians with the microphones. So much can be revealed, everyone who came on stage to jump succeeded to apply to that rule. And there were quite some fans doing so. What else is there to say, after 1 1/2 hours it was over, but the fans still didn’t have enough. So it went on again for three songs. For Jede Sekunde, Joshi walked into the middle of the room with an acoustic guitar and a microphone stand. The fans sat down, Joshi played and sang almost all by himself, the other band members only accompanied him quietly, creating a real campfire atmosphere. After Keine Angst came the song that summarized the statement of the evening, Antifascista. Of course, introduced by the siren from a megaphone, this also meant the peaceful storming of the stage by the fans and a huge pogo from the rest of those who stayed below. At 10:50 p.m. it was finally over and the rubble of the evening could be collected. If you also want to experience this, there are two more concerts, in Berlin and Hamburg.

Setlist ZSK: