Jan Plewka is a Rio Reiser song evening, “if not now, when?” Tour. He is not the Original, but sings with a similar devotion.
Jan Plewka in the midst of his Black-and-Red salvation army Band Rio Reiser photo: Fantitsch
From the destructive impulses, the Ton Steine Scherben on your audience, broadcast, knew sing festival organizers as early as 1970 a song. The Band traveled a few months after its Foundation in West Berlin to Fehmarn, rumbled and marodierte, Rio Reiser shouted “destroy what destroys you”, and the audience sets fire to the stage.
half A century later, it is plain, if the protest songs of the shards are presented. The visitors of the Hamburg Kampnagel sit on padded chairs, glass bottles are prohibited, the Show begins punctually at half-past eight. More than 200 evenings of Jan Plewka has sung already Rios texts, many of them with the Quartet, The Black-and-Red salvation army. Plewka celebrated with his Band Blessed as abgezocktes rock and livestock in the nineties, success in the driving water to the Hamburger Schule. Later, he created music for films and theater pieces; for 17 years he subscribed to the role of the Rio-Reiser-artist. Now, he leads a new program.
“I’m not trying to play the Rio,” says the native of Hamburg prior to the concert. “I’ll take the character of a song and sing it as Jan Plewka. I have to assume the story behind it and make it my own.“ The evening in the cultural centre of Kampnagel initially starts in a little on its own. With dull, wide leg, the five “man-eater down to rock”. The drums rattle, probably due to the difficult acoustics in the crane production hall. In the loud moments, the jazzy sophistication that missed the Hendrix-trained broken-guitarist R. P. S. Lanrue once the stock is missing the Band.
“destroy what destroys you” contains Plewka in addition to the usual large-scale industrial-Bashing (“build factories, build machines”) current references. The 49-year-old singer spread, the terms “AfD” and “cruise ships”, climbs to the rostrum of the audience, and animates to sing along, but in the audience stirs a little. A sad show polar bear enters the stage, Plewka freed him from the plastic waste.
The new program, it should be morbid, so it had made Plewka and his musicians, at least. At the first Rio-Reiser-cycle was the loving side of the artist, Songs like Safirbet “June moon,” were on the Setlist. “But now the forests, the melting of the polar ice caps are burning. Rios lyrics are up to date“, finds Plewka. “If not now, when?” is the programmatic subtitle of this song in the evening, but it is not the house led by the former acting Director Tom Stromberg.
The gentle guitars, the more convincing the concert to the sounds of “Only you” with violin and vibraphone; “I’m tired” in a duet with Lieven Brunckhorst. The long-time ensemble of musicians at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus plays his Piano with a gentle stroke, and coaxed him, however, a Randy-Newman-Funkyness, which forms a counterpoint to Plewkas rough vocals. The sighs: “You’re too poor, I’m rich / You’re too hard, I’m too soft,” and leans the head to his band mates.
After the break, Stromberg brings unexpected Humor. He is suits the Band in sparkling Spandex, draped them side by side at a Desk with microphones. Hidden behind giant masks, knocking the five pencils to the rhythm of “My Name is man”. The “Shit-Hit”, the Rio composed for a theatre group with Corny Littmann, is presented in the Barbershop Style, and the audience intoned this: “Once a day hash / snack table.”
More events: 26. 11., Bochum “Chamber Games”, 27. 11., Cologne “Culture Church”, 28. 11., Mannheim, “Old Fire Station”. Is
Before the encores continue, it’s going to be serious: On the video screen a empty of it will be popped data on the climate change front of the bib. Then the Band los rumbles once again with “human”, this time with guitars. “The Planet earth is to all of us, and everyone will have what he needs.”
At the end of the Evening, a singer and a polar bear lying in the arms. Jan Plewka, this narrow towel, the raging barefoot across the stage, is not Rio Reiser. But he sings with a similar devotion. The audience applauds him for several bowing rounds.
