Concert in your area for Rock, Pop, and Indie & Alt.
Coming together at the Ratinger Hof, a Düsseldorf bar notorious for being one of the premier hang-outs for punks all over the city, Die Toten Hosen formed as a six piece and in true punk rock style, played their first show barely a month after they formed in 1982. So new were they that when they were introduced on stage the compere got their name wrong. However, the band weren’t to be deterred and soon got enough of a cult following around their local punk scene that they could record and self-release their first single “Wir Sind Bereit” (We Are Ready). Although they lost their guitarist Walter November in 1983, the rest of the year was very kind to them, as thanks to the success of their single Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder (ice-cold Bommerlunder schnapps) on German radio, they signed to EMI Records in the summer of the same year and released their debut album “Opel-Gang” soon afterwards.
For the remainder of the decade, the band were one of the most outspoken and controversial names in German rock music. Never afraid to puncture the egos of their paymasters whether it was EMI or Virgin Records, who they signed to in 1984, or take a stand for what they believed in as a band. By 1989, the band were big enough to sell out the cavernous, 16,500 capacity Westfallenhallen in Dortmund and the album that they released afterwards, 1990’s “Kreuzzug ins Glück” (Crusade to happiness) would go on to sell over 150’000 in its first week of release. Ever since then, the band have managed to do the impossible in the world of punk rock, which is to have a lengthy, succesful career in mainstream rock without ever capitulating to anyone else’s idea of what they should be as a band. They remain punk rock heroes to this very day, releasing the most vital material of their career over thirty years after forming. For that, Die Toten Hosen come highly recommended.
Despite forming in 1998, it was a steady climb for the band that finally released their debut eponymous full-length studio album on January 26th 2004 on Green L.F ant Records. It is an album that takes the shape of a hard rock sound fused with blues. The band led with the singles “Inner Peace” and then later released a song called “Camaro”, which showcases a guitar riff that took inspiration from Led Zeppelins, “Kashmir”. The band released the sophomore album “Faders Up” on March 12th 2007, which was a live concert recorded in Antwerp in Belgium. It featured cover versions of “Nothing Achieving” originally by The Police, “Boris the Spider” originally by The Who, “Angelene” originally by PJ Harvey and “Father of Night” originally by Bob Dyland.
The band’s second studio album “What Grabs Ya?” released on February 25th 2008 was a slight rut for the band, which failed to chart, and didn’t achieve much popularity despite the band’s best efforts. Triggerfinger however, made a comeback on November 12th 2010, with their album “All This Dancin’ Around” which was recorded in California. This fortunately put the band back on the map achieving an adequate amount of success. The following year, they embarked on a tour with the band Within Temptation. The band’s success started to grow, when on December 8th 2012, they won four Belgian Music Industry Awards for hit of the year, best group, best alternative music and best live-act. They supported the infamous Rolling Stones on July 6th 2013, in the Summer time Festival in Hyde Park, London.
On April 18th 2014, the band released their fourth studio album “By Absence of the Sun”, leading with the single “Perfect Match”
Die Toten Hosen (translation to The Dead Pants) have been around and going strong for over 30 years now, and a lot of aspiring punk acts could learn a lot from the band. It’s crazy to think that the Germans met in a bar in Dusseldorf, and have come this far. Although they’ve seen a couple of alterations in the line up over the years, the band are still as strong as ever, and are creating music to the same standard that they were 30 years ago, if not better!
The band have released a staggering 15 albums, so going to see them live in concert, I really didn’t know how they were going to select their set list. It turned out that rather than focusing on a particular time period, they gave a fantastic performance of a selection of tracks from over the years. They opened with Bayern (Bavaria in English), and those guitar chords immediately had everyone completely invested in their performance. It’s great to hear musicians who are skilled at their instrument as well as the vocals, and you really get that from these guys.
They played songs from all across their back catalogue, and even had a couple of unreleased tracks for us, which was insanely exciting, and made everyone feel really privileged to be there. They’ve not lost their touch over the years at all, and they should really keep on performing, they’re still so talented.
yazhow
The first thing that I noticed being in the crowd at Pinkpop for Triggerfinger was the mustache of the singer. He had a great stache and had a great voice that matched that as he began to play the music. I was headbanging as the band began to play.
The lights were dark at first but as the singer came to the stage the lights lit up and all of the people around me in the crowd held up their hands and screamed. There was a big red wall that was behind the band and the black lights kept pulsing. Every time the drummer would make a cool beat on his drums the lights would flash on him.
The sound of the singers voice was very good and sounded just as good as it does on the album. As the band continued to play I was jumping up and down and waving my hands. Everyone around me was dancing like crazy and pushing around as the band continued to play their set.
The lights were flashing and going crazy as the band ended each song and at the end of the song the singer would even switch instruments. When he did this I was amazed that there are so many different instruments at hand. I felt great that I was able to see the band live.
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