Die Antwoord @ Zitadelle, Berlin

Finally I got the chance to see the one of the most controversial bands from South-Africa; Die Antwoord. They were playing at Zitadelle at Spandau, Berlin 4.6.2016. The event was sold out already for a long time before and I was expecting that there will be lots of people, but not really that much what it actually was. According to Berlin Morgenpost there were aprox. 10.000 people at the gig!

Romano

Romano was the warming up act for Die Antwoord, He's a pretty well known German hiphop/rap artist. He is known from hits like "Köpenick" (it's a city district next to Berlin) and "Klaps auf den Po" (Claps on the ass). I like his style and sound, was just bit surprised when watching the music video of "Köpenick": it was shot in L.A. Compton. I was looking forward to see something cool from Köpenick itself, maybe next time then when he would write a song about "Königs Wusterhausen"! Romano mixes his rap with dance electronic sounds like in "Klaps auf den Po". Romano's music made everybody dance (even though I didn't still understand all the lyrics, but the beat and sound was good enough on its own). And as a non hiphop/rap person I was convinced and danced along, this guy has a good sound and attitude!

Romano - "Köpenick"

Romano - "Klaps auf den Po"

Check also the "Metalkutte" from Romano! More videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7La9K4wQtzU2q7gQ57X3cQ
And the official homepage: http://www.romanomusik.de/

After Romano had played it started to rain quite a lot, and there was still waiting before Die Antwoord would go on stage. DJ Craft (K.I.Z) was playing still in between, but it was pretty boring to be honest (mixing just some big hits until the point the public was getting tired with it and wanted to see Die Antwoord).

Finally after some hours (about two including the both warming up acts) Die Antwoord came on stage! They had literally an insane show and the public was with them. I was pretty much forced to go bit back in the crowd because everyone, meaning this huge sea of about 8.000-10.000 people, was starting to jump and push around "crowd moshing or mosh pit". But as a bit smaller person this was seriously not fun, being stuck and trying to keep other people on jumping on me I kinda lost the first parts of the gig totally trying to just concentrate on not getting mad and punching other people.

Maybe I should have read this one before, How to mosh in a mosh pit: http://www.wikihow.com/Mosh-in-a-Mosh-Pit

Die Antwoord had just released a new album "Donker mag" a day before the gig (3.6.2016) but they played maybe like 2/3 new songs. It was great the hear all the huge hits like "I fink u freaky", "Enter the Ninja" etc. The stage show was good and hyper energetic as you could expect from Die Antwoord. Great backup dancers and lots of Die Antwoord clothing (crazy sweaters, neon colours and red). Saw also one dedicated fan who was looking exactly like Yolandi Vi$$er, props for her!

I've now listened couple times the new album "Donker Mag" through and sort of liked the sound, but the "angst" is just still too much in the album, can't help it. My favorites were "Ugly boy", "Cookie thumper", "Donker mag" (with beautiful organs) and "Girl I want 2 eat U" which had bit the sounds from reggaeton (at least remotely).

But I have to admit I've developed now sort of a like/dislike relationship with this band since the first time I heard about them. I do get that they want to give this "crazy wacky" image. It's anyhow quite hard to become a huge name/artist from the South-Africa and so quickly. In that they have succeeded. I'm anyhow still bit disgusted/disliking/"done" with some of their music videos, like the "Pitbull terrier". I have just seen too often this super angst what they have in their videos and all the violence, and I'm not now talking about just someone shooting someone or so, but about Ninja dressed in rubber "pitbull terrier" mask eating other people's necks while the blood is bursting all out. (wrong for all the nice pitbull terriers out there!) Here you can see for yourself if you want!

Die Antwoord - "Pitbull terrier"

And here you have real pitbull terriers:

The "Ugly boy" is bit less in a good way but again the blood is flying...

Die Antwoord - "Ugly boy"

After a while you just kinda get tired of it... I still like the music from them but I hope they would just some time soon(!!) take the next step from this "hate/violence/angst/666" stuff...I started to feel that the band is solely based on this "shock effect"and that would be sad...very sad.

I was anyhow happy that I went to see the band live but would NOT recommed Zitadelle for such big events, was just too many people in too small space.

Here you can listen trough the new album "Donker mag":