The Dandy Warhols show at Festsaal Kreuzberg, Sunday January 27th, was a wild emotional roller coaster ride full of surprises.
For starters, the show was opened by one of the coolest up-and-coming French acts right now, Juniore, a 60’s-inspired “yeye noir” trio. They were fantastic as usual, mixing their quirky stage presence and evident complicity, with twistable tunes; though their very short set (about 25 mins) was slightly confusing. This coupled with the odd choice of full lighting in the room for some of their numbers and die-hard Dandies fans passing up this experience made them feel like somewhat of an afterthought on the part of the venue (I know they’re openers, but common.)
After a long pause (though both acts were extremely punctual), the Dandy Warhols came on stage and dove right into a song off their brand new album (Jan 25th) Why You So Crazy, followed by STYGGO, the eponymous song from their 2016 album, and “We Used To Be Friends”. This was a good taste of the pleasantly erratic set list that was to come.
this exact night was the 25th anniversary of the very first show they ever played as a band
It was also about this point that frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor addressed the hyperactive crowd for the first time to casually mention that this exact night was the 25th anniversary of the very first show they ever played as a band. (If you go on the DW Facebook page, you can actually see the poster as well as a mixtape they listened to during their first tour.) Apparently that night, back in 1994, guitarist Peter Holmstrรถm was so nervous he plugged his pedals in backwards. The “25” balloons on the side of the stage started to make sense.
The progression was quite strange and a little manic-depressive, but it certainly kept me on my toes
Over the next hour and forty-five minutes approximately (!!!) the Dandy Warhols played a whopping 21 songs, definitely the longest set I’ve seen in a while, alternating between all of their albums, playing all of their hits, pulling from a catalogue that certainly includes many of both. In this sense, it truly felt like an anniversary show and tour.
They went from a rather upbeat start with fun, danceable classics like “Get Off” and “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth”, to a surprising country segue with songs from their new albums, to dreamy, moody and instrumental, and back to rally-tunes. The progression was quite strange and a little manic-depressive, but it certainly kept me on my toes.
every song they played from a different point in their career evoked a different memory from my life and time growing up
Perhaps it was this strange mix of emotions that made me suddenly realize that the Dandies’ 25 year career spanned over the course of almost my entire life, certainly my entire music-conscious life and that every song they played from a different point in their career evoked a different memory from my life and time growing up. This certainly was a first for me and made the moment feel quite special.
Towards the end of their set, the Dandy Warhols launched into a string of crowd pleasers such as “Bohemian Like You”, balloons dropped from the ceiling and the audience went wild. They played as energetically and enthusiastically, stage jumps and all, as a band on their very first tour.
If you couldn’t make the sold-out show, be sure to catch Peter Holmstrรถm’s other band Pete International Airport on February 15th!
