Von Susi Ondrušová
The successful German emo rapper Casper is with his 6-piece band on a small warm-up tour through locations that are actually much too small. A great gift for the fans and a good warm-up exercise for everything that is to come in 2022. Namely the big indoor tour in winter and the festival summer!
The Simm City is one of the most underestimated venues in Vienna. The “Festsaal Zentrum Simmering”, as Simm City is called, is on the first floor of a shopping center built in the 1980s. Yes, shopping mall. A trigger word for some, similar to a multi-purpose hall.
Is it frugality caused by the 2-year Corona concert break that makes the heart beat faster for this place? There is nothing to complain regarding. What do you need, what do you want? One stage, one facility. Ideally, a wide stage with a square stage area where people can place themselves between the first row, near the bar in the middle or the last row on the escape route.
With a capacity of 800 people, Simm City is actually far too small for chart-topper Casper, who released his long-awaited fifth album in February and this year will be performing at the Scene Open Air festival this year and at the Gasometer in Vienna on December 6th, for example will.
Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is Casper’s adult album. While on the way to the concert Shuffle-Sei-Thanks one is reminded that a band like the Antilopen Gang rapped in their early 30s regarding standing in the club “like a very confused man in their early 40s” and “to the greatest disgrace of the To become a dance floor” has always been a bit more serious, more thoughtful, more reflective for Casper. Showing your “own vulnerability” and not throwing a gag at the end, but a loud “DAS AM ME”, that is the formula for success with which Casper already convinced on his debut album XOXO in 2011 and is still convincing. You might see that in the chart positions of his albums.
However, the actual success currency is the “Sold out! No box office!” Sign and the density of fan uniforms. The concert audience wears Casper shirts from all album eras. From the early days, the faded FM4 Frequency shirts, where Casper was a frequent guest, to the shirt collection for the current album. About his current album meant Casper im FM4 Interview: “This is the first record where I can accept myself and my work with all its imperfections, flaws and idiosyncrasies and I no longer concentrate on hiding my weaknesses, but trust in my strengths.”
Casper Live
- On August 5th Casper will play at the Scene open air Lustenau.
- On December 6th Casper will play in the Gasometer Vienna
It’s like Christmas and a birthday rolled into one, a special holiday to attend a concert on a Tuesday that was not only announced long in advance, but also sold out very quickly. Those who are here are not here by chance because they know “that one song” from the radio. Anyone who plays a club tour in locations that are actually much too small does it for the fans and for the band. After a two-year break from live concerts, an understandable move to gently move back into the vicinity of the fan army. Casper may have less room for dance moves, but a more manageable audience that is much closer to him than it will be at the big concerts.
The narrowness of the stage inevitably puts the focus more on the live band: the rapper shares his workplace with six musicians (“IS THAT A CELLO??!!”) and plays his best that evening of program. A contagious firework of euphoria that the band effortlessly ignites here. Casper only has to raise his arm once and the crowd continues to sing the song’s lines, continuously. The only exception might be the quieter songs like “Fabian”. As a substitute for singing along, there is the classic ballad exercise of waving your hands from right to left.
A concert classic are also the collective “ooohheeehhoooh” calls (here from the hinterland) with which the visitors lure the band back onto the stage for the encores. With “Jambalaya” the last word has been said namely “Cheers, it’ll never be the same” (closely followed by the “ooohheeehhoooh” shouts) but above all this prophetic simple album title and the title track with which Casper and his fans the year 2022: Everything was nice! And nothing hurt!