Without interruptions due to storms and with almost moderate temperatures, the musicians on the three stages once more had the sole say in St. Pölten on the second day of the Frequency Festival. On the Space Stage, the central playing area, there was a “triple A” finale with the British pop singer Anne-Marie and the two German acts AnnenMayKantereit (AMK) and Apache 207 and thus a stylistic mix of pop, German rock and -rap.
Shortly before 6:00 p.m., visitors with a sporty motivation were offered the opportunity to do a round of “Techno Yoga”. The rooms in front of the stages were already quite full at this time and the US rapper G-Eazy proved to be the first crowd puller on the main stage. On the Space Stage, however, the blanks had started three hours earlier. In addition to the 25-year-old Dutch YouTube popper, Dilla from Berlin followed as an opener on the Green Stage, while the indoor Red Bull Stage was put into operation by the Glueboys.
With the third act, the Nova Twins from London, the first highlight of the day might also be seen and heard: Amy Love, acting as guitarist and singer, electrified the audience together with bassist Georgia South, although the performance was initially exciting was once interrupted by feedback. However, this only affected the guitar and following a drummer supported the duo, South bridged the technical emergency measures with their booming string instrument. The Nova Twins then delivered rap and rock with a punk touch in a form that was described in the “Guardian” as a “mind-blowing blast of distorted noise-pop” and also ignited live.
With their second album “Supernova” the two energetic ladies are well on their way, having been nominated for the Mercury Prize and receiving good reviews from the music press. On the Frequency they delivered pure energy – maybe one of the two big stages would have been the right place for the Twins. The warm-up phase on the Space Stage was over anyway, and US rapper G-Eazy was responsible for that. In contrast to his two predecessors, the Californian was finally able to fill the space in front of the stage properly, but the main acts of the day were to follow in the form of a “triple A”.
The first of the final trio on Friday was British pop singer Anne-Marie, who caused a sensation with the negative version of Stevie Wonder’s world hit “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. The 31-year-old appeared in a good mood and following her “Psycho” she checked the audience that she might actually offer a text-safe vocal performance on “Rockabye” – a successful start to a performance from pop to grime, which was then followed by light rain, but that weather should hold.
Now it was the turn of the German rockers with the somewhat demure name AnnenMayKantereit (AMK) and the musical contribution of the Cologne band was received with even greater enthusiasm. One of the band’s trademarks is the singer Henning May’s rough voice, another is the somewhat simple lyrics, which tell of strawberry cake and homesickness – plus guitars and wind instruments, which were sometimes louder and sometimes quieter as accompaniment. Even with the debut album “Alles nix Konkretes” six years ago, “Zeit” asked itself whether the young people deserved “something like that”. Today in St. Pölten, they showed that they continue to appreciate lines of text where “wohn’n” rhymes with “balcony” and “get a roll”.
Finalist Apache 207 was physically the biggest act of the day and the two-meter tall German rapper with Turkish roots was able to set a streaming record in his home country two years ago with his track “Roller”. With a white undershirt and jeans, the man from Ludwigshafen then started today and rapped to fast beats, among other things, from a “Ferrari Testarossa”, but the song with the same title and the refrain “In a Ferrari Testarossa, Ferrari Testarossa” didn’t really catch fire.
At Frequency 2022, the Apache will probably remain the “intermediate solution” when it comes to German rap, its live presence seemed too weak and following RAF Camora on the first day, Young Hurn will also be there at the end on Saturday. The party had meanwhile moved back indoors and with London EDM performer Wilkinson it got off to an extremely veritable start.
