Stadium concert: The Fantastischen Vier inspire the fans in Cologne

Köln –

“You guys were so awesome, right from the first title!” The first title, “MfG – Yours sincerely”, is almost 90 minutes over and almost 30 remain until the end. The fans in the RheinEnergieStadion can definitely return the compliment.

Together with the Fantastischen Vier they partied in tropical temperatures and rapped through the decades. The “30 Years Live” tour by Michi, Thomas D, Smudo and And.Ypsilon is a best of, a cross section of hits and favorite tracks. What else?

Borderline sound does not cloud the mood

If the formation of three at the front, with Andreas Rieke alias And.Ypsilon as a man in the background, shows “What’s up”, then that’s “Too cool for this world” and “Now it’s off” has a prophetic character. Like “Die Ärzte” and “Die Toten Hosen” in the same place, the forefathers of German hip-hop can also claim a multi-generational audience. However, this time the Cologne stadium is not completely sold out, when it is full there is room for 40,000 people, an estimated three quarters of them on Saturday.

The Fanta4 live band provides plenty of treats. The sound itself sounds, again, borderline. Sounding stadiums correctly is a fine art. That can’t dampen the enthusiasm. Seen from above, the sea of ​​waving arms in the interior must appear like an animal with thousands of tentacles. Men in their mid-50s tear sweaty T-shirts from the growth rings that have become flesh, throw the sopping textiles in the air and catch them again or let them whirl above their heads like white windmill blades.

In “Dicker Pulli” two tattooed arms hold a piece of the eponymous knitwear towards the stage. “Because she’s gone, gone. And I’m alone again, alone. She’s gone, gone,” echoes the eternal but never yesterday’s hymn of the Forsaken, even if it’s over a quarter of a century old.

Trio is always on the move

“We’ll have to take a look at the set list, something else can come up,” laughs Michi Beck. And then, with “The Picnicer”, “Hitisn” and “Tag am Meer” comes a concentrated load of Fanta4 stories. The male trio in the front line never got tired. Almost constantly in motion, bobbing, hopping, springing, down the catwalk to the interior platform and back again.

With “Warrior” Thomas D’s moment is approaching. All spots are directed radially at the 53-year-old, rigid as a statue, he presents his bare back, the screens on the right and left and in the middle the scenery is immersed in bloody red. Almost -already-popularity of “Einfach sein” (although the text isn’t that simple) with the clip of a singing paprika-olive stuck on a prick, that’s a world of difference.

“It’s so cool here”

Again and again, the fantasies confirm their audience, whereby an adjective, which today has something antiquated about it, is used again and again in modifications: “It’s so cool here”, “Cologne – you geilis!” And maybe that also makes you feel good, like the fat horn sections, the bright colors of the screens or lines for which others would need a rap & rhyme tutorial, while the pioneers of German chanting quite easily pack King Kong and Qi Gong on Dingdong. Because there were times when your parents thought it was very horny when you said horny.

Afterwards, on the way to the tram across the meadow, the scent of suntanned grass and June-sweet linden and elderflower blossoms in the nose, the jukebox plays tunes like “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, “Give us the blame (you can do the rest you keep)” and “Reap what we sow”. It was nice. For almost two whole hours. That passed like nothing.

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