Seems like Oberhausen develops to a place to be, at least for me and my musical addictions *laughs*. For the fifth time I’m up to no good in this area, for the second time at • Zentrum Altenberg • Exactly one month ago I saw here Crippled Black Phoenix playing all alone a 2.5 hrs show, just in the bigger part of this location.

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“A protagonist on his journey of self-discovery, in a Nietzsche way of thinking, peppered with his kind of allegories. Beyond Man And Time is philosophy set to music…“ That is an excerpt of my enthusiastic words about the current masterpiece of German Art rockers :: RPWL :: And of course I wanted to join the passage into my inner I live and for real.

Shortly after 8 pm lights went out and the intro Transformed set in. As it got clear quickly RPWL would play all alone a 2.5 hrs show. During the first part of the show the band’s new record Beyond Man And Time got presented as a whole. The second part consisted of RPWL classics.
Yes, I was expecting a good show yet holding off my fire since I never saw them live before. But yeah, I was fairly curious. I got not disappointed. Not at all! Much more I got thrilled and captivated. What a stunning show! Live sound was much gruffer and heavier and suited the band and their Rock attitude well. Me too; could not stand still any second. In retrospect I even would have loved to find this kind of powerful sound on CD.

All songs of Beyond Man And Time got played in the same order as there is a conceptual red thread going through the entire album. It was singer Yogi Lang who made it, giving every aspect of the journey a visual match. To every song he was masqueraded differently, reflecting on all these twists and turns such (musical) self-discovery may reveal. He was the alien thrown into common life in Tranformed, the blind and seeking one in We Are What We Are, the lunatic scientist in Beyond Man And Time, and Quasimodo in The Ugliest Man In The World. Yogi Lang acted the masked man, the fisher, the priest and the saint blessing his community. All sceneries matched with the lights, optionally accompanied with visuals on a big screen and seeing guitarist Kalle Wallner and four-stringer Werner Taus acting as shadow players behind white banners. On a higher platform one side the fingers of key wiz Markus Jehle sped over keys and synths, on the other side skin man Marc Turiaux set the pace. In between also Yogi Lang took over a portable moog at The Ugliest Man In The World. It was truly amazing. To wrap the first part into words completely you have to do a track by track breakdown. There have been so many details, little things happening around, well-balanced and harmonious.
The chapter was closed with The Noon seeing Yogi Lang in normal street wear and doing his first announcements. After 1 hr 20 the band left the stage under vehement applause.

Setlist Part 1: Transformed, We Are What We Are, Beyond Man And Time, Unchain The Earth, The Ugliest Man In The World, The Road Of Creation, Somewhere In Between, The Shadow, The Wise In The Desert, The Fisherman, The Noon

And came back 10 minutes later. It was just a little break. The second chapter got opened with Start The Fire from the band’s fourth record World Through My Eyes. Classics from the entire history followed, which were much better received. Suddenly there were high spirits to sense out, fans sang along and released the band from stage with thunderous applause and called them back likewise vehemently for encores. There was only one granted, a very old and very long and epic song from 1969, a cover version of Pink Floyd’s Embryo, with long parts perfectly made for improvisation and jam-session feeling the band used extensive. Again RPWL said goodbye, this time for good. Did I already mention that it was a fantastic show? No? Oh, okay, it was ;)

Setlist Part 2: Start The Fire, Trying To Kiss The Sun, Breathe In - Breathe Out, Roses, Hole In The Sky // Embryo

story & pics © Dajana