CELLAR DARLING, FOREVER STILL live in Düsseldorf (18-10-2019)
When CELLAR DARLING announced they were going on a tour with FOREVER STILL, I knew I had to attend one of the gigs. I’ve been talking and writing about both bands since 2016 and have already seen them live on separate occasions, but together they make an unmissable tour package!
On this tour, both bands are promoting their second full-length albums respectively. The Swiss trio, CELLAR DARLING is touring on the awesome concept album “The Spell”, which was released on March 22nd, 2019 and only a week later, FOREVER STILL’s “Breathe In Colours”, came out. And all of those songs sounded great live!
Newcomers OCEANS seemed very comfortable on stage.
After looking up OCEANS, since I hadn’t heard about them before, I was actually looking forward to seeing them open the concert. I was especially impressed by the four covers the Berlin/Vienna-based band has released on an EP earlier this year.
OCEANS’ short opening set was not free of the feared “technical difficulties” – in fact, the sound of The Tube in Düsseldorf doesn’t seem to be prepared for three highly professional bands – but even the newcomers made the best of it. The four musicians looked quite comfortable on stage and played mostly their own songs. It was a great start for the evening at an already full (small) venue.
FOREVER STILL rocked The Tube, even though the audience didn’t.
The Danish band around the founding duo Maja Shining and Mikkel Haastrup got their launch to fame, in 2016 when they were signed on to Nuclear Blast. Since then, they’ve toured with CHILDREN OF BODOM and LACUNA
Frontwoman Maja shines (pun intended!) by skilfully playing multiple instruments and interpreting her clean, as well as her distorted vocals beautifully. FOREVER STILL’s performance is strong and it surely lifted the spirits of the audience, but it was sadly not enough to get the crowd moving or interacting in any way – ugh, German audiences can suck sometimes.
CELLAR DARLING
My compliments to the night’s audience, however, for being loyal. There was more or less the same amount of people watching all three of the bands. Nobody left after seeing one of the acts perform, nor came late only to see the headliner. And what a headliner it was! The Swiss trio and their session bassist played for a good half hour without talking to the audience, in order not to ruin the atmosphere of the selected “The Spell”-songs that they played, telling the story that the concept album
After frontwoman Anna Murphy‘s greeting words, the band goes on to play five more songs from their debut album – including my CELLAR DARLING-favorite ‘Fire, Wind & Earth’! This is another case of a genius multi-instrumentalist musician making room on stage for her performance: Anna very professionally switches from the hurdy-gurdy to the flute and the keyboard while singing the gorgeous melodies of these great songs.
The stage is crowded all right and doesn’t have a connecting backstage, so after the whole every-band-member-plays-a-solo-while-they’re-introduced part, Anna charmingly announces, that CELLAR DARLING is just going to power through and play the encore, which ends with ‘Redemption’.
CELLAR DARLING live at The Tube Düsseldorf – setlist:
The best part about this less than ideal venue was its location – right in the center of Düsseldorf, I could quickly catch a train home, while CELLAR DARLING’s songs kept playing in my head. And that’s the thing about this concert: I only wish the Swiss band grows their fanbase quickly so that they can perform in better, fuller venues with better sound and make the show they can make as the great musicians they are. Their music and their fans deserve it.
Upcoming CELLAR DARLING Tour dates:
For more tour dates and information, please visit CELLAR DARLING’s website.
Are you going to see CELLAR DARLING live on this tour with FOREVER STILL? Where? Tell us in the comments!