Ottmar Liebert @ BB King's, NYC

Don’t ask me wether the show was good or not because this is a question that is beyond my capability to answer. Named after the opening track Ottmar plays I tend to regard this Holiday tour, very likely because it contains the very first shows I ever attended, as the “No more longing”-Tour. The feeding of this desire is so overwhelming that it’s hardly possible to get hold of other emotions with the mental means I have.

Since Adam has already ranted about the show (and here) I won’t cover the songs he wrote about, he’s done that perfectly. Speaking of Adam, of course this first concert meant far more to me than “only” going to see the show. It brought the meeting of different worlds in the lobby of Milford Plaza, written signs became spoken sounds, electrons became a vivid movement, and my English turned out not too bad at all to talk with Adam. Going by Metro, passing by Adam’s spare time working place, having lunch at Frida’s café, dropping my Dad at Rockefeller Center, desperately trying to oversee Starbucks were in short the things we did over the afternoon. At 5:30 p.m. we stumbled into BB King’s.

The story about the “blue ticket” I already told in my blog. Both Adam and I had no idea that we had been put on the guest list. Of course I hoped for exchanging a couple of words with Ottmar but all in all my mind was freed from illusions. This was a strange new world for me and everything happening would have a good chance of leaving an imprint in my memory. When waiting outside BB King’s I was turning my head wondering where the busses might be (they had to be parked in New Jersey), pleased how many people were queuing to see Ottmar (where had they been in the online world?), there was one guy waiting next to me coming from Florida who had just ordered Ottmar’s latest CD (La Semana, he meant) at amazon but not listened to it yet, Adam and me joking about the BB King’s guys not knowing who we were (how dare they!?! :)), Adam disappearing into and appearing out of the crowd every now and then on the search for Cari. It must have been close to LSD-like impressions: alive was what my imagination never expected to be, refusing to hold still, moments popping out of the night as chewing gum bubbles, a few overground breaths on a submarine ride.

The waiting in the cold didn’t matter, we were placed at a table right at the stage together with a nice couple from New Jersey anyway. So that was it, I thought, the infamous venue I had read many things about, that I saw in those brilliant pictures Kiyomi took last year. Broad as can be, I’d name it, sitting at the table listening to Adam chat with our neighbours (about his participation in the Westinghouse competition), watching people streaming in, observing the club’s stuff move inbetween. My feet were cold, what I finally had realized, but again it didn’t matter since I was busy enough trying to make my awareness understand that there was the stage, the Devoe, the Laklands, that a cute waitress named Krystle (Crystal?) had already asked for the third time if I’d like to order something receiving some basic information instead by Adam about his photo pass and all access badge.

Two concerts scheduled on one evening already had made clear that a whole set wasn’t to be expected. But what would they play? And what leave out? From what we knew from reading Ottmar’s blog, we speculated about some quieter tunes, hoping for an Opium track for sure. My guess was “Bombay”, “Yasmeen” and “La Luna” and with Thanksgiving having passed just the night before we wondered what “Winter Rose”-tracks would be played. I felt certain about “Bombay”, remembering that Ottmar had mentioned that song himself some months back and recorded it anew for iTunes earlier this year. “Yasmeen” would have been the suiting Opium-track in my opinion, already existing in a classically played version (confer “Leaning into the Night”).
That both guesses were wrong Adam and I could clearify inbetween the two shows when having grabbed a setlist to see what was cut. As a more experienced Ottmar Liebert-concert goer maybe I would have been disappointed in a way the schedule forced the guys to be short. But I didn’t care. Maybe the drug could have been sweeter, more seducing, but it still was the drug.

Ottmar was so nice to replace “Bells” with “UnderWorld/Le Café” during the second show, a thing I told myself he did for those being able to realize it: Adam and me. Thank you.

The BB King’s venue is not favoured by Ottmar for acustic reasons and I suppose as well because people are having dinner first and being served in the meantime which always causes a certain level of noise. Repeatedly loud voices were heard from the direction of the kitchen which is not very fitting for the reception of Ottmar Liebert music. The string quartet had a tough time hearing their own playing. They had pulled the in-ear monitors out of one ear to be able to listen to their own instrument. But the spectators didn’t seem to be bothered. Everybody had turned the eyes towards the stage and the applause the band received was enthousiastic. The later could be noticed especially at the beginning of the encore: two notes and the “yeah”s and clapping were hard to be calmed again.

The two songs that impressed me most performed live during this first of my two evenings with Ottmar Liebert were “La Luna” for the wonderful and amazingly played percussion by Dave Bryant (using brushes and a towel placed between tambourine and djembe) and “Bells” for its intense violin parts that Carla Ecker played and the combination of violin/guitar playing. The string quartet fits very nicely in this song.
Bells and La Luna reached a new depths for me live which was a nice surprise because both so far hadn’t ranked among my personal favs.

After the end of the second show, things had to happen quick. A third act had been scheduled later that night at the club so all were busy deconstructing the set up, among them the musicians themselves. Ottmar was so kind to kneel down at the front of the stage for a couple of minutes to chat a bit but we soon left because we were supposed to meet again the next day “in a much cozier place”. Upstairs we stumbled upon Cari, Ottmar’s assistant, which was another welcomed and warm get-to-know. So finally the signature on the costumns declaration on the packages from SSRI got a face as well as that uninterruptedly ordering guy from far away Bavaria.

Adam and I left, parted soonafter for some time, to take a nap, dreaming.