Live report KADAVAR, GRAVEYARD & POLYMOON, Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg – April 19th, 2023

Spring is in the air in Hamburg. On a sunny Wednesday, as the first blossoms slowly dare to see the light, a colorful music package is in the Hanseatic city. German rock hopefuls Kadavar are in town. With them on tour through Europe are Graveyard and Polymoon, who have to be the first on stage tonight.

The doors of the Grossen Freiheit 36 open at 18:30 and there is a manageable crowd of fans waiting. This at least makes the entry easier. In the room of the Grossen Freiheit 36 it is still relatively empty, as the show is announced to start at 19:30. The more surprising it is when the lights go out at 19:00 and Polymoon enter the stage. The Finns from Tampere do their best to inspire the audience, which is in part successful. The songs on the setlist are all from the last album ‘Chrysalis’, so is the opener tonight – ‘Wave Back to Confusion’. With their very psychedelic driven style Polymoon fit well into the package and the one or the other person in the front row enjoys the music, but most of the people are here for Graveyard and especially Kadavar. However, there is not really much atmosphere, which is not changed by the a bit unemotional question of frontman Kalle-Erik Kosonen “Are you excited?”. Maybe it’s because it’s the first show on the tour and everybody has to warm up first. Anyway, when Polymoon ends their set with ‘A Day in the Air’, the curiosity for Graveyard increases.

The changeover break is kept relatively short and Graveyard have with the crashing ‘Lost in Confusion’ a very forceful start into their set. In addition, it is immediately clear that the band covers their entire timeline as the opener comes from the 2007 debut album. Then, with ‘Bird of Paradise’, a newer song from the ‘Peace’ album is brought to the fore, sung by Truls Mörck and carried by a very enthusiastic audience. It seems as if many had been waiting longingly for the band, as it was in 2018 when Graveyard performed in Hamburg the last time. The four Swedes manage to get the fans headbanging and dancing with their hard rocking songs. While one or the other wildly shakes his head and hair, there are a lot of them who enjoy the grooving rock sound and having a good time. Frontman Joakim Nilsson shows his expertise of German language with a few very short announcements, which is very well received. However, it is the music that speaks and so the 65 minutes fly by.

In the meantime, the room of the legendary venue has also filled up well. When the lights in the hall go out and ‘All You Need is Love’ by The Beatles bursts out of the speakers, it’s showtime. Kadavar had already warmed up at two shows, one in Leipzig and one in Bremen. Nevertheless, tonight is the tour start of this package and it doesn’t go smoothly for Kadavar at the beginning. Simon Bouteloup’s amplifier or speaker seems to cause problems and it takes a moment until the band can really get into their set with ‘All Our Thoughts’. Of course Kadavar is a band that can bridge such a breakdown with improvisation without any problems and so this little cold start doesn’t harm the good mood. Rather, the eyes are on Christoph ‘Lupus’ Lindemann who fascinates the fans with his guitar playing. It is noticeable that tonight the ‘Berlin’ album from 2015 is particularly in focus, as it is represented with four songs. The fans present also seem to like this choice, because the mood in the hall rises noticeably. As with Graveyard, dancing and headbanging is on the agenda. In addition, one or the other stands there with open mouths, listening to the sounds that the band elicits from their instruments. Rather unusual are the two crowd surfing attempts, one of which seems rather clumsy, while the other is rather successful.

The fact that long instrumental parts are common should not surprise anyone, and in some moments you can recognize Pink Floyd-ish references, which leads one of the humorous fans next to me to chant “Shine On You Crazy Diamonds”.

Everybody in the audience celebrates their heroes and so they clap along to ‘Die Baby Die’ before the band leaves the stage. But of course this is not the end of the show. Loudly a return of the band on stage is demanded, a call that Kadavar gladly respond to. With ‘The Green Manalishi’ a special version of the Fleetwood Mac classic is on the list and slowly we are approaching the end of the show. If you look into the faces of fans everybody is happy, satisfied and impressed by what they have seen and especially by what they have heard. Kadavar belong to the spearhead of the German rock and tonight has shown again why this is the case.