New Years Eve, Keytars and Hasselhoffs

Ok so New Years was well over a week ago, and I have been meaning to get this out since I got home on New years day, but that didn't happen. So New years in Berlin is really sweet. Apparently it is one of the biggest new years parties in the world. The main event takes place on a 1.9 Km strip of road starting at the Brandenburger Tor.  With an estimated 1 million in attendance. It was really awesome.

One thing I noticed is that they like their fireworks.  When I got to Brandenburger Tor it was pretty early (about 6pm) and things were already rowdy and fireworks were on the go... and they didn't stop. The fireworks went on constantly the entire time. and you could see them all over the city. 

"and boom goes the dynamite"

They had all kinds of stuff, including 3 stages other then the main stage, make-shift dance clubs,  rides, and somewhere to buy Gluhwein every two steps. Fantastic. I decided to take a walk around the ground and get a lay of the land. While walking around I saw that one of the stands was selling Grog... Now I have never had Grog before, but how can you refuse Grog... well I'll tell you. Grog is disgusting. I just figured it would be all old timey and each sip would make me feel more and more like a I was walking around in 1320ad. Unfortunately all that it made me think of was a hot mixture of water, bad beer and rancid rum. So yeah, I do not recommend it.

OOOh Ferris Wheel.

Make shift dance club

The Main Stage... pus some dumpsters

So after walking around a bit and getting some Gluhwein to remove the taste of Grog out of my mouth I thought that I would hit the stage. I got surprisingly close. considering I didn't try until about 9:30.  So below we see the MC's of the evening. Kind of like the Dick Clarks of Germany Wilhelm and... his female counterpart. I only know Wilhelms name because a big group of drunks guys kept on yelling his name trying to get his attention. Wilhelm was all business though.

MC's of the night

The first muscial act that I was around for was Loona. She's a german popstar of sorts, but she did not keep my attention as much as her KEYTAR PLAYER!! Yeah thats right, the mighty keytar is still living strong in Berlin. One of the most hilarious things were the back up dancers. They seemed more like they had practiced for a talent show at an office team building retreat and not for... a giant concert.

He knows what's up. Keytars

Next up was this guy... I have no idea what his name is (and I think he would e super surprised by that). The entire performance was filled with mid 90's latin pop-sensation cheese. He was super into himself, from the performance I am pretty sure he ends each day by staring at himself in the mirror and flexing all the while softly whispering to himself "you're the best, you're the best", or at least thats what I imagine... usually with some confused person in the room.

"You're the best, You're the best"

So yeah like I said this guy was classic solo artist. He did a couple of soulful songs reaching out to the crowd and showing off his moves, then he slowed it down to show that he is a deep musician by sitting down at his keyboard (not cool enough for a keytar) and busted out some R&B while a woman danced and grinded on him.... Classsy sir, just too classy. 

" She's wearing a top, so that means we're all style"

Next on our list of "bands that might be famous somewhere, maybe" is the Hermes House Band. These people were just flat out ridiculous bordering on embarrassing, but fun. They played only covers, and had a huge ensemble (curiously missing a keytarist) and sang a lot of disco. Around the time they came on I was thinking to myself "Gee, I sure hope there is a disco version of que Sera" and moments later my wish was granted.

Featured above is the Hermes House Band... WOOOOO. They were fun, but overwhelmingly lame.  I'm pretty sure when they make song decisions it goes like this

Musician 1: "Hey you know that song from the 70's"

Musician 2: " Yeah we should add that one to the set"

And that is how they sound. Not trying to put them down (well maybe a little), they were really fun, got the crowd going (if not laughing). Plus they all dressed super cool.

Nothing's cooler then dressing like Nardwuar 

This gut was so cool that his jacket later erupted into silver... or he changed it. 

"Hey guys check this out, it's sergent peppers-chic"... No it is not

The above three are just the singers, although they brought out teh rest of the band for a big.. poorly choreographed dance. It was just walking back and forth with a back bend... SUPER COOL!

Overall these guys were good, they weren't trying to be too serious about it, just having fun and being entertaining. They are kind of like if the Mellotones played bad music... If you know who the mellotones are. I mean they don't have a keytar, but I can live with that... sometimes. 

So after their big dance with many a turtleneck laden brass player, the band sent their personal mountie out to get us. By which I mean video tape and wave at us. Constable Benton Fraser would not be pleased with this type of mountie conduct... He doesn't even have a dog with him.

Where's your pride man!

Up next was just the most awesome thing ever, Middle aged guys who are convinced that it is still the eighties... I mean they were just fantastic. Don't believe me? Just check the guy in the picture below.

EPIC!

So yeah, he is pretty much the greatest man ever. I assume the headband is a style choice only and not being worn to conceal anything on the top of his head... It has a Brett Michaels quality to it... wait.

So if a flowing trench coat and gold pants do not convince you of how awesome this band is then first of all you have no soul (sorry about that) and check out below to have your mind rocked.

KEYTARS!!!!

That's right, after a two band lull in keytars they are back baby. I'll  give props to the first keytarist of the night, he new what was up, but this guy is just loving the keytar (and with good reason). Once again I am being lazy and just want to get this posted so I do not have much more to say about these just. Although the guitarist and bassist where matching cloths/ hair is also pretty sweet.

Keytar vs Guiter... such a one sided battle 

Everyone knows that to rock hard you must have a guy committed to the bubbles

Oh so after a few songs the band left and then six random men pulled a giant bag onto the stage. The reason being, so they can hurl snacks into the crowd. I guess the coordinators of this event all thought it was necessary to have a mid concert snack time. I must say that I agree. The only problem is that there were too many snacks. I was dodging them after I already filled a bag full of them. The Kiwi family in front of me had a big back pack with them and filled it to the brim. It seemed pretty wasteful, but people were scouring ground for a good 20 minutes after the fact trying to find more.

Snack!!

I know you already got to see some keytar, but this guy was just gold. so here's more of him.

"And my Dad said I would never get anywhere"

So continuing on with both the 80's and odd segues. The next performance took a while to set up. They had a good 10 violinists, 6 cellists, a bunch of flutists, and some other people I couldn't see because they lowered the light on the back stage a lot (also the reason why I don't have pictures of all of these people). 

SO, this is Adoro, and from my understanding they are kind of like Il Divo. So they busted on stage and sang an operatic version of.... Take on me? What? So yeah, it was weird, but they nailed it. But as soon as the song ended they all just looked at the crowd for a second the one said "Bis Spater" and they all promptly left with their large ensemble. ummmm ok. I'm not sure if they had more but the program was running long or something but yeah, see you guys later. 

"hey guys, I have a great idea for a joke"

Then we have Velile, she sang some African/club music and it was good. I really don't have anything of interest to say. Although here 2 background dancers were (as was the trend for dancing that night) terrible. At one point her drummer took a break from the drums to show off his capoiera skills.. and that was kind of cool and misplaced. If you like african/club music I say check her out. She also wasn't out there very long. it seemed like the Hermes house band was there forever but everyone else was being treated like it was a middle school talent show. Five minutes then get off the stage so everyone can have a turn.

After Velile was a band I got excited for and I didn't know would be there. It's the drapers /w Yolanda be cool. It was pretty sweet. They were decked out in pretty nifty costumes and the bassist had a sweet bass.  They obviously did up a version of "we no speak americano" albeit less techno-y then the version we are all used to. They also did a up some yakkity yak. All round my only complaint is the lack of keytars. I mean this was the third group in a row without one so I was pretty worried. 

That bass is just sweet

The next group once again disappointed in the area of keytar. It was the ensemble from "We Will Rock You" a musical using the music of Queen.

Trying to look cool enough not to warrant a keytar. It is not working.

These guys were fun and it really made me want to see this show. The costumes were all great and late 70's/ early 80's stereotype-y.  There is even a part where they all go into unison head banging.. Awesome.

Then there were 4 overweight middle aged women singing. They were alright. Once again they received the talent show treatment and were swiftly taken off of the stage. 

Then we have these guys.. and oh my god were they were... well i don' even know. In this band (Leslie Mandooki and the Soulmates) you have Bobby Kimball fromToto, Chris Thompson fromManfred Mann, Jimi Jamison from Survivor, John Helliwell from Supertramp. It's like they got a kid from the 1981 graduating class of "Anywhere High School" to toss together 4 musicians that he likes.  I really reccommend that if the pictures resolution is good enough to zoom in on the drummer and keybordist (no keytar, nice one Bobby Kimball) the mustaches on these men are heartwarming. 
Basically they just play songs from each of there bands hay-days. I was pretty pumped when "hold the line" was busted out. 

Why do we exist?

Then we have Paul Potts. Who's Paul Potts you ask (because I know that is what I was asking. He's the winner of x-factor, or something like it. He sings opera. The two MCs were interviewing him before he sang and they nearly missed the countdown for midnight. They caught it when it was at 6.

Paul Potts singing in the new year

So the fireworks picked up for a bit (and then went back to their ambient amount)  and they decided it was a good time to bust out the lasers (as anytime is).

Aaaaaaww Yeah. Lasers and fireworks.

Then came one of the greatest things ever. Paul left the stage and directly after the Hoff came onto the stage. Singin about freedom and everything.  I am just going to let you enjoy these photos of him, because honestly I have no words to explain the awesomocity of this experience.

David is overjoyed with this moment.. until

He remembers he left the iron on!!

The Hoff hitting on the ladies

So almost nothing can follow Hasselhoff, right. Well only one thing will not look like complete crap after him and that is....

Keytar!!! Well ok this is just Loona again, but the Keytarist really kicked it up a notch for their second performance. 

So now that it was the new year and all was well I decided to go back to wandering. Surprisingly despite my usual social awkwardness I am really good a approaching random people when I am alone at events like this. I just think "hey if something goes wrong I can just leave and never see them again" so there is no pressure. It was pretty fun. I actually ran into a guy from Montreal and talked for a bit. Once again when I meet a Canadian here we fell on the same subject: politics. I do not know why but every time I meet a new Canadian here the conversation very quickly becomes politics, but also a la Canada it is always a civil and polite talk. While talking to him I also got to meet a group from Ireland and had a couple of drinks with them. 

It was around 3 at this point and I thought it was about time to go home (though the party was still in full swing). So I bought a bottle of Sekt for the trip home and headed off. Of course when I saw some people looking for help with the rail system my Canadian instincts kicked in. It was a couple from Italy (Sara and Marco) and they had just gotten to the city the day prior so they did not know the transit well. I was able to direct them to where they needed to go, but only after we had some sekt together and talked for a while. I am actually friends with them now and went out to see them the next weekend (while they were still in Berlin). They told me to visit them in Rome sometime. So yeah, I recommend helping people. The rest of the trip was on the S-Bahn and pretty uneventful. Talked with a few people also heading home. Shared more of my Sekt. It was good. 

So all in all I once again highly recommend checking out Berlin for at least one of your new years eves. It is fun, it's cheap, it's flat out awesome.