Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
Live @ Fucina Controvento - Malcontenta (VE) 14.03.09

Everyone has a favorite music band, and in most cases, it's a name that is part of music history and inevitably tied to a more or less distant past. Many will never have the opportunity to attend a concert of their beloved band (I think today of fans of The Beatles or The Clash), while others (like fans of The Rolling Stones and U2) still have the good fortune to attend live performances of their idols if they are willing to be robbed of a two-digit sum. Then there are bands that are no longer active whose reunion would be theoretically possible because all members are alive and well, but in practice, they want nothing to do with getting back on stage together (see Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, etc.).

My favorite band, the Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft from Düsseldorf, better known as D.A.F., I considered them belonging to this last category after reading somewhere that for singer Gabi Delgado the chapter was closed and that the other half of the duo, Robert Görl, was even thinking of recruiting a new vocalist (heresy!). I thought the last concerts in 2003 in Holland and Germany were the last opportunities to see them, and instead..... almost by chance, I walk into a record store I hadn't set foot in for months and find the flyer for the legendary concert on March 14 at the Fucina Controvento venue in Malcontenta (VE): THE MUSICAL DREAM OF A LIFETIME MATERIALIZES AN HOUR'S DRIVE FROM HOME!!!!!

March 14, 2009, I burst into the venue (I'd never been there, it's nice), and armed with a video camera I study where I can set up to capture the event. While waiting, there's the support group: three guys on stage bent over their laptops proposing glitch electronics, not bad but I'm there for something else...

Then finally at midnight, they enter the stage one by one, both dressed in black, the "grandfathers of techno": first Robert, rather fit, with very short hair and a tight t-shirt, smiles and shakes hands with the front row audience before programming the synth and positioning himself behind his drum kit, then Gabi, receding hairline and graying hair, shirt, skinny as in youth but with a gaunt face, acclaimed, reveals a grin of satisfaction, almost complacent and surprised by the warm response of the audience (numerous, about 500 people) gathered for the occasion; a natural reaction for those who after years of inactivity unexpectedly find a significant response of success, probably even greater than when they were in full artistic activity. So it begins with a setlist that rightly draws largely from the masterpieces of 1981 “Alles Ist Gut” (almost entirely replayed) and “Gold Und Liebe” plus a couple of gems from “Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen” and three from the good 2003 reunion album “Fünfzehen Neue DAF Lieder”. Despite his 54 years, Görl is still a rock and hammers obsessively throughout the concert, the bionic charm of D.A.F.'s music as well as his compositional talent is also due to his inexorable, martial, almost metronomic but "human" percussive style; personally, I go crazy for his way of placing the crash cymbal sound in a track, in a way that seems random or out of time but is instead very effective.

Gabi, at least at the beginning, is perhaps a little static on stage (but I certainly couldn't expect him to hop around like a twenty-three-year-old as he appears in some old YouTube videos), but he still has charisma to spare, his singing style has become more emphatic, perhaps even more neurotic, and is accompanied by a theatrical gesture that at times makes him seem more like a crazy poet declaiming his verses than a real singer. Every now and then he takes a bottle of water and pours it over his head (and the audience) almost recreating the "humid" atmosphere of the “Alles Ist Gut” cover. The concert ends, short but intense, after an hour and a quarter and after the fathers of EBM have granted three encores loudly requested by the enthusiastic audience. With a bit of stubbornness, I even manage to sneak into the backstage and see my idols up close. Unfortunately, my English is becoming less fluent and the lack of clarity (as a good family man, I don't stay up late anymore) doesn't allow me to sustain a conversation worthy of the name (I can't find anything better to suggest to Görl than to make a new track and call it “Der Berlusconi”...) but in the end, I return home quite happy with the autographs and a photo with Robert.

It seems incredible, but sometimes dreams can come true with twenty euros.

1-“Verschwende Deine Jugend”

2-“Ich Und Die Wirklichkeit”

3-“Verlier Nicht Den Kopf”