If you’re celebrating the band from Chemnitz, take a look and see if you already knew all of our facts.
Leipzig is shaking, Bernd Bass searches for hours for a bar and “In Schwarz” apologizes with one song for another. You have no idea what it’s about? Then you should definitely improve your strength club knowledge. We’ve unearthed ten facts about the band with the K that you probably didn’t know all of.
1. Earthquake escalation…twice
In both 2015 and 2017, the band literally caused earthquakes with the K at their concerts in Leipzig. With 8,000 fans at the first show and 12,000 fans at the second show, the walls of the city shook. In 2017, more than 50 residents called the fire department. Their answer? “Kraftklub is playing again today”.
2. Blonde versus power club
The band Blond has often been the opening act for Kraftklub. Just good taste in music. But also: Blond’s band members Lotta and Nina Kummer are the younger sisters of Kraftklubs Till and Felix Kummer. Music seems to be in the genes here.
3. Wasn’t there even “Your Song”?
In 2017, the group released the song “Dein Lied” with explicit lyrics, including sexist insults. Anyone who knows Kraftklub may know that the five like to test literary boundaries and write socially critical texts. However, “Your Song” received more and more criticism because of the word “whore,” which is why they deleted it from all platforms including the music video in 2021. For a long time there was no official statement from Kraftklub, until the current record KARGO. In “Time doesn’t care about you” they say:
“A ‘I didn’t mean it’ doesn’t make everything right
Not the argument, the destruction, the anger
Not the pain, the hate
Not the stress and suffering
Lyrics like ‘Your song’ and all the other bad lines”
4. The number one came as too much of a surprise
When Kraftklub landed their first number one hit with their debut album MIT K, the boys were completely unprepared for it. They found out about their latest success on the phone, hugged each other for a moment and then walked through Chemnitz for three hours looking for a bar that would open for them on Mondays.
5. Biggest hobby? Kidding!
As a promo for their second studio album IN SCHWARZ, Kraftklub founded a fake band for a short time – which was also called “In Schwarz” and played completely disguised in black clothing. This is exactly what got a song, “Hand in Hand”, and the corresponding music video. When they eventually broke it down and showed all “In Schwarz” fans who was really behind the track, there was a quick wave of “We knew that anyway” and “You were recognized”. But that also made the people of Chemnitz even more happy because they weren’t even in the costumes themselves and thus achieved exactly what they wanted: to fool everyone!
6. Felix aka Bernd Bass
The group’s singer, Felix Kummer, has left a number of projects behind him over the years. His very first: In 2008 he made his first attempt at the spotlight as Bernd Bass, together with Linus the professional. After the project didn’t really take off, he tried more aggressive party rap under the name Bass Boy. This also did not achieve the desired success, which was to be the foundation stone in 2010 with the founding of Kraftklub.
7th Federal Vision with K
Kraftklub competed for the state of Saxony in the Federal Vision Song Contest in 2011 and even made it to fifth place. They entered the race with the track “I don’t want to go to Berlin”. Unfortunately, their anti-capital attitude could not prevent Berlin from taking home the victory. More precisely, Tim Bendzko with “If words were my language”.
8. Your exchange concert in Cologne
“Okay, it will continue soon,” they say in the middle of their show at the Cologne Palladium in 2018. Suddenly Felix Kummer disappeared with his band. A few moments later, the Donots suddenly appear on stage. How could this happen? Kraftklub and the punk rock band made a joke. The two played in two venues right next to each other at the same time and swapped the stages and the audience without further ado.
9. Reeperbahn Takeover
It wasn’t that long ago when Kraftklub, Tokio Hotel and Casper closed the entire Hamburg Reeperbahn, set up a stage and promoted their current album KARGO. Even though they announced it just a few days beforehand on Instagram and only announced the location a few hours beforehand, the neighborhood was full and it was hard to see the end of the crowd.
10. Then Gisela!
Who or what is “Gisela”? If you’ve noticed that this name appears quite often in Kraftklub’s texts and haven’t quite figured out what it is, we have the answer: Vodka with lime juice. Just like the “Mexican”, “Gisela” is one of the band’s favorite shots from “Karl-Marx-Stadt”.