Until the day of the concert, December 16, 2022, it was unclear whether Casper’s show in the Max-Schmeling-Halle Berlin would take place at all or, like the performance the previous evening in Hanover, would be canceled. Around noon, the musician then spread the good news via Instagram: “Despite the illness, the performance will take place.” Yes!
That evening, the metal gates of the event hall opened for more than 10,000 fans. The letters “T”, “U” and “A” mounted on the stage provided immediate information about the support act. So tua. Since the former member of the Orsons on ALL WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING TAT WEH (2022) provided one of the six features with “TNT”, the anticipation not only for Tua’s set, but also for the joint song was great. Back in February, Casper celebrated his release concert for ALL WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING TAT WEH, the follow-up work to LONG LIVE THE DEATH (2017), including a live stream, thereby raising the bar for all subsequent shows. Spoiler: His Berlin concert in December should also be a feast for the eyes and ears.
Tua = king of melancholy (paired with fat beats)
8:00 p.m.: Tua enters the stage and within ten seconds the entire hall is raging. The first woman in the audience lights a fag, another person climbs onto the shoulders of another (and is immediately asked by security not to do so). You would probably have expected everything, but not that the rapper would be on stage solo, equipped only with a drum machine and a “Nord” piano. Fat, dark synthesizers sound, making the room tremble and the musician begins his show with “Melancholie”. Later that evening, red roses would rain down from the audience, not only for Casper, but also for Tua. The full setlist is below.
Casper on the “most beautiful choir in the world”
After Tua’s eight-track set, the curtain closes like the prologue to a play. The lights go on, Harry Styles’ “As It Was” plays, followed by Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” and the audience just keeps partying. The second part of the play begins around 9:00 p.m. The curtain goes up and flowers now cover the entire stage. An old tree, whose crown bears variegated leaves in autumn colors, stands center left. On the right, the band, consisting of two guitars, keyboard, drums, cello and bass, is positioned on a small stand.
Of course, “ALLS WAR SCHÖN UND NOTS TAT WEH” (2022), the first song on Casper’s album of the same name, also delivers the intro live. While the piece is still fading away, the microphone stand gives way to the hand microphone, which the musician grabs and raps the first words of “Im Ascheregen” (HINTERLAND, 2013). The crowd roars and for a moment it seems the hardest thing in the world to keep your notes and pen firmly in hand in the middle of the mosh pit. With “Everything ends (but never the music)” he smashes the second classic of his third studio work. No wonder he declares the audience towards the end of the track as “the most beautiful choir in the world”. There is rarely an audience so confident in the lyrics and willing to sing.
Humility and “Jin Jiyan Azadî” in the Max-Schmeling-Halle
The mood changes abruptly, as will happen more often this evening. The stage darkens and “MIESES LEBEN / WOLKEN” (2022) sounds appropriately, which comes along with the Haiyti feature on the record. “Adrenaline” (1982, 2018) and “Sirenen” (LONG LIVE DER DEATH, 2017), in which strobe lights and countless mosh pits dominate, usher in a (again) bizarre contrast. The party lasts through the two tracks and then again, in quick succession, a spot of light on the musician and silence. A huge projection of lightning flickers in the background, depicting THE LITTLE RAIN (THE FORGOTTEN PT 4) (2022). And as announced by the storm on the screen, it should be even quieter in the entire hall after a short breather. The reason for this is the writing “Jin Jiyan Azadî, ژن، ژیان، ئازادی, Women Life Freedom”. The light installation remains uncommented until the humble applause slowly dies down.
At that moment, unnoticed, Distress crept onto the stage to perform the song “Keine Angst” (2017) with his colleague and friend. Then it’s on to “Supernova” (2018), “Jambalaya” (2013) and “Lilablau” feat. Tribulation (XOXO, 2011) on. Then Casper, whose real name is Benjamin Griffey, says that to this day he still can’t believe that a whole hall full of people would want to hear his “crazy, sad songs”. “There’s a thousand things you could all have done tonight, but you’re here and it means the world to me.” Next is “20qm,” which he performs with accompaniment on acoustic guitar. And since immense contrasts seem to be THE stylistic device of his show, Tua’s return to the stage dissolves the intimate acoustic duo and “TNT” (2022) begins.
It starts a fat party that has washed up. Then a drumbeat and the next words on the screen. Tua goes, Casper too. All that remains is the band and white words on a black canvas addressing depression and the impact of the pandemic on the disease. At the end, contact points for people seeking help are named under the sentence “You are not alone”. To applause, Casper returns to the limelight and, without comment, begins the following number LET IT RAIN ROSES ON ME (2022). The fans are happy to be asked to do this and catapult red roses in front of the musician’s feet within seconds. This is followed by “Blood Seeing (The Forgotten Pt. 2)” (2013) with more than 20,000 shaking hands, “Up and Away” (2013) and “Pretty Okay” (2013).
never again war
Rising in red lettering is “War can never be the answer,” a quote from the late Black musician and activist Fela Kuti, which lives on screen throughout the entirety of the following song, “BILLIE JO.” A number in which the rapper raps about a soldier’s post-traumatic stress disorder and the resulting murder of his children, his wife and then himself. The fact that Billie Jo is the name of Casper’s cousin, whose husband broke up after a traumatic assignment as an army pilot, makes the song even more real than it already is. In 2016, the tragedy happened in the family of the musician, who himself grew up in America until he was eleven. The grueling reality portrait leads to stillness where every movement seems inappropriate. Not a word is spoken, but the entire audience shares this moment.
The political statement ends with an animated peace dove flying off onto the screen and the words “Never Again War”, the title of this year’s Tocotronic album. With “WHERE WARST DU?”(2022), “SO PERFECT” (2011) and “HINTERLAND” (2013) follow the next three pieces, where it feels strangely absurd to celebrate while still thinking about the words on the screen reverberate The musicians and Casper leave the stage after “Hinterland”, but the singing “ooohs” of the audience don’t stop. The audience’s undeterred lure is rewarded when the band returns.
The main part is over, the epilogue of the play follows. It starts with “Long Live Death” (2017). With “GIVE ME DANGER” (2022), the audience is then asked to go all out one last time that evening. A moshpit is formed that takes up the entire interior of the Max-Schmeling-Halle and leaves the audience crammed together at the edge of the interior. At the rapper’s command, people rush towards each other, ready to live up to the song’s title as a throbbing mass. “Berlin was beautiful and nothing hurt,” it is written on the screen afterwards. The musicians come to the edge of the stage, bow, the curtain goes down. The music starts playing from the speakers and The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” (hah!) starts to play, and the crowd disperses. It was an evening in which monologues were communicated without many spoken words and innumerable feelings were left behind.
Casper live in Berlin – the setlists from December 16th
Tua:
- melancholy
- Sayonara
- suburban
- system
- Fire & Oil (The Orsons)
- MDMA
- dana
- Who am I fooling?
casper:
- EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT
- In the Rain of Ash (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- Everything Ends (But The Music Never) (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- LITTLE LIFE / CLOUDS (EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- Intro + Adrenaline (1982, 2018)
- Sirens (LONG LIVE DEATH, 2017)
- THE LITTLE RAIN (THE FORGOTTEN PT 4) (EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- Intro EUPHORIA ((EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022) + Dangsal feat. Distress (LONG LIVE DEATH, 2017)
- Supernova (1982, 2018)
- Jambalaya (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- lilac blue feat. Tribulation (XOXO, 2011)
- 20sqm (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- TNT feat. Tua (ALL WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- LET IT RAIN ROSES FOR ME (ALL WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- Seeing Blood (The Forgotten Pt. 2) (XOXO, 2013)
- Up and Away (XOXO, 2013)
- Pretty Okay (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- BILLIE JO (EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? (ALL WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)
- So Perfect (XOXO, 2011)
- Hinterland (HINTERLAND, 2013)
- LONG LIVE DEATH (LONG LIVE DEATH, 2017)
- GIVE ME DANGER (EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, 2022)