Tokio mania
Germany’s latest phenomenal band proves that it is a growing force to be reckoned with in the music worldby Tan Yu-AnLAST Saturday, Malaysian fans rejoiced as the boys of Tokio Hotel – vocalist and frontman Bill Kaulitz; his twin, guitarist Tom; bassist Georg Listing; and drummer Gustav Schafer – finally played their first concert here. Hailing from a suburb of the small East German town of Magdeburg where they were considered an oddity, the twins started performing at age 10 as Black Question Mark.
After meeting Georg and Gustav at a club, the band became Devilish and the boys placed their heart and soul into getting noticed by recording companies. They succeeded in 2001 and decided to call themselves Tokio Hotel, reflecting their dream of playing in Tokyo and the hotels that are now their constant home while on tour.
During this period, they released a limited edition of their first German language album Schrei (Scream) in 2005 (and re-released an expanded version the following year), followed by Zimmer 483 (Room 483) in 2007.
In 2008, their first English album Scream, a direct translation of songs from their two German albums, took Europe and US by storm. By the time their second English album Humanoid (2009) came out, the boys had conquered Asia as well. Tokio Hotel has since gone on to score four No.1 singles with album sales going 10 times platinum. It has won a slew of awards including best new artiste VMA from MTV in 2008 and best group at the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) last year.
As famous for their style as their music, the boys insist that what you see is what you get. At a short press conference held before their concert here, Tom insisted: "We don’t want to create an image you know. That’s Gustav, he looks like he is and it’s the same with me, with Bill and Georg."
When asked the one thing they wanted to take home with them from Malaysia, Bill answered: "The love of our fans, because we had a signing session and some fans were crying and it’s always a cool and magic moment when you see the fans for the first time."
The concert that followed was plagued by rain, a highly unsuitable concert venue (I Utama Central Park Avenue), technical problems and lack of organisational coordination which led to a late start and much shoving and pushing between the restless crowd and security personnel, causing some to fall and injure themselves.
Many of the fans had been waiting under the hot sun behind the barriers since 3pm for the concert which was scheduled to start at 6pm. Despite that, the fans, some of whom flew in from countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Europe, were undeterred. They waited for three-and-a-half hours before their idols finally came on stage at 9.30pm
Before that, they endured endless sound checks and false starts and were briefly entertained by the opening acts, local rock bands Pop Shuvit and Bunkface. Bunkface’s performance was marred at one point by malfunctioning amplifiers.
But when Tokio Hotel took to the stage, the long wait was worth it. The crowd went wild as the opening techno beats rang out Tokio Hotel’s opening number, the energetic Noise.
The boys burned up the stage with their blazing energy and skilful multitasking with Gustav, Tom and Georg playing, singing backup and even switching to different instruments a few times within one song, while frontman Bill wowed the crowd with his magnetic showmanship.
All in, the boys squeezed in an incredible 13 songs (14 if you count the fun they had with the song Screaming where they seamlessly added on a few lines from another hit, Monsoon, and then back again to Screaming halfway) in their one-hour performance.
The songs were mostly from their Humanoid album which included the hit singles, Automatic and World Behind My Wall, as well as favourites from their Scream album such as Ready Set Go and Break Away.
And the crowd happily sang along with them.
Showmanship and great energy aside, it was the boys’ sincerity and humble nature that really won the crowd over. Bill peppered their last few songs with many expressions of ‘thank you’ and the boys came back to the stage twice for an encore performance, despite having to catch a flight that night itself for Taiwan.
The last song was a crowd request for Monsoon, which Bill sang in its German version, Durch Den Monsun. With that, the fans were satisfied.
The night ended on an even higher note when it was annouced that Tokio Hotel will be back in Malaysia soon for an MTV event. All in, it was an eventful and memorable concert despite the many hiccoughs.
TM Connects with Tokio Hotel Live in Malaysia was presented by Universal Music and Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
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