There is no danger to the public - Farin Urlaub Racing Team on Tour

Farin Urlaub, together with his colleagues Bela B. and Rodrigo González, last rocked a Swiss stage in the summer of 2013 as "Die Ärzte". During the last few months, the guitarist, singer, songwriter, audience tamer and globetrotter has been working intensively on his side project again Farin Holiday Racing Team. The result was his fourth solo record, which goes by the name "Fascination Space" and the current tour "There is no danger to the public", which Farin and his racing team took to the sold-out Zurich Complex 20 on May 457th. With more than 2 1/2 hours, the band offered a show packed with 31 (!) songs, which was able to inspire the audience to the last rows.

Singer Farin Urlaub should actually be known to everyone as the frontman of the fun punk rock pop band "Die Ärzte". The doctors are cool, have always been cool and will probably remain cool even in old age. Because the doctors embody the uncompromising pleasure principle: Do what you want to do unconditionally! It used to be a central decision: either you were in the camp of the humorless, proletarian, dull, simple, Altbier and straight-forward Toten Hosen, or you were in the camp of the humorous, twisted, complex, playful and funny doctors. Exactly the attributes that were mentioned for the doctors also apply to Farin, of course, and since the doctors are becoming increasingly rare, Jan Ulrich Max Vetter - the Oberblondi's real name - is more and more often in the company of the Farin Urlaub Racing Team, FURT for short , to encounter. Since 2008, the combo, which started as a pure concert band and currently consists of eleven musicians, has also been involved in the actual album recordings of Farin's solo excursions. The current tour for the number 1 album "Fascination Space" has now also taken the racing team to Switzerland.

No opening act, no banter, it's rock 'n' roll time! A black curtain blocks the view of the stage, around 20:15 p.m. you could hear the guitar being plugged in and a minute later the concert started. The black curtain fell down with a bang and Farin was already standing behind it and started straight away with a cracker song from his current album "Fascination Space". The Zurich audience was very sure of the lyrics right from the start and unfortunately only got the hall really boiling at times. Compared to what one was/is used to from Farin Urlaub or the Ärzte concerts, it was a rather quieter concert, which was clearly due to the surprisingly mixed audience. A lot of young people could be seen, so that one could have thought that the concert would be like Schmitz Katzen, but somehow the Ritalin seems to have left its mark - but this fits the tour title "There is no danger to the public", it can be down-to-earth. If clownesque anarchy prevails at a doctors' concert, FURT's performance in Complex 457 can be described quite well with the image of a big band orchestra full of dynamite: a powerful brass section on the left, great background singers on the right and in the middle Farin Urlaub including the Amazon court, consisting of guitarist Nesrin "Nessie" Sirinoglu, bassist Cindia Krüger and drummer Rachel Rep.

Farin Urlaub Racing Team - Porcelain - live May 20, 2015 - Complex 457 Zurich Switzerland

The blond giant, his female racing team and the male brass players all delivered a first-class concert. The well over 30 years of stage experience was finally noticeable to the now 51-year-old protagonist: Just over 2 1/2 hours of playing time are completely planned with music and audience dialogue, even the funny sayings or spontaneous answers to audience reactions are secure and have been steeled through decades of practice. It is the interplay of tongue-in-cheek absurdity and everyday stories with which Farin Urlaub captivates the audience. Songs from all four albums were played that evening and the set list is peppered here and there with B-sides of his singles. If you consider that other bands with more albums play a lot shorter, then you can only tip your hat to Mr. Urlaub. Here the fan gets something for his money. And not only because of the length of the show, but also because of the atmosphere and Farin's gags, sayings and silly things. The evening was the strongest at those moments when Farin dug out the hits from the first two solo albums "Endlich Urlaub" and "At the End of the Sun". The viewers of the sold-out hall were also confident in the lyrics to the hits “Glücklich”, “OK” and “Porzellan” about the senseless striving for more, when happiness is usually right in front of your own nose. 'You've probably noticed that I've gotten older. I just have to get rid of this advice on life support,” said the man in his mid-fifties.

The 11-strong racing team rocked, rolled, whispered and thundered while Farin Urlaub did what he is second best at: playing guitar and singing. The audience owes this to this sold-out concert in which they almost sing along word for word and so Farin Urlaub elicits a broad grin of satisfaction not just once. As usual, there was no special show, the biggest show contributions were probably longer brass solos and yet there was a lot of rock music, joy, anger, heartache, suggestions for beautifying inner cities and previously underestimated quasi-physical laws. FURT put the audience into ecstasy several times that evening. The Farin Urlaub Racing Team rocked the complex, even if the somewhat slower songs on the current album still have some catching up to do in terms of euphoria, as expected, the mood rose even more when the horns kick in and Ska rhythms or fast guitar riffs were unpacked. Then there was hardly a stop in the front part of the room.

Farin Urlaub Racing Team - Farewell Song - Ten 2 - live May 20, 2015 - Complex 457 Zurich Switzerland

After more than two hours, the audience was exhausted, as was Farin. So he said goodbye - not with a farewell song, he had already played that - by playing "Ten" again. Anyone who knows Farin Urlaub knows what that meant for the tired spectators: More power until they were absolutely exhausted. Farin knows no mercy. He counted to ten, then he wanted to see us jump. And we jumped. After two encore blocks of three songs each, the Berliner and his rock racing team confidently ended the concert, which caused a lot of sweaty bodies. The fans in the complex were offered an entertaining, crisp rock concert with plenty of interaction and good humor on all sides. But it's not just the main actor who's punk attitudes seem to be gradually dwindling due to increasing age. The audience has also become more tame. A concert that will definitely be remembered by everyone. The band was in a great mood, the ladies - Nessie, Rachel and Cindia - are in good hands with the classic rock instrumentation and the gentlemen "Bläser" take care of the ska component. A sweaty show, which - believe it or not - comprised thirty songs and hardly gave you time to catch your breath. The tour bus, which then took the band to Saarbrücken, was parked right in front of the door. On the way home, I was looking forward to a comfortable night in my own bed. Standing around at a concert, stepping on the gas and enjoying the music, after a day of work and with work in view for the next day, can be exhausting at my age...

setlist:

1. What the world needs now
2. Happy
3. Dance today
4. Class
5. At the Beach
6. Heart? Lost
7. Porcelain
8. Augenblick
9. 1000 years of bad sex
10. 3000
11. iDisco
12. Blurred
13. Summer
14. The pretty okay pop song
15. Newton was right
16. The saddest
17. Never
18. OK
19. Always there
20. dynamite
21. The corpse
22. ten
23. All the same
24. sneak
25. Nevertheless

Again:

26. Under water
27. No fear
28. Cards

Encore 2:

29. Where is the problem?
30. Farewell song
31. Ten²

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