Stoppok mit Band - Teufelsküche
Whoever has been to one of his concerts always comes back gladly. And whoever has booked him for a concert also likes to book him again, because STOPPOK convinces not only musically but also as a person and entertainer. As courageous and humorous as his songs are, in which he often holds a mirror up to society, so cabaret-like are his transitions between songs during his performances. “Isn't it obvious,” he sings in one of the songs on his new album Operation 17, because isn't it obvious that a (song) maker like him, even after his 60th birthday, still creates the same strong songs as he has for the past three and a half decades? The creativity of the passionate and laid-back singer-songwriter with a penchant for folk and blues seems unstoppable. At night, he reveals, he sometimes comes up with new songs line by line, so that he occasionally gets up several times to jot down lyrics. He only finds peace when he has fulfilled the demand of the songs to be written. He jokingly states about his currently incredible output that he doesn't have much time left to release everything that he still has in his head and heart. And so STOPPOK now presents us with Operation 17, his 17th studio album, after having released the long player Popschutz in late 2014 and the third shared CD with the Indian formation Tagore & We in early 2016. Perhaps inspired by a new love or by another award, with which he was recently once again officially honored - with the German World Music Prize “RUTH” 2016 at the Rudolstadt Festival for folk, roots, and world music - STOPPOK is now back on tour with his band, featuring many new powerful songs, his familiar captivating groove, and a variety of sounds.
Accompanied by his tried and tested band musicians, the master himself, as always, showcases a rich selection of guitars. Not, as he emphasizes, to show off that he is the proud owner of a larger instrument collection, which includes a total of 45 different guitar models that he plays. Rather, it is simply because he enjoys playing the pieces on the instruments on which he originally composed them. Additionally, through his various guitars, which all have their own sound and are sometimes tuned differently, he also creates a greater sonic variety at his concerts. With a five-string banjo, mandolin, and dulcimer, STOPPOK happily expands the sonic cosmos of his diverse electric and acoustic guitars. How brilliant an instrumentalist he is becomes clear at the latest when STOPPOK joyfully plays his solos. It then becomes understandable how ambitiously he once taught himself to play the guitar. As a teenager, he played complicated riffs by Jimi Hendrix or Ten Years After, which he sometimes slowed down on his tape recorder until he could hear every single note. He practiced the sequence for as long as it took until he mastered it flawlessly. With the same passion that STOPPOK flew to Los Angeles for his new album to record parts of some songs, he now presents his new live program. Will he improve the world with his demanding pieces, which sometimes sound like iconic blues rock from the 1970s with wah-wah effects and Hammond organ, and sometimes are quieter, more contemplative, and almost delicate? “One doesn't know.” That's how STOPPOK puts it himself in the title of one of his new pieces, in which he sings that one also doesn't know whether the Pope does not have vegan breakfast with the nun and the mafia in the Vatican. “But we have the suspicion...” it continues, and one also suspects that STOPPOK is definitely working to make the world more humane. In songs like "Mein Herz hat damit nichts zu tun" he weighs the superficial dullness of casting shows against what truly moves a person, such as the fate of a war refugee. In "Wunderschöne Augen" he advises to always keep the eyes open amidst all the chaos, so as not to overlook the beautiful. He warns against drifting “Aimlessly through space” and making the same mistakes as our great-grandfathers, who eliminated everything that stood in their way. One should also not let oneself be told “fairy tales” about a perfect world, that everything will straighten itself out again or even be resolved through faith in God. But when one has driven the cart into the dirt, one must ultimately eat the stinking fish, STOPPOK demands finally in “Friss den Fisch.” Standing up against the growing commercialization in society and the associated mass dumbing down, while paying more attention to genuine values in life, is what STOPPOK still stands for. His Operation 17, so to speak. He has always demonstrated that one finds more fulfillment when one does not jump on the commercial train, but rather preserves one's independence and thus one's individuality.
Doors open: 19:00
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
