Wenzel & Band - Die Zeit der Irren und Idioten - OpenAir 2026
In the gray morning hours, between doubts and fatigue, the songs find their final form. The world is out of joint. At the damaged points of our hope, melodies and words search for the right place. Songs carried by gentle and determined tones of guitars, bass, accordion, brass instruments, drums, and piano play for dance in the unrepeatable hours of concerts. HAPPY TO BE ALIVE. A hold on elemental truths, despite all ideological parceling. Celebrating life as a victory against the destructive, against wars and demagoguery. Music is a faithful companion in this.
Wenzel stays true to himself and cares neither for categories nor fashionable attitudes. His work draws from an almost inexhaustible source. In recent years, Wenzel has surprised with many CD productions. New, unreleased songs, adaptations of works by Johannes R. Becher, Christoph Hein, Theodor Kramer, Woody Guthrie. On October 4, 2024, Wenzel will release his new CD & Vinyl “Beach Treasures of the Times” with his own lyrics and compositions.
Heavy-hearted, full of life, subversive, warm-hearted, cynical, intricate, and direct. Wenzel remains a refugee from the world’s demands. With bittersweet irony, he defies the heavy sea. A lover who has never half-loved and never played softly with his jester's bells, someone who gives and takes with full scoops, a wise man on whose ark the eternal pairs embrace: happiness and anger, love and time, escape and refuge, moment and epoch. First and last day.
Wenzel is an author, composer, musician, singer, actor, and director. Tours have taken him through France, Austria, America, Nicaragua, Cuba, Turkey, among others. Wenzel has shared the stage with Arlo Guthrie, Randy Newman, Billy Bragg, Konstantin Wecker, and many other musicians. Wenzel has received honors including the GOLDEN AMIGA, the Heinrich Heine Prize, the German Cabaret Prize, the German Record Critics' Prize, as well as the Prize of the Songlist. In 2023, a documentary about Wenzel “Wenzel - Never Believe What I Sing” was released in theaters.
CAST
Wenzel: Vocals, Guitar, Accordion, Piano, Bass
Hannes Scheffler: Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Thommy Krawallo: Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Stefan Dohanetz: Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Manuel Abreu: Trumpet, Cornet
Jason Liebert: Trombone, Sousaphone
Doors open at 6 PM