Elli/MiaoMio CD’s and Parties

Bonn’s own all girl band MiaoMio and Cologne’s Elli both had new discs to sell and both offered a ‘CD Release Party’. Visions of making smalltalk with a plate of cocktail sausages in one hand and a champagne flute in the other made me curious, so I shaved, showered and hit the big City twice this month.

Long time readers of my concert reports here on English-network might remember my enthusiastic review of a young lady who supported Anne Haigis at the Harmonie a couple of years ago. Since then Anika Auweiler’s career has been steadily building momentum. Her first CD the largely acoustic ‘Lauf’ (‘Run’) appeared recently with top local musician Jens Filser more than ably supporting on guitar, but whilst ‘Lauf’ is a very agreeable folk/pop mix it’s The Indie Pop band MiaoMio fronted by Anika which is receiving a lot of attention and praise at present and which recently presented it’s first ever CD Release at Kult41 on the Hochstaden Ring in Bonn.

Cult41 is a bunker of a building close to the main Railway line and a main road intersection in Bonn Centre. I get off of the tram and it immediately starts raining. When I greet Anika in the aptly termed ‘winter-garden’ my hair is dripping rain on the floor and the leaking roof is dripping rain on my head. My hopes of a canape or even a small thimble of Bollinger also drip away, but as I’d promised my stomach something special this evening I help myself to a licorice black cat from the dish on the bar, order a ‘Bio Kölsch’, head inside’ and take up position beside the concrete stage, or below it to be precise since it is raised several feet above floor level (no danger of fans rushing Robbie Williams onstage here)

MiaoMio

To put it politely, IndiePop isn’t quite my area of musical expertise ( impolitely, I have NO IDEA quite what IndiePop is) Support band Kassette were bright and poppy with a somewhat whacky presentation that made them charming. Anika and band quietly took the stage and then put in a smoothe and solid performance for the evening. Since their first show at Klangstation two years ago they have grown in confidence, stage presence and musicianship, and with Anika’s voice and songs they have a head start on a good many wannabe successful bands. Add a bit of the promised ‘band coaching’ to the lot of talent they already possess and watch them fly up the IndiePop chart – although I’m not sure if there is one.

It’s clearly going to be a busy rest of year for Anika, Sarah Brasack (keyboards), Eva Marxen (Bass) and Sarah Tauscher (drums) – but having seen them a couple of times now, spoken to them and most importantly, heard their first CD, I think this could be the start of something big for the girls and hopefully for Bonn’s young music scene too. Not long after forming, the band secured a prestigious place on the live stage at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Bonn. This year they won out against fierce competition from 70 bands in the NRW wide ‘popupNRW’ band competition to be selected for advice and coaching in the music business. Just as importantly, their success guarantees them slots at some major festivals and concerts in the NRW area.

My verdict on the CD ‘MiaoMio: Intelligent songs concealed behind a pop backing. They require engaging brain and ears together but are well worth the effort. For ultimate tingling of the spine though try Anika’s solo ‘Lauf’ CD.

Final note on the evening – dress down for the next CD Presentation event, which is…

Elisabeth Erl, better known to the music Biz as Elli and best known as the winner in 2003 of DSDS (Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar). Elli’s CD Release Party is at the MTC Club near Cologne South Station, but being next to a railway station is where the similarities with Kult41 end. For a start it was SUNNY this time and students were sitting outside of pubs and clubs the length of Zülpicherstrasse. Inside MTC though there were still no canapes or champagne flutes to be found – in fact it was difficult to find anything in the pitch darkness. Do students have special optical abilities now that I didn’t have when I was propping up bars at Portsmouth Polytechnic? I recognize Elli herself in the gloom purely because of the trademark ‘pork-pie’ hat on her head. Said hat was actually stolen during a concert recently but returned to the local television station who duly filmed its eponymous return to Elli’s head the next day.

So Elli quite clearly has a bit of media spin already on her side – not least due to her appearances with Dieter Bohlen. The new CD ‘Human’ though is a result of time spent in America and away from Bohlen. Lyrics are all in English and it is clearly a very commercial platter. “The first CD that’s really me all the way through” as Elli describes it – although the booklet credits assign the music and lyrics to others with the rather mysterious additional assignation each time of ‘Elisabeth ‘Elli Erl – Manuscript’.

Both support acts are worth a mention: ‘AlexAmsterdam‘ were a quirky keyboard/guitar duo who actually came from Düsseldorf (The name ‘AlexAmsterdam’ sounded good explained their guitarist – who surprisingly is actually named Alex) later. Still more interesting was the set by Adrienne – a feisty girl with acoustic guitar and thoughtful lyrics from Los Angeles who’s band ‘The Rescues’ have made several musical appearances on episodes of ‘Greys Anatomy’. Also notable in an odd way was that it was the men (from AlexAmsterdam) who had the long hair, and the women (both Elli and Adrienne) who had short hair and tattooed arms.

And so to Elli’s performance itself. Things got off to a jerky start musically with Adi the guitarist – Elli later admitted to changing the set order without telling the poor man. When soon after a broken guitar string caused delays, her showmanship talents came to the fore and she had the audience singing acappella for a couple of minutes. In fact the most memorable aspects of the evenings show for me were the excellent power Pop songs from the new ‘Human’ CD, in particular ‘Shadows’ , but most of all Elli’s control of the audience. Anyone talks whilst she sings and she calls out ‘Schnauze!’ (’shut up’, as she explained to Adrienne who wondered what she was saying). These were fans of course and all was spoken and taken in good humour.

My verdict on the CD ‘Human’: Great vocals and well crafted pop/rock songs. maybe a bit too ‘hit formula’ structered for my taste but then I’m not the target audience. A very listenable./enjoyable disc.

On the crowded midnight train back to Bonn I found myself thinking that my very first CD Release shows were total contrasts to one another, with two up and coming acts that could each do with a mix of the others talents to add to their own. The songwriting and band atmosphere of MiaMiao and the showmanship/commercial appeal of Elli duly sprinkled onto both bands, leave to simmer and add a glass of champagne – on second thoughts, strike the champagne, it’s a myth along with the cocktail sausages on sticks. This might be called Indie/Pop but really it’s Rock n Roll.

MiaoMio

Elli