Oliver Rüsing is a very talented German singer and multi-instrumentalist. Under the moniker of
KariBoW
he already released lots of progressive rock albums. Most of them all recorded by himself with some help of some
guest musicians. My first encounter with Oliver was in 2014, when he asked me if I wanted to review his latest
release
Addicted (see
review). Which I of course did! The music on this fine album reminded me of bands
such as
No Name,
Saga,
Toto,
Styx,
Foreigner,
Survivor and
Boston.
At the time I ended my review with the following words: "Karibow also does live concerts with several other musicians
next to Oliver. Hopefully one day he will release an album with one of their recorded shows, because I am certainly
curious how his music sounds when it's played by others".
Well so far I didn't see him perform myself until recently. Because the friendly people of the amazing ProgFrog
team managed to book him for a concert in the Netherlands. The first one in our country for this very sympathetic
musician. He had been here on vacation several times, but never climbed the stage here. Together with a by him
special formed new band, he made it to the Netherlands to give a special kick-off show. A show which was a sort
of try-out for the soon to start
MOnuMENTO tour. At the same time the first concert done by his new band
was a kind of release party of the album
Supernatural Foe - Rebirth. An album that was on sale here for
the very first time. An album that was released for the very first time as
Supernatural Foe - Vocalized
back in 1998. But as you know, technology improves every day and things that sounded great many years ago, do
sound less good nowadays. Therefore Rüsing decided to rerecord the entire album again for his fans. The same fans
that gathered around the stage on a very hot Sunday afternoon at 't Blok in Nieuwerkerk aan de Ijssel. To witness
a very awesome concert done by some excellent German musicians.
After a short intro by the host of the venue, who was imitating the band leader in a funny way by wearing dark
glasses, a black cowboy hat and a blond wig, it was show time! The first set lasted almost one hour and 15 minutes
and started off with a fine version of
The Raining Silence. A great sing-a-long tune from his latest release
MOnuMENTO. During this song Oliver was dressed up like a true rock star. Wearing a great looking coat and
leather trousers. He probably did forget it was going to be very warm on stage and kept going on in this outfit
until he was started to sweat more and more. Finally it made him decide to take off the coat and show his beautiful
yellow blouse. Well it contained long sleeves and therefore it was still too hot to wear. So during one of the
excellent guitar solos done by
Philipp Dauenhauer he decided to wear a black shirt without any sleeves.
This way he was more comfortable to announce the first composition from the earlier mentioned
Supernatural
Foe - Rebirth album. During this track
Is That You? again the crowd could enjoy an excellent guitar
solo done by Dauenhauer. Strangely enough Oliver decided to do a song which contain guests vocalists on the original
studio versions.
District Of Diginity was one of them done during the first set and featured ex-
Karnataka
female singer
Hayley Griffiths. Before the band turned into an acoustic band one more piece of music
was done played on electric instruments. A song which was performed during every concert ever done by KariBoW.
9/16 was for me together with
Primeval,
Place To Be and
F8 Al Ba6 one of my favourites
from the earlier mentioned
Addicted. Containing again a beautiful guitar solo done by Philipp. The song
ended on the acoustic guitar played by Oliver and was a nice way to get into an unplugged mood for the final 15
minutes of the first set.
Home Of Cain,
Passion and
Believe of course sounded acoustically
differently compared to the electric studio versions. Oliver was during this short acoustic set accompanied by
Philipp Dauenhauer on the acoustic guitar and drummer
Gerald Nahrgang on the acoustic bass. Before
they started the final piece of the acoustic part of the show Oliver asked the audience to participate. All they
had to do was to sing- along with the wordless parts during the chorus. Well they followed his instructions and
this way a feeling of bonding came across the artist and his audience. It was certainly a nice way to end the first set.
Well anybody who must have thought it can't get any better after seeing the first set, was in for a real surprise.
Because there was so much more beautiful stuff to hear and see in the next upcoming hour. The band continued where
they left off when they walked to the dressing room to have a well deserved break. Making strong progressive rock
music with lots of beautiful solos performed on the guitar and keyboards. As you could witness for example during
the opening tune of the second set. Titled
Here. But also the following track
The North Wall Tale
contained an excellent solo performed on the electric guitar. It lasted very long and gave Rüsing a chance to
change his outfit. Because at the start of
Back To The Ashes he walked upon the stage wearing a black robe
with a hood and a black mask on his face. His eyes were red light which lit up red every now and then. With an
almost dark stage it was really a great gimmick to see only his red eyes. At the same time he started playing
and singing behind his E-pads (electric drums). After that it was as if he had disappeared from the stage. But
in real he was changing again his outfit behind the E-pads. When he came up he was wearing a bird mask and his hands
were wrapped in red bird feathers. This way the song
Red Feathers very much came to life. After that he
returned behind his E-pads without wearing extra costumes or masks. Only to do his
E-Pad Solo. This started
as an extra drum solo but soon he also added keyboard sounds to it. Something which made it even more interesting
to watch. During
Private Babylon it was time for himself to show that he also can do an excellent guitar
solo together with Philipp. For the next song again a "virtual girl" was announced. Therefore the crowd could
only hear the voice of Dutch singer
Monique van der Kolk (
Harvest) during a fine version of
Inside
You. When the last song of the second set was announced, a lot of disappointing sounds could be heard from
the audience. But I guess after they heard a splendid version of
Change it brought a smile on their faces.
After enjoying such a brilliant second set it was obvious anybody present wanted more. Much more. So after a couple
of we want more request in Oliver's native language he showed up again on the stage. However only on his own.
He sat down and took his acoustic guitar and started playing
Inorganic Talk. A very old song which he performed
on his own almost every day many years ago. Before doing this he invited his band mates to join him, which they
did in the end. The final song of the warm afternoon show was done with a complete line up on stage.
The Cry
was a of course an excellent up tempo song to say farewell to all the fans at the venue. Who certainly had
a blast during this very long performance (the longest concert they ever had done) of this excellent live band.
In September KariBoW will visit the UK for seven concerts during their
MOnuMENTO tour 2019. For those who
will see the band are in for a real treat. Those who will stay at home will certainly miss a spectacular show
of one of the finest bands coming from Germany. The Netherlands already can talk about it thanks to the amazing
ProgFrog team who booked them for a one off concert. Thanks guys! Hopefully a live release of one of the concerts
done this year will follow, so we all can relive it over and over again!
Henri Strik (edited by Dave Smith)