Second round at the PLWM in Dortmund this year. „Eisheilige Nacht“ is the name of Subway to Sally’s annual christmas / winter tour. With support of several bands from the scene they share a bond with, they play a few shows around the Christmas holidays. Which location could match this kind of tour better than the medieval Christmas market in Dortmund?
For me, it was the first „Eisheilige Nacht“ ever. On the one hand because I had „forgotten“ about Subway to Sally until they released their new album Himmelfahrt this year, which was an absolute banger. On the other hand, the dates never really fit my schedule. This year though, the date fit, the location fit and the line up made my heart beat faster, as it included Fiddler’s Green, one of my favourite bands for several years now, and Letzte Instanz, one of my teenage loves that I’ve never seen live before. So off I went to the PLWM in Dortmund for my last concert of 2023.
I don’t think I need another lengthy introduction of the PLWM as concert location – I already introduced it in my review of FAUN, Eivør and TVINNA. One thing I can add though is that Friday showed why a big tent as this year’s concert venue was a great decision. For days, it had been raining cats and dogs with no end – and so it did Friday night. The day before, the market had been closed due to a storm warning and the heavy winds continued until Friday around 8pm (the Westfalenpark in Dortmund was still closed on Friday and I believe that if there hadn’t been concerts, the PLWM would’ve stayed closed as well).
The whole market was one big puddle of mud. Although I had worn boots my pants were covered in sprinkles of mud up to my knees when I returned home. An absolute delight. That plus heavy wind and rain would possibly have made the concert impossible. But thanks to the new tent, the concert could take place, people could seek shelter and it was more or less warm and cozy (unless if you sat somewhere at the corners because there the wind came through).
The first band that evening was Manntra from Croatia and I admit that I skipped them on purpose. I had checked out about two songs on Spotify before seeing them and decided that nope, not really my taste. When I arrived at the market in the middle of their set, I noticed that they weren’t that bad, maybe next time I’d give them a chance. Yet, there were a few other reasons that kept me from going there any earlier. Anyway, not much to say about Manntra from my side.
Fifteen minutes later, Letzte Instanz entered the stage. Letzte Instanz used to be one of my favourite bands as a teenager. They more or less started as a medieval rock band, but developed away from that. I have to admit that some of their later albums weren’t quite my taste anymore, but I love their older stuff. Although they basically come from my home area, I’d never managed to see them live before (except for that one time when they played at the Fredenbaumpark in Dortmund before and I, who hadn’t bought a ticket, stood outside of the fence to listen to their concert.)
What I love in particular about their music is the cello. Yeah, a violin is nice. But violin and cello? I loooove strings. I always wanted to learn how to play either the violin or the cello, time, motivation and especially money weren’t on my side. I took a few violin lessons during my studies, but hell, that shit was expensive and I’m sure that my neighbours in the hall of residence weren’t to impressed by me practicing my beginner stuff, so I dropped it quite quickly. I still love them and heck, the combination of violin and cello of Letzte Instanz makes me weak. I noticed that last night again and I’m kinda sad that I didn’t get tickets for the Gothic Meets Classic concerts in Leipzig to see Letzte Instanz play with an orchestra (but I was sick anyway and too busy running after Self Deception).
Setlist-wise I was happy that I got to hear a little medley of Der Geigenschüler, Egotrip and Todestag, since their album Brachialromantik used to be one of my favourites. Other songs I remember were Ehrenwort, Entzündet die Feuer and Wir sind eins, as well as a Mariah Carey cover of All I Want For Christmas. Also they played Rapunzel combined with Deichkind’s Remmi Demmi (and this is something I didn’t exactly need because to be honest, I’m usually not a big fan of cover songs in short sets. I see that some support bands seem to think „at least people will know one song then“, but come on. If there’s a band with a pretty long discography I don’t need them to play covers. I make an exception for All I Want for Christmas because it was a more-or-less Christmas concert after all.)
Unfortunately I feel like I missed out on some parts of their set because my anti-social ass was dragged into a conversation. No offense, the person was nice, but when I want to hear a certain band I don’t want to talk. And sometimes I just don’t want to talk at all, because I am truly anti-social. Yeah. That was one of my downsides last night. And it wasn’t the only one.
Next up in the line-up: Fiddler’s Green. This band’s been with me for over 16 years now. Beginning of the love story: Open Flair Festival 2007, where they filled in for Sunrise Avenue. While I was pissed as fuck, because one of the bands I had wanted to see at that festival was Sunrise Avenue. When my sister told me there’d be an Irish folk band instead, I was unimpressed because who the hell listens to Irish folk?
Turned out I do, when I stood in the front row, right in front of their fiddler Tobias, and was blown away by … the violin. What else. And since that day, there haven’t been many Fiddler’s Green concerts I’ve been to where I didn’t stand in the front row, right in front of Tobi. There were a few, and the majority of them this year. One of them was last night, since I had obviously been at the tent super late. So when they started I tried to get at least into the „fun zone“ where there might be a circle pit, a wall of folk, any kind of fun activity. And I tried my best to enjoy the show. Just that I hadn’t entered the fun zone, but was stuck between people who didn’t seem to have any fun. Instead, people to my left were loudly discussing I don’t know what and people to my right were constantly complaining about people passing by and the fact that they couldn’t see anything.
So halfway through the set I decided to go further to the back. Only to end up behind a kid of about 10 years that turned around each time I started to sing, clap and jump along and gave me a death stare. At first I had planned to stay in the middle until the Wall of Folk, but thankfully I decided to leave a bit earlier because … there wasn’t one. Too bad.
The show was still good. No surprise when we’re talking about Fiddler’s Green. There were quite a few songs from their upcoming album (Release date: 29 December – but since I preordered, I found it in my mailbox on Friday 😍). The set included Shanghaied in Portsmouth, The Bog and A Good Old Irish Bar (which was released on Friday) and, out of their older stuff, The Galway Girl, Bottoms Up, One Fine Day, Perfect Gang, Down, Greens and Fellows, and – of course – Yindy and Victor and his Demons. Out of their christmas album Seven Holy Nights they played Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and instead of sending Tobias through the hall in a rubber boat, someone dressed as a reindeer did the little boat trip. They finished their set with The Night Pat Murphy Died and all in all I was fully satisfied afterwards – except that I was terribly annoyed by people at this point and swore to myself that next time I’d be back in the front row again. Or far enough at the front to be surrounded by people that actually want to see the band. (Also I don’t claim that I listed all their songs, and they’re certainly not in the right order. I literally scrolled through their albums to see what I remember hearing last night.)
One thing that I already noticed at their show in Bückeburg in July was the thought that they’re aging – and not only visibly. Throughout the first half of the set I always feel like they go for slower stuff, not much to party to … and then we get into the second part of the set and at the end of the show I need a bottle of water and some oxygen because once they unpack Yindy, Victor and his Demons and The Night Pat Murphy Died, the chill part of the show is over.
After Fiddler’s Green I tried to get myself a drink, but the bar was too crammed, so I decided to just wait for Subway to Sally to start. Subway to Sally are yet another band I used to love in my teenage days. We felt so edgy when we loudly sang Julia und die Räuber against the horrible Schlager music in the tents during the annual fair in town. Yet, as I have already said, I lost sight of them throughout the years. I think their last album that I actively listened to was Bastard, then I somehow heard their song Island featuring Chris Harms of Lord of the Lost. Yet, it wasn’t until Himmelfahrt came out that I gave them another chance – and was blown away. This album is definitely amongst my top album releases in 2023.
Then I saw them for the first time at the MPS in Bückeburg this year and I had so much fun during their set that this was basically the final motivation to buy tickets for their show at the PLWM. Also: Are we surprised that I love this band? No, because they have a violin (and Ally fucking ROCKS it, go listen to her shredding the e-violin in Autumn immediately!!!) and a hurdy-gurdy. What else could I ask for?
They started their show with Sarabande de Noir as intro and then set the right atmosphere with Schneekönigin. With their third song, Was ihr wollt, they made sure to stay in my head for the next six weeks on average. This song is definitely one of my favourites out of Himmelfahrt and whenever I hear it, I will not stop singing it for weeks. There were a few songs from the new album and some older must-play songs like Eisblumen, Henkersbraut, Falscher Heiland and Kleid aus Rosen. For me personally, another banger was Auf dem Hügel, which is an incredibly touching song. After Kleid aus Rosen they announced a little break and teasered Julia und die Räuber and that was in so far a bad idea as that the crowd started demanding Julia und die Räuber in the way drunken assholes chant that one banger song every band must play over any other song that is being played.
Before people finally got their beloved final song, Subway to Sally returned with Eisheilige Nacht – the song written exactly for this tour – and Sieben, which is yet another must at their shows. They continued with Tanz auf dem Vulkan and then asked their fellow musicians of the other bands to come on stage for their second to last song Veitstanz, during which I already left out of personal reasons (one of them being that I could no longer stand the crowd).
Speaking of the crowd, during Subway to Sally I changed my spot several times more because of noisy packs of old dudes that ignored the „No Smoking“ signs, chatted noisily throughout almost every song and were absolutely unpleasant to be around.
So all in all I gotta say that the shows themselves were great. I got to hear many beloved songs and I’m excited to see especially Fiddler’s Green and STS again next year. But once again I noticed why I dislike people so much – and it always makes me giggle when I read „I hate people except for concert people“ because to be honest, sometimes I hate concert people even more.
Anyway, my concert year is over and I think it’s soon time for a concert recap of 2023.
(Maybe there’ll be one or two more more-or-less reviews of Amorphis, Solstafir & Lost Society and To Kill Achilles, Fixation & Annisokay, mostly because I have photos of those concerts. But not sure if I’ll find the time and energy to write entire blog posts about those two shows.)