{"id":75366,"date":"2025-07-04T10:43:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T08:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=75366"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:34:38","slug":"das-guenther-a-band-that-invents-its-songs-live","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/at-night\/das-guenther-a-band-that-invents-its-songs-live\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019: a band that invents its songs live"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tAt night<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019: a band that invents its songs live <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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Three musicians, zero planning: how pure spontaneity creates something new every night.
\nBy Isabel Reda<\/a> (photos), Raik Schache<\/a> (text)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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The ring at the Hafenklang<\/strong> slowly fills up, right in the heart of Hamburg\u2019s fish market. After 7 p.m. it\u2019s pitch dark out here. Inside the Hafenklang, by contrast, everything is bathed in a warm red light, and the walls are covered in stickers reading \u2018Still loving vinyl\u2019 and \u2018Arte Ultras\u2019. The first drinks are being served at the bar. Fifteen minutes before the show, the mood backstage \u2013 an office of the venue turned into a dressing room \u2013 is relaxed.

Among cable drums, a satchel full of drinks tokens and posters of former punk legends on the walls, Albrecht, the drummer of \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019, bites into his last slice of pizza. Alex, the troupe\u2019s voice, pulls on one layer of costume after another, while Till, the bassist of this little chaos orchestra, takes orders for one last round at the bar. Five minutes before the start, everyone is changed and ready to go, and Alex asks the other two how they want to open the show tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 has been performing<\/strong> since 2017. Till (left) plays bass and synthesiser, Alex (centre) sings and Albrecht (right) plays the drums. The band members met while studying music at the Hannover University of Music.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

Having no concept<\/strong> is what sets apart the three musicians, who met while studying jazz in Hannover. The band started as a fun project, and after the first gigs none of them knew that the line-up would last. They simply felt like trying something new and jamming. Today, seven years after their first concert, \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 stands for a colourful spectacle among its loyal fans and wants to be a projection screen for many alter egos that are often seen as a bit problematic and difficult. In their performances they allude specifically to patriarchal structures \u2013 badly aged white men who deny climate change and embody a widespread aversion to change and the diversity that comes with it.<\/p>\n\n\n \n\n

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The bassist Till<\/strong> waits backstage at the Glocksee to go on. Warming up his fingers is all the preparation he does.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n

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Frontperson Alex and drummer Albrecht<\/strong> have finished changing \u2013 now it\u2019s showtime. \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 is known for its outlandish costumes.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Grubby deals glimpsed<\/strong>, gentrification, grisly goings-on, G\u00fcnther glimpsed, good times, grooved.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

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\u2018Grubby deals glimpsed, gentrification, grisly goings-on, G\u00fcnther glimpsed, good times, grooved\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 with this, Alex opens the evening. In a ringmaster\u2019s costume, Alex addresses the colourful, mixed crowd. It\u2019s reminiscent of a poetry slam: an alliterative chain on \u2018g\u2019. It\u2019s a first \u2013 they have never started a concert like this before. They have probably never started two concerts the same way, because \u2018we only rehearse live!\u2019, as Albrecht said before the show. The instruments slowly join Alex\u2019s free-flowing monologue, and the prologue fades out. The cluster of about 60 people starts to move. The band gets the crowd going and underlines its attitude with ironic reworkings of lyrics: Scooter\u2019s \u2018Hyper Hyper\u2019 becomes \u2018Hei\u00dfer, Hei\u00dfer, es wird immer hei\u00dfer\u2019 (\u2018Hotter, hotter, it\u2019s getting hotter\u2019), and Rainald Grebe\u2019s song \u2018Brandenburg\u2019 mutates into \u2018Lassen Sie mich Arzt, ich bin durch\u2019 \u2013 a scrambled \u2018Let me through, I\u2019m a doctor\u2019.

\u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 wants to ruffle feathers, rub salt in the wound and address everything that preoccupies the younger generations. Their music sits somewhere between Nina Hagen and Kraftwerk \u2013 political, electronic and punky. They give the audience provocative lyrics carried by synthetic melodies, in time with analogue instruments. They don\u2019t just play for the audience but with it. \u2018And if they want to dance, you let them dance. That\u2019s simply how it developed that we keep turning up the heat. The dictate of the dance.\u2019

While Albrecht is already launching the second act of a piece on the drums, Alex peels off the first costume. The ringmaster turns into a diva. The artist appears in a sequinned dress \u2013 and a new headpiece is conjured out of the first hat while the music keeps rolling. It\u2019s a beret, to match the dress. The costumes let Alex take on different roles and confront their own stage persona with irony. The band plays around with props, as if from a box of Christmas decorations, on stage and even in the audience. A childlike lightness fills the air.

Alex sings: \u2018Mother Earth, Father State, the relationship is broken! Topple the state! Topple the patriarchy!\u2019 Like a DJ in a club, the musicians let one song spill into the next. They weave fragments of lyrics into ever-new beats, invent their music live on stage and adapt to each audience. So of course, a bit of disharmony creeps in here and there. But it\u2019s exactly this willingness to make mistakes that makes the show.<\/p>\n\n\n \n\n

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Alex stands in the crowd<\/strong> holding a little white horse up in the air \u2013 one of the few props that evening.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n

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There\u2019s a lot of skin<\/strong> on stage. Even so, it matters to the band members that male nipples are taped over too, to draw attention to the censorship of women\u2019s breasts.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n

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As frontperson, Alex keeps slipping<\/strong> into new roles, shaping the band\u2019s performative character.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Tripping over yourself is somehow part of G\u00fcnther<\/strong> \u2013 breaking yourself open.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

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And so \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 stumbles<\/strong> into the third and final act of the band\u2019s debut concert at the Hafenklang. One last change of costume, one last deep breath, and the instruments start up again. The tempo has picked up over the last two acts, and so has the temperature in the room. The warm red light and the urge to dance now reach even the stiffest limbs. The mood is carried by fast kicks, rhythmic shouting from Alex in a 1990s aerobics outfit, and synthetic sounds. It gets more electronic, faster and crazier. Alex gets lost in the performance, fiddling with a small keyboard and playing it with the tip of their nose, before putting the instrument on their head and massaging the keys with their skull.

Anyone looking for consistency in this band will probably never find it \u2013 not in the playing, nor in the \u2018how\u2019 or the \u2018where\u2019. As well as conventional gigs at established venues and festivals, the three also turn up on the line-ups of electronic music events. They have played the 7 a.m. closing set at the former MJUT in Leipzig, livened up Berlin\u2019s party weekend with a set at Club Sisyphos, and taken the stage at Indiego Glocksee in Hannover at 2 a.m., the most coveted slot for any DJ \u2013 at a techno night, of course. In settings like these, the three have to go full steam ahead from the start. The crowd is usually already completely lost in the flow of the music, and the break of suddenly having a band with real instruments on stage is break enough. On an ordinary club night, the focus is on the dancing individual who wants to let go, lose themselves and feel the bass. So how does the concept of \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 fit into a setting like that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 at<\/strong> a soundcheck at the Glocksee. That evening they are playing as a secret act at a techno party.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n

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At times, a concert by \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019<\/strong> feels more like a play than a conventional music performance.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n

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The later the evening gets<\/strong>, the wilder and more unconventional the performances of \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 become.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div> \n\n\n \n\n \n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Party! Party! Downer! Downer!<\/strong> Some people need therapy after G\u00fcnther; for others, G\u00fcnther is the therapy. Like a shabby clown, G\u00fcnther leads not only the audience but also itself up the garden path. G\u00fcnther is punk, clown and mum all at once.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

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Albrecht answers jokingly<\/strong>: \u2018Most of the time the dancers have another floor they can go to.\u2019 But above all, the band\u2019s performance is meant to feel embracing, which is why in these contexts it\u2019s especially important to be fast, danceable and empowering. It should be fun and not pull people out of their flow. \u2018At the same time, it can briefly break with the hedonism \u2013 while still being hedonistic, just with a bit more substance.\u2019 Besides, clubs are now much more than hedonistic spaces. To quote DJ Gigola from her podcast \u2018Our House, Clubs und ihre Geschichten<\/a>\u2019: \u2018Clubs are meeting places, free spaces, safer spaces, breeding grounds for creativity, places of resistance, lived utopias.\u2019 And really, that\u2019s everything \u2018Das G\u00fcnther\u2019 lives out in its performances too. They always come with a big, uncompromising mouth, put on shrill shows and invite you to become part of their little family.

And so this evening at the Hafenklang comes to an end too, after almost 120 minutes of ecstasy on and in front of the stage. To finish, there\u2019s just one question left: how would G\u00fcnther\u2019s mother describe her child in her own words?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Party! Party! Downer! Downer! Some people need therapy after G\u00fcnther; for others, G\u00fcnther is exactly that. Like a shabby clown, G\u00fcnther leads not only the audience but also itself up the garden path. G\u00fcnther is punk, clown and mum all at once.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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