28.08.08 - Verizon Wireless Theatre - Houston - Texas (US)

28/8 Houston 20.00 (3.00) - Verizon Wireless - 2815 persons

Setlist:

Break away

Final Day

1000 Oceans

Love is dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT7GBJE8eEA&eurl

Live every Second

Monsoon

Black

Scream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4J9m-BNfkI&eurl

Don't Jump

Raise Your hands

Ready set go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZKdcRH9pks&eurl

By Your side

Rescue Me

Durch den Monsun

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2008..._at_verizon.php


Tonight: Tokio Hotel at Verizon Wireless Theater



What if Rammstein were an emo band? Chances are if you've got a tween in your household, especially one that sprechens the Deutsch, you already know. That would be Tokio Hotel, the quartet of German jugend that has sold more than five million albums in its native Deutschland and, this year's English-language debut Scream (Interscope) - aka Schrei - in tow, has set its sights on the States
Formed in 2001 in Magdeburg - capital of the north-central German state of Saxony-Anhalt, noted for its cathedral (of course) and being one of Martin Luther's early "Reformation" tour stops; composer Georg Phillip Telemann was born there - Tokio Hotel is like Kraftwerk with more acoustic guitars and a lot more eyeliner. Actually, that's not true, but AFI fans and weirdos who enjoy watching MTV Europe on the satellite dish will think they're a hoot. - Chris Gray

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Tokio Hotel
Verizon Wireless Theater
August 28, 2008

Verizon Wireless Theater presents Tokio Hotel.

TOKIO HOTEL are Bill Kaulitz (vocals) & Tom Kaulitz (guitar), Georg Listing (bass) and Gustav Schafer (drums), and their story reads like the script for a blockbuster movie...

'... A band from a town in East Germany become the biggest stars of the past 20 years in their native country, charting records at No. 1, playing to ten or twenty thousand each night and being feted with every German industry award.

Before long, the four musicians are travelling farther afield, and demand is growing fast - not just from an increasingly manic fanbase, but from the mass media too. Much attention is focussed on the frontman and the guitarist - identical twin brothers with a potent `fight for your dreams´ philosophy.

The former is a striking, androgynous-looking performer, pierced & tattooed, an artist effortlessly able to drive his followers into a frenzy, whilst the latter cuts a distinctive dash of his own.

They record & release two full albums of memorable guitar-driven anthems, complete with German lyrics, and Tokio Fever rages out of control...'

You can already hear the cameras starting to roll, except...

The script would have to include the fact that two of the TH members were just 13 years old when they made their first record, and they are still all under 21 today. So no-one would believe it. No way.

Next!

ACTUALLY, NOT only is the above synopsis free from artistic licence, but if anything it underplays the impact the band have made on a German market where `Tokio Fever´ is now an epidemic…

Since signing with Universal in May 2005, TH have sold approaching three million records & DVDs in Germany alone, making them the country´s most successful band, with a host of domestic awards jostling for space in the collective cabinet (nine platinum/four gold, at last count, plus an additional four platinum awards for sales in Austria & Switzerland). And they played the most successful debut live tour EVER to grace German stages.

The two TH albums – 2005´s `Schrei´ (`Scream´) and follow-up `Zimmer 483´ (`Room 483´) – have both topped the charts at home, spawning four No.1 singles, and in the case of the former, staying on those charts for 66 unbroken weeks.

Meanwhile, the first leg of the European stadium tour in support of `Zimmer…´ (April 3rd - May 14th) saw the group playing in front of young crowds six to twenty thousand strong. All going mad. All of the time. Something underlined in the reddest possible ink by the `Schrei-Live´ DVD, issued in 2006, which has now sold approximately 100,000 copies in Germany, pushing total DVD sales for TH to the quarter million mark...

And just to make the `script´ even more improbable, all of the above (and more!) has been achieved in less than two years – although the speed of this breakthrough should in no way imply either fast-tracking or favoritism. In the world of TH, dues have very much been paid...

So.... die US-Tour ist vorbei..... und die Jungs wohl bereits auf dem Sprung nach Mexico!!! Jedenfalls wenn sie mit dem Tourbus da hin wollen: Houston ist 7 Stunden zurück - ergo ist es jetzt gerade 0 Uhr 30 dort. Und um 19 Uhr haben sie den nächsten Termin in Mexico. Keine Ahnung, welche Timezone - keine Ahnung, wie weit die Entfernung ist......

Houston war offensichtlich nicht ausverkauft - es wird von "halbvoll" gesprochen.

After a wait, Tokio Hotel gives young fans what they want

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, August 29, 2008
By MIKE DANIEL / The Dallas Morning News
mdaniel@dallasnews.com

Waiting is sometimes a risky game, particularly for attention-deficient 14-year-olds.



CHRIS PIZZELLO/The Associated Press
Tokio Hotel: (from left) Tom Kaulitz, Gustav Schafer, Bill Kaulitz and Georg Listing. Stylish emo-rock quartet Tokio Hotel knows this. But it's stirred up so much glamorous glee in its native Germany, where it now holds the record for the fastest-selling album in German pop history. And on the U.S. coasts, hundreds of young teens waited outdoors for hours before shows in New York and LA in the spring.

Now, waiting is merely a way to tease.

So for its first full U.S. tour, which stopped at House of Blues on Tuesday, there are no openers: just a black stage-shrouding banner, splattered with the group's logo, translucent enough to trigger New Kids on the Block-like shrieks with any movement behind it.

Showtime was advertised at 8 p.m. sharp. That was false advertising. The act didn't go on until 9:17. During the 77-minute wait, the 500 or so that gathered – not even a third of the way to a sellout at HOB – started to buzz appreciably. But in the meantime, the merchandising booth action died, and the parents shuffled around with one eye on the offspring and the other on the bar.

When that banner dropped with a sudden flourish, two things became plain: why Tokio Hotel has become a goth-pop sensation, and how narrow its window of opportunity is.

Much has been made of singer Bill Kaulitz's shock-straightened mane (now entirely black) and androgyny. But the 18-year-old has a weak and breathy voice with little range; both he and his contrapuntal twin bro, dreadlocked guitarist Tom, were hesitant and contrived performers with little physical honesty. The music – like the look, essentially a cross between Jonas Brothers and A.F.I. – is similarly safe with a couple of structural exceptions.

That's all fine for this crowd, several of whom declared this one of their first concerts. But you have to wonder what's next for Tokio Hotel, since it can't mask itself behind an LED panel, great gear and under-experienced fans forever.