Photo: Vera MarzinskiSinger Carsten Heinze knew just how to captivate the audience right away and, together with his bandmates—Berthold Weber on keyboards, guitarist Stephan Koopmann, and the rhythm section of bassist Thomas Große and drummer Michael Wolpers—really got the crowd going. “Just like everywhere else, the women were really getting into it, singing and clapping along,” Heinze noted. But his “Listen up” wasn’t really necessary in Bielstein—even the men were bobbing along and singing along. The audience even knew the lyrics to Reinhard Mey’s song “Der Mann am Fenster.” The band “Abenteuerland’s” motto is now “Ein graues Haar” (A Gray Hair), just like the PUR song from 1995. The band “Abenteuerland” has been around since 2008. They haven’t been playing unplugged for very long. But they always have a lot of fun—and that really came through.
When they started with “Abenteuerland,” they had no idea how many hits PUR had, Heinze revealed. It’s amazing how many songs the concertgoers can sing along to. They themselves were on a “field trip” of sorts at PUR concerts. When everyone jumped up and belted out “Frau Schneider,” it was clear that the song had to be part of their setlist, too. And so it was included in Bielstein as well. Over the past nine years, they’ve revamped their setlist every now and then. Ballads like “Prinzessin” were, of course, just as much a staple of the setlist as “Hab’ mich wieder mal an dir betrunken.” The five guys in the original band PUR started out very small in 1975 in Bietigheim, a town in Swabia near Stuttgart. Success didn’t come until 1988, however, with the album “Wie im Film.” When “Seiltänzertraum” was released in 1993, PUR scored a major hit. In early 2000, just in time for the ski jumping season, the new single “Adler sollen fliegen” was released—one of the few tracks not included on “Abenteuerland.” Instead, the album features many, many of PUR’s other great songs, including “Funkelperlenaugen.” “Drachen sollen fliegen” is also lovely to sing along to—and really makes you want to sit down. It’s utterly moving, if only because of the lyrics: “When she hears this tango”—sung with great emotion. There’s also a special version of this song that Daniel Wirtz sang when PUR frontman Hartmut Engler appeared on “Sing meinen Song.” And “Wo sind all die Indianer hin?”—they’re at the Burghaus Bielstein. At least the ones who can sing along to this song, and singer Carsten Heinze even put on his feather headdress for the occasion. One guest repeatedly called out for “Lena” at the top of his lungs, but instead they sang “Weil Du bei mir bist” for him. But of course, that iconic PUR song came up too—almost at the very end. Naturally, the five musicians couldn’t leave without encores. “Ich denk an Dich,” “Geweint vor Glück,” and “Bis wir uns wiedersehen” (for the audience to sing along to) went over just as well as the entire evening’s program.
Vera Marzinski
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