Nina
Hagen In Hamburg
A
Selfish Perspective
By
Mark A Silver
In May of this year 2000 I got to see Nina Hagen perform in Hamburg Germany. I promised to share some stories and pictures after my return to my home in Seattle, and I will confess to having taken quite some time to fulfill this promise.
If you are reading this solely for the Nina content that it might contain, then you may be disappointed.
I will readily admit to a fondness for the singing voice of Nina Hagen. She has a voice that can move me. This is a personal penchant and it would be an entirely unreasonable expectation to assume that everyone else shares this liking. In fact, considering how long Nina Hagen has been recording and performing, her fan base seems rather small and geographically scattered to me. I feel that the recognition she has received is not in equilibrium with the talent that she possesses or the many bodies of work she has created.
I believe this woman is an artist. If she were a painter instead of a singer, and if she had created hundreds of paintings instead of hundreds of songs, then we would all have our own favorite paintings out of the many. If you like a particular painting, song or any other form of “art”, there is something personal that is more important than quality, technique or even talent. That something is how we each relate with the piece. What does it convey to you? What associations do you form when you interact with it? There are no correct answers here. We all possess different palates, and the flavors that we like best need not be justified. You want an apple and I would like an orange, viva la difference!
Over time Nina has released a rather impressive output of materials and performances, encompassing many diverse styles and genres. I like her “hard” material best. Om Namay Shiva may be beautiful, (I often listen to it to lull me into a gentle sleep at night), and A Three Penny Opera may highlight Nina’s diverse talents and great voice, but I like Nina Hagen In Ekstasy. Give me rock n roll with generous dash of punk on top.
So going to see a Nina concert called Indische Nacht, (Indian Nights), didn't thrill me as much as the prospect of attending a Nina Hagen rock n roll show would have. In this particular preference of mine I am most likely in the minority. From my small sampling, Nina’s works of traditional Indian music has been some of the most requested and most enthusiastically received of all her different forms of music. The Hamburg concert seemed to collaborate this conclusion. The concert was sold out and the packed house was receptive and appreciative of the pieces they had just heard.
I had a handicap at this concert. I do not speak German and neither does my best friend, travel mate and fellow concert guest. Nina’s manager had put us on the guest list and we got there early, so we could have walked right in. However, we got in the line for people wanting tickets and ended up quite a few rows back during the show. This was fine for us, but no so good for the small camera that I had taken along on this trip. Being as the stage was primarily lit by candles and due to the over capacity crowd, I failed to capture any reasonably good photo images of this event.
Editors note; this one is the best from the lot.
I am writing what you are reading now because I had promised a few people that I would write something about Nina Hagen before I ever even left on this trip. There are a number of reasons why I should not be writing this story about Nina Hagen.
The first issue I have wrestled with is, this story really isn't about Nina Hagen at all. It is about me! It is not in her words; it is in my own. I didn't even get a chance to chat with Nina after this show. I have had very little personal contact with her in my life and the last occasion was almost two years ago. All the impressions contained within this story are solely my own, and I am decidedly biased.
I have gone on Nina pilgrimages before, to San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as having seen her in Seattle a couple of times. At this point dear reader, I will let you in on a little secret. All my trips to see Nina perform have been an excuse. As much as I like Nina Hagen, these excursions have been a lot more about the journey/adventure than about the destination.
This
was especially true of the trip to Hamburg. For me, the experience was
more than the sum of all its parts. Meeting up with friends, old and new.
Going places that I have never been to before, shopping, driving the autobahn
and sharing it all with my best friend, these things are stuck in my memory
more prominently than the Nina show. The show at the Fabrik
was
only a couple of hours out of the much longer experience of the passage
itself.
Did I enjoy the show? Yes, very much so. I would definitely take another trip to see Nina once more. If she every plays the western United States again, that would make it a lot easier for me to plan around. I have had a wonderful occasion every time I have gone to see a Nina show. Whether you too will have a similar experience, should you attend a Nina show, is a subjective matter. The further you travel to see a show, the greater the risk.
There is factor that lends to favorable odds in this gamble; Nina’s fans are great people. If you can meet up with some of them, you may well find this to be as true as I have. To all the good people who have extended their friendship and kindness to me during my travels, let me again express my thanks and sincere appreciation.
Nina
fans are the best.
The
Official Nina Hagen Home Pages
The Nina Hagen Electronic Shrine
The background of this page
was taken inside the Fabrik
To e-mail me click on the
cobra
My home pages
www.markasilver.com