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Matthias Reim (24th March 2023, Oberhausen)

After a lot of tour-chasing Weird Al Yankovic and watching the Pittsburgh Penguins, the first weekend home after quite a while featured another highlight with Flyctory.com: I have been able to cover a concert from one of Germany’s largest arenas, the Rudolf-Weber Arena in Oberhausen. The artist was Matthias Reim, who I have seen live on stage multiple times and always enjoyed his mix of schlager and rock party show. Here is my convert review.

This posting comes with 316 major size pictures as part of the concert gallery.

 

Rudolf Weber-Arena – About The Venue

The 12,650 capacity Rudolf Weber-Arena has been opened in 1996 as Arena Oberhausen. Originally, it hosted concerts and shows, but also ice hockey matches by the Reviewlöwen Oberhausen. The two-level arena is thereby right next to the Westfield Centro, Germany’s largest shopping mall. This artificial city center (Neue Mitte = “New Center”) is located Northeast of Central Oberhausen. . However, Reim just used a part of the venue by moving the stage forward so that the in-fact attendance was significantly below capacity..

Parking around the arena is for free, which might be rather remarkable. However, you can also reach the arena rather easily by public transport, as the Oberhausen Neue Mitte tram and bus station is located right between the mall and the venue. I introduced you to the Centro when I took you to their Christmas market in 2021.

Matthias Reim – About The Artists

Matthias Reim is a German artist from Korbach in Northern Hesse. He was born thereon 1957. His biggest song so far was the 2.5 million unit seller Verdammt, ich lieb’ Dich in 1990. After some struggle, he more and more came back in the mid-2010’s and had quite some success as a music-selling artist as well as on stage. In early 2022, I reviewed his album MATTHIAS. The posting contains additional information about the artist.

 

Matthias Reim – The Show

There was no support act for the show, but Matthias Reim played two sets, separated by a some twenty minute intermission. He stepped on stage a few minutes after the scheduled beginning of the concert, around 20:03. The Oberhausen crowds cheered from the very first moment, also as his opening medley contained some of his big songs, followed by Ich hab’ mich so auf dich gefreut. For the seventh song, Matthias’ son Julian left his role in the background choir and joined his father of the re-interpretation of Cat Stevens’ Father and Son, Vater und Sohn. In both sets, Julian had one solo track from his album In meinem Kopf, which I did not like too much in the review. Matthias Reim presented Wer nie durch Scherben ging in a rather acoustic setup, the last song before the intermission was Einsamer Stern

Second Set

Finally, the intermission was roughly 23 minutes, between 21:06 and 21:09. Hallelujah and Bon Voyage were the first songs of this second part of the concert, both boosted the atmosphere in the Oberhausen venue again .Quite a lot of people were dancing the whole concert, some of them the whole time to the same rhythm and style. A guy close to me forgot that he approached Rudolf Weber-Arena in crutches and stood and danced the whole time. Right before Deine Liebe the people luckily most people did not get that the artist did a big faux-pas stating the way he is enjoying life as Kraft durch Freude, which Reim definitely did not mean as a reference to dark German history. Instead, the crowd celebrated father and son during the recent single release Pech & Schwefel. Julian’s Gravitation did not work out in that way. The last songs of the second featured classics like Ich muss Dich noch einmal sehen or Träumer.

The encore closed the concert at about 22:30. With Hallo, ich möcht’ gern wissen wie’s Dir geht and Verdammt ich lieb’ Dich, Reim saved two of the fan favorites for last and gave Oberhausen an enjoyable day.

 

Matthias Reim – The Gallery

Here are 316 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:

 

Matthias Reim – My View

These songs simply work in German speaking countries. Even though I did not “prepare” for the show in any way, I could sing to most of the songs, beginning until end. Even though here and there, Matthias Reim still feels to be a bit weaker on stage compared to a few years ago, he is giving his fans a great evening. He is close to his fans and you strongly feel he and the band are truthfully and thankfully enjoying the gig. And even if you deduct the intermission, Oberhausen had a more than two hour schlager and rock night with a good Reim and a very good team around him.

 

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