flyctory.com

Alexandra Kay, Hannah Ellis, Lakeview (5th March 2024, Cologne)

Florian Buechting Concerts No Comments

Especially as I could not make it to one of the Country To Country shows the weekend before, I was really looking forward to my first country music concert in 2024. Sound of Nashville brought three very interesting artists to the Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld. Namely, Alexandra Kay, Hannah Ellis and Lakeview made it to my home town Cologne. Here is my concert report.

This posting comes with 633 major size pictures as part of the concert gallery.

 

Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld – About The Venue

The Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld is located right below the rail tracks, close to the Cologne-Ehrenfeld regional rail station. The venue can hold up to 500 visitors. Apart from the train station (regional and S-Bahn commuter trains), nearby tram and underground station Venloer Strasse / Gürtel adds connection to the light rail lines 3, 4, 5 and 13, as well as multiple bus connections. Parking in the area is rather tricky, though. This was especially an issue as public transport was on strike that day.

Sound of Nashville Show Cologne – About The Artists

The main act of the evening was Alexandra Kay. The Illinois-origin artist kicked off her career in teenage years. Initially, the 1991-born US-American did hip hop and R&B and established in the St. Louis music scene. In October 2023, she released her debut album All I’ve Ever Known.

I was really looking forward to see Hannah Ellis live on stage in my home town. The Kentucky-born artist is a professional artist since 2015, but just recently released her debut album That Girl in January 2024. Apart from her solo career, she is also working as a songwriter and background vocalist. For the Country To Country show in Berlin and the concert in Cologne, she was accompanied by her husband Nick Wayne. He is also a country music singer-songwriter.

The third act of the evening was Lakeview. They are a duo from my favorite ice hockey town Pittsburgh. Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy moved to Nashville in 2019. In 2020, they released the EP She Drove Me To The Bar, followed by Small Town Famous one year later.

 

Sound of Nashville Show Cologne – The Show

The show was scheduled to kick off at 19:00. Maybe also due to an absolutely weird traffic situation around the venue, Lakeview stepped on stage some ten minutes later. Already with their first song, Poor Me, they cheered up the fans. The Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld was not at its fullest this evening, unfortunately. However, together with an excellent technical crew, this gave me the chance for more snaps than I expected.

The set continued with songs like Message in a Bottle, Son of A or the final one, Drink With My Friends, where the Cologne crowd sang along happily with the Steel City guys. Their set closed after 37 minutes and even though the German fans asked for an encore, they stepped off stage, nonetheless, leaving the crowd in a happy mood for the next act.

 

Hannah Ellis having Fun on Stage

The intermission until Hannah Ellis stepped on stage was just enough for a pee break or a quick beer. The Kentucky-origin artist and her husband kicked off their forty minute set just five minutes after Lakeview cleared it. The first songs included songs like Country Can, and Ellis was amazed that many fans in the audience sang with her the full song. Hannah thanked a lot of people for the show she obviously enjoyed a lot, including the Sound of Nashville crew and her close German friend, who is from the Rhineland region.

On the music side, there were several songs from her recently released That Girl album. This included songs like Someone Else’s Heartbreak and Karma on the Rocks and always came with some explanations, what the story behind the song is. After a cover of the Shania Twain classic You’re Still The One and Home and A Hometown, one highlight of the show was the duet of Hannah Ellis and Nick Wayne, performing their 2019 song If the World Was Ending. With her final song Wine Country, Hannah Ellis cheered up the crowd again and closed her lovely set.

 

Alexandra Kay – the bravest Artist in Cologne

I really felt sad for Alexandra Kay, who obviously had a hard cough. Nonetheless, there were hardly any disruptions by this in her 45 minute set, which started some 15 minutes after the Hannah Ellis set. Kay had a pretty angelic performance in Cologne, the acoustic set gave her stories like the fourth song All I’ve Ever Known a very special and intimate touch. Only at one song, she had to take a short break during a song.

The next song was Everleave, which Alexandra Kay named my favorite song I have written with. The last two songs of her set were How Do We Go and Best Worst Ex, which she originally recorded with Julia Cole. After her set, Alexandra Kay had to give the most hugs to her fans – definitely deserved after giving Cologne such a great performance under her obvious physical limitations on that Tuesday evening.

 

 

Sound of Nashville Show Cologne – The Gallery

Here are 633 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:

 

Sound of Nashville Show Cologne – My View

Especially after my EP review of Lakeview was rather average, the duo surprised me. They brought so much power and energy to Cologne at the beginning of this magical evening. Vice versa, Alexandra Kay did the most intimate, very personal performance on stage in Cologne. To me, having Hannah Ellis on a stage in my home town was very touching – and I loved her to enjoy the show as much as she did. Three very different artist on that Sound of Nashville night, every one with a very special touch. Thus, this evening in Cologne felt like a lovely showcase of a wider range of country music.

 

Cologne Concerts

Here are all my concert reviews related to Cologne:

 

Flyctory.com in Pittsburgh

Here are all other postings by Flyctory.com related to Greater Pittsburgh:

, , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *