The most famous Cologne band in the most important (and famous) venue of the city – how could there be more home town vibes for me than in that coverage? Rather short notice, I had the opportunity to cover Cologne’s finest rock band BAP at the Lanxess Arena, the indoor venue temple of the German city. I am always very excited about being active in there. But this one has been a truly special night for me on that 13th December 2024.
Home of the Kölner Haie ice hockey team, heart of European handball and host to countless amazing concerts – the Lanxess Arena is truly the key and iconic venue in Cologne. Located close to the Köln-Deutz train station, it is well-connected to public transport by regional, national and international high speed rail connections and all kinds of local transport. Four parking garages turn the visit also into a convenient spot for any kind of entertainment if you come from abroad. Even though the venue has been opened in 1998 already and is sometimes regarded to be a bit of old-fashioned, it is still a great place to me and finally also the venue I have visited the most for private reasons. For concerts, it can accommodate up to 20,000 people, the capacity for ice hockey is 18,600, handball matches can have up to 19,403 spectators. The locals typically call it Henkelmännchen due to its iconic shape – or simply with his original name, Kölnarena.
BAP is the key rock band of Cologne. Founded in 1976 already, it is closely linked to his lead singer and only founding member remaining, Wolfgang Niedecken. The band name derives from the Cologne German name for “Dad”. Apart from their 1979 debut album Wolfgang Niedecken’s BAP rock andere kölsche Leeder and the 1980 affjetaut thereafter, all BAP albums at least peaked third in the German album charts. Overall, the band released 18 studio albums.
The 2024 tour was labeled as Zeitreise 81/82, which refers to the two albums released in that time, für usszeschnigge! (“To cut out”) and von drinne noh drusse (“From inside to outside”), which both lead the German charts and were double platinum each. The first of these albums also features the song Verdamp lang her, which is likely the most famous song of the band until today – even though only the 1988 Fortsetzung folgt… made it to the German singles Top 10.
BAP – The Show
The lights at Lanxess Arena Cologne went out at 20:10 and the band stepped on stage a few minutes thereafter. The set did not contain all songs of the two albums mainly featured, but the vast majority of them. BAP opened with Koot vüür Aach, Südstadt, verzäll nix and Nemm mich met, which is from the 1983 Bess demnähx album. Niedecken stated early that there will be no intermission (“too hippie-alike”) and now encore – the band will play their “30 songs list” from top to bottom. Finally, there were even 31 songs on stage. However, the band lead also gave a lot of background stories to the songs. When he stated that he could that for every song, but this would prolong the concert until dawn of the following Saturday, the audience felt to agree. But they could not persuade him.
Nonetheless, Cologne had an epic evening with their home town band. And the Cologne-German singing band with a total of nine musicians had a lot of fun. During the first part of Nit Für Kooche, they wore typical Cologne carnival caps, Songs like Wellenreiter heated up the crowds even more – the arena simply sang the whole lyrics by themselves. Being out from the pit and sitting on the stands, my chair shook the first time at Zehnter Juni – Cologne simply had their party on the second of two nights with BAP. Towards the middle of the show, the band went for a rather acoustic set with songs like Fuhl ahm Strand and Eins für Carmen un en Insel.
More Than Three Hours of BAP
BAP was in control of Cologne’s premier venue – and soon added a block of classics. Thereby, there were also fun element, e.g. when at Ruut-wieß-blau querjestriefte Frau, wenn the brass section featured snippets of Ring of Fire and All You Need is Love. Thereafter, they played Jupp, Ne schöne Jrooß, Verdamp lang her and more of their classics, making practically everyone in the place standing up and singing and dancing. At that point of time, the show was already in its third hour – and some ten songs left to be played. Do kanns zaubere touched the Cologne hearts and songs like Jraadus lead to thoughtful moments.
The last part of the show also featured some songs, which had original melodies by other artists. Wie ‘ne Stein and Hurricane / Stell dir vüür are Cologne German lyric version of Bob Dylan songs, while Wahnsinn is based on a song by The Troggs. The 30th (!) song of the evening was Et letzte Leed (“The final song”) – which was not even BAP’s last one on this tour. With Helfe kann dir keiner, they completed their home town show after some 3:15 hours and 31 songs. A typical BAP duration, but even more amazing nowadays.
BAP – The Gallery
Here are 340 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:
The evening in Cologne was magical. Two thirds of the set consisted of two albums, which are more than 40 years old – and the Lanxess Arena sang along as if they were recent releases. Wolfgang Niedecken and his band underlined their importance and the role of their music for the Rheinland metropolis – and they got a big thanks back from an enthusiastic audience. It was amazing and touching to see the 73 year old band lead smile on stage again and again. His bandmates enjoyed this special evening as well definitely – and gave Cologne a memorable second practically sold out night right a few days before Christmas.
BAP – Zeitreise 2025
In summer 2025, BAP will continue their Zeitreise with a slightly adopted set list, majorly in open air venues:
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