The last show of 2014 was Boyz II Men. Yes, they’re still active! Unfortunately they are largely forgotten in Germany. Their latest albums were released almost unnoticed, which is a shame because in my opinion they were good albums! With their latest album “Collide” they are on tour right now and did three stops in Germany, one of them in Munich in the Kesselhaus, a rather small location with a capacity of 2000 people.
Of course most people came to hear Boyz II Men’s old hits. And they have quite of few of them – especially wonderful ballads like “On bended knees“, “I’ll make love to you” or “The Color of Love“. To speed the show up a little, they added some Motown covers like the Four Tops “Reach out, I’ll be there“. As they were part of the Motown-Family in the 90s, that seemed appropriate and of course fit their own hit “Motownphilly“. The guys squeezed in two songs from their latest album as well, but you could tell that most of the audience was not familiar with them. On the other hand they proved to be very familiar and with Boyz II Men’s biggest hit, “End of the road”, which also ended the rather short show.
Nathan, Wanya and Shawn (forth member Michael had left the group in 2003) are awesome singers, no doubt. Especially Wanya is amazing when he improvises over the choruses. One could say that that’s the reason why they come on their own, without a band, singing to the karaoke versions of their songs. But then again the whole show is quickly degrated to appear like a karaoke show as well. And that doesn’t do them any justice!
Unfortunately it seems as if the show is very low-budget but aimed at earning a lot. The ticket prices were the same as most artists charge these days when they play big venues with band, huge crew, lights, screens, special effects etc. There was even a “Golden circle” in this mini-venue, which is ridiculous in my opinion! That’s why I refused to get a ticket for it and my friend and me went for the normal standing category. I’m usually willing to pay a lot for a ticket but not when it seems like a rip-off! I really love love love their voices and their songs, but a good hour of show with canned music combined with those prices… Come on, guys, you can do better than that!
music, the world & me 