Album “off” and “Out Of Office” concert by Alligatoah
After we went to two Alligatoah concerts in 2023 — in Leipzig and in Erfurt, for his album “Rotz und Wasser” — things didn’t stay quiet around him for very long, even though it initially seemed that way. As mentioned in the last blog post, 2023 was actually supposed to be Alligatoah’s final year — at least according to his own prediction in the 2013 song “Trauerfeier Lied.” All the content on his social media channels had also been deleted. But on December 3rd, 2023, he suddenly released a new single, “So raus,” which included hints about a new album AND a new tour. He produced the song together with Fred Durst, known as the frontman of Limp Bizkit. That was meant to set the tone for the new album: it’s supposed to move in the direction of rap and metal. Over the following weeks, a cover version of “Daylight” was released, along with a teaser featuring three new songs from the album.
At the beginning of the year, the “Out of Office” tour was announced, which this time consisted of only four locations: Konstanz, Halle, Cologne, and Berlin. However, as later revealed, the tour will continue in 2025. Since Halle was the closest option for us, we immediately ordered tickets for it in July. A nice bonus was that you would receive the album together with the tickets once it was released in March. And so, toward the end of March, the package with the album and the tickets arrived. A funny detail about the tickets is that they used simple stock images of office spaces for the design.
The album, like its predecessor, again contains 12 songs. Still, it somehow feels like “less,” because one of them is a pure cover song and the remaining tracks seem rather short. As already hinted at in the first released song, “So raus,” the album is meant to be a homage to the rap and metal sounds of the 90s and 2000s. It feels less socially critical, and many parts of the songs are screamed. Below, all songs will be listed along with their links to YouTube.
- Ich fühle Dich
- Niemand
- Weiße Zähne (feat. Bausa)
- Wer lacht jetzt
- So raus (feat. Fred Durst)
- Scheißdreck
- Menschliches Versagen (feat. Guano Apes)
- Küssen
- Es kratzt
- Ich ich ich
- Partner in Crime
- Daylight
It’s difficult to create a ranking of the songs here, unlike what I’ve done with the albums by Die Ärzte. The songs aren’t bad in themselves, but the metal aspect that runs through all of them simply isn’t what one is used to from Alligatoah. Still, if you want to highlight a few successful tracks, “Scheißdreck” would be one of them. The song is quite short, with only two verses, but the idea of relying on data protection while giving examples where personal data inevitably has to be mentioned (like choosing a dish from a restaurant menu or telling a massage therapist which parts of your body hurt) is pretty amusing. The track “Ich ich ich” is delightfully self‑absorbed (more in line with what you’d expect from Alligatoah), and the already‑released single “So raus” is melodically well done — in a way you might expect from Limp Bizkit or even Linkin Park. “Niemand” is interesting with lines like “You say: ‘Who do you think you are?’ I say: ‘Who are you to think?’” and “Es kratzt,” where he portrays a hypochondriac who ends the song singing, “There’s only one remedy that heals me: attention.” The remaining songs feel somewhat convoluted at times and more screamed than sung… but here and there they still carry an interesting message.
July was getting closer, and in the meantime we went to a concert by ok.danke.tschüss, a former opening act for Alligatoah. The hype was huge, but unfortunately the weather forecast didn’t look promising. The concert was supposed to take place at the Peißnitzinsel open-air stage, but it had been raining almost nonstop for days, and Saturday, the day of the concert, was predicted to be the worst day of all — though at least without thunderstorms. So we grabbed a car-sharing vehicle again and drove the roughly 1.5 hours to Halle. On the way there, it occasionally looked as if a few white clouds might break through… but the opposite happened. It kept getting darker, and when we arrived at the parking lot, a park-and-ride a bit north of the concert location, it was pouring down in sheets.
On the way there and already at the parking lot we saw the first other concertgoers heading toward the venue with umbrellas, rain jackets, or even without any rain protection at all. We ate the dinner we had brought with us in the car, since it was already shortly after 6 p.m., and we hoped that the rain would ease up a bit while we were eating. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So we threw on our cheap rain ponchos. Nathalie said that because of the warm weather it would be fine to go without a jacket under the poncho. But since I didn’t want the poncho directly on my skin, making me sweat underneath, I still wore a thin jacket underneath it. In the end, the jacket wasn’t even the real problem — the poncho was simply too short for me and the rain too heavy, so the lower part of my three‑quarter pants got wet, and I had to move the things from my pants pockets into the jacket.
The walk to the Peißnitz open-air stage took only about fifteen minutes, but the heavy rain and the already very large puddles made it difficult. Our shoes were completely soaked after just a few minutes. When we arrived at the fenced-off area, there were already the first drink stands and portable toilets. So before the long concert we went to the restroom again, but just like at the previous concerts, we decided not to buy any drinks and instead maybe get one of the exclusive Alligatoah cups at the end. Behind the entrance there were a few more food and drink stands. We also saw the merchandise booth. However, there was no tour shirt, and the other items didn’t appeal to us either, so this time we didn’t support capitalism and continued on toward the stage.
The ground in the audience area was very muddy because of the heavy rain. Fortunately, there were some stone slabs closer to the stage where you could stand more comfortably. And there, about ten meters from the stage, we stayed and waited for the show to begin. The weather had improved a bit, and it was mostly just light rain or drizzle. Wearing the rain poncho was still sensible, but a hat or hood was hardly necessary anymore. Even though we don’t drink alcohol or smoke ourselves, it was funny to hear the chants around us, like “Do you have some weed for me, then I’ll roll a joint for you” (to the opening melody of 99 Luftballons) or “We need to stop drinking less!” Later, people also started singing the intros from Gummi Bears or SpongeBob, which we joined in on.
Around 7 p.m., the opening act came on stage. It was the band TBS (The Butcher Sisters). It quickly became clear that the best way to describe them was as rock music made for the Ballermann. Most of their songs were literally just about beer. Still, the songs weren’t bad at all and really fired up the crowd. In the middle of the set, a banana boat was thrown into the audience, and later one of the singers even jumped onto it and kept singing.
When we later looked into the band, we found out that they’re not only funny live but also on YouTube. They even made a vlog about performing as Alligatoah’s opening act. Amusingly, everything in it is overdubbed by a narrator, as if they were speaking English or some other language. That makes the videos genuinely entertaining. Still, unlike with ok.danke.tschüss, we wouldn’t go to a concert of this band on purpose.
After the opening act, the stage was rebuilt. All the sheets were removed from the furniture, revealing that it was office equipment. After a while, the band members finally came on stage and the song “Stay in Touch” from the last album started playing. On the screen in the background you could see Alligatoah falling live from the moon down to Earth. When the song was halfway through, he then crashed down from the ceiling onto the stage (of course it was just a dummy), but it was pretty funny. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to record this beginning of the concert. But someone else managed to record the opening act on the same tour, though in Konstanz:
After the opening act, one of Nathalie’s favorite songs came on: “Weiße Zähne.” I recorded it together with the introductory speech.
In the first half of the concert, only songs from the new album were played at first. I only recorded a few short clips in between (which is why they’re in vertical format), so I could share them on WhatsApp status or something similar.
One of my favorite songs from the new album, “Scheißdreck,” was performed as well, and I was able to record it in full.
In the second half, well‑known older songs were played too, but in a more metal‑like version to match the new album. That’s how I was able to record “Du bist schön” and “Willst du.”
After about two hours, this concert also came to an end and the band left the stage. Alligatoah himself was the first to walk off so that the background screen could show him flying back to the moon with a jetpack.
As already mentioned, the weather during the concert had actually been reasonably okay given the circumstances — it was only drizzling. We walked back from the front of the stage toward the entrance of the festival area. On the way, we stepped through mud so thick that our shoes almost got stuck in it. We were glad we had solid ground under our feet while the concert was happening. At the end, we asked a few other guests if they would sell us a cup for the deposit, since they were about to return it anyway. That was basically our “souvenir” from the concert.
It was already the middle of the night and the park was barely lit. But with the phone flashlight in hand, we found our way back to the parking lot. The rain had completely stopped by then. From the parking lot, it took a while to get out of the city because many people were leaving the area at the same time and traffic was backed up at intersections. Interestingly, about five minutes after we had driven out of the city, it started raining heavily again. So we were really lucky that the weather during the concert turned out comparatively well.
Looking back, it’s clear once again how great Alligatoah’s concerts are and how good it was that we didn’t cancel the event for ourselves despite the pouring rain. Even though the newest album can’t quite keep up with its predecessors, the songs and the new metal versions of the older tracks were genuinely refreshing, and the stage performance was very well done.
