Performance review at Schauspielhaus

Kale. Sunday's applause at the sold-out Kiel Schauspielhaus was once again lavish – causing drummer Jürgen Spiegel to have an expression between surprise and appreciation. After the first two numbers from the Tingvall trio, “Woodpecker” and the title track of the last album “Birds” (No. 21 in the German charts in July 2023), the cheering got even louder. “This is a Sunday concert,” shouts pianist Martin Tingvall. “Like the third appearance, but it's also a little scary. I hope we can do that justice.”

Of course they can. 21 years of uninterrupted band history have brought the Hamburg trio together into one sound, cohesive body. Infectious gameplay fun, easy transitions in interaction in more complex passages. Swede Tingvall and German Spiegel often play with pressure and force, always making eye contact and then occasionally making cocky faces. And in the middle – although he is from Cuba – guitarist Omar Rodriguez Calvo gives a reserved performance, focusing on his fingers racing over the strings.

Concert by the Thingvall Trio at the Schauspielhaus Kiel: Nuthatches are climbing, hummingbirds are fluttering

They let the new album's 'Africa' jump with energy and joy, 'The Day After' grow from a sing-along beginning into a fast track, 'Birds Of Paradise' dance in a folky way and 'Air Guitar', dedicated to Carlos Santana, is lively with a Latin touch. At first, Tingvall mutes the strings of a grand piano, and Spiegel lets his lightning-quick edges vibrate forcefully until the song undulates more tempestuously. In “Nuthatch” they let a nuthatch climb crookedly into the bass line, in “Humming Bird” a hummingbird flutters brightly, and in “Woodpecker” a woodpecker pulses quickly.

On “Nighttime,” Tingvall’s high notes drift in like stardust, while “SOS” sends the trio into the light of the many things that, according to the bandleader, are currently going in the wrong direction. Older pieces like the softly oscillating, subtly elegiac “Vägen”, the aesthetically high-stepping “Evighetsmaskinen” or the mysterious early “Grrr” – according to Tingvall, symbolizing greed and dedicated to Dagobert Duck – are once again staples. In the group he performed brilliant, strikingly angry, fast-paced rock solos.

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In the end there were not three encores, but three additional pieces. At the end of the final clip, Spiegel holds the Daburka drum and lets his fingers spin over it. Standing applause.

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