The show at Gebäude 9 in Köln on Friday, Nov. 23, started rather late. Officially the concert was scheduled for 9 pm, but even the support act (Kurt, who played acoustic guitar and sang, half an hour of beautiful but rather melancholy tunes) didn't begin until 10 or so.
The Go-Luckys! finally got on stage at about 10.40 pm, but once they were up there, there was no stopping them - and they played the first six songs at almost double speed! (Barbara afterwards said she hadn't even noticed...)
They started with Don't underestimate me, Time to B. and Blood of feeling, and then played another 19 songs, the order of which I don't remember: Don't neglect yourself, Old Woman (imagine those two twice as fast as on the respective albums!), Goof on the roof, Still?, Rhombus, Straw Man, Arsonist Story, Smoking her wings, How did you know, Back again, Isn't lonely lovely, Everything happens by itself, Life/Luck, Scissors, Every pretty girl, I'm only asking, I insist, I'm on the wrong side and Leaving on your mind.
After just a few songs, a string on Fabrizio's guitar broke, so he had to pick up the bass (a little earlier than planned probably), while friendly helper and 'Luck-Driver' Hans-Jürgen put on a new string. Almost as soon as Fabrizio got back his guitar, though, Barbara bust a string on her Gretsch (where strings are apparently rather hard to replace) as well, so she had to take over the bass (Fabrizio afterwards said they played every single song on which she plays the bass).
All this in little more than 80 minutes! Then they came back for a couple of encores, which were a new song called A Mountain (they played that one on the WFMU radio show) and - well, I'm afraid I don't remember what the other one was, probably because I didn't know it.

It's a real shame that there was not much of a turnout - by my guess (I didn't actually count them) the audience was no larger than 25 to 40 people. The sound was okay, though sometimes a little loud, but then the Go-Luckys! do tend to get louder and louder the longer they play...
As always, they played their hearts out, and those who were there loved them!

The crowd at the KuFa in Krefeld on Sat., Nov. 24, was a little bigger, and the place is a little smaller, which helped with the impression that this was a better-attended gig, too. That night, however, they had to overcome a couple of handicaps: Barbara hadn't slept all that much the night before and felt it was best to play slow songs only, and there was Horst, one of your typical concert-psychopaths (that's what my friend Peter calls 'em)...
They started the show really slowly, with Ladies of the Sea, followed by How did you know, I insist and Time to B. After that Barbara gradually 'woke up' and the band began to pick up speed (though they did not wind up playing as fast as in Köln) with Don't underestimate me, Still?, Smoking her wings, Isn't lonely lovely and Life/Luck. Again, I'm not at all sure about the order of performance here.
Now for Horst (I know his name because Barbara asked him and he shouted it loud enough for everyone in the room to hear). The first time I noticed him (after he had offered Barbara a sip from his glass of red wine) he was half-lying on one of the monitors on stage. Next, he started dancing, arms wildly flailing about, right in front of the stage. When he was exhausted from that, he sat down right in the center of the stage, looking as though he was falling asleep. Barbara asked him if he was okay, and that's when he started telling her 'I luff you'. They then played their excellent version of Peter Blegvad's Driver's Seat for him - and Horst rewarded Barbara by changing his position on the edge of the stage to right beneath her feet, waving a cigarette under her nose while she was singing, and eventually tipping over her bottle, spilling whatever it was on the stage, just barely missing some of her effects switches.
Barbara really has the patience of an angel - well, it's more likely a profound understanding of human nature and its needs and shortcomings combined with angelic patience - so when others probably would have kicked him off the edge of the stage right then and there, at that point she just told him very quietly he could not sit there any longer and asked him politely to go back to his place in the center. Which he did. Not sitting there this time, however, but actually lying down lengthwise on his back, right in front of Fabrizio. For a while he kept waving his arms and hands in the air for show, but after a bit he gave up and stopped being completely annoying.
The other songs the band played during this interesting but slightly disturbing display of either drunkenness or mental illness or both were Arsonist Story, Don't neglect yourself, Back again, Boston Song, Old Woman, Scissors, Every pretty girl, I'm only asking, Leaving on your mind, A Mountain, Stain on the sun, Ipecac and Haze is free (I think).
According to my warped memory, the encores were Pages turn, Whatever I do is right/wrong, You knock me out and Straw Man.
Contrary to Barbara's expectations and in spite of the 'messiness' with Horst, this concert, of course, turned out to be another excellent one; those three musicians simply know how to pull off a live show!

The last concert that was close enough to home for me to go to was the one at Harmonie in Bonn on Tuesday, Nov. 27th, and it was definitely the best of the three as far as the performance was concerned. There were about 10, maybe 15, paying guests there, and the manager wasn't exactly happy about that, which he tried to make the band feel in various ways. However, Barbara and the twins were relaxed and determined to show him they play with just as much enthusiasm for 3 people as for 300, even if there is no money in it for them at all. Well, they did!
Fabrizio bust the high e string on his guitar twice that night, but Hans-Jürgen was there to change strings, which he did the first time; as the second time happened quite close to the end of the show, so it didn't matter much, Fabrizio just took over the bass for the rest of the show. At least Barbara managed to keep her guitar intact and didn't have to play the bass.
This time I had the sense to finally bring a friend who did have a pen on her (simply not being able to remember to bring a pen myself...), so I was able to write down the entire set list.
They started with How did you know, Life/Luck and Smoking her wings, and then played a song called Heat, which was written by an apparently pretty cool priest from Suessen, the twins' home town. Next came Still?, Don't underestimate me, an unbelievable rendition of the fantastic Time to B.; Isn't lonely lovely, You knock me out, Pulp (which had been sorely missed by me at the two previous shows), Everything happens by itself, Blood of feeling, Hanging by strands, Rickity Tickity Tin (the audience was small and attentive enough for this one, I guess - and it might have contained a little reference to the Harmonie staff...), Goof on the roof, Scissors, Incapable, Buds won't bud, I insist, Driver's Seat, Pages turn, I'm on the wrong side, Old Woman, A Mountain, Don't neglect yourself and Leaving on your mind (which Barbara actually dedicated to the Harmonie staff... har har...).
The encores were the wonderful Joed out by Graeme Downes and Ipecac.

Soon after the show the band was hurried out of the place, but once the stage was cleared, they were free to party on in the Harmonie's very nice backstage room - with what was left of the little food they had been granted and their own drinks!
It makes me sad to see how little true talent and art are appreciated these days, and how few of the truly talented artists can make a living doing what they do best. Maybe with the next generation that will change again for the better, but who knows...?

Anyway, a big thanks to Barbara and the twins for sharing their music with the world and for being who they are!
All in all I drove about 350 kilometers to see the Go-Luckys! (well, actually, I was chauffeured to Köln by a friend, so I drove only 250 km), and the three shows were worth every meter I traveled!