Nikka Costa and her biggest fan, before the Frankfurt show
he week of Nikka has sadly come to an end, but I am so thrilled I was able to see her twice! The Frankfurt show was at a club so small, I was literally two feet away from her on stage. We were also able to chat with her guitarist before the show, AND get a photo and autograph from Nikka! And a huge thanks to my husband for supporting my Nikka Costa adoration and driving more than six hours total this week in order to see her. My recommendation: if you don't know her, get to know her. She's amazingly talented!
Nikka gettin' funky at Nachtleben in Frankfurt
While gettin' down to Nikka in both Frankfurt and then Stuttgart, a cultural difference between Germans and Americans blatently presented itself - Germans do not know how to cut loose. Granted, this is a generalization based only on what I've seen, but with two shows (one with a variety of German performers) providing the same observations, I can't help but come to this unfortunate conclusion.
I have become gloriously used to not sticking out like a sore thumb here in Germany, like I did back in California, being of European decent and towering over the majority of people there. As a German concert goer, I no longer fit in. While I boogied down and clapped along to Nikka's funky beats, everyone else either stood stock still or barely swayed a little and looked around more at everyone else than the act on stage. While I sang along with every word (I said I was a fan!), I noticed people staring at me like I was an alien (or perhaps, just an American).
Nikka rockin' a rather sedate crowd in Stuttgart (note the one girl with her arms up)
As an avid concert-goer in the states, I couldn't understand this reserved behavior. Live music is where you get to rock out like you do when you're alone in your car. These people looked like they were watching a Kenny G concert on sedatives. Are Germans just more reserved in front of strangers? Was the crowd too full of self-conscious teenagers? I'm really curious about this side of German culture, as I identify with them for the most part in their reserved, rule-following, type A ways. Perhaps I need to head to a few discotheques and test out my observations. Germans must know how to let their hair down... don't they?
*Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische
