Playing a show in a church must be a strange thing to do for a punk band, because a sacred building is normally no place for outspoken political beliefs. The “Zitronen”, as fans fondly call the band from Hamburg, however, have developed beyond just singing politically left-wing slogans to three-chord punk music within the 24 years of their existence as a band. Since the album “Das bißchen Totschlag”, which was released in 1994, they have included elements of rock, hiphop, electronics, jazz and noise in their musical style. At the Donaufestival in Krems Die Goldenen Zitronen performed with lyrical contributions of the German actress Irm Hermann, who appeared in more than 20 Fassbinder movies and not only joined them on stage but also in the mantra-like performance of the Zitronen classic “ICE Berthold Brecht”. Lead singer Schorsch Kamerun pointed out that he was certainly not willing to do the classic songwriter-thing – walking lonesome through the streets playing guitar and singing. Instead the full band gathered – still motivated from their show – in the nightly churchyard and started to perform a cappella at once before the camera was turned on, which led to some joking and mock annoyance before they patiently restarted.

die-goldenen-zitronen.de