2nd Annual Obing Ukulele Fest

greenie44

Big King Velour
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Some of you may know, or know of, The Ukelites, members of our community who live in Munich. Yesterday they produced the second annual Ukulele Festival in Obing in Bavaria. I both attended and performed, and it was one of the greatest days of my life.

There were a wide variety of performers there. I wasn’t able to see all of each of their sets, but the lineup was –
• The Chiemsee Ukulele Combo was a larger group, with 7 players, who played everything from samba to Los Lobos to Wilson Pickett to hip hop. Great music and great fun.
• Rawuke played a range of rock and hard rock and is a really great player with an unerring sense of songs to perform. To give you some idea, he closed with not just any ZZ Top song, but with Sharp Dressed Man!
• The Electric Ukulele Circus was actually one guy with a looper. Built up a load of music and wonderful use of effects. My kind of music.
• Many of you already know about The Ukelites from their many videos here. I had not seen them live before, but they are much, much better in person than on video – and they are fantastic on video!
• Coconami are a duo who play ukulele and a variety of mostly toy instruments. I know it sounds like a “cute” act, but the music was superb. The instruments were all used to perfection. They even closed with Sukiyaki, which you might have thought was ironic given that the members were from Japan, but the version really hit home.
• The show closed out with Samuel the Ukulele Preacher. The set was all in German, so I did not understand any of it, but a couple of people there told me the lyrics of the material were really great – thoughtful, philosophical and funny. But it didn’t matter – I absolutely loved the music even without understanding the words. After the show, I told Samuel that he made the rest of us looks like junk – but not in a bad way. He was that good. He finished his set, and the Festival, with a couple of Prince songs, ending with Kiss. The whole remaining audience shouted “Kiss” at the end of the last chorus, and that was a fitting ending to the night.

There were two unifying factors to all of these acts. Every single one of them followed their own lights – you could sense the deep and sincere musical commitment to their material. They weren’t just looking for some kind of gimmicky path. And every single one of them were just great people. I got to talk to most of the performers in the backstage area, and they were just wonderful to a person. I also met a bunch of other folks, including Rick, a luthier from Munich, who ended up playing on my encore on a version of I Shall Be Released we worked up in the green room.

Personally, I cannot thank Miri and Steffen enough for inviting me to play. A night to remember does not do this justice – it was a night to cherish!

Sorry if this is a little gushy, but what a night!
 
Sounds like it was a lot of fun! :)

Thanks for sharing.
 
Ukuleles in Germany! Man, that has to be an amazing location. Sounds like a blast!
 
How fantastic, I really enjoyed your telling of it, made me feel like I was there. Congratulations to you for performing and getting an encore. It certainly sounds like a night to remember. Thanks for sharing.
 
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