Tangerine Dream, Brudenell Social Club. 15th March 2022

I’m on my travels again this evening, finding myself in Leeds in the company of electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream, well kind of. I’ll confess I’ve only ever scratched the surface with these German electronic wizards. Introduced, I suspect like many via their film soundtracks, I could happily listen to them play the Sorcerer score in full and be content. We do get the theme, but a whole lot more. I’ve no idea how many albums they have, but it’s a lot. Tangerine Dream have been at this over 50 years and have always been prolific. Be it the early experimental stuff, the Krautrock years or the more recent dancier stuff. Pick any band with any hint of electronics in their sound and I’ll bet you’d find Tangerine Dream were an influence. Now honestly I was always more into Kraftwerk’s stark sound, but like Jarre, this lot did capture my ears young. It was never cool to listen to them when I was a kid though. You’d never take a Tangerine Dream CD to a party, they’d stay safely at home with The Alan Parsons Project. I don’t care about that now of course and neither does anyone inside the packed and wonderful Brudenell Social tonight. It’s sold out and I won’t lie, it’s mostly older gentlemen. I’m definitely lowering the average age considerably. I suspect they all know the catalogue better than me too, but I don’t care. If you want a review telling you what synths are on stage and on which album did they first appear, boffin stuff, you won’t get that here. There are a lot, I’ll tell you that. There’s no support, it probably took an age set all that up. It looks very tidy and it suits the tone this evening. It’s a very chin strokey sort of gig. The crowd movement a mere gently sway of appreciation. Apart from the one girl at the front who wouldn’t look out of place with some glo-sticks. There’s very little movement on stage too. Most of it coming from Hoshiko Yamane who wields a violin that looks like something imagined on Tomorrows World and that it has to be said for a large portion of the set gets lost in the mix. Thorsten Quaeschning the most senior member moves between banks of electronics and does look to be enjoying himself, the odd cheeky grin cast to band members and a raised eyebrow to those that catch his eye. I’m enjoying it too, but feel like I should be sat down, particularly with the songs with layers of drifting synth that wash around the room. This is what it’s all about though. They don’t really need the video projection and although the lighting guy does a great job, you’re as well just closing your eyes and letting your mind rest as your soul is transported to a more cinematic place. This is my first time watching them and I’ll admit the elephant in the room is it’s a shame that there’s no founding members on stage, but Froese I believe did hand the reigns to Quaeschning before passing a few years ago and this does feel respectful of the legacy whilst also not being scared to push forward. Plus the Tangerine Dream line up was ever evolving, so it’s not that strange that it’s continuing it’s journey past Froese’s death. The crowd do get more excited for the older tunes, but to be honest it all sounds pretty awesome and there’s some real bangers that give the excellent Brudenell sound system a good work out. After two and a half hours though, I am really wishing this was seated. There’s next to zero chatter from the stage and each song morphs beautifully into the next with a ripple of applause, but it does start to feel like a bit of an endurance event. Maybe it’s because I’ve driven an hour to get here after a long day and know I’ve got the same journey back or maybe it’s just that I don’t know all these songs well enough. I do notice though that the crowd has thinned a little as the encore begins. It is a great gig though. There’s a lot to love. I think though it might be one for the more die hard fan, but it doesn’t stop me blasting new album Raum on the way home and any gig that finishes with glitchy sound bites of Werner Herzog talking about hypnotising chickens gets a thumbs up from me.