The third festival day
Frequency: Even Falco looked down from the sky
After hours of unbearable heat, the weather gods showed some understanding late in the evening and sent a few long-awaited drops from the sky. The baller techno of Timmy Trumpet, the family-friendly Cro and the comeback of Viennese cult rapper RAF Camora with a Falco touch drew the crowds to the Space Stage in Green Park.
At some point, your strength wanes, no matter how robust you are. The third day of Frequency also means that you feel like you're in hellfire for the third time and, in view of the unstoppable heat, inevitably think about what sins you've committed that you have to let yourself be burned down so brutally. The victims are first and foremost the spectators, but also the performing acts, who play on stage for a while almost in private. For example, the famous Brit Peace Okezie aka Master Peace, whose debut album this spring interpreted the indie sound of the 2000s for Gen Z, who are still inexperienced in this respect, and who also puts on a great performance live - including direct contact with the audience. Nostalgia for some, new territory for others. A seminal performance for all.
Digestible and boring
The respective stage openers are particularly fitting on this day. On the Space Stage, Bosnian-born Swiss Leila shows how to mix indie pop with punk attitude and snotty brat aesthetics. It's a shame that only a handful of people get to see this refreshing performance. On the indoor Red Bull Stage, the Salzburg indie-pop collective Bon Jour provided conciliatory sounds and proved that a digestible indie sound with international potential is possible in this country if you try hard enough. Change of scene to the outdoor stages. The German high-flyer Ivo Martin (Flex Vienna show in September already completely sold out) comes across as somewhat awkward and - to be honest - boring with his smooth format pop and problems with guitar tuning.
His compatriot, the casting show-tested Leony, has long since made a name for herself and does a much better job on the Green Stage. Opposite her, Zoe Wees from Hamburg talks about growing up without a father and mixes these emotional and thoroughly authentic stories into soulful German pop songs. A beautiful performance, but here too - thanks to the heat - hardly anyone was listening. The day only picks up speed with Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies. In the "Krone" interview, he is able to make some sense of the obvious puns. "Me and this festival - it just fits. I'm really looking forward to playing here again". His rather melancholy electronic sounds lead perfectly into the sunset and are accompanied by fitting visuals. With so much melody, even the sky has an understanding and lets a few drops fall from the sky. Cooling off at last.
Sparse backdrop, mediocre show
Meanwhile, on the Green Stage, Australian Dean Lewis tries to prove why he will be performing at the Vienna Gasometer in early March 2025 with sedate, calm songs that are rather miscast for a festival like this. Former One Direction cutie Louis Tomlinson gathered considerably more fan potential. His own soccer shirts with the number 28 on the back show the reverence of his followers, but the backdrop itself is sparse. Just under a week ago, he played in front of tens of thousands of fans at the Hungarian Sziget Festival, but in St. Pölten the gravel surface thins out relatively quickly. His solo songs are somewhere between melancholic pop, Brit-pop and Robbie Williams chic, but he misses the mark a few times vocally and is unable to create a special atmosphere. That's not the case with his Vienna solo shows. The Frequency gig was rather poor.
Festival stalwart Timmy Trumpet, who once again mutated into the curiosity of the day with his mixture of banging funfair techno, sample interweaving of 80s and 90s songs and the trumpeting trumpet, was brushed off. The fans love the muscle-bound hat-wearer, who makes up for a lack of creativity with exaggerated volume and, strictly speaking, cannot oscillate between the poles of lovable and despicable, because there is only either or here. Another regular guest in these parts is the Stuttgart panda rapper Cro, who once had two careers with his child-friendly early hit songs and later via TikTok. The Frequency set is adorned with cozy melo-pop songs, family rap and the earlier stoner songs, which also attracts a broad audience in the aforementioned breadth - the main area has never been as full as it is at this moment in the whole weekend. The symbiosis between artists and fans cannot be destroyed even by unpopular songs in the middle section.
A piano in the Audi
Not even headliner RAF Camora, who is playing his first concert of the year following his hearing loss a few months ago, can compete with Cro's crowd. For example, an Audi Q8 costing around 120,000 euros, which is cut in half and converted into a piano at the back. The bar was set high after the much-acclaimed performance at the Donauinselfest 2023, perhaps a little too high. Raphael Ragucci, RAF's real name, plays a best-of of his uniquely successful career and draws from the full. Clothing changes, guest vocals and a virtual skyline at the back of the stage included. The highlight from a local perspective - his number one hit "Out Of The Dark", for which he uses a sample from the legendary Falco song and has it filmed with white flags and opulent fireworks, can be heard for the first time.
He recently told "Men's Health" in a big exclusive interview that he no longer wanted to go on a big tour after a sudden hearing loss and burn-out, and that he also wanted to slowly hand over the baton as a musician to the younger generation. On this evening at least, there was no sign of ageing or playful reluctance; in the live segment, he remains at the top of his profession - even if the quantitative popularity at this point in 2022 (back then with Bonez MC) was already greater. The Berlin techno duo Brutalismus 3000 also drew a crowd, transforming the area in front of the Green Stage into an uncompromising open-air mountain grove and going all out once again. Hardcore, gabber, techno-punk - the main thing is fast, loud and driving. That's how a bouncer goes. Today, the Frequency is already entering its finale. Peter Fox, Yung Hurn, Money Boy and Camo & Krooked will once again create a great atmosphere at the end.
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