Picture Book performed at the Wiener Stadthalle

Ten years ago, the group around singer Maurice Ernst released the successful album "Schick Schock". Enough reasons for a boisterous celebration. Unfortunately, with the gig on Thursday evening, they found themselves between a rock and a hard place. The spark just didn't quite catch fire.

Bilderbuch: Success Through Individuality

Bilderbuch no longer needs to explain itself: Founded as a school band in Upper Austria, they played pleasing indie rock on the first two albums before the EP "Feinste Seide" and the track "Maschin" contained within it changed everything in 2013. Local pop hadn't sounded this fresh in a long time, as the quartet spiced up their sound with plenty of hip-hop grooves and, not least, Ernst took on the role of the flamboyant frontman, reflecting the speech patterns of a new generation. Dadaist tendencies? Happily incorporated. A guitar solo for people who don't like rock music? No problem for Michael Krammer.

Since then, alongside their Viennese colleagues from Wanda, Bilderbuch has turned the pop circus in Austria upside down. Accordingly, they confidently crafted the entrance to a more than two-hour evening, which primarily served the grand rock gesture. To a nocturnal mountain landscape on the oversized screens, younger tracks like "Softpower" or "Dino" were blasted into the hall, which is meant quite literally: Only acts from the United States usually visit with such a drum sound. Drummer Philipp Scheibl, mostly supported in recent years by the all-rounder Lukas König as percussionist and synth operator, maneuvered stoically through the group's oeuvre.

"Vienna, do you want me?"

At the forefront, the show was all about Ernst anyway: "Come on, Vienna!" he exclaimed early on, later adding: "Vienna, do you want me?" The answer was ultimately: Yes, but maybe not at any cost. Especially the first third of the concert was dominated by numbers, alongside the slightly overdriven sound, that presented themselves as large sound collages and encouraged the audience to sway rather than go wild. This changed, of course, with the song "Bungalow," which impressively reminded us of what makes Bilderbuch such a special band: The effortless handling of various elements of pop history, ingeniously cast into a song that is both catchy and sophisticated.

But instead of pop innovators, Ernst, Krammer, Scheibl, and bassist Peter Horazdovsky now see themselves as a genuine rock band with a psychedelic edge. This was already evident with the last studio album to date, "Gelb ist das Feld" from 2022, and live, it now expresses itself in long, jam-like instrumental passages. Sure, the band knows their craft, and watching and listening to Krammer and Ernst in interplay on the guitars is quite enjoyable. However, these groovy moments unfortunately often stood alone in the wide open.

How it could also be done was shown by the mega-hit "Maschin," sung and shouted by 10,000 voices. This is how pop works, which is sexy and exudes a certain danger. The song "Willkommen im Dschungel," parked in the first encore block, also ignited immediately, while the atmospheric "Checkpoint (Nie Game Over)" provided plenty of melodic bliss. Meanwhile, alternating landscape images, colorful structures, or distorted band heads flickered over the video walls that took up the entire stage space. Otherwise, in terms of show effects, apart from a small catwalk into the audience and a centrally positioned podium for Ernst, it was: none.

Basically, you know what you have with Bilderbuch: From sold-out open-air performances in the Arena to headliner slots at festivals like Nova Rock to a truly memorable show in front of Schönbrunn Palace, the list goes on when it comes to the group's great concerts. And Ernst and Co didn't really disappoint this time either, although, of course, the band must be measured by their own successes. Those who otherwise easily wrap their fans around their little finger and seem musically above everything, with a performance like yesterday's, at least cause a few raised eyebrows and disappointed sighs. In the end, there was, of course, great applause - but one couldn't shake the feeling that it was more about acknowledging what Bilderbuch had achieved so far, rather than the specific performance that evening. More would have been possible here. No matter: There will surely be a next time!

(By Christoph Griessner/APA)

(APA/Red)

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