Milky Chance at the Hammerstein Ballroom

Clemens Rehbein

Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch met in an advanced music course in the 11th grade in Kassel, Germany, when Rehbein played bass guitar and Dausch played guitar in a jazz quartet known as Flown Tones. The group disbanded after the drummer left, but Rehbein and Dausch continued to collaborate, with Rehbein on vocals and acoustic guitar and Dausch providing electronic beats. After only two performances in 2013, Milky Chance recorded an album in Rehbein's childhood home, then posted videos on social media that went viral and ultimately received more than 320 million hits. They packed a guitar and a set of decks into their car and performed more than 100 concerts throughout Europe. Antonio Greger joined in 2015, playing electric guitar, harmonica, and bass. Milky Chance released its second and most recent album, Blossom, on March 17, 2017.

Headlining at the Hammerstein Ballroom tonight, Milky Chance used so much blinding backlighting that the band was barely visible other than in silhouette form. The sound was clear and bold, however, as the band cleverly mixed soft-impact acoustic folk sounds with smooth reggae rhythms and then punctuated the music with booming, danceable beats. With the help of a touring drummer, the core trio invested deeply in grooves that became more rollicking as the songs developed. The result was a set of lilting, soft-rocking singer-songwriter songs with a quite unique surround-sound. The set consisted of seven songs from the debut album and 10 songs from the more recent album, but even with this diminutive catalog, Milky Chance demonstrated that this band is harnessing a unique and enthralling pop sound that should appeal to a wide range of tastes.

Visit Milky Chance at www.milkychance.net.

Setlist:

1. Clouds
2. Ego
3. Blossom
4. Doing Good
5. Firebird
6. Flashed Junk Mind
7. Peripeteia
8. Cold Blue Rain
9. Down By the River
10. Sadnecessary
11. Alive
12. Bad Things
13. Fairytale
14. Loveland
15. Cocoon

Encore:

1. Stolen Dance
2. Sweet Sun