Alphaville
Friday, 5 September 2025, 9:30 PM
Zagreb / Zagreb Fair (Paviljon 9) / Croatia
Some tours and some gigs just catch you completely off guard. Alphaville. Given how thoroughly this German synth-pop and new wave band sank into musical obscurity as the eighties drew to a close — never officially splitting up, never stopping the album releases, but essentially vanishing from the radar — the news that they were still kicking and actually coming to Zagreb knocked a fair few people off their feet.
A trio in their golden days, today a quintet with only one original member — vocalist Marian Gold — in the lineup. Everyone who grew up with Dario Diviacchi and Video Mix simply had to be in Zagreb that night. No question. The venue itself, which we visit maybe once a decade — last time we were at Paviljon 9 of the Zagreb Fair was on 1 June 2013, when Slayer and Anthrax were tearing the place apart — can hardly boast any exemplary acoustic characteristics. It’s vaguely reminiscent of Ljubljana’s L56 hall out on Litostroj.
The crowd that turned up, though? A beautiful number. Around 2,500 people! Nobody could have expected that. But it says something remarkable about what radio perennials Forever Young, Sounds Like A Melody, and especially Big In Japan still mean today. They defined a generation. The generation of, let’s say, roughly 55-year-olds (give or take five years) who were clearly the dominant presence in the room that evening.
The band hit the stage at half past nine. They fired off two singles back to back right away — the less successful The Jet Set from the debut “Forever Young”, followed by “Dance With Me” from its successor “Afternoons in Utopia” (1986). As expected, the sound was dire. At €60.00 a ticket, you genuinely have to wonder whether that kind of sonic muddle is really worth it. Either way, we were there. As was the quintet of Marian Gold (vocals), Jakob Kiersch (drums), David Goodes (guitar), Carsten Brocker (keyboards, programming), and Alexandra Merl (bass guitar, keyboards). Two backing vocalists joined them as well, bringing the total on stage to seven!
The main takeaway was that Marian Gold, who is seventy-one, still holds his own vocally even at this stage of his life — and admirably so. The packed crowd got exactly what they came for pretty early on, when the band dropped the one everyone had been waiting for. Big In Japan. The place came alive. The audience drowned out everything in the chorus. The feeling was brilliant. The atmosphere electric. All that was missing was decent sound. Even standing right by the mixing desk, you couldn’t shake the muddiness. The songs have grown, though. They’re extended. There are guitar solos now.
The band stuck pretty firmly to a best-of approach for the setlist, running through a string of released singles and touching on virtually every album they’ve put out over their career. Including the most recent, “Eternally Yours” from 2022. The chosen repertoire leaned sensibly on the compilation “Forever! Best of 40 Years”, which came out at the end of last September. “Forever Young” was the most-represented album on the night, but the band also treated fans to tracks that were never released as singles: To Germany With Love, Summer in Berlin, and right after it, A Victory Of Love.
The concert moved fast. An hour and a half, encore included. When the band launched into Sounds Like A Melody, it was clear the grand finale couldn’t be far off. The songs are tweaked a bit from their originals — extended, with the dance rhythms pushed even harder. Marian Gold kept calling the crowd to dance throughout the night, and he pulled it off more often than not. The front rows were his. With him. Just like the title of that famous hit tells you (Dance With Me). The energy was great. I know, I’m repeating myself. The sound was terrible. I know, I’m repeating myself. And? Still terrible. Right through the big finale with Forever Young, which everyone had been eagerly waiting for. The hall erupted. Loud and united. The feeling was insane as the crowd’s voices carried Marian on their wings toward the end of the set.
For the obligatory encore, in which the band performed State Of Dreams from the four-disc CD box set “Crazy Show” (from 2003), a third vocalist, Lily Becker, rejoined them on stage — as she had during the main set for the performance of the single Red Rose — and that was that. Goodbye. Honestly, despite a perfectly respectable performance from the band, the concert left a certain emptiness behind. Because of the sound, which was genuinely devastating. Things just didn’t hit the way they should have. A real shame. Next time round, the hope is we’ll catch Alphaville somewhere with friendlier acoustics. But let’s not get too precious about it. We saw and lived through a performance by icons of a sound and a pop sensibility that belong to the undying eighties. A concert full of nostalgia that carried us back to some former world still bubbling with optimism and joy.
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Setlist
1. The Jet Set
2. Dance With Me
3. Wishful Thinking
4. Big In Japan
5. Romeos
6. Heaven On Earth
7. Carry Your Flag
8. Die For You Today
9. To Germany With Love
10. Red Rose
11. Monkey In The Moon
12. Sensations
13. Summer In Berlin
14. A Victory Of Love
15. Sounds Like A Melody
16. Forever Young
—encore—
17. State Of Dreams
