Tokio Hotel Make Grand Return To London With First Show On New 'Beyond The World' European Tour

It’s been a long time between tours for UK fans of Tokio Hotel. The German quartet haven’t made it to our shores since 2019, performing at London’s O2 Forum, Kentish Town, on April 29 that year. Of course, they had intended to come sooner; like everyone else in the world they’ve had to put things on hold due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, and their ‘Beyond The World’ tour, which had been planned for Autumn 2021, had to be postponed. Finally however, almost 4 years to the day, they returned, with an incredible show on April 30 at London’s O2 Indigo, and the first date of their European tour.

Supporting Tokio Hotel on the tour is Los Angeles based pop artist and songwriter, Casey Baer. The singer, who has amassed more than 160K fans on Instagram alone, burst onto the stage, starting as she meant to finish – fast, fun, and bubbling full of energy, opening with ‘Late To The Party’, one of her original, as yet unreleased songs, before launching into her new single, ’17 Again’, which was released earlier last month. Casey got the crowd excited and singing along with her, with some audience participation on ‘PTXD’, as well as her 2022 release, ‘Never Have I Ever’. Casey ended her set with her upcoming single, ‘Stupid Boy’, which was well received. It was Casey’s first trip to the UK, and if she ever comes back with a headline show, I’m sure she’ll be very well received!

Before we knew it, the lights had dimmed and Tokio Hotel hit the stage, opening with ‘White Lies’, from their latest album, ‘2001’.

Next up was ‘Automatic’, from their 2009 album, ‘Humanoid’, and a clear fan favourite. Many of the fans had travelled over from Europe, bringing an infectious enthusiasm to the room. The Indigo at the O2 was the perfect size for the concert, giving an intimate and personal feel to the night. Although Tokio Hotel live in Los Angeles these days, their European fans have stood by them the whole time. It’s mad to think that this band, who are all still in their mid-30s, have been together performing as a band since 2001 (hence the title of their latest album). During that time they’ve gone from pop/alt rock to the more recent electro/synth pop styles, and the fans have stayed loyal, and as many are the same age as the band members or older, they’ve essentially all grown up together.

Tokio Hotel comprises twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. While it would be easy to think that the Kaulitzes are the main attraction (Bill in particular being the frontman and founder), it’s clear that you don’t keep a band together for over 20 years without every person in the group being an equal member. And so it was; while Bill was undoubtedly the main focus on the night, being his usual absolute showman self, and having no fewer than 7 costume changes – four in the first half hour – they made sure that each member got his time in the spotlight, whether it be Georg opening the show, or Gustav making wry comments in between songs.

While the majority of the show was high energy, Tokio Hotel made time to have some slower moments as well, such as a duet between Bill and Tom, sitting in the wall of the set, singing ‘Just A Moment’, from ‘2001’.

Tokio Hotel have lived between Germany and Los Angeles since 2010, and this prompted Bill to say on Sunday night that he might have some trouble remembering some of the German lyrics for their songs, and he might need some help from the audience – which of course they were happy to do, singing ‘Schwarz’, from the band’s debut album, ‘Schrei’. Later everyone joined in on the very moving ‘Spring Nicht’, the band’s plea to young people to consider solutions to their problems other than suicide.

The final song of the set was 2019’s ‘Chateau’, a very synth/electropop track, demonstrating the band’s current musical direction. But as the song ended, the lights remained down, and we knew it wasn’t the end. After all – we hadn’t yet heard Tokio Hotel’s best known song in the UK, ‘Durch den Monsoon’. The track, which was their debut single, was later re-recorded as ‘Monsoon’ and released on their first English-language album, ‘Scream’. The German version has made a re-appearance on ‘2001’, as ‘Durch den Monsun 2020’. The band came back on stage and played their 2022 collab with Kraftklub, ‘Fahr mit mir (4×4)’, before launching into ‘Durch Den Monson’. Finally, they brought the night to a close with ‘Runaway’, from ‘2001’.

It was a fantastic night, with many fans still singing as they left the venue. Many will probably go see other shows on this tour, but for the rest of us for whom this was our only show, we hope that Tokio Hotel will be back sooner rather than later.