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Almost three years after the band had vowed never to return to the tiny drinking hole that is the Prime Club in Cologne, they are booked there again. To their own surprise! Unlike the ill faded show in 1998, the EELS manage to not only finish their entire performance, they rock the place with arguably their best Souljacker-show thus far. Before the show filmmaker extraordinaire (and Souljacker Pt.I video director) Wim Wenders is chatting to admirers of his work outside. Being German and being an EELS fan, his precense is not entirely surprising. What IS surprising though is that during the encores Wenders takes the stage and starts banging the bongos during the last two songs of the main set. A good time was had by all.

Butch's diary:
Sept. 15, 2001: Cologne, Germany: We arrive in the early morning hours on our bus to do our final show of this leg of the tour. The name of tonight's venue rings a bell with us but we just can't put a finger on what is so unique about this venue. And then E and I realize, as we pull up, that we had told the powers that be the last time we played here to NEVER book us in this place again. We have no recourse so we plow ahead with sound check. The first two rows of the audience are the only ones who can see us onstage and the sound in the room is not adequate. We are going to rock the house no matter what but we desperately want to come back to a much more suitable venue next time. Cologne deserves it.

The room is electric as we take to the stage and unleash the rock. During Beautiful Freak I look to my right and see a stranger, a wild man, slapping the shit out of the congas, locked in a hellish groove. His intensity fuels the band to kick some serious ass. We segue into I Like Birds and he lays down a foundation of percussive stew that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. We get to the chorus and he grabs the mic from Koool-G and yells out "BIRDS." The audience is transfixed on this new addition to our crew and E stands back as this commanding presence takes over. We are a train out of control about to hit a wall. We come to an explosive conclusion with I Like Birds and the audience goes wild. We run off stage and I ask E "Who was that?" He turns to me and says "just a cat I call Wim." I'm in shock but it finally sinks in that it's the legendary director himself. That Wenders guy. What a night. What a tour.

[diary originally published on Eelstheband.com - copyright © 2001. Used here uncut and as originally published by BUTCH]

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