Geht es nach der New York Times, so könnte die deutsche Band “Tokio Hotel” durchaus reelle Chancen haben, in den USA einen Erfolg zu landen. Die Erfolgsformel der Band besteht aus zwei Worten: Bill Kaulitz.
To watch Tokio Hotel live is to gaze at that gender-bending singer, who answers to the disappointingly unglamorous name of Bill Kaulitz. He is 18, and he looks like an anime version of Christian Siriano, the precocious star of this season’s «Project Runway.â€
In his soft, pleading voice you can hear some of the complications of life as a teen idol: to his fans he’s not only a sex symbol but also a potential confidant and maybe a role model; he is an intermediate figure, standing between the girls in the crowd and the men in the band. But compared with Mr. Kaulitz, those band members (including his identical but very differently styled twin, Tom Kaulitz) couldn’t help but seem underwhelming. As they trudged, sometimes clumsily, through a short set, they seemed a lot less sophisticated than the skinny guy in front, who looks as if he has been honing his stage act since birth. If this concert was oddly delightful from start to finish, thank Bill Kaulitz, who should, with any luck, be thrilling and perplexing young Americans for the rest of the year.
During the best songs — like «Monsoon,†one of the band’s biggest hits — the contrast between singer and band was charming. «Monsoon†is effective because it’s surprisingly restrained: the music stays quiet, and the band doesn’t really kick in until after the second chorus. And when the noise finally came, there was a pleasing sense of devolution, as a teen-pop juggernaut with eyes on an American prize regressed into an exuberant garage band, making a gleeful racket.