The fans lined up outside The Wiltern in Los Angeles glittered brightly under the neon lights in anticipation of Tokio Hotel’s sold out tour kickoff on Saturday. The Beyond the World Tour brought the German superstars back to North America for a limited run of shows and the fans turned up in droves to sing along.
Over 2,000 people crammed elbow to elbow in the intimate space, shrieking at the slightest hint of the band’s appearance before the lights went down and the real spectacle began. Forgoing an opener to give their setlist room to breathe, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, bassist Georg Listing and drummer Gustav Schäfer created a wall of sound that preceded singer Bill Kaulitz’s dramatic entrance. Adorned in a head to toe spangled cowboy outfit- chaps and hat included- Kaulitz strutted onstage to belt out “White Lies” and “Automatic”.
The band has been performing together for over 20 years and their familial bond as a quartet would be obvious to even the most casual observer- and there were no casual fans in the room on Saturday night. In fact, generations of listeners were represented from the teenagers on the barricade to the kids accompanying their parents to the older millennials overcome by nostalgia at the back of the venue. Handmade signs went up around the crowd, including one bold request for Bill Kaulitz to design their next tattoo.
Although the group started as a rock band, their sound shifted into electropop in the last 10 years and they mixed these elements beautifully throughout their set. Kaulitz got the fans off their feet for the impossibly catchy “The Heart Get No Sleep” before turning the cozy Wiltern into an arena for “World Behind My Wall”- and that chorus sung in unison could fill the rafters of any venue.
After the first of several outfit changes, Kaulitz welcomed the adoring audience, including family and friends of the band, to the show before taking everyone “Home” to the band’s roots. New and classic material mingled in the middle of the setlist- “Black” and “Run, Run, Run” were noted favorites and there wasn’t a moment where the crowd stopped singing along. The Kaulitz brothers slowed things down in the middle as well for an acoustic segment heavy with a medley of emotions.
The majority of the set was in English, but “Spring Nicht” was performed in the original German- a nod to the band’s native language and the beauty expressed in Kaulitz’s admittedly dramatic lyrical style in the early days of the band. The fans knew the German version as well, shouting along on the song’s sweeping chorus and drawing huge smiles across the stage.
Four stunning outfit changes later, the night inched towards a close but Kaulitz never let his audience’s energy flag. He cheekily encouraged everyone of age to loosen up with a drink or two as he sipped tea onstage and picked everyone up on “Love Who Loves You Back”. The rest of the band came down from the stage’s riser to get closer to the audience, drawing shouts of love and approval during “Darkside of the Sun”. The last song was a rollicking cover of Disney’s “Colors of the Wind” before they disappeared and re-emerged for an encore.
“Monsoon” is celebrating 17 years and the song had an immediate and dramatic effect on the audience as they lifted their voices together with Kaulitz’s powerful vocals. The band ended the night with “Runaways”, concluding a stunning tour kickoff for a room full of very longtime fans. Tokio Hotel’s international impact has crossed continents, hurdled language barriers and created a community that continues to grow right alongside the band members. They’re showing no signs of slowing down as they turn even the smallest rooms into massive stadiums and Los Angeles will be eager to have them play one of these stadiums on their next international jaunt.
