Friday Full-Length: Colour Haze, Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 30th, 2026 by JJ KoczanTo-date, there are three ‘sanctioned’ Colour Haze live albums released by the band, and Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 isn’t one of them. It was, however, their first. Released as a double-CD in 2009 through Herzberg Verlag, it is nonetheless an essential 12-song/two-plus-hours-long document of Colour Haze in the era of 2008’s All (discussed here) and a showcase of the band they had spent the prior 13 years becoming. Burg Herzberg Festival has been running since 1968 in the valley near the castle in Hesse, Germany, for which it’s named, and so this would’ve been the 40th anniversary edition. The sound is duly celebratory.
It should probably also be taken as a sign of the respect Colour Haze had garnered to that point in their history that the festival gave them two hours to play. Not that they weren’t established by then, but Burg Herzberg is a hippie festival generally — though the likes of Zone Six and Vibravoid also played in surrounding years; nothing is absolute — and Colour Haze‘s primary reach has always been in the heavy underground, despite their own heavy-hippie bent. Maybe that made them a better fit. Sad to say, I don’t know because I wasn’t there.
Fortunately, however, Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 exists in vivid enough form to give a picture of what it might’ve been like to be hanging around by the castle as Stefan Koglek, Philipp Rasthofter and Manfred Merwald dug in to a selection of tracks from across six of their albums, going as far back as 2000’s CO2 (discussed here) for “Get it On” early in the set to follow “Moon” from All, a pair of uptempo groovers well suited to complement each other in getting a boogie going after the 10-minute buildup of set opener “Sundazed,” taken from 2003’s Los Sounds de Krauts (discussed here, reissue review here), which lacks nothing for movement in its loud/quiet trades and the consistent swing in Merwald‘s drums. Not to spoil it for you, but it probably would’ve been amazing. For ease of reading and understanding the flow they harness, here’s the tracklisting with runtimes:
1-1 Sundazed 10:11
1-2 Moon 5:29
1-3 Get It On 4:05
1-4 Lights 10:10
1-5 Aquamaria 9:40
1-6 Zen 7:52
1-7 Outside 6:15
2-1 Peace, Brothers & Sisters! 20:47
2-2 Tempel 9:33
2-3 All 14:57
2-4 Love 11:02
2-5 Inside / American Woman / Into the Sun 18:57
There are highlights rampant in the set selection, which isn’t quite encompassing enough to be a ‘Greatest Hits Live!’-type tracklisting, but comes probably closer to it than one might possibly ask, while keeping room in the encore to slide into The Guess Who‘s “American Woman” and Grand Funk Railroad‘s “Into the Sun” after “Inside” from CO2 — there’s also a bit of “Hey Jude” in there, for good measure — across a 19-minute finale that demonstrates just how sweeping Colour Haze at this point could be onstage, their command of their sound, unmistakable chemistry, tonal character and poise in delivery. Though, admittedly, these elements are on display throughout, just well summarized across that vibrant last medley.
To wit, “Lights” from All and the subsequent “Aquamaria” from 2006’s Tempel (discussed here) almost mirror the interaction between “Moon” and “Get it On” in showing Colour Haze‘s progression in conversation with itself, and the two earlier-rooted cuts, “Zen” from Los Sounds de Krauts and “Outside,” which is the only song to feature from 2001’s Ewige Blumenkraft (discussed here, reissue review here), shifting to a more open-feeling, jammier spirit, building on the meditative aspects of the songs prior. Fluidity probably shouldn’t be a surprise to the listener, since it had already been an integral part of Colour Haze albums for years leading up to this, but Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 of course captures it in a way that no outing before it had done, and that still makes it something special within their catalog.
But the set, progressing as it does in showing different sides of their approach along with their unifying melodic warmth, grows declarative as well, and I say that knowing that “Peace, Brothers & Sisters!” is as much an act of imploring as anthing. Topping 20 minutes, the landmark piece from the band’s 2005 self-titled (discussed here) feels all the more urgent and crucial here in its expanse, as though you’re hearing it the way it was meant to be heard. And that might be true. It digs in on another level even from “Outside” before it or “Aquamaria” or just about anything you want to put it up against, including the encore.
In addition, with “Tempel,” “All” and “Love,” the latter also from the self-titled, “Peace, Brothers & Sisters!” marks the transition to the next portion of the set. There’s a sense of, ‘okay now we really get into it’ that comes as the trio nail each twist and jammy shift, the crowd audibly whistling in the quiet parts, bootleg-style, and make the most of their ability to affect and instrumentalist surge. These are signature songs and movements — “All” no less so for having been more recent — and to cap with “Love,” with Koglek‘s spoken lyrical manifesto to fix the world barely making it through the surrounding wash of lush distortion, feels likewise inevitable and gorgeous.
Yes, that’s me telling you that the last 19 minutes of Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 are icing on the cake. The medley is no less engrossing in its turns, and being the encore, there’s a certain sense of freedom in how they let loose on the covers — I wish “Hey Jude” went longer, with vocals, but I’m a Beatles dork so take that for what it is — that offers one last encapsulation of what makes Colour Haze such a singular band. And like everything else that shines through in this extended festival set, it is bright and clear as day, rich in its sound and very much alive in the sense of living.
Again, there are more Colour Haze live records to come, but the band’s trajectory and progression were about to reach new heights, and Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 portrays them right on the precipice of this next stage in their continual becoming. In hindsight, it is even more fundamental than it felt when it came out, which, with the mark of a truly great album of any kind being that it grows with the listener over the course of a life, almost with a life of its own, makes perfect sense.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Take the time to do so. Thanks for reading.
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What a week. Mostly it was about Wednesday. We waited for Wednesday, then Wednesday happened, and yesterday and today and probably the next couple weeks are about that. It was The Patient Mrs.’ thyroidectomy. We drove in (actually she drove there; I drove back) to NYU Langone and I and her mother hung around the hospital for the day while mostly she waited to go in and have the procedure done. I got to meet the surgeon, albeit briefly, who took out her thyroid and some lymph nodes he said were “problematic,” and it was a long day of worrying, being unsure of what’s next, and waiting. They didn’t need to keep her overnight, which suited all of us by then, and she’s been home since, having taken the rest of the semester off from teaching and running her university department. I’m sure she’ll still be emailing by next week, but she spent a decent portion of yesterday in bed. Until she got bored and we went to the Book Barn, anyhow.
There’s pathology to get back. Maybe today, maybe Monday, three weeks from Thursday for all I know. And then more scans? Maybe some form of ‘light’ radiation treatment (pun actually not intended, but I’m not mad about it either)? We’ll see. I know it’s not over yet, but Wednesday felt like a big step because it was, and now the priority is recovery from that. Her mom and sister both came down, and her sister stayed with The Pecan on Wednesday while we were in the city. We kept The Pecan home from school Wednesday and yesterday as well, and will do so again today as she has a dentist appointment this morning anyhow and I don’t think there’d be much crucial learning happening if she went. She can do Lego and robot builds leftover from her birthday last weekend and then later there’s a pre-Halloween thing at a neighbor’s house, so it’ll be a day. It’s 8AM now. I should wake her up.
Anyway, long story short, surgery sucks, fuck cancer. Gonna be a rough few weeks while she recovers, but apparently people get through shit like this so I assume we will as well.
Next Monday I’m premiering a new Unida song. That’s right. Heads up on that. Later in the week also a Valley EP premiere and a Sickwood video, in part because I like writing about bands I haven’t written about before. Might try to review Enslaved’s new record as well, or maybe the Tony Iommi or Queens of the Stone Age? We’ll see where the mood and available time takes me. Super-underground stuff, nobody’s heard of it, right? I don’t have hot takes on any of it, mind you. I’m not gonna be like “Screw Iommi!” or anything like that, so I don’t know how much I actually feel like I need to say about any of those, but it’s fun to dig in all the same sometimes.
After 11AM now, back from the dentist and subsequent trip to Target for a Lego because when I said, “Kid, if you stay in the chair for the rest of this appointment I’ll take you to Target and buy a Lego,” she made it happen. It was touch and go pretty much to that point, but ultimately, her teeth got cleaned so I’m prepared to say she did fine. The Patient Mrs. came too, which I wasn’t anticipating, and was fortunate because we waited a half-hour after our appointment time to get in.
Halloween is tomorrow. The Patient Mrs.’ sister is coming back down and her two kids (one about to be 18, the other 14) are gonna take The Pecan trick or treating up the road. I hope they have a blast, and I’m happy to stay at home. The last couple Halloweens, with her Girl Scout troop, have been a lot, and I don’t think I’ve run point on any of it.
The Patient Mrs. is fairly asskicked after that dental outing (I made her stay in the car at Target, which she didn’t fight me on because she doesn’t want to be there when The Pecan and I are spending money anyhow), and I expect she’s back to bed sooner than later at least for a few hours. The rest of the weekend and life will unfold from there. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, if it involves dressing up and partying or shutting off the outside lights so nobody rings your bell or nothing or surgery recovery or pretty much anything that isn’t fascist, I wish you well. If it is fascist, I hope someone punches you in the face and makes you feel shame for what you are, because you should.
The rest of everybody, hydrate. Stay well. Keep your eyes open. We need you out there, especially this week with these election-stealing motherfuckers running rampant.
FRM.
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