Tokio Hotel WW106 (News)

The bus stop outside Tom and Bill’s house in Loitsche, got destroyed by 30 teenagers yesterday.
It was by that bus stop Tom and Bill waited on the bus to school everyday when they were younger.
The police is now trying to find the kids who destroyed the place.

Billboard's review of Scream:
Europe’s answer to emo, Tokio Hotel is a platinum-selling teen-pop band from Germany with a penchant for heavy guitars, big choruses and spectacular hair. Now the youthful four-some, led by the wildly androgynous 18-year-old Bill Kaulitz, takes on America with “Scream,” which features English versions of material from their two studio albums, “Schrei” and “Zimmer 483.” Tokio Hotel’s forte are über-anthemic power ballads, delivered in a Teutonic accent with heartbreaking sincerity (“Rescue Me,” “Sacred”). Kaulitz’s gender-bending vocals make “On the Edge” sound like Nena covering Nirvana and the soaring slow dance “By Your Side,” from the movie “Prom Night,” couldn’t be more arena-ready. Emo kids will flock to German class when they hear the original version of “Monsoon,” the band’s biggest hit, which closes this strangely fascinating Euro-glam effort.
–SP



Rolling Stone

Impish German glam rocker pummels world of sad teenagers into submission

IT’S OFFICIAL: These guys are the greatest German bubblebum-neo-glam-goth-emo boy band. Ever. On their English-language debut (they’re already huge in Deutschland), the four fresh-faced lads from Magdeburg unveil a genre-and gender-bending act that justifies superlatives. Much of the credit goes to lead singer Bill Kaulitz, an 18-year-old androgyne whose stupendous electro-shock hairdo stands a good six inches taller than Tina Turner’s Eighties coif. Kaulitz is a technically limited vocalist, but he has the charisma of a natural frontman, delivering both yowling rockers (“Scream”) and sentimental ballads (the acoustic weeper “By Yours Side”) with an audible twinkle in his eye that suggests he’s not entirely serious. (His dodgy English diction – he pronounces the word “eyes” like “ice” – adds to the charm.) The taut power-trio arrangements mix the whisper-to-a-scream dynamics of post-grunge with glam-rock chords and a big dollop of emo’s teen psychodrama. (“Ready, Set, Go!” has already soundtracked and angsty scene on The Hills.) And then there’s “Love Is Dead,” which sounds like a lost Eighties hair-metal chestnut. With some strategically applied spandex, Kaulitz could become the rock god Bret Michaels always wanted to be.

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Singer Bill Kaulitz was not allowed to speak a word for 4 weeks – and “Tokio Hotel” couldn’t play concerts anymore, the European tour was cancelled. Now the young Magdeburgers celebrated their mini-comeback: at a festival in New Jersey. Snoop Dog performed before them.

A Cyst had to be removed from his left vocal cord, and after the operation there was strict silence for him, because his voice had to be trained carefully.

A full month without Bill! For the fans of Tokio Hotel this situation grew to a nightmare.
“I thought: Oh god! Hopefully nobody takes me that amiss,” Bill commented the situation, “and hopefully nobody was angry.” For many haters it was more like a holiday for the ears. Tokio Hotel polarizes like no other band.

At Saturday night now the Magdeburger stood with his three bandmates – twinbrother Tom Kaulitz (18), Gustav Schäfer (19) and Georg Listing (21) – on stage in New Jersey. At the “Bamboozle-festival” – the first performance after the operation.

Because of the still prescribed vocal cord-rest Tokio Hotel only played three songs.
“4000 fans stood in front of the stage and could sing every song along by heart,” band-manager David Jost says. And that, though the US-album isn’t released yet.
“Bill seemed to be pretty impatient and tensed up before the performance, but when he stood on stage, all the excitement was forgotten,” Jost describes the first performance.

At the festival in New Jersey performed already celebs like the Rolling Stones, Prince and Nirvana. Now the American rapper Snoop Dogg stood on stage before the Magdeburger. A full blood musician, who looked at the German newcomers with interest for sure. But the quartet has to get used to that fast.

Already at Thursday the four boys will be in the Late Night Show of Conan O’Brien, and at May 13th they will perform their only complete concert in the US at the Avalon in Hollywood.
“Bill has turned the hearts of the New Yorker again to the left,” manager Jost believes.

Tokio Hotel stood on stage in New York already at February. The “New York Times” published in their online-issue a cover story with video about the band “from Germany.” There you can see the known love-offers on placards and chanties: “We love Tokio Hotel.”
No matter, where the band performs, they put the fans in a state of emergency.