The BossHoss – Back to the Boots: 20 Years of Cowboy Rock
Twenty years is a long time for any rock band, but The BossHoss have never been particularly interested in standing still. They released 11 studio albums and played over 1500 live shows during their career. For their “Back to the Boots – 20th Anniversary Summer Tour 2026”, Alec “Boss Burns” Völkel and Sascha “Hoss Power” Vollmer took the band back to the sound and attitude that made them famous in the first place: loud, gritty and unapologetically rooted in country rock. And judging by the response from the crowd, the formula still works.
At the Kunst!Rasen concert in Bonn the biggest strength of the show was its sound. Backed by the five-piece band and the “Tijuana Wonderbrass”, The BossHoss created a huge wall of sound that combined distorted guitars, pounding drums & percussion, harmonica and blasting brass. And they did that with a well crafted clarity. There was noticeably less emphasis on the polished pop production that has characterized some of the band’s later work. Instead, the 2026 show felt like a deliberate return to their roots and a celebration of everything that made The BossHoss such a distinctive presence in the German music scene.
The roughly 2 hours set moved effortlessly between newer material and established favourites. After a brief instrumental intro they opened with a remake of Willow Nelson’s “On The Road Again”, “Lion’s Den “ and “Do It” followed. The setlist included plenty of new tracks such as “Ride It Like A Cowboy”.”I’ll Be Back”, “Back To The Boots”, “German Angst”, “Burn Baby Burn” and “Showdown” sat comfortably alongside older crowd-pleasers including “Don’t Gimme That”’ “Little Help”, “My Way”. “Jolene”, “Word Up”, “Hey Ya” and “Dos Bros.”
For a band playing to roughly 3500 people at Kunst!Rasen, creating a sense of intimacy is always difficult. The BossHoss solved that problem with a clever mid-show change of scenery.
For “Ride It Like A Cowboy” Boss and Hoss moved to a B-stage positioned in the middle of the audience, stripping back the enormous production for a handful of songs. Suddenly, the stadium-sized cowboy-rock spectacle became something much closer to a giant campfire session singalong.
Twenty years of intense touring have clearly turned The BossHoss into an exceptionally well-oiled live machine. The pacing was one of the show’s strongest aspects, with full-throttle rockers followed by quieter acoustic passages before the band kicked the energy back up again.
The pyrotechnics and stage lighting added plenty of spectacle, the production was big, but the music remained at the center of the show.
If there is one minor weakness, it is that some of the banter between Boss and Hoss occasionally feels a little too well rehearsed. After two decades together, spontaneity can be difficult to maintain.
Once the music starts, The BossHoss are still an incredibly effective live band. Alec “Boss Burns” Völkel is a perpetual mobile connecting all corners of the stage while Alec “Boss Burns” Völkel ‘sits out’ most of the songs with his acoustic guitar, trading vocals back and forth. “Back to the Boots” isn’t simply a nostalgia tour celebrating 20 years; it feels like a statement of intent. The band knows where it came from, knows what its audience wants and still has the energy to deliver it. Loud, entertaining, occasionally ridiculous and thoroughly enjoyable—The BossHoss prove that after 20 years, Germany’s cowboy-rockers still have plenty of gas left in the tank.
You can read the German language review here: CountryMusicNews.de
Photos and review for: CountryMusicNews.de
