Tokio Hotel

Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza; Mon 18, Tue 19

That Tokio Hotel’s first U.S. release, last fall’s pairing of “Ready Set Go” and “Scream,” was sold exclusively at Hot Topic tells you a couple of important things about the band: It makes young girls swoon, and it’s aware that looks matter. What it doesn’t tell you is that Tokio Hotel hails from Germany and that over the past couple of years, it’s pulled off the rare feat of becoming hugely popular in Europe by singing in its native language; the aforementioned songs were titled “Übers Ende der Welt” and “Schrei” before they were Hot Topic’ed, but that didn’t stop swarms of kids (mostly girls) from France to Slovenia from singing along.

Tokio Hotel was formed in 2001 by four boys in their early teens, though the band really took off after 2005, when singer Bill Kaulitz and his twin brother, guitarist Tom, grew into adorably androgynous young men, their pretty faces peeking out from under elaborate manes and dramatic makeup. That Tokio Hotel plays clean-cut emoish anthems with big, big choruses didn’t hurt either.

Now the group is making a run at the States, playing New York this week and releasing a batch of songs pulled from their two German albums (and translated into English) on April 15. Of course, it may have been nice to see Americans mouthing along phonetically in German, but still—it’s deeply satisfying to imagine U.S. success for Teutonic musicians in touch with their inner girls. May they succeed where Nena failed!

—Elisabeth Vincentelli