Martin and James – Malzwiese, Berlin; June 2nd, 2012

When this was announced I was dreaming of a real summer concert and pictures us sitting on the grass in the sun, drinks in hand listening to great music. Well, we got sun, at least for most of the concert, but the temperatures weren’t exactly summery and not warm enough for cold drinks. The music was great though and seeing the guys open air and in the afternoon was a nice change. The sound was great, the small audience enjoyed it and we even saw Jim Kroft guesting for one song. A perfect Saturday afternoon.

My third Berlin trip this year began with a start. Convinced, my train was going at 8:48 I had set my alarm for 7:00. When I woke up, I realized that it was not possible to reach Berlin around 11 if I left Dortmund around 9, confirmed this by looking at my ticket and was out the door within ten minutes to catch a train that left at 7:48 – yes, I did make it and arrived in Berlin as planned. Picked up C. at her hotel and together we went to the Malzwiese where we met K. and C. soon after. Chatted, had food, waited, fled from the rain that luckily didn’t last.

On the walk around the area we saw Martin, James and Ryan a few time and spotted Jim Kroft too, but didn’t speak to any of them. The stage was set in a rectangular hole in the ground. There were beach chairs, beanbags and boxes to sit on everywhere. We sat down on the far end of the hole, across from the stage and listened to the band van Lewald. They were OK, but nothing to write home about. We had much fun watching and commenting on the female dance performer who was on stage with them. I’m sure it was supposed to be cool or sexy, but it was really hilarious and didn’t seem very fitting at all.

Some time during van Lewald’s performance, B., S. and A. arrived too. Tom Lüneburger played next. I really liked his music, but it would have been better had he not talked so much. He kept talking bad about Spandau, where his band was from and while it might have been funny the first time around it got old pretty soon. Oh well. He even got to play an encore. When he was done, we moved to the stage, but only K., S. and I stayed in front of it and sat down on the ground, while everyone else decided to sit sown on the side. We watched the guys getting everything ready. When they where about to start, K. and I got up and S. left us and joined the others. For some reason nobody else in the audience dared coming closer either. Weird.

The guys played a 13 song set and were well received, but there weren’t that many people around and they had scattered all over the place, so it was difficult to get a real concert feeling going. It must have been hard work. Neither of them talked very much, just a few announcements of the songs.

It was still a lot of fun though and a good mixture of songs. I had half expected them to leave out all the newer songs, but they didn’t, even played ‘What I’m searching for’. Interestingly enough, James sang the lyrics exactly as he had written them down in Zurich. That was a first. All the other time he had changed one line of the song. K. and I were singing along and smiled at each other when that happened. 🙂

Seeing ‘Little bits of Light’ back on the setlist after Basel made me happy. It’s one of C.’s favorite songs and she had only heard it once before. This time, ‘I have to fall’ was a highlight for me, because thy asked the – rather surprised – Jim Kroft to join them on stage. It looked as if he hadn’t counted on that, but loved being up there anyway. It was great fun watching them.

I loved all the other songs too and was happy that the rain clouds finally stayed away and the sun came out. It was still windy, but nice and warm. I had to squint against the sun to watch the guys, but that was just fine and they didn’t need an excuse for wearing sunglasses any more. Martin had claimed it was because they had slept so little. 😉

It was over too soon, but worth the trip to Berlin. Unfortunately they did not get to play an encore so ‘Crashing into Love’ was the last song I’ll hear from them live for a while. It’s strange after so many weeks of touring to not have a date for the next concert, but I am sure there will be a few later this year. 🙂

We hung out for a while after they were done, but they were with friends, so none of us wanted to go and bother them. I met with my friend C. from Berlin and talked for a while. The wind picked up again and I was hungry so some of us left and found an Italian restaurant where we enjoyed a good meal. A. went home, B. and S. stayed a bit longer. The day ended with tea and talk at K.’s place where I spent the night. 🙂

So that was it for now, see you all in the fall!

Setlist

Turn it up
Maybe it’s time
You’re a window
Wrong Directions
Bad Dream
I was blind
What I’m searching for
I have to fall
Hard to cry
Cynical Skin
Little bits of Light
All over the News
Crashing into Love