Ezio – Yard Club, Cologne; March 14th, 2014
It had been a while since I’d last seen Ezio so I was looking much forward to this concert. Unfortunately Booga could not be there for the tour, so it was only Ezio himself and Lars on drums. I could not really imagine the music with just one guitar, but was ready to be surprised. To cut a long story short: It was fun! The songs sounded different, but good, the guys were in a great mood, the audience loved it and I enjoyed the new music they played. 🙂
Got there one hour before the doors opened and despite the show being sold out I was all alone for quite some time. Still, I’d rather be too early than too late. As always, the fans were nice and relaxed and front row was easy. Talked with a few people, some looked familiar, some came for the first time. Ezio and Lars were selling merchandise before the gig, so I got the new CD right away.
The concert started with a few new songs and only later they threw in a few older ones. I liked what I heard – music and lyrics. It especially made me smile that some people already sang along – they must have been following the tour. As soon as any older songs were played, I could hear the audience sing along like an echo to Ezio’s words. It was all sorts of beautiful and got louder as he stopped singing. He visibly enjoyed the feedback. 🙂 Lars and he kept exchanging smiles as they played. It was fun watching them.
They were both in a good mood and Ezio kept commenting on what he saw in the audience. He joked about someone in the back who stood under a green spotlight looking like an alien. Everyone was laughing so he continued spinning that into a story about that guy being taken away in the spaceship and probed by a green alien finger. This led to more laughter and prompted Ezio to spontaneously create a song about this. It was quite funny and did not stop there. Everyone was laughing so much that he had trouble returning to singing for a while. Thus, he told us about his German teacher teaching him dirty words and the words he had made up.
Throughout the concert the green alien finger joke returned and other comments were made as well. Everyone seemed to have much fun, except for the guy who didn’t get it and after Ezio claimed his new song sounded like the Beatles and then jokingly started playing ‘Yesterday”, asked if he was kidding us. Well d’oh! Of course the music was great too, not only the hits like ‘Deeper’ and ‘Go’, but also the new songs. I loved the selection, it worked well. From time to time, Lars was playing the second guitar. The first time this happened, Ezio picked it up to hand it over, then told us a story about the guy who played two guitars: “He was quite arrogant and asked ‘You want to know how I do this?’ ‘No, I want to know why you do this!’ He never spoke to me again.” 😉
At some point he asked which songs we wanted to hear. Someone yelled ‘Saxon Street’ and someone else asked for ‘The Angel Song’, but he did not feel like playing either. Thus, I asked for ‘Agony’ – it had been a long time since I’d heard it. Ezio liked that suggestion and I got my wish. 🙂 After two hours they left the stage, but gladly came back for two encores. Two more new songs made an appearance as well as ‘The further we stretch’ and ‘Darkness’. To great applause they took a final bow and left. The concert was well worth the trip. 🙂
I’m sure the guys hung out for some time as they usually do, but I didn’t find out. A friendly couple I had met before the concert offered me a ride all the way to Bochum. We had a nice chat on the way and I got home a lot earlier than I had expected. It was a great night.
Setlist (to the best of my recollection and out of order):
The Terminator
Not hard to find
A small dream
Everybody forgets sometimes
Try not to think about it
“Alien Song”
Deeper
Thousand years
A country song
Girls
Hotel Motel
Go
Agony
We are all children
Fake
Just to talk to you again
59 Yards
Encore
The Cuckoo Waltz
The further we stretch
Nananana
My friend tonight (Darkness)