Martin and James – FZW Club, Dortmund; Mai 15th 2011

Day five of my little tour with Martin and James and I could sure feel the long nights and lack of sleep taking its toll. I cannot remember the last time I have been so tired. Do I regret going to so many shows? Hell no, I love every second of this!

In fact I love this so much, I could not stand the thought of having to wait until Friday for the next show, so I got a ticket reservation, a hotel and a train booked for Aschaffenburg on Wednesday, before I left for the show.

I was a bit worried that I might have trouble getting there, because of the BVB Dortmund celebrating their victory in the German football championship. Yet, everything was painless and even the band had no trouble at all getting there from Cologne.

I was not the first person to arrive this time, but there weren’t many so I thought it would be OK to get to the front. I got slightly worried when they put up a “no cameras” sign though. Luckily I was not alone and A. and I agreed that whoever got in first would keep a spot for the other. When they checked my bag I got the email from Martin and James out and showed them that I was indeed allowed to take pictures. For the second time on this tour I got a photo pass from security. The guy even recognized me from the previous night. That really made me feel special.

Oh Napoleon kicked off the night at 8:00 p.m. It made me a little bit sad to hear them for the last time, since there is going to be another support act in Aschaffenburg and Berlin. Their setlist was the same as always, and by now I could almost sing along, but still don’t remember the order of songs.

These songs were played though:

Save me
27
To have/To lose
Falling away
I don’t mind
A book ending

I enjoyed their set once again; I really like Katrin’s singing too. I hope the other support act will be just as good.

During the changing of stage setup, A. and I studied the setlist because the previous day Martin and James had told us they wanted to try putting new songs on there. It was the same as always though. At 9:00 p.m. they came out. They first thing they told us was that despite everyone’s warnings they had no trouble whatsoever to get to Dortmund.  When they congratulated Dortmund on being Deutscher Meister, somebody yelled “Schalke!” Martin remarked that he was a brave man and joked he’d point him out for everyone else.

They started with the acoustic set of ‘She’s light guiding’, ‘Turn it up’ and ‘Lay this down’. Once again James told us it was from their first EP, which it is not, but I would not have known had A. not pointed it out t me. 😉

Just like in Bielefeld the audience was really quiet, maybe even more so. They didn’t show much of a reaction to the songs being announced or the stories told. I turned around a few times and there was hardly anyone clapping along during the songs. However, the applause after songs was huge so they must have liked it. Maybe most people there just enjoyed listening more than participating. Either way, it made they guys work extra hard, because “it makes us nervous” (when people are quiet). Maybe that was the reason for Martin mixing up the setlist and announcing songs in the wrong order. When it was time for ‘Wrong Directions’ he said the next song was going to be ‘Wheels’ and James corrected “No it isn’t”. Instead of ‘Wheels’ he announced ‘Waiting’ and later, when he said down at the piano he joked “the next song is called ‘Broken Sword’, at least I think it is. Is it ‘Broken Sword’ James?” All this made me laugh. (I’m sorry Martin.)

Anyway, it was a wonderful gig that took away all my tiredness for a while and just let me flow with the music. I loved their stories and no matter what they sing, I find their voices very soothing. I have grown to love ‘Live Wires’ and ‘Somebody’ over the course of these shows as well as ‘Waiting’. The crowd favorite always seems to be ‘All over the news’ though. Being the single, it is probably the one song all people know. ‘Bad Dream’ and ‘Crashing into love’ usually get a good reaction too, but this night the audience was subdued even then. Weird. It took until ‘I have to Fall’ / ‘Give a little bit’ for people to finally clap along a bit more.

‘Maybe it’s time’ took us to the encores and after that they even treated us to a song I had not heard before called ‘With you’. It made me really happy to hear something new. 🙂 As usually, the set ended with ‘Somebody’ and ‘You’re alive’ and they said goodbye.

After the gig I chatted with Oh Napoleon for a bit and found out they will be supporting in Munich and Stuttgart, but not in Aschaffenburg and Berlin, so I said goodbye to them.

I asked Martin and James to sign my tour poster and they both wrote a thank you note on it. 🙂 I also told them I’d be in Aschaffenburg, even though I had planned to surprise them. Just could not keep it to myself. We chatted a little bit, then I let them talk to others, but A. and I still stayed until they kicked us out of the place. We just could not leave.

So now it’s time for a break until Wednesday. Next stop: Aschaffenburg.

Setlist

She’s light guiding
Turn it up
Lay this down
—
(full band:)
Wrong directions
Wheels
Waiting
Beautiful
Bad Dream
I was blind
Tides
Live Wires
Crashing into Love
—
(acoustic:)
Broken Sword
I have to fall
Give a little bit
Little bits of Light
All over the news

Encore (full band):
Maybe it’s time
With you
Somebody
You’re alive