P!nk – Borussia Park Mönchengladbach; July 21st, 2024
Seeing P!nk live always means a great time and her show in Mönchengladbach was no exception. After 2023 this was my second go around on the summer carnival and totally worth it. Great spot, great audience, great night.
Getting there took me a bit longer than expected, but I made it around 3 pm, 2 hours before the doors opened. There were signs for the FOS area line, but still some confusion between FOS 1 and FOS 2. Eventually I was in the right line and got a wristband too. Talked to some nice people near me, but lost them on the way in, because the people inside the stadium didn’t know where the FOS entrance was(!). WTF? Either put up clear signs or tell everyone where it is. I lost some valuable minutes there.
Ended up near the main stage and the catwalk on the right side, which was a nice change in view compared to last year’s front of stage left. At the catwalk were some super fans, one of whom had seen P!nk 80 times already. Wow, I tip my hat to you. everyone was in a good mood and sat down for a while before the show started, even during Kid Cutup’s first DJ set. It was nice music, but it would not have made a difference had they just played it over the speakers.
Support was the same as last year and I had fun with them. First up was Gayle, playing some new songs and some I had already heard then. I enjoyed her energetic performance and the interaction between her and the band. She covered Queen’s ‘We will rock you’ , which gave us a great sing along and ‘abcdefu’ included a “Fuck you” call and response from everyone. I also remember taht she introduce ‘Ur just horny’ as a song about a “horny fucker” and I think there was a a rant about an ex in there somewhere. It was fun and a good warm up too.
Setlist (from Amsterdam)
internet baby
i don’t sleep as good as i used to
ur just horny
We Will Rock You (Queen cover)
Unknown (Everyone always forgets me)
butterflies
ALEX
snow angels
abcdefu
I had loved The Script the previous year and I still thought they were great, but it bothered me that the singer was mostly on the front catwalk and I only saw his back (or had to watch him on the screen). I enjoyed their song selection, with them even playing a new one, called ‘At your feet’ from their upcoming album.
‘If you could see me know’ was dedicated to Mark Sheehan, their former guitarist, who had died and during ‘Nothing’, the singer asked someone to called their ex and give him the phone so he could sing the song to them.The woman who did it, apparently had her phone out before he was even done speaking. It ended with all of us yelling “Bye asshole!”. The finale was of course ‘Hall of Fame’ and everyone showed their phone lights as instructed. It was a good set and I was all the more hyped for P!nk afterwards.
Setlist (from Amsterdam)
Superheroes
Rain
At Your Feet (new song)
The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
If You Could See Me Now (dedicated to Mark Sheehan)
Nothing
For the First Time
Breakeven
Hall of Fame
I was taking in all of the deco on stage, while waiting for the concert to start, it really did look like a Carnival and with the Words “Summer Carnival” framing a huge smiling mouth, al up in the air, it looked like an entrance garte. A litte before 9 pm, a video of P!nk appeared on the big screen, where she welcomed us to the show and ended with “It’s a carnival, let’s get this party stated”. Then, the song started and the big mouth opened up and we could see her inside, soon dropping down to the stage in the first aerial stunt of the night. She sang, framed by her dancers and everyone in the audience sang with her. The she was lifted up in the air again, while still singing and ‘Get the Party started’ was mixed with elements from the Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’ or at least it sounded like that to me.
She was back on the ground for ‘Raise your Glass’ and there were lots of big beach balls and two huge Flamingoes involved in the dancing. P!nk ventured out on the catwalk for a moment and then returned to the main stage, where she went over to guitarist Justin Derrico and planted a kiss on his cheek. For ‘Who knew’ first two female dancers, then two male dancers, then one woman and one man, danced a beautiful choreography, while she sang her heart out. P!nk came out all the way to the front of the catwalk for ‘Just like a pill’ and it might have been there that she saw someone holding up a poster to her and bent down and signed it. I could have been later, but I knew she signed stuff and received presents a few times during the show. 🙂 ‘What about us?’ was a gorgeous dance number that took them all to the front of the catwalk and back. There was so much to see, I hardly could follow it all.
She and most of the dancers left the stage for a moment, while we saw like an EKG line of a beating heart on the screens, we heard a heartbeat too and one sole dancer was on the catwalk, performing to words spoken by P!nk: “Breathe. What do you see? What colors? Look around. Look at me. What can you feel? Get low. Touch the ground. Touch the rug. Touch me. What can you hear? Can you hear the birds? Hear the wind? Hear my voice? Now breathe. Breathe. Blow out your candles. Breathe. You are (?). You are safe. You are with me. You are safe. I am with you. Thank you. Breathe.” With the last few sentences, P!nk walked up to her and touched her shoulders, then walked past towards an aerial rope, where she was joined by another dancer and lifted up for ‘Turbulence’. It was beautiful and I loved it especially, because the previous years this stunt had not been part of the concert due to stormy weather.
Next up we saw her playing a guessing game with musical director and pianist Jason Chapman, who played a part of a tune she had to guess. It was ‘God is a DJ’ and because she guessed it right, she received a box of chocolates from him. She explained it was her only way of getting candy, because otherwise her kids would eat it. She took one piece and passed the entire box on to the fans in front row, telling them to share. <3 She sat down at the piano saying something along the lines of that this was the only song she managed to learn and played us Bob Dylan’s ‘Make you feel my love’.
Jason returned and she sat down on top of the piano, singing ‘Just give me a reason’. <3 we all sang the “oh-o” part. For the second verse Nate Ruess appeared on the screens, singing his part and she hopped off the piano and walked out onto the catwalk. It was wonderful. ‘Fuckin’ Perfect’ was just that and we all sang along loudly. ‘Just like fire’ brought flames shooting up from the stage, which looked especially great, because it had gotten dark by now. It included a partial cover of Pat Benatar’s ‘Heartbreaker’ and ended in one hell of a guitar solo.
The third part of the show started with a beautiful acoustic version of ‘Please don’t leave me’. It was P!Nk, Justin and the backing singers – a perfect choir. Afterwards, she went out on the catwalk, receiving gifts and signing stuff on the way. Justin joined her and they played a wonderful version of ‘Don’t let me get me’. I noticed people around me blowing up balloons and remembered someone giving me one outside and the instructions to hold it up during ‘I am here’. Next up was ‘When I get there’, a song she mentioned was about her father. Many people held up their balloons l ready, lighting them up with their phones, others just used their phone lights. I looked gorgeous and the song brought me to tears. <3 For ‘I am here’ she and Justin were joined by the band. Everyone raised their balloons and jumped in unison during the chorus. So much fun! She commented on nothing being better than balloons.
The stage turned dark and when it lit up again we saw P!nk flying above our heads inside a sort of ball made of metal pipes. At first she was in there alone and then joined by two, later four dancers. It was a beautiful aerial stunt paired with a beautiful song. We got a spoken word interlude with ‘Are you gonna fall’, while we saw stairs and a trampoline at the back of the stage and the dancers flying high. It all lead to a beautiful version of ‘Trustfall’ where in the end, she stood at the top of the stairs.
She started ‘Blow me’ up there, while we saw more trampoline stunts, then walked down and out to the catwalk again. The song ended with band introductions and I knew the show was almost over. ‘Never gonna not dance again’ brought all the dancers out to the catwalk and she introduced them too. BAnd and dancers were all shown on the screens during the introductions. 🙂 They left the stage and returned for the encore and grand finale ‘So what’ where P!nk was flying all over the stadium. I still can’t fathom how she does that, much less sing through it all. It’s absolutely fantastic. As they all waved goodbye, the stage lit up with fireworks an there was confetti everywhere.
It was a brilliant show and I loved every moment of it. Would I do it again? Hell, yes!
Setlist
Act I
Intro Montage
Get the Party Started
Raise Your Glass
Who Knew
Just Like a Pill
What About Us
Act II
Heartbeat (Dance sequence to tape)
Turbulence
God Is a DJ (Snipped as part of nightly guess that tune game with pianist)
Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover)
Just Give Me a Reason
F**kin’ Perfect
Just Like Fire / Heartbreaker (Partial Pat Benatar cover)
Act III
Please Don’t Leave Me (Acoustic)
Don’t Let Me Get Me (Acoustic)
When I Get There
I Am Here
What’s Up? (4 Non Blondes cover)
Act IV
Try (Aerial stunt)
Are You Gonna Fall? (Spoken word interlude)
TRUSTFALL
Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (With band introductions, extended outro)
Never Gonna Not Dance Again (With dancer introductions, extended outro)
Encore:
So What