Milow – Bochum, Zeltfestival Ruhr; September 1st 2011

My description of the gig in Hannover ended with saying “Had the audience been more into it, it would have been amazing.” After the concert in Bochum last night I can only say that it was amazing indeed.

Being there 2 hours before the doors open guaranteed me a spot in front row. Right on time at 8:30 p.m. the lights went out and Milow came on stage. From the very first moment on it was so different from Hannover. The audience screamed loudly to greet him, then immideately quieted down to listen to ‘I ain’t scared’. What a beautiful beginning.

The band came out for ‘Rambo’ adding a whole new layer of sound. The audience had fun, people were singing along and I realized that I know more of the lyrics than I thought I did. With the third song, ‘Dreamers and Renegades’ Milow and the band had won everyone over. Especially keyboarder and backup singer Nina received much applause and during band introduction there were many cheers for guitarist and backing singer Tom as well.

‘The Kingdom’ was so heartfelt, it brought a few tears to my eyes, but the smile came back on my face for ‘She might she might’. Somewhere in-between Milow told us that his first concert in Germany had been two years ago at the very same festival, just in the smaller tent. He aso mentioned that he was trying to learn German and always picked a word of the day. The day before it had been “Klingeltöne”. He mentioned a few more and made us laugh.  The one that came to him just before walking on stage was “Fingerspitzengefühl”. He pronounced it flawlessly too.

The show continued with ‘Never gonna stop’ and then the crowd went nuts for ‘Ayo Technology’. Milow had moved around a lot before, but for this song he jumped off stage and walked along the barrier on both sides. When he was right next to me, he climbed up on the railing and jumped into the audience, singing from there. It was lots of fun and by the time he made his way back to the stage everyone was jumping. He climbed the railing again and stood there for a bit before going back on stage.

The beautiful ‘Move to Town’ followed and this time I didn’t miss Martin and James as much while hearing it. ‘Canada’ kept us all going, before we got time to breathe and listen quietly to ‘The Priest’. Last year’s single ‘You don’t know’ and this year’s ‘You and me’ where the last two songs before the encores.

I swear, I have not heard people yelling ZUGABE (encore) this loudly since the POTF gig on May 23rd 2010 in Berlin. It was wild! I love it when the audience is really into it and clearly, the band enjoyed it too.

Milow and Nina came out to sing ‘Out of my hands’ and were joined by the others for ‘Building Bridges’. Before the show ended, Milow took a picture of us for his Facebook page and said he’d show this to many people because we were amazing.

Due to the curfew they only had one more song and left us with ‘LIttle in the middle’. They thanked us again and left to great cheers. When it was over, I could feel all the singing and screaming I did in my throat. What a great night! This was everything a good concert has to be.

Setlist:

I ain’t scared (solo)
Rambo
Dreamers and Renegades
The Kingdom
She might, she might
Never gonna stop
Ayo Technology
Move to Town
Canada
The Priest
You don’t know
You and me

Encore:
Out of my hands (duo)
Building Bridges (4)
Little in the middle