Ezio – Harmonie, Bonn; April 29th, 2018
“This is early,” Ezio noted somewhere at the beginning of the show at Harmonie in Bonn, “it’s because we are old” and concluded that soon they’d be playing shows at two pm and handing out biscuits. Fine with me, I’d still come. It was good fun as always, with the usual random setlist and lots of laughs in between. The guys played songs we wanted to hear, joked, apparently enjoyed themselves, campaigned to “free the Schniedel” and just showed us a great time for two hours or so. There was nothing left to be desired. 🙂
Still exhausted from my weekend trip and with a total of only five hours of sleep I was grumpy on my wayto Bonn and the fact that my train was delayed didn’t help. Luckily there was hardly anyone at the venue when I arrived so things instantly looked brighter. Had a nice chat with a few people, saw some familiar faces, bought a CD and settled down, watching as the venue slowly filled up.
By the time Ezio and Booga walked on stage, there were quite a few people in attendance, ready for an evening of good music and fun banter. They started with ‘Dirty little Secret’ from their latest album ‘Daylight Moon’ and just for good measure they gave us ’30 and confused’ right after. Now there weren’t all that many prople in the audience who still were 30, we all have grown older with the band, but that did not keep us from singing along. 😀 I was already smiling from ear to ear already.
Ezio wondered if he should play a new song or an old one so I suggested both. He was in a great mood and ready for some jokes. Thus, after playing ‘Indian’ he decided he needed to point out that I had “a massive camera lens” and drifted off into jokes about penis sizes and going to the sauna. That became a recurring theme during the night. Glad I could provide some entertainment. 😀 Obviously ‘Deeper’ was the appropriate song to be chosen next. 😉
Of course he asked us what we wanted to hear and apart from the ever present wishes for ‘Angel Song’ and ‘Oranges’ people asked for ‘Braver than you are’ and ‘Bicycle’ too. The one he choose so was ‘Not hard to find’, commenting they had not played that in a long time. I asked for ‘Bruce Springsteen’ but did not get my wish this time. They played many other great songs though. 🙂
I loved hearing ‘Go’ and ‘Mermaid Song’ and the songs from the new album as well, even though I have hardly listened to it. ‘The Gypsy Song’ was great, especially when Ezio tried to fade out by moving further and furrher from the mic and then went into ‘I wanna be like you’ from Disney’s Jungle Book which everyone recognized despite the German lyrics being different. Everything was good fun that night like Booga imitating German commercials from the 90ies they used to see on Tv when they first came here or Ezio going into long ramblings about the word “Schniedel” and how the only purpose of going to the sauna was to free it. 😀 He also randomly launched into Italian songs twice, but the sing along did not go as he’d hoped.
‘The further we stretch’ was received with happy shouts and a loud sing along, but it was not the only song we knew. The band has many loyal fans who’ve been coming for years, are even bringing their kids by now and know all of the words. It always makes me happy to be among that crowd.
After asking us if it was OK to play a ballad we got ‘Maybe sometimes’ and then finally ‘Braver than you are’ along with some jokes about the non-existant English summer. 🙂 The set ended with a great version of ‘Hotel Motel’ – so far, everything was just as I’d hoped it would be. They said goodbye and walked off, so we could call them back with loud cheers.
It did not take them long to oblige snd they gave us ‘Saxon Street’. That song has always been a favorite of mine and during my favorite line “some of us run businesses and some of us are in jail…” Ezio just happened to look my way and we sang together. It was amazing and would have been the perfect ending, but it was not enough yet and we called them back to the stage once more.
We got to chose between ‘Last walk around the dancefloor’ and ‘Just to talk to you again’, but reactions to both were weak snd Ezio could not quite decide which one was more unpopular. Before I could suggest playing both, people demanded ‘The Angel Song’ and finally got their wish. It is a good song to be sure and it was the right one to end with. I’d wanted to say goodbye and thank them, but there was quite a crowd and I had a train to catch, soI left eventually. Hopefully this can be repeated soon.
Setlist
Dirty little Secret
30 and confused
Indian
Deeper
Not hard to find
Go
Been a long Time coming
Mermaid Song
The Gypsy Song / I wanna be like you
The Further We Stretch / The Bad Touch
Maybe Sometimes
Braver than you are
Hotel Motel
Encore:
Saxon Street
Angel Song