{"id":628,"date":"2011-05-13T11:03:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T09:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=628"},"modified":"2012-04-25T14:19:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T12:19:45","slug":"start-throwing-your-underwear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=628","title":{"rendered":"“Start throwing your underwear!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin and James – Stereo Live Club, Bielefeld; Mai 12th 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throwing our underwear, that was something James asked us to do some time during the show. Our reaction? Laughter. Let me explain…<\/p>\n

Martin and James are really sweet, friendly and polite guys that refuse to fit the clich\u00e9 image of rowdy rockstars. So when they told us that usually people throw bottles of beer or underwear at them, none of us believed it. It didn’t look as if they really believed it either, or wanted to have bottles thrown at them for that matter, but they certainly did want our participation. Martin did describe the audience well when he remarked that we were “very quiet”. There was lots of applause and even some yelling\u00a0after each song, but during the songs and while they spoke, there was mostly silence or the occasional giggle, at least for the first half of the gig. The audience loved what they heard and listened attentively, but it seemed they rather wanted to listen than comment.<\/p>\n

This was my second night on tour with Martin and James and, despite the same setlist, very different from the first. They started acoustically with \u2018She\u2019s light guiding\u2019, followed by \u2018Turn it up\u2019. In just two shows the latter has become one of my favorites and I really wonder why it didn\u2019t end up on the album. I guess it is just impossible to put everything on there or, as the guys explained at one point: \u201cWe\u2019ve been writing this album for 15 years. We wrote hundreds of songs together. Some of them were crap, but 14 were good enough to keep.\u201d I have to disagree. I can\u2019t think of any song I\u2019ve heard from them so far that even remotely comes close to being \u201ccrap\u201d. \u2018Maybe it\u2019s time\u2019 and \u2018Lay it down\u2019, a song they didn\u2019t play in a while before this tour, completed the acoustic set.<\/p>\n

The show picked up some speed and energy with the band coming out it seemed the audience knew the debut album better than the two EPs. \u2018Bad Dream\u2019 got a good reaction from the audience, so did \u2018Crashing into love\u2019 where James told us they were still trying to become rockstars. I\u2019d say, they are halfway there.<\/p>\n

It was interesting that Martin told us in the beginning how they were always nervous when they started and only after he said it I noticed that they seemed a bit more nervous than the previous day. They also had to work a bit harder to take over the audience, judging by the reactions. However, much of their music does not really call for participation, but for listening and that\u2019s what people did.<\/p>\n

They mixed their setlist well with slower and more upbeat songs, full band performance and acoustic parts. For \u2018Broken Sword\u2019 Martin told us that he was really depressed when he was younger and couldn\u2019t remember what the song was about, but how he felt then. After a pause he added that he was glad we didn\u2019t get to know him then. They didn\u2019t give us a chance to feel blue though, playing their \u201cparty song\u201d \u2018I have to fall\u2019 and then Supertramp\u2019s \u2018Give a little bit\u2019. Both got the audience going finally, clapping and singing along. The set ended with \u2018Little bits of light\u2019 and the current single \u2018All over the news\u2019, once again with a great reception from the crowd.<\/p>\n

We yelled for more and the encores started with \u2018Devils in the Doorway\u2019, another one of my favorites. For \u2018Somebody\u2019 James sat down at the piano for the second time that night, telling us how hard it was to grow up making music in \u201ca small town outside Glasgow where people are very closed-minded\u201d and how often they\u2019d been told they would not get anywhere with music. Hence, all the sad songs. Hearing that it made me even happier to see how many people had turned up for their gig and loved it. It\u2019s wonderful to see them succeed after so long. \u2018You\u2019re alive\u2019 ended the concert and sent us back to real life. Even though the lyrics are sad the song carries a message of hope. A good ending to an enjoyable night.<\/p>\n

Of course I have to mention that Oh Napoleon did a great job as a support act. I really like their songs and performance. Also the club was really nice and the sound was great,<\/p>\n

After the show I chatted with Martin and James for quite some time about all sorts of stuff from the \u201cBVB is football champion party\u201d that will be held in Dortmund on the day of their concert to biking home after the show. They wondered why I come to see them so many times so I told them that I wanted to take in as much as I can while it was easy to get to front row and that all of that would be so much harder once they were world famous. They liked the idea of world fame and I sure hope they\u2019ll get the recognition they deserve. Soon, it was time to go and with a huge smile on my face I went home. Next stop: Cologne<\/p>\n

Setlist<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s light guiding
\nTurn it up
\nMaybe it\u2019s time
\nLay this down
\n—
\n(full band:)
\nWrong directions
\nWheels
\nWaiting
\nBeautiful
\nBad Dream
\nI was blind
\nTides
\nLive Wires
\nCrashing into Love
\n—
\n(acoustic:)
\nBroken Sword
\nI have to fall
\nGive a little bit
\nLittle bits of Light
\nAll over the news<\/p>\n

Encore (full band):<\/em>
\nDevils in the doorway
\nSomebody
\nYou\u2019re alive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin and James – Stereo Live Club, Bielefeld; Mai 12th 2011 Throwing our underwear, that was something James asked us to do some time during the show. Our reaction? Laughter. Let me explain… Martin and James are really sweet, friendly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[100,17,47,116],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert","tag-bielefeld","tag-germany","tag-martin-and-james","tag-oh-napoleon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}