Always had it clear in my mind, I don’t wanna follow blind

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Gotthard – Ruhrcongress, Bochum, November 13th, 2009

The first time I saw Gotthard was over 13 years ago in April 1996. My then boyfriend had just broken up with me, I was severeyly heartbroken and very spontaneously decided that a concert was just what I needed. I called the venue the day of the show to find if there were any tickets left and made the treck from Osnabrück to Bremen in the afternoon. Only a handful of people were waiting and that night I got my first front row spot at any concert ever. The support act was Royal Hunt and I spent some time trying to flirt with their singer who was much more interested in the dolled up chick in a skimpy leather top behind me. But I did enjoy the show and got a drumstick. Gotthard were amazing, exactly what I needed that day. I even sang with Steve for a bit while we looked straight at each other. Wonderful. The one other thing I remember is that bassist marc was wearing a T-Shirt that read “Potent, Willig und Solo”. *eyeroll* They were younger then – I heard yesterday that he got married this year.

Since then I have seen them on every tour but one and always loved it. Always made front row as well which was usually easy to do. Getting there by 5:30 p.m. was always enough and there’s be just a handful of people.

Yesterday, however, things were a little different. I arrived at the Ruhrcongress at 17:20 and there were already About 30 people in line. There stage is not generally that big so I got used to the idea of not being in front. Figured it must be because they are touring with Europe this time around. A lot of the people were clearly Europe fans.
A set of doors was marked as the entrance, but outside there was only the dreaded red and white barrier band that usually leads to chaos. Everyone was of course lined up behind that in front of those two doors, but there was way too much room on the side for people who arrived later to line up. When they opened, it happened as expected. They opened another door first (one that was not marked) and the people who came at 18:30 got in first. Always he same crap in Germany.

When I finally was inside I still ran and I was incredibly lucky. On the right side of the catwalk (Huh? Since when do they have a catwalk?) there was a spot open. One women was holding it for her son, but allowed me to put my jacket there and when he son arrived he did not want to be front – success! The woman, in her 40ies was a real Gotthard nut and had dragged her sister and entire family along. Nice people, we had a great time together. 🙂

Europe started shortly after 8:00 p.m. Before this tour I had no clue they even still existed. Sure, I loved them back in the 80ies, even had their poster on my wall. I own one of their best of CDs as well, but only listening to it if nostalgia strikes. In my wildest dreams I would not have thought I’d ever see them live.

They were surprisingly good. Put on a fun show that I enjoyed watching and I liked the songs too. They have some good new stuff and of course played the classics too. The audience enjoyed it and they even got to play an encore. By the time they ended with “The Final Countdown” I had a big smile on my face.

Setlist

Last Look at Eden
Gonna Get Ready
Superstitious
Love Is Not the Enemy
Sign of the Times
Carrie
No Stone Unturned
New Love in Town
Scream of Anger
Let the Good Times Rock
Start from the Dark

Encore
Rock the Night
The Final Countdown

Waiting for Gotthard then and chatting with the two sisters R. and M – time went by quickly. At about 9:35 Gotthard hit the stage and as always I was into it from the start. They still have it and their incredible energy took over the audience in no time. I was in a great spot to take pictures and Steve was on the catwalk more than on the main stage :). I got to hear a lot of my favorite songs as well.

I the middle of the show, Steve and Leo do an “acoustic jukebox” set where they took requests. They did not play any of the songs in full, but the choices were great. The first was one of my all time favorites “In the name”, then “Janie’s not alone”, “Father is that enough” and finally, M.’s request “Angel”. *sigh*

The drum duel between Henna and Steve was awesome, Freddy and Leo came on the catwalk to play, I got to hear “Hush” and lots of others songs I love and even got a handshake. 🙂 M. was a happy camper, getting a pic autographed by Leo and a guitar pick from Marc.
What an awesome show. I walked away with a huge smile on my face.

So they are playing Osnabrück tonight and I know there was a time in my life when I would have gone there to see them again immediately. Yet I have gotten older and more tired, so I’ll skip this one and stay at home, content with what I had.

Setlist

Unspoken Words
Gone Too Far
Top of the World
Need to Believe
Hush (Billy Joe Royal cover)
I Know, You Know
Right from Wrong
Unconditional Faith

Acoustic Jam (audience requests)
In the Name
Janie’s not alone
Father is that enough?
Angel

Drum Battle (Steve Lee & Hena Habegger)

Shangri-La
All We Are
I Don’t Mind
The Oscar Goes to…
Lift U Up

Encore
Sister Moon
Anytime Anywhere

Haunting sorrows, burning heartaches and pain you seem to wash away

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Phoenix Effect – frannz club, Berlin; September 16th, 2009

After stressful months at work I really needed some cheering up so I decided to go to Berlin in order to see Phoenix Effect at the ‘Helsinki meets Berlin’ concert, thinking they might help me “lose these blues I found”.  Not that I am a fan and not that I would usually travel that far to see them, but right now it was the best thing I could do.

I worked half a day, hopped on a train and arrived in Berlin to beautiful late summer weather and a warm hug from J.. We went straight to the frannz club, found out you could buy tickets only at the door and spent about an hour sitting on the stairs in front of the club. When they opened we sat down in the foyer for a while and saw all the guys walking around. They half smiled at us greeting sort of like saying “I know I’ve seen you before, but I’m not entirely sure”. Only Anton walked straight up to me, shook my hand and said it was nice to see me again. 🙂

Met B. and the Phoenix Effect fan gang and waited some more. B. was “abducted” by Janne for a bit, but safely returned to us. 🙂 We were kicked out a while before they opened up the actual club. Had a nice chat with the really funny bouncer. He told us to step back and that we were gettingon his nerves, then asked: “OK, I pushed you back, I yelled at you, did I forget anything?” Thus I told him that he had to look angry and he replied he could not do that without having a drink of redbull first. It went on like that for a bit and was really funny. Later that night he even let us hand in our jackets at the cloakroom for free.

We were in around 19:30 and sat down on stage for a bit. The first band “The Souls” played to an empty hall at 20:00. They were OK I guess but a bit too loud for my liking and the mix was so bad I could not understand what they were singing.

After they were done, all the Phoenix Effect Fans occupied the front and even had some banners and signs prepared to hold up. Finally at 21:00 Janne and the others came out, greeted with screams from us. They started with an awesome ‘Flashbacks ‘n’n Memories’. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album and the line “To remember you need to forget, you need to forget” made a whole lot of sense to me right then and there. Despite the sound not being great and me having trouble understanding what Janne was singing, I fell right ino it and loved every minute.

The second song, ‘One Day remains’ was new to me and I thought it might have been something they had recently written, but I was later told it was a cover version. Either way, I liked it.’Carry me’, my favorite tarck on the album was next and if I hadn’d already been into it that would have been the song to make me forget all my worries and carry me for the rest of the night (and a few days to come). It is such a beautiful masterpiece. 🙂

The upbeat ‘Hey you’ made us all smile, happy to be there. The band clearly enjoyed being on stage and playing to us. We weren’t many, but we made as much noise as we could, listened attentively when needed and sang along. For us, they gave their all. ‘My Heart is a beating drum” became my theme song for the night. My worries indeed seemed to wash away with the music.

‘Into Flame’ was truly a new song and allowed us a little preview of the upcoming album. It was hard to understand the unknown lyrics, but the song was very powerful. The two singles ‘King see no evil’ and ‘Broken Promises’ ended their set. Way too soon if you ask me, but I was happy to get to see them at all. They played only 8 songs, but those were well worth the trip.

Setlist

Flashbacks ‘n’ Memories
One Day remains (Alter Bridge cover)
Carry me
Hey you
My Heart is a beating Drum
Into Flame
King see no evil
Broken Promises

I hung out in the back, listening to Indica (the third band of the night) playing and really enjoyed their set as well.

Janne came out to talk to the fans and we chatted for a bit. Saw Pyry hanging out as well, but felt weird going over there because he was so intently watching the stage. B. dragged me over there and I finally got his autograph and a picture with him and Laurie as well. 🙂

Around 23:00 J. and I said goodbye to everyone and left. Spent the night at a friend’s place and didn’t get much sleep before having to go to the airport the next morening. Got there at 5:oo and to my surprise met a very tired band at the check in counter. I said hello briefly, then left them alone. They clearly were tired and not in the mood for talking. After arrival in Düsseldorf I said goodbye to the band and went to work with a smile on my face.