Almost anniversary, loud audience and tussled hair

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Poets of the Fall – Markthalle, Hamburg; September 8th, 2022

What an amazing show that was, Poets of the Fall started the second part of their European tour with. They looked so happy and relaxed, sounded great and everyone had a ton of fun. It was a great audience too, happy and loud with great vibes flowing back between us and the stage all night. Wow, this one is going to be hard to beat.

As expected, my trip to Hamburg did not go smoothly. The trains are always delayed that way, but I didn’t expect having to change trains three times and arriving an hour later than planned. On top of it all it was raining heavily – much needed, but still uncomfortable. When I finally got to my hotel I had to change rooms too, but eventually made it to the venue to meet up with A. and G. who had gotten there before me. When I arrived, they already had opened the main door and let us wait inside. 🙂

Said hello to a few people, waited and finally got in smoothly. We even scored a front row spot on Ollie’s side, which was a little elevated due to stairs – perfect overview from there. I already had a good feeling about it. A. and I had both seen shows on this tour already, so G. was even more excited than we were and the waiting time wasn’t long either.

Support act Bomber from Sweden looked like they had time traveled from the 80ies. I immediately liked their outfits and the music was alright too. Not fully my taste, but alright and they were fun to watch, getting us to clap along and playing their hearts out. I thought it was a good start.

As we watched the crew changing the stage, the excitement grew and looking around we realized that the venue had filled up nicely. We listened to the music played over the speakers and smiled at each other: Soon!

it had been dark for a bit when finally the music stopped and the stage lights went on. We screamed and I immediately realized how loud this audience was. Yeah! We cheered for each of the guys as they walked out and when Marko turned the mic in our direction we didn’t hold back. What a great start that was.

‘Requiem for my Harlequin’ opened the show and I happily realized that I know most of the words now. Since both Marko and Ollie checked if I was singing along, that was a good thing. 😉 Ollie had spotted us right away and shot a big smile in or direction. He was clearly happy to see us. With ‘Dreaming wide awake’ I was jumping already and of course I watched Ollie standing on the drum raiser, waiting for him to fly high into the air. This time around, Jani jumped with him. 😀

Jaska, stylish with golden MC Hammer pants, sat down in front of the drums and for a brief moment I had no idea which song was next. Then I heard the unmistakable riff of ‘Temple of Thought’. It still puts a big smile on my face every time. I just love that song and loved how everyone sang along and waves their arms for the chorus.

The guys were goofing around quite a lot that night, teased and hugged each other, posed for Glen and generally were in a great mood. At one point, somewhere in the second half of the show I was watching Captain lost in the music and suddenly noticed that the security guys by the stage rushed to the center. I turned and saw that Marko had stepped off the stage to be closer to the crowd. 😀

‘Rogue’ rocked with Jani getting us all to clap along and everyone waiting until he was satisfied with the noise we made. 😀 They played two and for each other as well as us, giving everyone space. This respect for each other is one of the things I really love about this band. As much as some of them enjoy getting all the attention, they still appreciate each others contribution to the whole and that makes it even better.

I was over the moon already, because everything about this concert felt right. Just seeing the guys on stage made me so happy and everyone else in the audience seemed to feel the same. We were loud and proved it again when Marko came back for ‘Firedancer’. This was the point when I realized they had not changed the setlist since May. No complaints, the selection is a great one that gives a perfect overview of the new album.

‘My Dark Disquiet’ kicked things up a notch and I was jumping and dancing like everyone else, already soaked with sweat. I looked over at A., singing some of the lyrics together before turning back to the stage, asking “Can I get a ride with you?” They were sure taking is on a ride that day and it was a good one. Since we were standing on te same level as hey were, it was easy to make eye contact and it felt like Ollie was playing just for us most of the night.

Jani was especially going wild, from taking Ollie’s tie in his mouth to crawling through Captain’s legs. At one point he stepped of the stage, stepped towards me and tussled my hair. So I tussled his too. 😀

‘Sounds of yesterday’ was beautiful and gave me a chance to breathe and listen before dancing again for ‘Choice Millionaire’. Of course Glen had to join the guys on stage for the arms up and down movement they always do. ‘Chasing Echoes’ was a highlight once again. Of the songs they play from the new album, this one is my favorite by far. It really speaks to me.

Already, we had arrived at ‘Stay forever’ and the end of the main set. Where did time go? We definitely wanted them to stay and once they walked off stage we did not stop screaming for more. They did not make us wait for long either and we cheered even louder when they returned. It was perfect. Some of them even took out their in ear monitors, satisfied with what they heard.

With ‘The Sweet Escape’, the whole venue lit up in lights from our phones. It truly looked like stars. During the guitar solo, Marko sat on the speaker on the far side of the stage, smiling and watching. I had a great view of Tuomas all night and he looked like he was having fun. From time to time, the others visited him and played on the drum raiser.

‘Daze’ had me moving again, while still trying to take pictures. From my vantage point I could take in the whole stage so there was always something I wanted to captured, from Ollie and Captain catching notes out of the ait to Glen running around with a camera.

With ‘Lift’ we did all the movements and for “on and on and on” Marko pointed at me just before like saying “You do it!” Of curse I did. Ollie checked if I was jumping for the chorus and gave me a big smile when I did. I never get tired of it. 🙂 Too soon, Glen handed Ollie the acoustic guitar and ‘Carnival of Rust’ started. One last sing-along for all of us, then a final pictures with the guys and it was over. What and amazing show!

G., A. and I were all a bit stunned and very happy with what we had just witnessed. It might have been the best one so far this year. 😀 Elated, we stayed in front of he stage a bit longer, saying hello to a few people until they kicked us out. Near the merch we met Jani and took pictures with him. He was in a great mood and decided to give me a new hairdo.

Soon, G. left so A. and I found a bar to have drink before returning to our hotels. It was just the right end for a wonderful night and only the start of a four day tour. See you tomorrow.

pictures of this concert

Setlist

Requiem for my Harlequin
Dreaming wide awake
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Firedancer
My Dark Disquiet
Sounds of yesterday
Choice Millionaire
Chasing Echoes
Stay forever

The Sweet Escape
Daze
Lift
Carnival of Rust

Ghostlight fall tour: One gig down, eight to go. Next stop: Berlin

Old love, old songs and still the perfect entertainment

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Robbie Williams – Sonderfläche Messe, Munich; August 27th, 2022

“Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Robbie Fuckin’ Williams. This is my band and this is my arse and you better be fuckin’ good tonight because I’m gonna be phenomenal.” – even before I heard these words I had a good feeling about the night ahead and afterwards I can only say that Robbie kept his promise. It was a brilliant show and everyone who had made the track to Munich was lucky to be there!

The day had started in the morning with a six hour train ride ahead of me. Surprisingly, we arrived almost on time and I took a break before going out to the exhibition area, where the concert was going to happen. Getting there was easy and once out of the subway, I only needed to follow the crowd. Soon, they let us in and I found a nice spot at the barrier, albeit quite a long way from the stage. Looking around I realized that the audience had grown older since my early days of Robbie fandom. Many people were around my age and the mother daughter duos I spotted, definitely were not there together because said daughters were too young to go on their own. I suspected it might have been the moms in the lead. Either way, everything was really relaxed, nobody pushing or screaming in my ears.

At 5:30 the show started with the first support act, Josh Savage. He seemed familiar immediately, but it took me a while to sort out how I knew him. In 2015, he played at one of the SoFaR concerts I attended in Essen and I had even bought his EPs. Now, seven years later, he performed with a band and they did well. They played lovely pop songs, among them even a brand new one and he got people at the front to clap along. He made jokes about the rain we had all been expecting (the weather forecast was bad) and the song he had brought just in case, something about not minding the rain. It was a nice first act and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Between the bands we had a wannabe MC, but his jokes fell flat and nobody really needed him to tell us what was going on. Act two were the DJ duo Lufthaus and while they had an OK selection of songs, I would have much preferred someone playing live. For a very short moment, right at the start, I felt some Riley Blue vibes, but they were gone too soon and I just got bored. Thankfully, the time passed quickly and we got to watch all the activity it took to prepare the stage for the star of the evening.

Where we stood, we had a bar in front of us and thus no people directly blocking our view. One of the bar workers was nice enough to clear off all the high towers of empty cups for us so there was really nothing in our way. 😀 I felt the growing  excitement as the concert time came closer, shot a few worried looks at the dark clouds in the sky, but was soon captivated by the screens. At around 20 past 8, the stage lights went up and the screens started asking us questions, wondering if we were ready and if we still considered Robbie our son. We cheered in response and the screens read. “Cool. Then let me entertain you.” His silhouette appeared on the screens, while a chant of “Robbie Robbie!” played and then the iconic song started.

We saw the band play before Robbie stepped on stage and the cheers grew louder. he ran out on the cat walk, gesturing for more cheers and telling us it just wasn’t loud enough (yet). Soon he asked us to put “one hand in the air”, “two hands in the air” and “bounce!”. From that moment on I forgot everything else and jumped along with the music. Not for the entire gig of course, but despite having to watch most of the action on the screen I felt like I was truly part of the show.

When the song was over, Robbie declared he was going to be phenomenal and continued with ‘Monsoon’, while giant flashes and rain showed up on the screens. I have always loved this song and enjoyed singing along. Did I remember all of the lyrics? Hell no! But it didn’t matter one bit. Telling us, he wanted to show how to entertain, Robbie launched into a cover of ‘Land of 1000 Dances’ and it was fun. Somewhere around this time, he looked out at the crowd and joked that the people on the stands were so far away, they were watching a completely different concert. “They are seeing Coldplay over there.” and that he could have his penis out without them being able to see. We didn’t either though, or, for that matter, the aforementioned arse. 😉

Then, sitting down at the edge of the stage, Robbie told us he didn’t know if the next song had been a hit, but he’d sing a bit of it acoustic and if we didn’t sing it back to him, he would not play it. “I was there to witness Candice’s inner business…” he started and the response was immediate, with not only everyone in front, but everyone around me singing along loudly. So ‘Candy’ it was! 🙂 Throughout the show, Robbie was being cheeky as every and I loved every bit of it. It also looked like he was having a lot of fun, so I hope it really was the case.

He shared the story of leaving Take That and how, after they told each other to fuck off, he went on to take a lot of drugs, which really can fucked you up and made him really sad until, at one of his darkest moments, he wrote the next song. All this was accompanied by gestures and asking us to vocalize (“boo” for the drugs, “aww” for the sadness). It was ‘Come undone’ and we all sang along, most of us without needing the words displayed on the screens. From time to time it was only us singing and it was beautiful. This was the song that drew me in almost 20 years ago and it hasn’t lost any of its power since. He told us that he still considers himself Germany’s son and I found that fitting.

‘Better Man’ was next and before or after the song he put on a glitter jacket. 🙂 He was wearing bold necklaces too and I thought it all suited him well, including the graying hair. Fittingly, he spoke about how some of us had been on this journey with him for 30 years and wanting to grow old with us. Together with Gary Nuttall and Guy Chambers, he played ‘Eternity’ on the platform at the end of the platform. Meanwhile it had gotten dark and the lights on people’s phone looked like a sea of stars.

We learned that he has a new album coming out, celebrating 25 years of his solo career, “it’s actually 27 now, but fucking Covid, you know”. He wanted to know if people from Munich were really the loudest in Germany and asked us to “bom along with him” for ‘Road to Mandalay’. We sure did and loudly sang “bom, bom bom bada ….” and he had fun shooting T-shirts into the crowd at the end of the song (who throws shirts if they can shoot them with a gun?).

He told us that his dad has Parkinsons’ and can no longer tour with him, so as a tribute he played ‘Sweet Caroline’ for the last time before retiring it after the tour. Then he looked for help from the audience and picked a woman because she did not want o come p on stage. He name was Lisa and once up there, she could not help but smile about it. They sat on a sofa together and Robbie sang ‘Something stupid’ at her, as he put it, while the screens showed the two of them framed with a heart. All of it was good natured fun and n the end he posed for a picture together and gave her a hug.

Robbie took us far into the past with ‘No Regrets’, a song that also appears on said new album, which has orchestral versions of all the songs. Then he dedicated ‘I love my Life’ to his family, wo were in the audience and told us that he expected Teddie to be on stage with him soon. It’s a great song and was beautifully performed with everyone singing and waving along to the chorus.

“Remember this one?” he asked and continued with ‘Supreme’, always a fun song and then ‘Tripping’, which oddly, I remembered the lyrics of, but not the title. 😀 ‘Millennium’ has never been one of my favorites, but it gave me the chance to take a look around and watch the crowd reaction. ‘Hot Fudge’ brought me back to singing along and I really enjoyed ‘Kids’ too.

We were nearing the end of the set and somewhere along the way, Robbie told us there was going to be a movie about his life with which he was heavily involved. He declared, not for the first time that night, that he was a narcissist and therefore, everything needed to be about him. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for that movie. A brilliant version of ‘Feel’ and a fun ‘Rock DJ’ took us to the end of the main set and they all left the stage.

When they returned, Robbie was wearing a bathrobe and I could not help but smile about him “Doing an Udo Jürgens”. He thanked us for having kept him sane all those years and emphasized how much our continuous support means to hi and how much love he feels for this country. His manager back in the day had said that once the Germans fall for someone, they will keep turning up and our faith in him has kept him feeling safe and protected. Anytime, Robbie, as long as you keep entertaining us, I will come back to see you. <3

He played a new song called ‘Lost’, saying something like “it’s about me, they all are, maybe you can relate”. Then, he looked for a woman to sing to, asked one girl for her name, but then deemed her too young. The next one he asked was called Barbara and after she told her age, he joked she was too old, but then paid her a compliment about her looks and dedicated ‘She’s the one’ to her. It was lovely, until he disappeared halfway through. Afterwards he apologized, saying he got so emotional he had to go throw up behind the drums. The show must go on though and he as back.

The final song, of course, had to be ‘Angels’ and one last time I looked at all the lights and sang along at the top of my lungs. we sang a final chorus as Robbie walked off the stage. I had been a brilliant show and I as smiling ear to ear as I followed the crowd to the exits. Thank you, I hope I’ll get to see you again soon.

Setlist

Let Me Entertain You
Monsoon
Land of 1000 Dances (Chris Kenner cover)
Candy
Come Undone
Better Man
Eternity
The Road to Mandalay
Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond cover)
Something Stupid (Carson and Gaile cover)
No Regrets
Love My Life
Supreme
Tripping
Millennium
Hot Fudge
Kids
Feel
Rock DJ

Encore:
Lost
She’s the One (World Party cover)
Angels