Terça-feira 13 Fev 2007, 7h:36
Thu 8 Feb – The Good, The Bad & The Queen
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So I don’t know if it will be so much of a review as I can tell you a lot about what happened before the gig and after. The gig was like a dream. I still can’t believe it happened.
It said on the ticket that they open the door at 8pm, but I thought they would open earlier so I left my hotel at 6pm. When I arrived at the Ostbahnhof train station I stood for five minutes wondering where I should go (on the map it was very close to the train station). After five minutes I realized that I was standing the whole time on the other side of the street looking at the big sign with the name of the club J. I noticed four people standing in front of the gate so I joined them. Let me say it was freezing cold. After 10 minutes security guy said something in German, which I couldn’t understand at all but the people started to go along the fence which was surrounding the place so I walked behind them. After five minutes of walking we reached the door, they were on the other side of the building. There were about 8 of us by then. Suddenly I saw that one girl with a guy approached the group of four German people and she started introducing herself in German and saying she came from Poland. It turned out that one person in the German group was a Pole living in German and they started to chat. It took me five minutes to summon my courage and approach them. It’s funny how it is easy to meet people in such situations. I just said, “hi I heard you were speaking Polish” introduced myself and so on.
I’m happy I did we had a great time. Anyway they didn’t open the door earlier so we were standing one and half an hour freezing. Then when they opened the door I had a moment of horror. It was the first time I went to a concert with a printout ticket and I was little bit concerned. The security guy was screening my ticket and after few seconds I wanted to take it from him but he was like “wait a minute”. He had this stern look on his face and said something in a very serious tone and I was on the verge of getting a hard-attack. Then he repeated and I was feeling that I was losing the ground under my feet. Only when he repeated the third time I understood he said “viel spass” J. So then we went straight to the stage. The club was very small. And there was no security guys standing between the stage and the crowd, which was nice. I was standing in a second row after the girl I met, in front of Damon J. There was no other band playing. At 9 pm three girls violins and one with cello came out and sat on the left side of the stage behind the Damon’s piano. The band came out at 9:05pm. And then everything happened so quickly. At the beginning Damon was little bit pissed off because they had some problems with the sound. Fortunately they dealt with it pretty quickly.
Ok now short review
The songs sound so much better live, seriously. On the record the music is subdued. When you hear it live it’s so powerful and the bass is so much more audible. Damon is such a terrific live singer. His voice is incredible. You know sometimes you hear bands live and the singers miss notes and generally do not sound so good like on the record. But Damon oh gosh. I was in a musical ecstasy.
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Let me also say that I love Paul Simonon. The guy is so awesome. Wait till you see his “dance moves” And believe that means something if me Damonomaniac for many many years was able to get my eyes off Damon just to watch Paul. Paul was everywhere. He was making this funny poses with his guitar. Like he was pointing at us with a shotgun. And since I and other girl in front of Damon were talking many pics he was often standing next to Damon and pointing at us. It was like he was posing just for us. I was not able to take a good photo fo him becuase he moved to fast.
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The show was short - only one hour and five minutes. Damon was not talking much between the songs. He spoke a little bit of German as always in Germany he needed to show off.J He could try a bit more. Usually he is more engaged with the crowd so I though at least he would bend and shake some hands. Only during Three Changes he was pretending he would jump into the crowd but he was only teasing with us. The best song of the show was Three Changes as well because it was the most dynamic. Also I loved when they played Herculean and The good the Bad and The Queen because the songs turn into fast instrumental pieces in the end At time Damon was so forceful playing the piano that it was shaking and I thought the bottle standing on it would fall. His whole face and skin and was shaking too. It looked funny as he was in a trance. And the most touching moment for me when they ended playing Kingdom of Doom and Damon started playing Intermission (for people who are not Blur fanatics it’s the instrumental piece from Blur’s second album Modern Life is Rubbish) I though I would start crying. Generally the whole experience was very emotional for me. And one more thing I’m generally used to rock concert where people jump and crush into each other. But on this one nobody even stamped on my foot.
After the concert ended we hung out in a club till they told us to leave. When we left there were like four people standing next to fence (behind the fence there was bus of the band). They were making a lot noise so we rushed there. And surprise surprise there was Paul. I was trying to take a photo (see below) but it was difficult since there were 6 of us making noise and crowd like there was 100 of us. Didn’t plan to take an autograph but since everyone else was taking I thought what the hell I will have a small sign/proof for myself that it really happened. Next to Paul there was their tour manager Smoggy (he was also a tour manager for Blur). And I asked him if Damon would come out too but he mumble “hmhm not yet” then he walked away because someone called him. I was mad because I wanted to say something to him like we came form Poland blah blah just for this. I don’t know suddenly I had a lot of courage. Then he came back and told Paul they should go. He torn my printout ticket from my hand and said that is the last one (autograph). And then fuck I still want to kick myself when I think about it. It was obvious for me they went to the bus. The bus was like three meters behind the fence so I could see clearly. But did I look what they were doing noooo. I was picking my gloves and stuff from the snow. As I told you everything was so hectic. Then the bus drove away and I went to the hotel at about 11:40pm. Now on Sunday I see on the bands’ forum that one guy left the club after the concert and was standing with his friend at the gate waiting for the bus but since nothing was going on they went to eat something and came back about 12pm when there was no bus. They went to the club’s door and who was coming out -the band. And he talked to Damon and has a photo with him. Damn it if knew Damon was still in the building I would have waited even the whole night. But I’m glad the guy was so lucky because he traveled for the show from Budapest J And I tell myself that the next time I will be so lucky and more conscious what is going on.
