Prepare yourself for quite a long review with possibly a few backstage-like comments

The morning on the day before the concert I wouldn't have guessed that I would be queuing up that same night in front of the stadium, I wouldn't even have guessed that there was yet another BJ concert for me to come, as Amsterdam was supposed to be my last! But thursday morning Kevin (aka kieets) contacted me on MSN and was wondering if I was interested in buying a Bremen ticket off of him. I would also be able to get a ride from Marijke and Inge. Well... ok... although I didn't really find a night sleeping in front of a stadium very tempting (oh, how wrong was I!), but as the ononly way to get to Bremen was driving along with Marijke, Inge and Kevin I didn't have much choce !

Anyway... we were the first who arrived at the stadium, except for three Dutchies who had been wandering around the stadium already. So we were the lucky owners of really low numbers on the backstage-members-list (I got #6... what a Backstage feeling lol). A bit later more ppl arrived, most of them apparently frequent visitors, but I didn't kreally know them except for Taija and Laura. The night went by quickly along with Kevin joking around; we had some hours sleep and woke up pretty early from more & more backstagers arriving. A long day of waitig started, but things went by supprisingly quick & it was fedinitely interesting to be a real die-hard backstager for one day - now I finally know what everyone's allways talking about! Under a great supervision of Inge, Marijke and Carola (again! you guys rock!) the backstage line with over 600 ppl was formed pretty smoothly & the entering of the stadium could start at around 3:30 or so. I never entered a stadium as a 6th person in a line, but it gives quite a special feeling to even be able to choose where to stand on the front row! I went together with Kevin for a place right in front of Richie. Now again a few hours of waiting and sitten (another great advantage of being front row, you got something to lean against!) had started and it seemed to take ages until LIVE entered the stage.

But at 7:15 Ed and his guys appeared on stage and started off with Like I Do. Kevin (with his LIVE / Birds Of Pray tour-shirt) and I went completely crazy, to great amusement of the ppl around us . We were singing along really loud & Ed (singer) noticed us & of course recognized Kevins shirt and showed us a huge smile ! LIVE gave a fantastic performance (way better that what I've seen in Gelsenkirchen), unfortunately way too short (same set as with all BJ shows), but we had an amazing time! I couldn't stop smiling & saying how fantastic it was & how I was afraid that BJ could be a huge disappointment after this. But apparently I was wrong... again!

Half an hour later BJ entered the stage, they started off with the usual songs, it didn't seem too special, but it was definitely visible that Jon was in a great mood, which could have a great influence on the final setlist! I have to say that being first row was a great experience, ever from the very first song. Being able to actually see all Richies different facial expressions is just amazing ! Ppl in the front row don't seem to like jumping though, at least not the ppl next to me... I definitely missed that, but other than that it was great!

Anyway, the setlist was brilliant, it was supprising & up tempo. A bit short... but a lot of energy! The second half was better than the first half; which was still a bit unoriginal; so I'll just review some of the songs from the second half.
KEEP THE FAITH was kinda disappointing. It was the shorter version, withouth the BOOMs & jungle noices, but soon to be forgotten with more great songs coming up!
IN THESE ARMS; this has been one of my favourite songs this tour, I can't get enough of it. And this time it was even better when David sung the first chorus as some ppl on the front row had a banner and asked David to sing! Brilliant!
THE DISTANCE was great! I didn't hear it live yet & was really happy when they started playing it - it's one of the few Bounce-tracks I like, so yeah, I was happy to hear that one!
BLOOD ON BLOOD, with the electric intro, was madness... ooh how I liked to hear that song! Fantastic!
SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT sounds just fantastic during this tour! Anyone should hear Jon in the end of the song - fantastic!
BORN TO BE MY BABY was great as well [watch it, backstage-like comment coming up] during which [there it is...] Jon and I had eye contact probably only during two lines or so; but it seemed to last much longer. Hehe, ok, now I know why everyone's always going that crazy about being front row, I would never have guessed that I could react the same way as most of the ppl who had been front row, but I think I did .
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD was a nice one as well. Jon rattled off the verses of the second chorus, that was just amazing (you should've heared that to know what I mean I think). Also a suprising Dancin' in the Street & a rather suprising Rockin' all over the World (although not that suprising anymore after Amsterdam).
I GOT THE GIRL was a nice suprise as well, although I don't like that song & I don't know the lyrics really, so there wasn't much singing along either. But it was good to see the changes in the setlist! And last but not least...
I BELIEVE... I wonder if Kevin (aka the 'show some balls, play I believe-banner'- guy had something to do with it . I was (and many ppl with me) really amazed that they played it again! Fantastic and a great ending for a fantastic night!

I saw the onstage setlist afterwards and apparently they changed A LOT during the show!!! Originally Hook me up & Captain Crash were on the list & they planned the boring, unoriginal, encore. But it's quite obvious that the guys were in a great mood; threw some songs around in the set, played a couple of unplanned songs... This was a great show and the best I've seen so far (does this imply that I'm gonna try to go to more shows this tour? maybe... possibly ) And being front row made it even more special. Seeing my two favourite bands on a less than 10m distance on one night... it's beyond words! A night that I'll never forget! Definitely wotrth every second of waiting, the lack of sleep and the sunburn!

Thanks Inge, Marijke and Kevin!

The 100 something pictures I took yesterday evening can be found here;

http://www.aras.dds.nl/tmp/bremen/bremen.html (i'm too lazy to sort out the best ones )