Rockin' All Over Germany - my reviews of the German shows

When Jon hit the circle and the intro of WWWB came on I was feeling my heart beat rising once again. This is one of the fewer post-2000 songs that actually mean a lot to me.
It’s one of the tunes that caught me in the right mood at the right time - just like Undivded. I remember walking home from a great New Year’s Eve Party in 2010, being more or less drunk and seeing the daylight slightly coming up. It was the year I was going to graduate and at that point I had no idea how my future would really look like, if I was going to pass my exams and what would happen to our brotherhood of friends once everyone went his/her separate ways. All these thoughts combined with a bit of a flashback to the time my friends and I spent over the years together at school and abroad and the slightly rain that was falling…these impressions I experienced while WWWB was blasting on my headphones and it totally, really totally hit me. From that moment on this song has become so important for me and the lyrics just seemed to fit perfectly.
So now there I was, standing in the stadium, watching the huge animations and hearing Jon doing this song - and nothing happened. No, the performance wasn’t very bad, but it didn’t get me. I heard from other fans that, during the first leg of The Circle tour, the song seems to have worked in arenas with the lights being more impressive and the all-around setting being more fitting. Well, maybe I’ll experience the song tomorrow night again in Dusseldorf and change my mind, maybe not.
At this moment it was like you are sitting on a train watching the landscape passing by. You basically love the nature around you, but you just don’t have the chance to really experience it and soak it’s beauty in - that’s how the moment felt to me.
They went on with Bed of Roses - Jon’s microphone didn’t work properly, so he improvised by holding two at a time which got some laughs and applause. At that time I noticed again that the people on the infield were much more into it than in the circle.
I’ll Be There For You started winning the crowd back a bit, though the ad-libs were more and better in Dresden.
Bells of Freedom was done with the band on the circle and was way better than in Dresden for me as it was a proper acoustic rendition - Bobby didn’t play along at all and Richie took full charge of the guitar part in the song - the way it should always be!
Who Says - we made it through, the same goes for Sleep. The song that had been so amazing in Dresden was a major let-down for me, it felt flat without the covers and groove wasn’t in there. But from now on the show and the energy REALLY picked up and got me rockin’ like crazy again. Someday was full of energy, as were HAND and KTF. I noticed that Jon’s vocals sounded a bit shot, but I can’t say that he didn’t try. He put all in he had, as did the rest of the band. Richie got to shine more and more as the final part began.
The encores were about to start and my Dry County moment was finally there. Just beautiful live and Richie owned it! Wanted had a much, much better crowd reception than 2 days before. I expected, or rather feared Prayer to follow up, but Tico hit the drums for Always. That surprised me as Jon’s voice didn’t seem to be up for it, but he did a decent job and Richie played a great outro. He clearly enjoyed being there and doing what he can still do the best.
Prayer was supposed to end the show and by the time it was over I wasn’t sure whether we’d get more or not. I looked at the watch and saw 8-10 minutes left. Like a flashback Jon’s words from Sydney shot through my head “I still have 10 minutes to play…” and I started to wonder if we’d really get These Days as well?! I don’t give a shit about DC and TD being the “unexpected expected” or not, but both in one encore is ace for me! Especially as I don’t see 10-20 shows per tour!
My wish came true and I was immensely rocking and enjoying the song and when I saw Jon on the screens saying “wait a minute” I couldn’t believe we’d even get more. We did and Blood On Blood was a cool way to end the night!
So, the show was done and I felt happy, pumped and burned out at the same time. I had really rocked and sang along with all I had the entire night, as had the people around me. I couldn’t have survived one more song I guess, as my foot kept on screaming inside “you bastard don’t even care about giving me a rest even when I’m broken”. Well, dear fractured bone, blame it on the love of Rock’ n ’Roll!
Besides the pain I felt so different after the show…I was happy and burned, and I had so many songs I loved. But in Dresden I had this feeling of being lost in the music, like being away from the happenings and the world around. This didn’t happen in Munich, still it was a great experience!
I tried to phone Johny after the show, but it was too loud and we couldn’t understand each other. I wanted to ask him if Seb and the rest would like to come to the back for a little talk, but the moment I hang up the phone I already saw them coming. Unlike in many other stadiums, the GC area leaves the stadium on the same way than all the others do. It was really fun meeting Thierry, Seb and schlochty (what’s his real name btw?) and Seb told me he thought the show was dreadful and a C- in his book. I still can’t agree with him, and to me that’s what makes such meetings more exciting - you can discuss your different point of views on stuff like that. How boring would it be if we all agreed on everything?!
Along with thousands of other fans we waited for the trains to get outside of Munich again and the started our way home. There I made an interesting experience - there’s no album like Destination Anywhere if you want to calm down and relax after being so high after a show - I think I listened to it twice in full and then found some good sleep…

Next stop: Dusseldorf - tomorrow night!

Round 3 - Esprit Arena, Dusseldorf - “Welcome to the heavy-weight snooze fest of the world!”

Alright, it’s Wednesday morning, around 9:30am. Ronny picks me up on some parking lot along the freeway and we start our trip do Dusseldorf. Due to the fact that the band had rocked Istanbul and, especially, Bucharest the days before I was expecting them to be in a great shape and I was all pumped for the show when we left. Around 3 hours later we had made it to our little hotel, it was noon and we first went to the Esprit Arena to pick up our tickets for the show there. It was only a 10 minute walk away from where we stayed, and we had the closest train stop right in front of our hotel.
After we had gotten our tickets and our wristbands for the Golden Circle we took the time to go to the city of Dusseldorf. Well, there wasn’t much to do there. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant and I wanted to visit the “Kirmes”, which is 3rd biggest funfair in Germany, but due to the constant heavy rain neither of the roller coasters was going anyway.
We stopped at a bar and caught some alcohol and I saw an announcement of a Bon Jovi cover band playing in town that night and started to wonder “who the hell books a cover band on the same day, at the same time, in the same city when the original act is in town?!”
In retrospect I maybe should have gone to their show and I definitely should have gotten some more alcohol in that bar before leaving to our hotel again.
We arrived at the arena at around 6pm and made our way into the GC area.

At the rear barrier I spotted a friend from our neighboring locality and we had a nice conversation. I was so deflected by that that I didn’t notice Kathleen and the rest of group was standing right next to us. We had never met before, but known each other via another forum since late 2007 I guess. Over the time we exchanged so many stuff, had great discussions and she even helped me on me research paper I had to write for my graduation early last year. Finally getting to meet each other in person was truly great, as well as seeing Thierry and Sebastian again and getting to meet her husband Paul for the first time. When looking back, getting to spend some time together before the show was the only thing that saved that night for me. Sebastiaan, Erik and Katherine arrived short before the show as Erik’s plane was late I guess. I have to admit that I didn’t like Panda much before from his posts here, but meeting him in person changed my mind, he’s a real nice guy!
With Seb, also Semi Giovi and Nicole joined us, unfortunately we didn’t get to talk much.
Meanwhile we were enjoying our time in the back of the pit, The Breakers had done their opening set, I had met Olli and Jay, singer and guitar player of the Jovi tribute band Bounce and they had completely darkened the arena.
I kept thinking that this was my first “arena” show as it was totally dark from the beginning on and pictured that it would be pretty cool to see the stage show with full effect from the first seconds on.
When the houselights went down I was still on the bar getting something to drink (man, they were so damn slow…), but made it to my place within the first few seconds of the intro. I made sure to stay a but away from our tapers as I can’t keep my mouth shut during the songs.
So, the intro played and I enjoyed it being more intensive as during the stadium shows I had seen so far. Happy Now was to open the show and, even though I was happy to finally get to hear one of my favorites of TC, there were a few things I already noticed during that song: the band (which later on got confirmed) didn’t seem to had done a soundcheck before, the whole mix was a bit off and Jon totally too much upfront in the mix. Any time he stretched a note it sounded like shit. Another thing I noticed about Jon: he started the song at the wrong moment and just raised his hand to Tico to show him to go along with him. Furthermore he looked anything else but happy, but he had the same expression on his face when they played Frankfurt three years ago, so I wasn’t too worried about that.
Happy Now doesn’t work as an opener, it’s just too slow for that spot, but the crowd was into it right away. The arena was almost sold-out and I pictured this could become a nice show. The standard trio followed - Bad Name, Born To Be My Baby and Born To Follow. The crowd was into it, though Jon already struggled a bit vocally. Next was Superman, just like in Dresden and we all know where that night went. The performance of that particular tune was much better than back then, Jon did a great job during the verses and went for the first chorus, but sounded like he really was fighting hard in the final refrain. Still, if I’d have to pick 3 songs that were done good that night, Superman would be one of them. It’s My Life followed up, the crowd loved it, but Jon had switched to autopilot.
From then on they lost me: The More Things Change, We Got It Going On, Captain Crash! Out of the five or six songs I really can’t stand, three were played right in a row. That was just too much…
Strange enough was that Jon got a rather big cheer for his rant in TMTC…

We Got It Going On is a song I hate with passion on the album, it’s a bit better live, Crash is just the other way around: not THAT bad on the record, but boring and done to death live. The fact that it’s basically always done without any fire in it and only on the setlist to give some Jon’s-ass-kissers the chance to throw their confetti around and to have Jon getting the audience to wave their arms doesn’t make it a single bit better. A teacher of mine once made a true statement at school, I’ll try to translate it: “From permanent agitating the poop still doesn’t get any better…” Oh well, someone better tell Jon…

Bad Medicine came up and didn’t save the night for me anymore. From all the cover songs they could have chosen they went with the one I don’t like: Roadhouse Blues. Though I have to admit their constant attempts at doing Mercy made me smile a bit.
During the song Jon woke up a bit again and finished it on the circle where he stayed for When We Were Beautiful. I already mentioned in the Munich review what this song means to me and before the show I discussed it with Thierry, who told me he can’t stand that tune. When they started it I turned around to him and we were both thinking the same at that moment, I smiled, he gave me the finger. I could truly enjoy the song a bit more in that arena setting, but Jon asking the audience to get their lights up in forms of their cell phones was rather ridiculous. They just can’t reproduce that song live which lives from so many different guitar layers on the album.

After that Jon made another attempt at Mercy, rather failing once again. I was waiting for something exciting to finally get the show going, instead What Do You Got was next. Didn’t sound bad live, and in another time and place I might have enjoyed it, but right now I was just getting bored.
Richie was called out on the circle, Jon made us sing Happy Birthday for him, though this had been two days ago. Well, why not…
I’ll Be There For You was the obvious choice and I don’t mind if they’d do that song every night. It’s truly a great ballad and get’s the audience going with the long sing-along parts in the end. To my huge surprise the fans were still present, on other places there would have been zero reaction after the boring set so far.
Both got back to the main stage which meant no acoustic set. Another chance to save the night with something special wasted. Instead we got Mercy, take number 4…now doesn’t that sound exciting to you all?
Jon’s obvious “I wanna have fun” and Who Says. They were really doing everything to prevent me from starting to enjoy the show at any point. Hey, Captain Kid, I wouldn’t mind having some fun as well!
By the look on Seb’s and Thierry’s faces I could tell that they were feeling the same things as I was and I felt sorry for the American’s and Canadian’s who came over just to have such a let-down as their first show. They had experienced better stuff at home.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead - and by now Jon was totally off track. No cover song, he started singing too late more and more and I never had that song heard in such a boring version!
“Come on, let me drive you crazy!” Yes, Jon, I’m slowly starting to drive crazy, but in another way!
Someday followed up and Erik was already so off that he came to me during the first chords saying “They’re playing Mystery Train!” No, they didn’t. But finally a faster song, the audience was still there to my surprise. Jon’s vocals were more and more off, he missed his entries a few times again and started rolling his eyes. By now I knew he had probably given up on the show. After the solo Jon went into “Hey Man, I’m alive, taking each day and night at a time, yes I’m down…” and I though “oh his improvising a bit now. But he just screwed up and hustled to get back to the “it may not be tomorrow” part.
Have A Nice Day came up and at least there was some energy now in the show. The sound was like a wall, nice and powerful. At least we had power there, I noticed that even Tico was looking a bit pissed behind his drum set now at some parts.

They closed the main set with Keep The Faith and this was my highlight number two of the night - Jon all of a sudden seemed to be a bit obsessed with his own song again and they did a really nice job on that one! Finally something!
They were off, 22 songs, but just 1h50min running length so far. This couldn’t be saved anymore!
After their return on stage David started In These Arms and I was disgusted. I don’t mind the song in it’s original, it’s awesome that way! But I heard it on every of my 7 shows since 2003 and since they down tuned it and gave Bobby the spot for the guitar solo it’s just dreadful. It went along and all of a sudden David started to sing! Yeah, that’s cool, but why only the first verse?!?!?!
Wanted was obvious, couldn’t win me back and then Blood On Blood came. I love that song and it was the fourth time I got to hear it live. I never heard it that good at any of my shows! Jon really put some effort into the song, making it a bit more than just a standard rendition! His face after the solo was shocking though and the camera spotted it and you could hear people immediately talking about it. Nice, highlight number 3!

Prayer was to end the encore. By the time Jon did his thank you speech I knew there wouldn’t be any more after that and between the lines I felt he said “I knew that was poor tonight, excuse me guys, you deserve more”. I honestly had the feeling Jon wanted to express that with his words, it didn’t sound like he had the intention to just thank us for our loyalty bla bla bla…

So, the night was over, disappointed faces all around us, not a single diehard in the pit saying he enjoyed the show. We went outside with the Sebstage group, took a photo and at least had a great meeting up together.

On our way back to the hotel I texted friends and phoned them, telling them that this was the worst show I had ever seen. And even now, a week after it, I haven’ changed my mind at all.
What was the reason for this poor performance? Well, from the first song on they sounded off, either vocally or the entire band. Furthermore the show never took off, due to awful song choices. Every time you thought “Now it might finally get going” the next song knocked all down again. It just never took off, failed to deliver by a great performance itself and there just wasn’t anything that made the show special.
The next morning we met some more fans while having breakfast at our hotel and they shared our opinion about the concert. We headed back home afterwards and when I later met my dad I told him “I’m not sure I want to go to Mannheim after this…” He did his best to convince me to go…

Coming Up:
Round 4 - Heading To Mannheim - Now it’s do or die!

really enjoyed reading your reviews and loved seeing your amazing photos. I'm so glad you had a chance to enjoy a show with your dad. I also love WWWB, and it reminds me very much of what you described! Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it live, I have loved hearing it each and every time. Looking forward to reading more of your posts.

Round 4 - Heading To Mannheim - Now it’s do or die!

Two months have passed since this show took place and I somehow never came around to write a review. So, for those who may have enjoyed reading the other so far or just for the sake of completing it here’s the final round of my German tour 2011.
The first crazy thing happened almost a week before that show when my parents decided to both go to that concert - as I mentioned before, they have been divorced for two years now. Memories popped up in my mind from the last show we all did together - Hessisch-Lichtenau 2006, which was quite a disaster due to certain different reasons. Also Munich 2003 hadn’t been that easy with both of them, not meaning the shows itself, but many things that happened around.
So 4 of us started off our trip to Mannheim at around 3pm on that Saturday - me, my parents and Lena, who had already been with us in Munich. From where we live, Mannheim is just a 2 hour drive - I wanted to leave earlier, but got outvoted by the rest of us. And there we were again, right at the highway’s exit to Mannheim, caught in a traffic jam. Man, I was already getting pissed that early again. We made it to the concert sight at around 6:30 then and what looked to be still quite empty coming from the back (the Maimarktgelände is rather long) turned out to be a pretty packed crowd already. Standing more in the back, in the middle of nowhere, that was something to get excited about - not!
But things and the whole night started to turn at that point. I got texted by Johny (Avantasian), who I had met months before at a local club during a Bounce concert. He told me that we should go to the very left side (where all the different footing stands were located), around the barrier and go to the left screen. It worked and was the tip that saved our night - we all of a sudden were even close to the pit area, had a great view and great people around us. By this time the support act was still playing - Vintage Trouble. For the first time in Germany The Breakers didn’t open and, though I never minded them in that slot, I thought Vintage Trouble did a much better job. They’re music had a cool grove and they seemed to be more experienced being on stage.
After they had done their set we went to get something to drink and take a toilet break, before we wanted to settle at our position. Back at the “pirate” bar I met Seb, Katherine, Erik and Thierry. We had a short conversation, Thierry told me how awful Jon also sounded in Zurich and we all agreed that the opener (as the shows with Happy Now and Captain Crash in that spot both tanked) will set the tone for tonight. Afterwards we arranged a meeting point for after the show, as Kathleen and Paul were still in the pit and Johnny, Ronny and Johny were at totally different points of the festival site.
When walking back to our position I kept thinking “this is the final German show and every last German show this decade was special”, trying to convince me that this night would turn out to be good. Normally that’s what an artist should do and not the concert attendant himself. Well, the band still had the chance to prove it, because, even though Dusseldorf (and supposedly Zurich) had been downers, every final German tour show in the past had been awesome - Munich 2001, 2003 (or alternatively Kiel) and 2006 as well as Frankfurt 2008.
The music kept playing, Jon’s white microphone stand was on stage and everybody got excited around us. They were singing, chanting and I thought “wow this could be a real awesome crowd”. The only time I experienced fans being to hyped even before the show went on was in Munich 2003 - and we all know where than went! I didn’t know if there was a curfew, but got a little nervous at around 20 minutes after 8 as the band still didn’t show up. But just as these thoughts went through my head the little orange “balls” at the beginning of the intro started to pop up on the screen and I screamed “it’s about to start”. Everyone around me started to cheer and get crazy. Awesome!
When the intro was done my heart beat was immensely high, anticipating, hoping and at the same time fearing the first song. Tico counted the beat off and Richie busted into Raise Your Hands! Here we go! It was exactly the right song to start to work the crowd and to get everyone going. The only thing that bothered me a little bit was that the sound out there on the left wasn’t as loud as I wanted it to be, but this may have been due to me being used to the overpowered volume in Dusseldorf. It changed and got better throughout the show anyway. Bad Name followed right up to Raise Your Hands and Jon seemed to get more and more relaxed and have fun. The best thing that could happen! It went down great, as did Born To Be My Baby. For the first time this tour I heard Jon properly hitting the “na na na” part in the end, something where he clearly struggled in Munich and Dusseldorf, even a bit in Dresden. When We Weren’t Born To Follow kicked off I realized how good it could turn out that night. Jon started singing and I got goose bumps, for the first time ever during this song. The vocals were just so spot on, he wasn’t mumbling or anything and just sounded very good!
Towards the end of the song I started wondering what will be next. Will they go over straight to Lost Highway or finish the songs and go with In These Arms or Whole Lot of Leavin’? I wasn’t overly excited about any of these alternatives, but loved what happened: Jon shouted a few “oh yeah” and announced The Radio Saved My Life Tonight! I had listened to this song heavily the weeks before, thinking how cool it would be to hear it again. And it rocked the house! Of course I prefer the tune in its original way, but they spiced it up a bit. It sounded faster, with more punch and David’s backing vocals were very present. Tico missed one beat at the end of the guitar solo, but then drummed like crazy as if he wanted to make up for it. After that little break, where Jon sings about walking home with his dashboard light the build-up followed - the part I love most about the live version of this song. The audience clapped and shouted like crazy and I rarely ever felt better at a live show than at this point - and it wouldn’t change for the rest of the night!
The song was done, the cheer immense. Jon did a short speech, talking about how it was good to be back, greeting the people from the military airbase and saying that no one played here for 8 years since he went 20 minutes over the curfew back then.
Then It’s My Life kicked in and kept everyone just on their feet! Afterwards the cheering was so loud I didn’t ever hear the first notes of Runaway. Jon did a much better job on the solo than I ever heard him doing before, he really got better and could kick Bobby’s ass easily. Though I still don’t see the point why Richie isn’t playing it himself, he still most definitely is in a different league with his skills!
Jon pointed at Tico and the beat for Sleep When I’m Dead kicked in. Once again Jon changed the speed of how the audience should clap, just like in Dusseldorf. But the major difference was that he did it here because he felt like he could really let it go, whereas it felt so forced half a week before. He let us count it in and started the song. People following my reviews here might know how much I loved the song in Dresden and how flat it fell on me both in Munich and Dusseldorf. This night the magic was back again and somehow I was again taken away by the lights. I don’t know why, but both in Dresden and Mannheim I was standing very much to the side of the stage, meanwhile my position was quite centered on the other shows. Maybe the view is the reason the lights made more impact on me, I can’t think of anything else to be honest.
But it wasn’t just the lights, the whole performance was a lot more intense. The song had a grove tonight and that’s what it needs to breathe. After the solo Jon did his Mick Jagger parody by playing Start Me Up which worked very well and afterwards he and Richie spotted an Elvis double in the pit. He said something, imitating Elvis tone in his voice and went back to I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.
I was so relaxed at this point, knowing that it was a totally different style of show than 4 days before, in fact, it looked like a different band. I was just having a great time!
We Got It Going On came and I didn’t even mind, the crowd was loud and the video effects are cool! About the song - well, I rambled enough about by now I guess.
Now we just came to the point where I started thinking “I heard all this in that way before” and right then another special treat “for our Germans fans only” came - I Get A Rush! It’s not my favorite song off the box set, but it was a welcome change and I enjoyed it, though Jon’s vocals weren’t so spot on during that song for once. Even now they didn’t lose the audience in any way, though obviously no one around me seemed to know the tune (I had a female fan behind me literally singing along word for word, but she always shut up for the box set songs).

Jon demanded a doctor and the women started dancing on the big video wall. Now this song everybody knew again and accordingly was the response. What made the song special was, besides the good performance, the middle part. There weren’t those standard phrases after the guitar solo, instead Richie came to Jon’s mic and they both joked about the women in the pit writing request banners with Jon saying to Richie “that’s why you get divorced!” Then he grinned down to the pit treating them “Mercy, huh?” and starting the “yeah yeah” parts which I heard about a thousand times in Dusseldorf with the band failing to get it done right back then. This time it was different, all joined in, so I’m pretty sure they had rehearsed it before. Also Hugh played a nice bass line which I never heard before. After they got their treat Jon told David he needed “that old time rock and roll” and this got an even bigger cheer out there on the left that Mercy before. After they had finished the cover songs he challenged the crowd by telling Richie that we seem to get tired early. We most certainly didn’t and it just got louder by that!
Time for the circle, time for an outing of Bed of Roses. The performance was vocally good, much better than in Munich (besides the fact the microphone worked this time), but still couldn’t hold a candle to the mind blowing rendition of Frankfurt 2008. Everybody enjoyed it anyway and was singing along, holding up flashlights and cigarette lighters. Ironically I struggled all night long to get a proper connection with my mobile phone, but during this song (where probably most of the calls to people outside were done) I could easily phone 2 friends of mine and make them happy.
Richie joined Jon on the circle and they started discussing, I guess about a banner requesting Never Say Goodbye. They ended up staring I’ll Be There For You then. Yeah, I would have loved a rendition of the Slippery classic, but the NJ ballad is a song they can really play every night without me ever getting tired of it! And to make a comparison again - whereas it was delivered without any emotions Dusseldorf you could feel here that the song meant something to the band again. It was nice with the long sing-along part in the end.
Now the part I was so hoping for finally came back!!! Tico and Dave made their way out onto the circle, because it was “too much fun” being out there. Another sentence that gets said so often, but this time I believed it. I was eagerly awaiting whatever would come and when Jon told the band “good luck with this” I knew something rare would be coming up. It was Miss 4th of July!!!

The day after the Dusseldorf concert I had been driving in the car with my dad, and we were listening to a live compilation of the circle tour. I was pissed and angry and when this song came up I told him “see, why don’t they just play such a song acoustic on the circle??!?!? Would make every diehard happy, has a great melody and isn’t hard on Jon’s vocals” Now that they did it I looked over my shoulder and saw my dad with a big grin on his face - he was thinking the same!
They stayed on the circle and started Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night. I normally share the opinion that the electric version works better but the audience just along the same way and when they key change came on and everybody sang along like a big choir I was totally shaking for a moment. Brilliant!
Well, every night has got to have it - Who Says You Can’t Go Home. This time it was carried by the audience even enjoying that one. I was pretty sure nothing could ruin this night anymore for me.
When the song was done I spotted Richie having his guitar he usually uses for Hey God. And I knew that this would be the rare spot where the song might appear. I already was getting hyped when Jon punched me right in the face by screaming “Captain Craaaaaaaaash!” No, Jon! NO!
I was a little bit unsatisfied, for the first and only time that night!
The fans around us didn’t seem to mind though, they were waving their arms and clapping all the time. When the turd had finally reached its end, Jon said that this would be a song from the Greatest Hits they had not done live here so far. Really? This Is Love, This Is Life? No, No Apologies! We had it in Dresden, but Jon never gets those facts right anyway. It was awesome, really rocking the crowd and I totally loved it again! I tried to phone my cousin, who had been with us in Munich and got pissed that he didn’t get it. I just saw on my mobile phone that the line was open, not realizing that he had been too late to get the call and all was running onto his mailbox. Well, he got to hear Have A Nice Day afterwards. The song had the guitar being edgy in the mix and Jon nailing it - and especially singing at the right time, something that had been terribly wrong in Dusseldorf.
I was sweating, my hands were burning from the constant clapping and my voice was fading - and I loved it!!! Brilliant night!
Keep The Faith again was stellar, everybody was pumping their fists in the air - screaming “faith!” That’s how it should be! The song, which was a rather no-go in my very early fan days, grew so much on me over the last 2 years. Every time you’re on a borderline in your life the words get more meaning and I screamed the lines “it’s hard to be strong when there’s no one to dream on” and “trying to hold, trying to hold on” into the night of Mannheim like I never did before and like I may never do again. It was just a burst of emotions in that moment. They had done it again - I was taken away from the reality by their music!
The encore break followed. Normally the band leaves the stage for one, maybe two minutes. This time they were off almost 4 minutes and I started to think that they are going to totally kick the setlist into the garbage and so something special now, considering how awesome the band’s mood, Jon’s voice and the audience had been all night long.

The people being there with me told me afterwards that my look was so different to what it was before the show, my eyes seem to have been sparkling and I was already in a different world.
They came back and, knowing now that original encore was supposed to be When We Were Beautiful / Wanted Dead Or Alive / Superman Tonight / Livin’ On A Prayer I was more than happy that they stayed behind the stage for a few more minutes and totally threw it all around!
Tico counted in, hit the drums and Hey God exploded on the stage! Now I heard it before, in Munich three years ago. There it had been special because it was rare, this time it was special because it was brilliant! Like on Undivided and When We Were Beautiful, I have to go a little deeper her as well.
It was in late 2006, where the marriage of my parents started to crack. We were on vacation and while driving in the car they had one of their many fights back then. To that point I had never paid much attention to the These Days album, but on this day I turned it on with the vague hope to escape having to witness those fights for once. And there it was, the edgy guitar tone exploding like everything that was on my mind a singer who sang with so much passion and anger about the same things that were concerning me.

I felt that Jon had taken all that kept me away from sleeping at nights and put it with all his emotion into that song. It was the first time I started to find strength in music and where I discovered and found the magic of the These Days record for me. It had really been a turning point in my life regarding my connection and attitude towards music and its power.
And now there was this feeling again - Jon literally singing his heart out on stage, adding some extra lines, really delivering what this song was about to me! He got on his knees after the solo, adding some rasp to the vocals while singing and looking into the sky. That was so intense that I can’t deny having a tear rolling over my face at that point. I had never, neither during Undivided or WWWB, felt such raw emotions while witnessing a live show. It touched me, but for some reason (thank God) didn’t put me down emotionally after the song. I was just thankful!
The “national anthem” came up and even the sunrise on the screen was somehow special at this point. The version was the best one I heard live, with the audience taking over the first verse and Richie shining on the 2nd one. Jon and he shared the vocal duties brilliantly and there was the brotherhood feeling again that probably had been there 25 years ago when the song was written. Unlike on 90% of the shows nowadays, where the song is only done because it’s a classic that deserves to be there every night and with Jon going plain through the motions, it felt true at that point. But I was emotionally so far that they could have sung “My little green cactus” and I would have liked it. I guess…
Once again they discussed for a moment and In These Arms came. Not the song I would chosen, but it was (besides the guitar solo) good and the audience loved it and sang every line of it!
I was expecting Prayer, but instead Jon pointed again to David and he started Hallelujah! I didn’t really know what to think. Everyone always fancied about how awesome this tune would be, to me it had so far not been much more than a song with endless verses. I remember getting a little pissed off in Frankfurt 3 years before when Jon asked the audience what they wanted to hear and so many screamed for Hallelujah. He went with These Days back then, now it was the Leonard Cohen song. And 6:40 afterwards I had completely changed my mind! The performance was brilliant, so spot on and yes, I’d say, one of Jon’s best efforts on that song! I got goose bumps all the way through that tune and it was silent around me. But not in the way of “let’s wait till it’s finally over” like it happened in the past during Make A Memory, but in the style of “let’s appreciate this moment and suck it all in”. When Jon held the last long note the silence broke and rapturous applause set it.
I heard someone left of me saying “Magical!” (in German of course) and I couldn’t agree more. Here Jon really showed off that he developped as a performer. Yes, I miss the way he pulled some covers off with raw emotion in the early 90’s (like Shooting Star), but I really think he couldn’t have delivered this tune in such a way 20 years ago. This was great!
A thank you speech for the German fans followed and again it didn’t feel forced this time, it was honest and appreciated. Now Prayer was to start and there was so enthusiastic singing around me going on that I didn’t hear the band all the time, but I didn’t mind. That’s how I want to experience such a song and it rocked like hell!
They got together to take their final bows and the audience kept applauding till they went back and gave us one more, running close to the curfew. Love’s The Only Rule! One of my favorites from the Circle and so far I had always missed out on this. It was great, Jon went out on the circle for a reprise and the crowd loved it, though surely many didn’t even know the tune. I’m gonna fly…! I was flying for hours already by now!

This was the final, during the last “wooo oo” Jon’s voice split while returning to the stage, but no one cared about it anymore.
The lights went on and everybody was stunned. So many went by saying that this was the most awesome live show they had seen (mostly casual fans) and how brilliant live musicians these guys would be. I certainly didn’t disagree!
We tried to get something to drink, but almost all stands were sold out, so I already headed to the meeting point where Kathleen, Paul, Terri, Seb, Thierry, Steph, Erik, Ronny, Johnny, his girlfriend and Johny joined us. Everyone loved the show and was happy. We chatted for some time, took a group picture and, as much as I didn’t want the concert to end I didn’t want this moment to end as I knew that it could easily be a few more years before I’d see most the Sebstage group again.


Then we went back to the parking lot, talking a while with Johnny and his girlfriend and giving Johny (confusing, isn’t it?) a ride home to the nearby city Heidelberg.
This concert left me hyped for over a week, as it had really caught me emotionally and left me pumped, ergo it combined what Dresden and Munich had done separately before.
Everybody disappeared into the night, ending a summer of great concerts and magic moments for me…

What a review Dominik - thanks for it. It brought me right back to that night and that concert. As others have said - after Dusseldorf this show was a real treat.

And meeting everyone - and your parents was special. The pictures are nice too - I had forgotten that Kat and your Mom had the same Bon Jovi t-shirt.

I'm ready to do it again (after I save up some money) LOL.

And it's just the incentive I need to get that Mannheim matrix finished

Really cool reviews of all the shows, thank you for sharing

Very good review. Again, thank you for sharing . Next tour I would like to travel with diehard fans Because fans understand my emotions and my need to see and hear the band.