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

Well, since I’ll be doing more shows this tour and already did more than one I decided to make an own thread for it, where I’ll add all of them. I took some days off after Munich as I wanted to still have feel the magic of being at those concerts, but didn’t want to write my reviews out of pure excitement.
My tour started on Friday morning, when my dad and I took off for the show in Dresden. We left here at around 10am and normally you need about 4 hours to get there. Well, normally…
On that day nothing came like I expected it! There were 2 heavy accidents in front of us and the freeway got closed twice! While the first one didn’t last longer than 30 or 40 minutes, the second one took for around 2 hours. It was then already around 6pm and we were still 60 kilometers away from Dresden and I was almost sure we wouldn’t make it to the show in time. But somehow we still made it.
We arrived at the venue when the first opening act (still don’t know their name) had finished their set and the breakers went on. I didn’t care about them as we were still trying to get a bit closer to the front, which was possible as many people were still sitting and we could just work our way around them without anyone complaining. We ended up on the right side and were rather close to the stage as Dresden only had a rather small GC area. First thing I did was get myself a beer just to celebrate that we made it to the show in time. The Breakers left the stage rather unnoticed again. No, they weren’t bad, but all I remember from them was that they were dressed like the Beatles and that the singer was looking to the drummer anytime I caught a look on the stage.
Right on then, ShowTime. It was exactly 8:30 when the intro all of a sudden kicked in on the screen, which sounded like a explosion as it was coming out of nowhere! It worked though, the crowd was immediately totally focused. I was waiting for Richie to hit the chords of RYH, BOB or LMS, but he didn’t and it took me around two seconds to realize they bursting into Bounce. The first great moment right at the beginning! The crowd was into it and Bad Name was great as well. Surprisingly, the audience was louder during Born To Follow than they were during BTBMB!
Next was Superman Tonight. I always had a soft spot for that song, and though the version wasn’t bad it lacked some punch. On to Runaway, good performance, crowd loving it, Jon doing both solos. Not bad and he did them better than in Munich. IML had the crowd mad then! This was the first time I actually started to look around in that “stadium”. In the back there were 2 tribunes, the left one was almost filled, the one on the right half empty at best. The field was packed to the back though and the people seemed really into it.
In These Arms was next, followed by Captain Crash. Well, let’s say I could have done without both!
Then Jon started talking a bit and announced a track from the GH record - and it was No Apologies! Man, this song just kicked ass that night! The performance was packed with energy and the crowd loved it.
My video:
Bad Medicine was the party song I had expected it to be and though, out of all covers they could have chosen, Roadhouse Blues was the one I did not feel the need to hear, I was having a lot of fun. My excitement was really rising when they started LYHOM and I realized Jon was going to sing the song. I was so hoping for the jam session to have “survived” Richie’s comeback as that was one of the highlights of the shows with Phil X to me. It did and the crowd really liked it!
I was hyped when Jon went out on the circle and got very curious as I heard the opening chords of MAM. So far I had never heard that song live, though always liked it on the record. I remembered Seb saying that it totally drowned in Gelsenkirchen 2008 and it happened exactly the same way that night! It was the first (and only) song of the night where they lost the crowd and me as well. It just sounded like every band member was playing his part but there was no real harmony in it, they just weren’t sounding “tight”. Jon called Richie out to join him and they started IBTFY. It wasn’t sounding bad, but I had the impression that they were both struggling a bit with their vocal chords during that one. In the end they added more and more “ooooh” parts and Jon also did more ad some nice ad-libs - this was the moment where they won the crowd back again!
Time for Tico and Dave to join the front and the surprising appearance of Bells of Freedom! This was one I really didn’t see coming, but I have to admit that I never was the biggest fan of this song to begin with. I like parts of the lyrics, but the entire version from HAND never really got me. I always assumed that an acoustic version might grab me more and was thrilled when they started it as my anticipation was really rising. But the version was different from the one they did in Munich. In Dresden Bobby played parts of the riff in the end on his electric guitar. No, he didn’t screw it as he does on other solos, but it just killed it for me somehow in that moment.
I expected either SFTP or Saturday Night to follow and it was the latter one. They always do a good job on that one for me and I like the key change Jon does in the acoustic version, but in general I share the opinion that this is a song that needs to be done electric as it builds up on the energy delivered by Tico!
Who Says…and by that point the people around me and I was having so much fun that I didn’t really care about it. I don’t mind the lyrics or the groove of the song but I just can’t stand those ****in’ “allrights” all the time…they make me cringe!
Next was Sleep and this song really was one of the highlights of the show! The band had so much fun, Richie played the shit out of the solo and the inserted cover songs helped to evoke an awesome party mood! I’m not a musician myself, but in contrast to Munich Richie played the guitar he uses for WWWB and Dry County here. Somehow I was also flashed by the lights that moment, though they weren’t in any way more special than during other songs, but it was one of those moments where just everything was fitting - my personal mood, the band’s playing and the audience around me.
After the song there was a short break and Jon came back say that they were going to do a song they had not done at all this tour and talked about them dedicating it to the victims of 9/11. That was the moment I really almost suffered a heart attack. In all honestly, a more unexpected moment couldn’t have happened to me. Some people might say now “WTF? You get STBI and get all crazy about Undivided instead?!” Yes, I do. And I think I have to go a bit deeper on this one. Many around here state that this band wrote the soundtrack to their lives. So do I. And this song is a big reason for it. There are just these moments in live where, if a certain song appears in a certain situation, it will stick with you forever. It was back in early January of 2007 where my father became very ill while being far away and I got the phone call that he was in a hospital there on the ICU. I remember walking home that night, feeling miserable as this had just been one of a few awful incidents during that period of time, and listening to the concert from Munich 2003 on my Mp3 player. And those lyrics just totally spoke to me, the energetic way how he sang words like “enough, enough, the time has come to rise back up” really gave me courage and helped me make it through those difficult days. Ok, enough about the past, but now you can probably understand why this song means so much to me. The performance was great, very powerful and I got lost in it.
HAND followed up, during the first chorus the punched my fist in the air, not knowing the man behind me was filming with his camera over my head…well, it flew across a few heads, but luckily no one got hurt! And to top it all, the guy put it on YT:
Faith was the main set closer and worked extremely well. Every time Richie busted into one of his solos the fans around me went crazy and the entire band played a very good version of it. But it was Richie’s moment! He totally rocked the outro solo and got a big round of applause.
I hope every one on FB is able to see the video of it, I just changed the privac settings for it:
https://www.facebook.com/video/video...94130203&saved

Off to the encores. I had no idea what to expect and when they returned and Tico slowly started hitting the drums I first was thinking about Living In Sin, but then realized what was coming and went a bit crazy again. And Seb was right (I said that before right?) when he said that nowadays people don’t know an album track like Brokenpromiseland, but back in the days everybody was knowing a song like Something To Believe In. The audience immediately started chanting “hey, hey, hey” all the way to the back! I totally love that song and it’s just great to hear it live as I was already in the mood where I could easily get lost into my favorite songs! The version was decent, better than Vancouver, but much worse than Sydney. This was especially as Jon cut the song short in the end, which ruined it a bit. He didn’t do the “for John F. Kennedy…” ad-libs and just ended it after a few hey heys.
They went on to Wanted, big sunrise on the screen, good version and a song that really just works when Jon and Richie play it together. You can really feel the chemistry. In the end they stood there in front, shoulder to shoulder and Jon with a big grin on his face. Richie said something to Jon, he looked down, nodded then and Richie hit the opening chords of Blood On Blood. I assumed that it was an audible, but after having seen the printed setlist I realized that the show was played from the first to the last song like it was planned. Didn’t do the song any harm and I had a blast. I especially like the part after solo when they build it up again and Richie doubles Jon on “be right by your side”! I was singing (or at that point rather shouting) along all the way through that song.
After the song Jon took some time to thank the audience and it felt more honest like 2 days later to me. They did Prayer, crowd loved it, band had fun and they were off.
And I was happy about it, cause I probably would have extremely suffered during any more songs. People who are friends with me on FB know that I did these shows with a fractured bone in my foot and by that point I was really in a lot of pain.
On our way out we caught something to drink, passed choirs of fans singing Bed of Roses and These Days and bought some tour shirts (have they gotten cheaper this time?).
Horror-stricken I was told that we weren’t able to take our normal route back to the parking garage as this one led along a fence and too many fans were already squeezing in there. So we had to walk all the way around the area…yay! Waiting at the garage itself was pretty fun then as all king of BJ songs were blasting from the cars on the different levels. On our way back to the hotel I saw some fans walking with those huge poster boards that were hanging all over the city. I told my dad I wanted one as well, we jumped out of the car, demounted it, threw it in and hurried to get away. Just in time as the fans around the corner behind us got stopped by the police that moment while trying to do the same thing. Here’s the proof that it worked:


Munich review to follow the next days!

Awesome review, read the whole thing. The part where you knocked the camera out of the guy's hand during Have a Nice Day is hilarious! AND he put it on YouTube. Was he mad?

Great review, man. Thanks for sharing your story of „Undivided” with us. I totally understand why it’s so important for you. And I am happy you got it, especially since your father was on your side for this one too. You totally deserved it. Life writes such wonderful stories, you just never have enough of them, especially when they finish with a happy ending. By the way, Undivided is my fav song of Bounce, and I would love to get this one too on one of my shows.
That story with HAND was funny. It’s good that that guy’s camera still works, but of course it wasn’t your fault in the first place.
You had a great set in Dresden and it clearly shows you enjoyed it. Again, fantastic writing. Can’t wait for your review of the Munich show.

Love the review, Dominik! The story of the HAND video and the flying camera cracked me up. How cool to find it on YouTube later! Great story about Undivided, and how wonderful that you got it at a show with your father . . . a father happy to help you "acquire" that lovely sign! Well done all around.

Very well done! Cool sign and I'm glad you got a great show.

Great reviews of the shows. Thanks for taking the time to write them!

Thanks for sharing!

Next: Dusseldorf & Mannheim

Hope they'll play dry county for at least one of the two gigs, possible?

thanks

All right, after I had honestly forgotten about this for some time now I will finally sit down and do the Munich review as well. If I don’t get it done till Wednesday when the Dusseldorf show comes on I’ll probably never finish it anymore…
So, the day between those shows was a Saturday and I have to say that, after that long Friday, I felt a lot of strain in my foot and I wasn’t sure how the next day was going to work out.
We drove back from Dresden to Wurzburg, a city which is about 70 kilometers away from where I live. Since my parents got divorced my dad lives there with his new wife and we spent the afternoon there sharing our common passion and watching the MotoGP broadcast from England. He afterwards brought me to a little village close to Wurzburg where our favorite soccer team played their final game in their relegation battle and won, which was quite cool. My cousin took me home then and it was already late Saturday evening when we arrived.
I just checked shortly online for any important updates regarding Munich and then hurried to get some rest for the next day.
We left at around 10am - we…that were: my cousin, his mum, my mum and another friend of mine which meant that we made the trip in the same allocation as we had done the Munich show in 2008.
This time there were fortunately no incidents…well almost. We were just about to enter Munich when we noticed that the car we had taken (the one from our grandfather who has the largest and most comfortable one) didn’t have any Fine Particles-sticker and as Munich is divided into different “environmental zones” we had no other option than to park right outside the city and to take the train / walk to the stadium. Oh, more to walk on that foot than I had expected…there goes the spirit!
But the train ride had its good sides - I met a really cute girl in there who also was on her way to the show and we hung out together later at the stadium and enjoyed some drinks together. So in the end, it could have been worse I guess.
The gates had not opened yet when we entered the Olympiapark, so we took the time to get something to drink and while we were lining up for the entrance I met Ronnie, a friend I have known for about two years now. We met via the German BJ boards and already had met personally in April of 2010 when my cousin, he and I had tickets for Champions League semi final of Bayern Munchen against Olympique Lyonnais. As we both were having tickets to the infield we decided to go and enjoy the show together. Once we got in I texted Johnny, who left the GC area to meet me in the back. We are friends for years now and finally getting to meet in person was really awesome and we had a long and funny chat. In the past we already used to watch live webcasts (like Rock in Rio 2010) together and discussing the band via ICQ which had always been a lot of fun. And, luckily, he recently added Mannheim to his shows, so we can enjoy the concert there together and rock on to our favorite band without the need of using some ugly messenger.



Time to move on, this time only The Breakers were an opening act and they were off the stage faster than in Dresden. A few minutes before 8pm the screens went on and Obie could be seen and heard while talking to people in the pit. Though this may have been interesting for the people watching the webcast, I thought it was just dreadful and totally killing the anticipation that had been present before. Furthermore I can’t stand this clown…but enough about that.
The band entered the stadium, which was still shown on the screens and made the intro rather senseless, but anyway. I have to say that I probably never experienced two shows so differently like I did in Dresden and Munich, and I needed a long time to realize why it was that way.
The intro ran over the screens and they rocked the house with Raise Your Hands. 2nd time I heard that as an opener after Hessisch Lichtenau 2006 and I think it is one of the songs of the band’s catalogue that fits the best in this slot. Right from this song the people were very much into the show, at least where we were standing (on the left behind the GC area). Throughout the show I noticed that the pit partly wasn’t as much into the band’s performance as we were in the back which may have been the reason people tend to judge this show in so many different ways.
Bad Name, BTBMB and Born To Follow were up next and went all down well, with In These Arms the first downer of the night came for me. I just can’t stand Bobby doing the solo and the band playing the song in a lower key doesn’t help it either. When Bobby went on doing his shit I turned around with my ears covered, which got me some surprised looks at first and then some big laughs after the people around me heard how this clown screwed up on stage.
Runaway was next and had the audience going and us rocking on, but I have to say that Jon did a better job on the solo in Dresden. It’s My Life was the typical classic and I had fun, but so far I had more “shallow” fun than two days before. By this I mean I was rocking along, singing, being pumped and partly even doing some of Tico’s drum hits. I was really having a blast, but didn’t get lost in the music like I did in Frankfurt or Dresden.
Blaze of Glory came up, my mother was extremely happy and I didn’t mind them doing the song, though Jon struggled with it in the end. Captain Crash was unavoidable I guess and I have to admit that I probably would play it frequently as well if I was Jon. Yes, we all get tired of it, but I think the lyrics are quite fun and the picture of the entire stadium waving their arms isn’t THAT bad.
The first real highlight of the night was about to come…Bad Medicine! I personally think that the y spiced up the performance of the song itself this tour and it’s finally fun to listen to it again. But this night it was just huge! Richie started the amazing riff of Rock You Like A Hurricane and I couldn’t believe my ears for a few seconds. The reaction around me was overwhelming and when Jon said “David Bryan, what do you got?” I went nuts! I adore that song and kept a bit freaking out as they kicked into it as I loved that cover ever since they first did it at the O2 last summer.

Alright, the song was done, everybody was pumped, and they brought on The More Things Change!
I don’t hate this song, but it totally killed the great mood and Jon’s speech drowned as well. Lay Your Hands On Me was next, and while in Dresden the fans went crazy about the jam session, it got close to zero reaction here.