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!