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:
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSCN1026.jpg

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.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSC00020.jpg

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.

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. http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...11_1502_02.jpg
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.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/P1000883.jpg
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…
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/P1000913.jpg
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.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/P1000925.jpg
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.
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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!
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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.
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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!!!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.

I just read part 4 of the review but it's a nice read. Thanks for sharing!

I salute you.
TS

Very much enjoyed reading these. I love reading about 'your' moments. I hope to experience the same someday, although time is running out on Bon Jovi now.

I enjoyed reading this all over again Dominik - one year down the road. We all had such a good time and if we are lucky we might get to do it one more time before the band hangs it up.

And per my final comment last year - I DID finish the Mannheim matrix :p

What a cracking review! I remember reading this when you wrote it and it really got me excited for the Barcelona & Portugal shows but reading it now was totally different. It made me think of the whole experience you get going to the shows, the build up, having a laugh in the crowd, anticipation of the setlist etc - Nice work man :D

Round 1 – Olympic Stadium, Munich: ”What’s Left of them?”

That was the question that started the trip on Saturday morning with me. My mom and my aunt, both witnesses in 2008 and 2011 in Munich, joined as well. Originally there was a fourth ticket that we had purchased, but it seemed as if it was cursed somehow. In the first place my cousin (who usually also joins in on the concerts at the Olypmic Stadium) bought it, but needed to get rid of it due to having to work. We passed it on to a friend of mine, Johnny, but he forgot about a wedding he had to attend and couldn’t come with us either. At last my dad planned on going to see the show with us (he has already tickets for Cologne), but due to personal issues (see even here stuff like this happens) he bailed out of it 2 days before as well.
So it was the three of us heading to Munich and to say that I wasn’t overly excited would be an understatement. I pretty much expected nothing, had no anticipation for the concert at all and only ended up going because I wanted to meet a few friends I pretty much never see except on Jovi tours.

From where I live it’s a four-hour drive to Munich and we started at around 9:30 in the morning since we expected a lot of traffic due to the Pentecost holidays in Bavaria, which began on Saturday. But to our surprise we arrived at the stadium in less than four hours and decided to spend some time lying in the sun at the park that surrounds the stadium before heading to the entrances.
Around 4 pm we went to the beer garden which is located right between the stadium and the Olympiahalle (where Pink was set to play to a sold out crowd at the same time). I met Ronny there who in fact is the only one I somehow constantly see between Bon Jovi tours as well (usually on concerts of the German punk band Die Toten Hosen, the Richie Sambora solo tour or a couple of weeks earlier at the Champions League semi-final Bayern Munich against Barcelona).
After we just had finished our first beer Marc and Mark appeared. This was actually some kind of a special moment since I felt like I knew Marc pretty well since late 2008, but in fact we had never met before. We already did some multicam compilations (both of Munich 2008 and the entire Circle tour / he’s DonWaldone on Youtube) which some of you might know and since he and Mark have a band called Back To Fate and we’ve written some songs before it all felt very familiar right from start. We lined up in the burning sun, sold our spare ticket (for a lot less than face value) and entered the stadium at around 5:30. Our tickets were GA since I experienced in the past (especially in Munich) that you have a better time on the infield with people who are much more into the show.
We ended up on the left side pretty close the back of the Golden Circle and now it was all about killing time. Both concerts (Pink and Bon Jovi) were sponsored by the local radio station “Bayern 3” and a band consisting of workers from there opened. They weren’t as bad as I feared and since they only covered well known songs the crowd responded quite well. After half an hour they were off and I decided that I needed to get rid of some of that beer I had drunk outside. Going to the toilet is a bitch and it took me almost 45 minutes to return to my spot, also due to me having to war a special ASO orthosis on my right foot which had been absolutely fine since the 2011 tour (where I had a bone broken) and decided to get injured just before this tour (in fact the timing of it is so well that my foot could fit right into the Bon Jovi family regarding their clever and well-timed choices with this album and tour…). In retrospect it was a good thing I was out of the stadium that long since, by the time I returned, Christina Stürmer was almost done and everyone seemed already annoyed by her. The last two songs of her set were still to be played and that was already more than enough for me. Thinking about having to sit through this two more times this tour didn’t really cheer me up. So we waited for the band to kick off the concert. We kept sending messages back and forth with Johny, but as the connection was poor all night long and most of our texts arrived 40 minutes late we failed to meet that night.
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While waiting for the band I took some pictures of that stage which already looked cool in the daylight, but would turn out to be just killer as soon as it darkens.
5 minutes after 8 the intro started and the band hit the stage with That’s What The Water Made Me. First thing I noticed, besides the GC being half empty at the back (the stadium was pretty much packed otherwise) was that the crowd once again showed more enthusiasm in the GA area where we were standing. The song isn’t bad as an opener, people clap and go along with the well-driven chorus but the end bored the audience. This outro “solo” by Bobby was more or less a variation of two notes, holding each one for like forever. There was no punch or tempo behind it and Jon kept standing next to him smiling like a kid the entire time. Another “downer” was the sound at that point. The volume was nice but it was just a wall of everything. Tico’s drums were pretty unclear und muddy, in fact, I sometimes saw him hitting them on the screen but couldn’t hear it. Furthermore you couldn’t make out David or Phil over anything Bobby played, but I noticed how happy the band’s replacement guitarist was to be up on stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=I2rTmbJE9Jg
Anyway, the song was done and since Marc and I have probably listened to hundreds of live versions for the Ultimate Live Collection on the Circle tour we knew Jon’s standard phrases by heart. I started by saying “somebody take me to the C” and he went on with “oh Munich on a Saturday night”. I added “get up out of your seats, this ain’t television” and each of those predictions were pretty much correct – word by word. Bad Name followed up and by the verses you could tell that Jon was willing to put more into it than usually. The crowd loved it and Bobby didn’t butcher the solo as much as I had feared before. They went on with Born To Me Baby which sounded way slower to me than two years ago and got me a little concerned since Jon didn’t go for any of the “na na na’s” in the end. Raise Your Hands was next and at that point I didn’t enjoy the concert at all. Tons of the neat licks Richie places here and there were missing and Phil sounded like he was totally out of grove – it all came over quite staccato-like. Near the end of the song the time machine appeared and I really enjoyed it (first time I saw that live), plus they put some effects over Jon on the screen which enhanced it. He shouted “Stop!”, all the lights went out and with a reverb effect you heard it a few more times before he started talking about “some young punk kid” and David launched into the song. The reaction was immense, but completely faded on the next song: Lost Highway. In my memory that one worked quite well on the Lost Highway tour but here it stank. Really did. No one cared and the image on the screen above the Buick showing some landscape passing by in slow motion the whole time seemed to put the audience asleep. Afterwards Jon asked the audience: “Are you with me out there?” and from where I was standing there was close to zero reaction at first. He repeated the question and it was obvious his smile was forced. At that point I turned to Marc telling him I wasn’t enjoying it at all and that the not-responding audience might lead to this turning into a nightmare (we all know where Jon’s mood usually goes in those kinds of situations).
It was obvious “It’s My Life” was needed to get it all back on track and halfway through the song the majority of the fans woke up and the stadium got louder and louder. Jon seemed to notice it and it was like he flipped a switch and turned into the “I’m-showin’-you-how-a-****in’-rockstar-does-this” mode. From then my mood turned quite fast, even though my much-hated song Because We Can was next. The audience went with it and also didn’t drown out on What About Now (which I personally quite like). By that time the mix kept getting better, which leads me to the question why I heard them trying out their instruments for one hour (Jon only sang half of Because We Can during the soundcheck) if the needed another 60 or so minutes during the show to figure it out properly…
Jon’s vocals were quite average but every time the band hit a chorus you could hear David and Bobby coming in at an almost equal volume level which gave many songs a bit more energy and dynamics.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSC00349.jpg

We Got It Going turned out to be the usual crowd pleaser and since it started getting dark the stage got more and more impressive. I wasn’t too happy about the song selection (all through the mainset), but knew at the same time that the hope for a real rarity was vague and the way Jon entertained everyone made my mood rising.
Finally Keep The Faith came on, Jon was into it, forced himself through the song and then the jam session came on. Meanwhile during Lay Your Hands On Me, two years ago, there was almost no reaction to it (which is ironic since it sounded quite similar) the audience went nuts by the end of it and for the first time there was loud cheer for Phil X.
I expected Bed of Roses to follow up but to my astonishment it was Make A Memory. I mentioned in the beginning of this thread (review of Dresden 2011) how bad it worked back then and was pleasantly surprised to see the crowd liking and singing along to it. Dave’s keyboards were quite prominent which gave it a nice touch though Phil X completely screwed the solo. He’s just not that type of player for a song like this and I thoroughly missed Richie here.
Now Bed of Roses followed, many sing-alongs, good solo and Jon still staying on the main stage!
4 songs followed up which may look like a snoozefest on paper, but actually worked live (Johny sent me a text with “Where are the rarities?” during that time).
When We Were Beautiful was coming up and I have explained before how important that song was to me when it came out and how it did absolutely nothing for me 2 years earlier. Now here it was again, same place, almost same time of the concert and my experience was so different! I may add that the meaning of this tune rose even more for me in early 2012 when I was completely unhappy with my studies and only wished to return to the time and the people I had met during my civil service (where I worked with disabled children). The line “So much less meant so much more” really got a whole new meaning to me during that period. So there was this song again and Jon sold it! He sang the verses with so much determination that I was just standing there, being stunned and soaking it in. Furthermore ad-libs were done over the outro:
Crash and Born To Follow were up next and Phil screwed the intro of the first one so much that I wasn’t sure whether this was supposed to be Crash or Blood On Blood. The lead single of The Circle had great stage animations and the fans went with everything, at least from where I was standing.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSC00347.jpg
During Who Says I got the impression that Jon’s vocal qualities were fluctuating throughout the night. He came back with a scarf after Roses, his noise got red more and more and his eyes were swelling. During the verses of Crash and Who Says I thought his vocals were going to blow out, unnaturally on songs that should be easy to sing for him (even nowadays). Bobby got more prominent in the mix vocally and pushed Jon through, but the frontman seemed to regain some confidence in his abilities during the encore. But we’ll get to that.
First on was the highlight of the night: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead!!! Near the end of the solo both Marc and I screamed Jon’s typical “everybody!” – totally unplanned and since Jon really said it in this moment we both had a good laugh about. Ronny, who was standing right next to me, was filming at that moment and you can hear it at 11:45 here:
I was waiting for Bobby to start a song, but Jon said “I got one” and launched into Jumpin’ Jack Flash! They did one verse plus chorus and got a big cheer for it, then added Start Me Up which brought out an even bigger crowd response. Jon seemed to get into the “Jukebox” mood and announced one more, then turned around to Tico and started strumming Rockin’ All Over The World. This was the moment I thought the roof will be blown of the stadium, it was so loud I barely heard the band anymore and people were jumping up and down all around me.
I expected Bad Medicine to have a cover in it as well, maybe Pretty Woman, but all we got was the Shout teaser and the typical reprise. While the stage design and setup blew me away during Sleep, I didn’t like the new animations on Bad Medicine that much.
The song was done and they were off. I looked at the watch which is right left to the stage in Munich and noticed that they were just across the two hour mark. That made me wondering how much the encore would be or if we’d really get the first Munich concert in over a decade with only about two and a half hours show time.
While these thoughts were racing through my mind the cheering swapped from the front rows to the back, announcing that the band had returned. Dave started Dry County and even though Phil played it very close to Richie’s original, the feeling just wasn’t there. Jon struggled vocally, but as we sang along I didn’t notice it that much until later when I saw a video from it. Still I think he sang better than in 2011 (only in Munich) on that tune.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSC00342.jpg

So this was the second time I got Dry County and again it didn’t blow me away like I always imagined it would. Last September I saw my first open air show of my friends from Bounce and got a version of the song that absolutely stunned the shit out of me! No, there guitarist doesn’t always play it note by note and 100% identically but he poured the same soul in it that Richie does (or did) and made it spectacular that way. Not to speak of the singer kickin’ Jon’s ass nowadays. This just showed me that without the right feeling to it this song is worth nothing. Nothing.
Wanted followed, Jon asked the fans to hold up their cell phones and sing the first verse and that created an amazing atmosphere. Phil actually did a decent job, but it was the audience that fed of Jon’s energy and vice versa.
On Have A Nice Day they reworked some of the screen animations and made them look a lot cooler! The guitar tone was quite edgy and rough and pumped the audience. During the final verse Jon’s voice seemed to fade again for a moment (right before “When this world tries to drag me down…”) and just as this happened the cameras switched to David and his face expression showed some concern. It can be seen at around 14:35 on Ronny’s video:
Prayer was the song they had chose to basically end the show. This one is always a sure-fire tune to make the crowd go completely mad in Munich and I had the feeling that with Phil X it regained some of it’s punch and energy. Awesome!
The official setlist ended there and the audibles were: In These Arms, Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night, Always, These Days and Blood On Blood. Minus the latter all of them built the 2nd encore. David got to sing the first verse of In These Arms, but by the time they had adjusted his microphone volume properly Jon appeared out there on the circle and took over on the chorus. During that performance he seemed to get back a bit of confidence into his voice as we was holding the final note longer than he usually does nowadays. He picked up his guitar and started strumming the E-chords of Saturday Night which resulted in the fans overpowering him in the first part of tune. The solo was disappointing though as it was more or less just a repetition of the basic chords. I’m sure with Richie by his side Jon would’ve gone for an improvisation, but here he pushed back to the final chorus and then walked back to the stage. Tico immediately hit the drums for Always and Jon gave his all on that one, going for all he had left and making it a great performance, even though his voice was shot to pieces by the end of it.
He then paused to enjoy the applauds and seemed to think what to do. Then he pointed at a sign in the front row and David started These Days. He added a little thank you speech and then mentioned “We’ll get through this one together. It’s called These Days”. It really was a great moment and the audience carried the song all the way through, knowing it word by word.
When the final bows were done and the band turned around Jon kept waving behind his back like “get a little louder and we’ll give you one more!” For a crowd in Munich that’s the least of a problem and they did a third encore with which they ran over the curfew.
And, setting aside that Jon usually plays I Love This Town because he can get cheers easy that way, Munich is one of maybe 3 cities in the world where I believe him in meaning that song. He pushed it on and on and then they called it quits with the concert clocking on 190 minutes exactly.
I was exhausted but had had great time, especially with Marc who sang along to each song as enthusiastically as I did. All of my credits go to the band though and especially to Jon who didn’t let the slow beginning ruin his mood, but worked his ass off and gave 130% until the very last minute. This even covered for most parts his fading voice and I’ve never seen this guy working harder on stage for the fans respect.
Did I miss Richie? Sure as hell! Did I have a great time? I had an amazing experience, regardless of the bad start and my lack of motivation beforehand and I even go that far and say that out of the last 3 concerts in Munich this one was the best.
We afterwards took some photos, caught something to drink and then everybody disappeared into the night. I had been thinking about selling my Stuttgart ticket before but after this night I made my decision to go. No, I’m not happy with Richie being replaced but with a band that delivers as hard as they did I don’t feel the need to let them down.
Any who knows the odds? Maybe the King of Swing will be back in 4 weeks (I know the chances are rather slim). Anyway, I’m looking forward to it!!!

Great Review Dominik. I'm so glad to read that you ended up enjoying the show despite all the negativity about Richie and Jon's voice. It's so nice to get caught up in the concert and not care about any of that shit.

And as far as I'm concerned meeting up with like minded friends at a concert is one of the pleasures of life. I hope Stuttgart turns out to be as good - if not better :D

Great review, that's got me up a bit for my upcoming gigs again, the last night with all the BS has made me a bit apathetic for the first time regarding the band, but the review and the pics have got me looking forward to it again.

That beer looks delicious.

Totally agree with Kathleen. Thanks for taking the time to document your review for us.

What a great review! Thanks, I highly enjoyed reading that. From seeing your pictures I could've sworn I stood in front of you, but since you were in GA and I was in the 2nd GC probably not. But I had a couple of guys behind me singing their hearts out. ;-)

I don't agree about DC though. It's always a special moment for me. I have heard it in 2011 with Richie and now without him, and even though I did miss him a lot, that song alone, the sound of the keyboards in the intro, never fails to give me shivers. It did probably help that we listened to the Milton Keynes version from 1993 on our way to Munich to build up anticipation for it.

I totally agree with what you said about the concert in general, though. So far I don't have tickets for another show and said I won't get them unless Richie somes back. If I had tickets, I would definitely go to my 2nd show this tour - the band worked their asses off and I left the stadium totally fulfilled (concerning the circumstances). But now I'm even considering getting additional tickets for Stuttgart, if the setlists keep getting interesting.

Grerat review Dominik!
It's interesting how people's impression are the same at one moment and different at another.
I agree that Lost Highway killed the atmosphere and the crowd. It's utter crap. Out of the new songs BWC got some reception I think due to the drums which make people clap and due to having been played after after IML. On the other hand, from what I could see - people around me and view of the stadium - WAN rather bored people.

I wrote you the message at a point when I got really bored. I hate when the set is predictable and I hate it even more when an unpredictable spot is used for a song I don't wanna hear. I could have probably enjoyed it more if I were down in GA. I actually like MaM and WWWB but I kinda expected some great ballad or just something special like Bells Of Freedom in Munich 2 years ago or Living In Sin aor Wild Is The Wind for example and instead we got MaM which bores me live. They should have played just MaM or rather just WWWB, which I enjoyed more two years ago. It was all after the amazing KTF, I was flying high and then bored to death. WWBTF is my favourite from the album but it sucks live, at least it has good screen pictures (the current streetart in red), then captain crash which I refused to wave throughout the whole song, only at the end and then Who Says - that's too many songs, I'd fine with two of them but not four in a row without any little surprise. By the time Sleep started I was bored and close to let down because Sleep could also very boring. Fortunately it was the new beginning of the show, the covers were great.

Yeah, you're right, Richie is missed so much. I'm glad you mentioned RYH - it sucked. I his sound on the HaND intro but those were just short moment during the show when I thought it sounds right or really good. Tjrough the rest of the show it just didn't feel right.

I agreed with my girlfriend that if the didn't so the encored the way they did, we would be very unsatisfied. The main part was really nothing special. And instead of crappy songs like captain crash or Lost Highway, I'd prefer some of the new tunes - it's the new album they promote for god's sake! Not so long ago he bragged about not being a nostagia band and now we get just three songs?

Cracking review...just goes to show that a concert should be judged on actually being there and not you tube videos etc.

When me and my wife go, as i am the more hard core fan, i will notice the odd slip up by bobby and Phil etc, and also that Jon's voice is weaker than before.

But my wife will just sing her heart out and enjoy every minute of it like 99% of the people there..and at the end of the day isnt that what it all about?