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Posted: 2009-07-12 13:30:03

So this was my exSpearience this year? No - this couldn't be. I am sitting now in the train back from Belgium to Berlin and I try to recapitulate what happenned there. I am driving more than 800 km to see the Band I waited for almost one year and than ... I MISSED THEM!!! But let's start from the begin.

Posted: 2009-07-12 11:24:45

Before the show:
Since I have known the tourdates for Europe it was clear the only gigs I could maybe go would be the both in Belgium - Cactus Festival in Brugge and Rock Festival in Zottegem.

I hoped it could work like it was in 2005 - see the beautiful people from Belgium I know, stay with them, party with them but since the Rotterdam festival one week before I knew that juiceman couldn't come to any festival. So my plans changed. I decided only to go to one festival and Brugge was selected because it was better reachable by train. It was very difficult to get a hotel room for this weekend but in the end it worked - railway station, hotel and festival ground all in a 15 min distance. What a good starting position. I asked Johan who also wanted to come for a ticket and he ordered it for me 3 day before the festival.

Posted: 2008-09-01 16:21:45

So this might be my exSpearience for this year and it looks like it couldn't be better. I had two phantastic nights and I can't get the vibes out of my mind, still listening to the new music, remembering special moments.

There were some friends of me saw MFSH the first time who left the place with a smiling face. Others said it was not that good like the years before. The only negative thing for me were some people in Cologne - but that's life in a city. Have seen Juiceman and Johan again which I didn't expected and I had the feeling back it was 3 years ago - be a part of the spearit comunity.

I put the setlist here because they are very similiar - only "Everybody on the move" was missing in Berlin.

So if you are interested in reading the reviews first start with the Berlin review than the review of Cologne

Setlist (Berlin): Little Bit of riddim, Hello bonjour, Rude boys, Time to go home, Keep on rollin, Sometimes, Sweet little lies, Remote control, Pass the Kutchie/Ganja Babe, All I want is you, Life in the city, One step closer, Is love enough, Light up your lighter, Hey world (Don't give up), I got love for you, ---------- Soundsystem, I know I'm not alone, Yell Fire, Say Hey

Setlist for Berlin as planned

Setlist (Cologne): Little Bit of riddim, Hello bonjour, Rude boys, Time to go home, Keep on rollin, Sometimes, Sweet little lies, Remote control, Pass the Kutchie/Ganja Babe, All I want is you, Life in the city, One step closer, Is love enough, Light up your lighter, Everybody on the move, Hey world (Don't give up), I got love for you, ---------- Soundsystem, I know I'm not alone, Yell Fire, Say Hey

Posted: 2008-08-29 15:33:18

Before the show:
A couple of weeks before I already knew that I will not be alone here in Cologne. Ingrid and Michael - my friends here in Cologne will come to the gig and together with me on the guestlist were Anna (the girl I knew from the Beck gig in Berlin) and Toni from Barca(Catalonia), so I had great expectations for this day.

I stopped working in Wolfsburg earlier so I could take the train to Cologne at 3 pm. Got a good place, listened to the new record and wrote a lot for the review the day before.
I arrived in Cologne at 6 pm and was half an hour later at the Luxor. The doors were open and I came in the small backstage room where the guys were hanging around. We talked about the gig yesterday, traveling by train, children. I also told Michael about his little mistake he made yesterday with the year the Berlin wall came down. and he said that others had already mentioned it.
Versace would like to see the Dom so we took the underground and some minutes later we saw this really big building with all its sculptures, towers, details. We were making some pictures and also took a walk within the Dom and to the bridge over the Rhine. We came back to the Luxor at 8:30 pm
While I was drinking a beer at the bar near the doors I saw Juiceman and Anna coming in and buying tickets. I was totally surprised and happy to see them now after three years. We went outside talking. Ingrid, Michael, Anna and Toni almost arrived at the same time, so we talked a lot in front of the Luxor. Ingrid gave me a key for their rooms and described me the way I had to take. More and more people were coming so we decided to go in.

Posted: 2008-08-29 14:10:54

Before the show:
Some days before the gig in Berlin started I wrote an email to my friends not to forget about this special concert but I didn't know who of them would really come. I invited Ville - one of our friends from the FIN-Connection - to be the last of my guestlist. After I was coming back from work changing my clothes for a wet gig night (I took my black Volleyball-T-Shirt titled "Wattebaellchen"), Tiina (my wife) and I were ready to leave at 7:30 pm. We took our bikes driving along the water channel straight to the 'Schlesisches Tor' where the Kato is located. 'Schlesisches Tor' is an Underground station (viaduct) in the heart of Kreuzberg - my district. Before the wall came down it was the last station of the famous Underground line 'U1' - there is also a famous musical about this underground line. But back to the day.

After we had locked our bikes I was totally happy to see Antje, Andi, Kathrin (friends from my volleyball team) and Oskar - Andi's son - near the Kato. Tiina was really surprised to see Oskar there because he is one of her pupils at the school she is teaching biology. To calm down a little bit she was eating a Kebab. While we were waiting for her food, Manas was jogging around our way. We hugged and talked a little bit. Also Raleigh came the way jogging but he didn't see us. Back to the Kato we got our guestbuttons. Also Liane and Paul (volleyball) came to see Spearhead. So many people I know were here. A really big surprise for me. Than I saw Versace. I introduced him to Tiina and he was curious to learn some finnish words. 15 min later Ville was coming and we were ready to go in.

Posted: 2008-06-28 01:23:10

Beck was a big disappointment for me.

But let's start some weeks before with this review - to get the whole story why I was going there.

At the StayHuman Board we have a topic called "What is your next show". I asked our posters what they are thinking about Beck and if it's worth to go there although the tickets are expensive. One day later I got an email by a girl from Frankfurt/Hahn who saw my posting by a google search and asked me if I could buy a ticket for her. Well this was the beginning of some email traffic between Anna and me - so I decided to buy two tickets. She is from Spain(Catalonia) and is working at the airport in Frankfurt why she is getting cheap flights to Berlin. She ordered the tickets for the flight and got a room in a hostel nearby the location. So everything was managed for the gig - waiting for this day.

Posted: 2008-05-05 23:40:21

Yeah, the European tourdates for the summer are announced and they will also come to Berlin on Aug. 26 - just a week after my Finnland vacation. A lot of gigs in Great Britain this year. In Berlin they will play at the Postbahnhof - good rememberance of a Little Axe gig there in 2005. Hope it will get wonderful.

Posted: 2008-03-01 18:10:37

My first gig according to Mars Volta and a big disappointment.

Don't really know what was the big point for my feeling. The gig was sold out. Maybe 2-3000 people, some looking like Cedric (Cedric Bixler-Zavala - lyricist/vocalist) with afro hairstyle, most wearing dark clothes. Good feeling when I entered the place.

In the beginning I stood on the right side only some metres away from the power amplifier - so it should be the best sound. When they started to play (Roulette dares - one of my favorites) I already recognized that the sound in this venue is really bad. Everything sounded like a big messup. But I felt good.

Posted: 2008-01-28 21:47:44

My first gig this year and already a highlight. Tackhead!!! Never have seen Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald, Keith LeBlanc and Bernard Fowler together. Together as Tackhead. I know the music of Tackhead now for 20 years and have seen Doug, Skip and Keith more than 5 times and now together with Bernard. Although the gig was titled "Bernard Fowler's Bad Dog for me it was a Tackhead gig. The Quasimodo venue was a good deciscion of the organizer. I think the location was almost completely full.

I came there late and I hoped they didn't start already. But the woman at the door told me they will begin soonest at 10:30 pm. Enough time to get a beer and looking for a good position near the stage. I stood in front of the small stage between the mic of Bernard and the equipment of Doug. Keith came in and began a drum solo, the Quasimodo get filled and the other band actors came on stage. The first song was a Tackhead classic "Tell me the hurt" followed by songs from Bernard's new record (e.g Pop that thang). It rocked. After an hour they made a short break and came back with the absolute highlight for me: "Stealing", singing as loud as I could ("in the name of the Lord")- and also the audience got it that "Tackhead was in the area". They were also playing a song from Little Axe called "Grinning in your face" and another favorite of me "Trance" - a Doug Wimbish song. Also Skip and Doug were doing their soli. After two hours they left the stage but the audience applaused them back. Their last song I think was "Rock this house". Everyone felt happy after the gig was finished. I took another beer, talked for a short moment with Skip, Doug and Eddy - the organizer - who showed me a maybe 6'6'' man and introduced him as Mark Stewart who will play in Berlin two months later together with Skip, Keith and Doug known as Mark Stewart & The Maffia. I left the Quasimodo with a really good feeling late in the night :-)

Posted: 2007-09-27 02:03:55

This concert is my second concert this year so far. I was very excited because I only know JBT by name from spearits at the forum.

Before I could go to the gig there was a parent-teacher conference of my daughter at school. It should stop at 8:30 pm so there should be enough time to go to the venue. At 9 pm it still went on so I left the school and drived with my bike to the Columbia Hall - only 1 km away. It was raining so I came there a little bit wet.

Anyway, they already started playing (I missed maybe one or two songs). I went to the right side of the stage - as I always do - and enjoyed the music and atmosphere of JBT. I recognized there were a lot of young people there - teenagers in my eyes and I also wondered that a lot of people know the lyrics of the songs. They played almost all songs from the new record Grand National, all of them had there solo more minutes and the highlight of the show was the song Peaches & Cream. John atarted solo with his guitar. After a minute Michael Barker entered the stage positioned behind his drums with two sticks in his hand and started to clap with them so the audience did the same. Within the next minute also Shannon Birchall came on stage and they played together this song until the refrain was repeated unplugged. "All I know is, all I know is, I love you and I love you ..." That was so wonderful. I never was within a audience - except Spearits in Netherlands/Belgium - who was singing that loud. They all enjoyed it. After threee songs within the ENCORE JBT finished short after 11 pm. I had a wonderful feeling after the gig and the next day I bought me "Grand National" at the iTunes store including an extra video of Peaches & Cream.

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