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Tina Märkert: hi all, I'm not good with concert reviews, others are way better writing about the details. - But the girls decided me to write about the weekend, ok, here're my personal impressions: ...The cafes are all deserted, the streets are wet again... That's how I felt after the last 2 of the 'Girls Gang' had left my flat this afternoon. It's been 2 fantastic weekends with the girls, with lots of chatting, good food, good Gluehwein ;-) and two great concerts of course!!! Now "Tina's CdeB&B" closes down for the winter. Even when it was only last weekend that the 'Girls Gang' came from all over the country (Berlin, Erlangen, Osnabrück, Aachen, Bonn, Fulda and Huerth) to Dortmund, we all were to meet again for Duesseldorf this weekend. Anke and Diana who had the furthest travel, arrived Saturday evening at my flat in Huerth. Only was I wrong in assuming after the long drive they'd look forward to a quiet early night. No, staying so close to Cologne they wanted to make the most of a Saturday night out!!! After some reparation work ;-) we were off into town. The Christmas market near the cathedral it had to be. As we arrived rather late, we had to hurry to get down 2 Gluehwein (hot mulled wine) before closing time (did I mention that I hadn't eaten anything all day?) Anke and Diana still didn't want to go home but see more of Cologne's nightlife. So we went into the Altstadt (Old Town) where there's only restaurants and bars, pubs and traditional beer brewing houses. With the fine weather loads of people were sitting outside even at 11 pm, drinking, having meals, loud music everywhere, several parties of stag nights. Anke and Diana who are not used to "Cologne culture" wondered what it's like when it actually IS Carnival (then the whole town goes mad 24/7 for one week). After some Koelsch (local beer) in a very traditional Cologne pub we giggling made our way back home. On Sunday morning Nugie from Berlin arrived by plane, Sandra collected her from the airport and we all had a long, late breakfast at my flat. After more chatting and watching our Killarney and Dortmund photos we started to Duesseldorf. Unfortunately it was raining and we couldn't stay long at the Christmas market there. We were glad to find a really nice Spanish restaurant with very good food. The other 2 girls from the Girls Gang, Dani and Heike, who we were to meet at the hall, had to queue for a rather long time in the pouring rain as the entrance control was ever so slow to let people in. Girls, hoping you didn't catch a cold, resp. deepening up your existing cold :-( Inside the hall we met many other list friends and it felt very much like in Dortmund the week before. Duesseldorf was the last german concert and therefore the last concert in 2006 for most of us, only very few being so lucky going to Amsterdam and Luxembourg as well. Because of the early starting time at 7 pm many people were still flocking in and the concert wouldn't start dot on time. - now surely others who remember the details will fill you in - I can only say, personally I liked Duesseldorf much much more than Dortmund!!! The Duesseldorf show somehow seemed more relaxed, imo Chris was in a better mood, maybe he was ill in Dortmund and therefore hadn't been so talkative. In Duesseldorf the band was making more fun, the stage seemed not as wide, the appearance of guest drummer Aled Jones added a nice difference, also Kristyna Myles is getting more and more confident, now being on stage for much of the dancing part, dancing and singing with the band, a really party on stage it was at the end! And also the dancing in front of the stage was great!!! Dortmund had been so crowded with people from behind pushing for every inch. In Duesseldorf the crowd would still let enough space to breath and dance. (only the security was a bit close, but well, they have to do their jobs). From what I could see the rest of the hall was celebrating as well. The overall feeling surely depends very much on where you are sitting during a concert, but with many many list friends sitting in the first few rows, from our point of view the concert had been a party! Yes, the audience in Dortmund had been more lively and louder, but maybe that's what puts even more pressure on a Dortmund concert? Because the expectations are always so high in Dortmund, maybe Chris thinks he *has* to perform his best show; it might've put more stress on him especially when he was suffering from a sore throat? back to Duesseldorf: ok, I still didn't like the pinkish velvet altar with the plastic lamp, sorry, it just will not grow on me. But what I liked best: this time I experienced the 'The Leader' trilogy finally as fantastic music again. In Dortmund I had been so overwhelmed by the pictures of the impressive video by Steve, it kind of overlayed the songs and I didn't dare to really enjoy the music. But now the old feeling from concerts way in the past returned, what a great live rock song it is indeed, how much I always loved it, and so I really let the song get through to me. Wow, what a great combination of music and pictures it is! For me the best part of the Storyman Tour. After the concert we chatted some more with other list friends, but all getting a bit serious, knowing that we won't meet for some while now. We said goodbye to Astrid, Dani and Heike, and the rest of us drove back to my place. Still agitated from the concert we sat down with some wine, turned listening to instrumental versions of CdeB songs into "lucky song guessing" LOL, and talked until we finally went to bed at 2:30 am. We all had Monday off and after another long breakfast Anke and Diana left for their journey home at about 1 pm today, with Sandra and Nugie following some time after. With the flat suddenly gone all quiet after so much happy chatting for the last days, I remembered what a great Girls Gang year we spent 2006: a fantastic holiday in Ireland with the Killarney concert on top, the Dortmund fan meeting and now Duesseldorf. So let's hope for more concerts (with band, please!!!) in 2007!!!!! PS: Chris, we also wouldn't mind travelling to the UK or Ireland again :-))) Sorry, if it got a bit long and boring, Good night from Tina.M |
File last modified on January 3rdth, 2008