Concert Review: Mainz, Germany - July 24, 2005
Lore Müller:
Mainz yesterday was the last of my 4 !!!! concerts. The weatherforecast said the possibility to rain was 30 %. It began to rain in the afternoon shortly after Doris and I arrived in Mainz. So we hoped, that the rain stopped and we would get more of the 70 % non-rain. We found the market- place already nearly closed and when we left the Dom (cathedral) we were shown out the door opposite the market-place. Outside a cafe we met a lot of listmembers and here I met Kurt and said "hello". There were large umbrellas that kept people nearly dry. Doris and I went to the merchandise shop where the man (perhaps a Chris) was just unpacking the CDs, T-shirts and other fan-stuff. I asked him if we could hide in one of his big boxes and so watch the soundcheck. This was a joke of course. But he told us that there would be no soundcheck at all. We were very surprised because on MotL Chris has just recently underlined how important a soundcheck is to get the reverb etc. adjusted. Perhaps he was not in Mainz in the afternoon and watching the Formula 1 race in Hockenheim, not far away??? He didnīt mention anything later on stage. Thanks to our mobiles we met up with a big listmembers group in a Chinese restaurant. Claudia and Willi happily told us that they had a private taxi (Claudia Sch.) from the station to their hotel. And we met Heidi from SA again. -BTW we both had a phantastic day last Thursday doing sightseeing from Linz to Cologne.- Once we were inside the venue after 6 p.m. (no checking of rucksacks or bags!!!), most of us were already wearing those wonderful, good looking, plastic raincoats for 1 Euro, which were sold outside and inside the venue. The group from the afternoon was still or again there, so we joined them and I was very delighted to see that Anke was the happy mother of her second baby :-) The restaurant "Estrablatt" were our meeting should have been, served only outside under those big umbrellas, but there was no empty chair. It was not problem to meet at the cafe next to the Extrablatt. 15 min. before the concert was supposed to start, we took our seats in row 5, realising that we were in good company, next to Chris and Stewart and Andrea. But... 10 min. early suddenly "When winter comes" was to be heard and the concert started, .... still raining. Chris appeared all in black, black T-shirt, black shirt, black jacket and started with "The Road to Freedom". Then he talked to Petrus to let the rain stop and... it worked!!! But later, when he sang a song in which the rain was mentioned (there are many with "rain"!!! if you pay attention to that word!), it started again raining. And he said, he probably shouldnīt sing about rain in any way. Chris explained why he is wearing black. He said he is often asked that question. And the reason is: If he wears white he is attractive for a lot of mosquitos. And someone from the crew brought him the mosquito-spray, he used it, but sprayed it beside himself. When the concert was already going on for about half an hour, four people arrived and were looking for their seats in the second row. Chris came down the stairs, shook hands with the surprised four, welcomed them and said they had missed nothing so far except some bad jokes. Indeed he had told some jokes, and when after the first joke only few people showed a bit of reaction, he asked if people in Mainz are good at English but stated at the same time "Maybe not". And actually there was not much laughing about his jokes. But he himself laughed about his own jokes. I wonder if he acts that or if he really feels like laughing about himself after telling the jokes every evening again and again and some of them already last year. No matter if or if not I enjoy it when he talks even if I know the jokes already and donīt feel like laughing. I always find myself smiling :-) After one of the first songs he told the technician to change s.th. concerning the sound. Some of us had those light-sticks and Doris and I used it at "The same sun". We looked a bit surprised at each other for we could see nobody in the 5th row or in the rows in front of us, who waved arms with or without light sticks. He sang "Five Past Dreams" very nicely, not in this monoton (sorry) rhythm as most of the time but more the way it is on the studio-CD. He did a wonderful "Borderline". But I think this is one song which he always sings wonderfully. In Bonn it was the song with the most audience reaction, I think, and in Mainz it was just a clapping like after most other songs. We heard no "Once upon a time" and no "Songbird" but a long selection of his favourite party-songs as the second encore. He let us sing a lot (especially during LIR), which I always like very much.The stage was high, he got flowers and other things. Before he sang "A Spaceman..." he said that summer is over now and soon it will be Christmas... and then Ela brought him a really nice Santa Claus which was moving his arms and his head and was singing s.th. We all, including Chris, had a good laugh. Chris tried in vain to find the button to stop Santa Claus from singing and finally handed it to s.o. from the staff. During the spaceman he gave us much time for the oh oh ohs and even sang himself "our" additional "oh-oh". It stopped raining for a while sometimes but during the Britney-walk-about it was raining again. Not afraid of rain, our Chris DID the walk-about and people enjoyed that part very much. There were some free seats in the front rows and during the Britney-part they were occupied by people who had noticed this. So, we went into row 2. Chris was in a good mood from the beginning but in a very good mood towards the end of the show. As usual, after LIR, Chris invited us to come to the front and so we did, of course, and the party began. People were not too shy to come to the front, it was really crowded but enough space to move. It had stopped raining at that time, but where I was standing, thick drops fell off the roof over the stage and.... a terrible smell came from the waste water drain :-( The first part of "The journey" (only voice) seemed to be s.th. special for him that night, he seemed to be very moved and started with the guitar some chords earlier than usual, perhaps to feel better and support his voice. At least I think so. After a long and good concert a small group met again at the cafe, we had a drink and then said good-bye to each other till next year, hopefully :-)) Doris drove me home safely on a wet autobahn, thank you! In the end I want to say that really each of the 4 concerts was unique and had itīs special highlights for me. Bremen: not starting with "When winter comes", stage faaaaaaaaaar away from the audience, but "Fatal Hesitation" and a great soundcheck Krefeld: long waiting before the doors openend, a very very emotional Chris, and a Chris looking -with his special, undescribable expression on his face- which we like so much, down to us :-) Bonn: the most fantastic audience who really rocked Bonn, a rocking Chris, a concert he can really be proud of. Mainz: a concert in the rain, Chris talking a lot, many party-songs, a nice concert for me to end this year Lore - from Germany near Bonn/Cologne hannelore-mueller@gmx.de