Concert Review: Weimar, Germany - August 12, 2008
Anna Dolgikh:
Dear all! We are back to Russia now from our amazing trip to Germany with visiting four concerts. And this is my review of the Weimar concert. I know I am a little bit late with it, especially taking into account that I have already written the review of the Hannover concert, which was later than the concert in Weimar. So I offer you a little trip in the past - in the August 12th in Weimar. May be you would like to do this trip with me and to travel a little bit in time and space. First of all I should say that the concert in Weimar was fantastic! I have visited not so many concerts to compare with but it seems to me that this concert was filled with amazing emotions. I think this was because of the different reasons - Chris's and the boy's moods, amazing city's atmosphere and the city's history, the audience, the place of the concert. The combination of all these made the concert be very special. If to speak about the amazing things I should begin with the weather. The forecasts for the 12th of August for Weimar promised rain. Starting a week before the concert every day I looked through the weather forecasts - but they were always the same - rain all day long. The morning of the concert's day was overcast and soon the rain began. The sky was all in dark grey clouds. There seemed to have been no hope for the dry weather ... But the rain suddenly stopped around 5 p.m. By chance it was just in time when Chris must have gone to make a sound check. And no rain since that time. And all dark clouds have gone. And the weather forecasts suddenly has changed their mind and began promising partly cloudy weather without a rain. The second amazing thing is the city, I suppose. It is a great place of history. Goethe, Schiller, Bach lived here. And the atmosphere of the city is very special. I felt myself very unusual there. And it was absolutely different from that how I felt myself in Frankfurt and Schwetzingen where we had been a couple of days before. In Weimar I felt some kind of a quite, a great influence of the past times and together with that I had an amazing feeling that the time was stopped or was running very slowly. The third amazing thing in Weimar is the flowers, I suppose. We have bought a bouquet of roses for Chris. And many people on our way to the venue and even in the hall (!) have asked us what the flowers were for. Last year in Zurich due to the flowers, after the concert I found my photo on one of the internet sites. And this time due to the flowers again ... to our great amazement we found our photo and a little story about us in a local newspaper. I needed some time to believe in it. Really. As the story was about a girl Jana (while my name is Anna) and Pavel (that is my husband's name) who came from Russia to visit Chris's concerts. So I had to ask my husband if he was sure that I was the only girl he had come from Russia with. If seriously they confused my name and called me Jana instead of Anna. But it is again amazing because if to spell the name Jana in Russian and to read it vice verse from the right to the left it will sound like my short name Anya. The concert took place in a nice castle's square surrounded by the castle walls from all the 4 sides. I felt myself very comfortable there. The concert started at 8 p.m. And this time began not with the solo part but with the part with the band. And only then there was the solo part followed by the dancing part. Well, I should say that this structure of the concert was amazing, even magic. The concert's atmosphere, the emotions were wonderful and it seems to me that the structure of the concert played a great role in it. And I felt a great admiration towards Chris because he always moves forward and is looking for the new, and this decision to change the concert's structure made the concert be really amazing and very special. After the 3rd or the 4th song I decided to present Chris with my flowers. All was wonderful except one thing - I was the first one to try whether it was possible to come up to the stage or not. As during some concerts that I have attended the securities didn't allow the people to come up to a stage I wasn't sure could I do it in Weimar or not. So I looked at the security on the right, at the security on the left and approached the stage. No one stopped me. After some thoughts I decided to walk upstairs. At that moment Chris turned to the boys and didn't see me. So I was slowly walking upstairs asking myself - could I? With each step I was closer and closer coming to the conclusion that for sure I was doing something wrong. I should say that no one stopped me, all seemed to be all right, these were only my feelings. On the last step I broke down and remained standing there. At that time Chris has already noticed me and was going towards me. Of course my walk upstairs was rather quick, but according to my internal time it took me at least 10 minutes to go upstairs with all these doubts. So you can imagine my feelings when finally I was standing there on the last step. But that was not all. When Chris approached me the boys began playing the next song. At least the lights didn't turn off like it was when I went up to the stage during the concert in St. Petersburg. So I quickly presented Chris with the flowers and then to my great amazement kissed him in his cheek, instead of shaking his hand that I had initially intended to do. So I don't know who was amazed more at that moment - me or Chris. There were some funny moments during the concert. At the beginning of the concert Chris was joking about his hairstyle. First he fixed his hair a little bit and then sprayed it with something – at that moment I didn't know what it was - but looked like Chris was styling his hair or wanted us to think that he was doing it. He was also so nice that sprayed the boy's hair as well. So there was lots of fun on the stage at that moment. And later I read in the reviews that it was a spray from flying insects, as lots of them were flying around Chris's head. I have taken some pictures of Chris during the concert. But instead of a couple of them, I had to take some more - as all the photos that I was making turned out to be blurred. And while taking all these photos with the hope for one picture of a good quality I was afraid that right on it I will see Chris with a question in his eyes – what will I do with all these photos. Now I will quickly stop on the play list. In the part with the band Chris sang "Where We Will Be Going", "Missing You", "Sailing Away", "Oh My Brave Hearts", "Leather On My Shoes", "The Traveler", The Revolution Trilogy, "The Rison Lord", "The Last Time I Cried" and "Live For The Day". The solo part consisted of "Carry Me", "The Same Sun", "Where Peaceful Waters Flow", "Borderline", "Shine On", "Leningrad". The song "Leningrad" always impresses me greatly. But for the first time in my life I was seating so close to Chris when he was singing this song about the country I live in. And Chris was so emotional while singing it that suddenly the castle and the square disappeared for me and I felt myself as if I had been in Leningrad. And I was standing there, and it was dark and windy, and I was shivering with cold... And I felt so sharp the pain of war, the pain of broken love... In Hannover I was also very much impressed by this song, but in Weimar I have felt such emotions that I had never felt before. After the song "Leningrad" there was the Lady In Red walk around the audience, during which I don't know where from a beautiful lady in a beautiful red dress appeared. She passed to Chris and he danced with her - my God she impressed me greatly and what to say about Chris in this case. After The Lady In Red walk the dancing part began. And as usual I left our seats and passed to the area in front of the stage. And it was fantastic to stand there among the singing and dancing people and to look at shining with happiness Chris! In this part Chris sang "Say Good Buy To It All", "Living In The World", "Bal Masque", "Don't Pay The Ferryman", "High On Emotion", "The Snows Of New-York". Chris was amazing as always. And the smile was on his lips and in his eyes. As well as the great concentration and deep sad emotions when he was singing the serious songs. And during the concert we followed Chris passing through all types of emotions starting from the joy and happiness till the pain of war. Thank you for reading my review! Hope that you liked this little trip to Weimar. And I also want to say big thank you to my husband who has listened to the draft of this review 256 times and having fallen asleep not one time gave me lots of suggestions how to keep the readers awake. Kind regards, Anna Dolgikh