Concert Review: Kiel, Germany - September 18, 2009
Andrea Lucas:
The concert started on time with the “Last Night” intro. The next songs were the same as during the tour in Germany in May and June. “Missing You”, then Chris greeted the audience, “Sailing Away”, “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Brave Hearts”. That’s if I remember the order correct. Two of my favourites followed “The Long And Winding Road” and “Without You”. After “The Mirror Of The Soul” Chris got the first standing ovation. At first only a few people stood up, but then many more did the same. The first part ended with “Leather On My Shoes”. After the break we had the acoustic set with “All Along The Watchtower”, “Love Of The Heart Divine” (where Chris did the intro a second time, because he started it the wrong way) and “Moonlight And Vodka”. Again Nick brought drinks on the stage, no idea what was in the glasses. Then Chris introduced the guys from the band and did the solo part. Here was a surprise!!! He started with “Borderline” – that’s not the surprise - and got another standing ovation after this song. Then we heard “Transmission Ends”, a song I like a lot. And then “Carry Me”, which is my all time favourite if I have to name just one CdeB song. I did miss “The Last Thing On My Mind” though. Anyway he mentioned that tonight Kiel would be a swine flue free area and that the good news are that Christmas is only 3 months away. He did mention his new Christmas song and sang a few lines from it. It sounds very nice, but I can’t remember the title. Something like “The Bells of Christmas”. And he said it will be available in supermarkets, which I doubt, at least in Germany. Of course he did “Spaceman” and “Peaceful Waters”, with lots of singing from the audience and another standing ovation if my memory is right. If I remember correctly Mr. Boenisch said that 12 cameras would be filming the concert. There were two installed on “arms” to the left and right side of the stage and a couple of camera men carrying their cameras working on stage and also where the audience was sitting. Now the band came on stage again and Chris went for his “LIR” walk. I had the feeling that the camera men were a bit surprised by this. Towards the end of the song the lady next to me and I slowly made our way towards the stage. Many people were standing by that time, most of them just looking around to see where Chris was walking. As soon as he was back on stage, the “run” to the stage started. Before as he got standing ovations, the security guys always made sure that people sat down again. But not this time. Though two were standing on the left and right side of the stairs leading down from the stage. I was lucky and stood next to one of them and was quite happy. The stage was quite high btw, up to my shoulders. Oh – and for Chris W: Chris was wearing a light blue shirt for the second part of the concert and I think a light grey one with his leather jacket on for the first part. But I could not really see the colour of this shirt during the first half of the show. The dancing part was great with the usual songs. I put an earplug in though, because I was close to the loud speaker in front of Al. Though the area filled up quickly, there wasn’t much space between the stage and the front row and we had enough room to dance, no pushing which was nice. “Africa” is soooo good live. Oh, I just remember… Before they started with “Leather On My Shoes” Chris announced a surprise and welcomed a guest on stage: John Halliwell (sorry if the name is not correct). He was playing the saxophone like he did on the UK-tour. And he was back on stage for the last songs. I’m not such a big fan of saxophones, but I did enjoy it. And something else that just comes to my mind. During the break people were handing out light sticks, so there were a lot of those during the slower songs of the second half. At least one of the camera men filmed the view from the stage. I think it would be nice to see on the DVD how the audience looks from Chris’ and the bands point of view. Of course for the end of the show the songs were the same. I am not that keen on “Making The Perfect Man”, but “The Words I Love You”, “Bal Masqué” and “Ship To Shore” are great. Only too soon Chris was singing “Footsteps”, shaking hands and the concert was over. I have to say that before the concert started and I was getting tired and felt a bit lonely, I thought “What am I doing here?”, but I really enjoyed the show and do not regret the long journey.