Concert Review: Warsaw, Poland - September 16, 2009
Claudia Schreiber:
I got ready for the show and walked the few hundred metres to the venue. It is built on the foot of a monument that was a "gift" by Stalin, as the taxi driver told me ironically.. ..from the inside it is like an indoor amphitheater, very nice all in red and white. A bit -just a bit- like the albert hall or the Gaiety theater in dublin. Well, maybe it the polish albert hall What really annoyed me was that there was no catering at all, absolutely nothing to drink...except a machine where you could buy coffee and softdrinks...I did not feel like drinking from a can and so I didn't buy anything at all. Believe it or not, during the intermission the queue infront of the coffee automat was twice as long as the one at the female toilet The concert started in time with the usual intro, and when the band and finally Chris came on stage, the audience went mad! They were in a party mood from the word go! Sadly I had 5 photographers standing in front of me for the first 2 songs, and so I first saw Chris with the first notes of "missing you". For those who are interested- he was wearing a blue shirt with stripes on it, a new one as far as I remember...havent seen it before at least. Of course Chris said some words in polish, and the audience really apreciated that. i'll never know why people react to it like that. Maybe no other artist does? Ah well, and it's kind of respect, isnt it? When Chris did "Mirror of the soul" something really sweet happened...i did not mean to mention it at all, but as Chris pointed it out himself, here we go... When Chris came to the end of part two, the lyrics should have been When he took it from the altar high, everyone could make it shine, Except the Abbot and his men, for them, no light, They could not make it shine. But instead of that he sang something completly different, a mixture of the lines before....as far as I saw it, nobody recognized it, and as the music went quiter, they all started to clap as usual. Then Chris looked at me, with one of the sweetest smiles I've ever seen, like a little boy who was aware of having done something wrong after he finished the song without anymore mistakes, he grabbed his guitar, asked Toni for the key again and then said something like "For those of you who have heard this song before I must say that I commpletely forgot the words" or something similar. He than started that part again, just with the guitar, and failed again! Oh it's so good to see that others are not perfect either! with the 3rd try he finally made it, and got a big applause for it!! of course the LIR walk was a big success again, he had to shake dozens of hands, pictures were taken, and so on. Chris seems to really enjoy this "bath" in the audience, and it regulary drives the security crazy After LIR Chris invited us all to stand up and dance and everybody followed this request! Thankfully there was enough room to dance where I was, and the stage wasnt that high as well. It was another brilliant evening, thanks Chris!!!