Concert Review: Rastatt, Germany - September 4, 2010
Andrew Stokes:
First of all I would like to say a huge thanks to Kathy Cairns and her husband Robert for making my debeut trip to Germany possible and also for their kind hospitalty in putting me up in their house in Belgium as well as driving me to Germany and back - thank you so much Kathy - greatly appreciated Well having managed to find the venue earlier in the day and hear Chris working on his sound check while singing a bit of Puff the Magic Dragon which somewhat suprised me as I thought I was hearing things, I settled into my uncomfortable seat at the venue before the concert started on a very warm summer's evening in Rastatt. I must say I was rather disappointed with the amount of empty seats in front of me that stretched down to around the 10th row or so - unusual to see - especially in Germany but it meant people could move down and even stand as this venue was rather spacious which was good. After seening some familiar faces the concert began. As always Chris appeared from behind the stage to the ever mind blowing intro to Last Night which in my opinion is the finest song to start a concert because you immediately know what kind of show your in for. I thought Chris's voice sounded fine despite Chris been so unwell the previous week suffering from a nasty sore throat and a cold due to the rather fierce weather Germany experienced the previous two weeks. Then One World followed before Chris gave his welcome speech most of which was in German which I thought was a very lovely gesture and pleasure to the German fans . He loves to tell jokes too doesn't he? And this latest ghost story of the headless man walking around the Schloss and a wolf howling while having a head in his mouth at the same time - priceless I kind of thought by this stage of the show that the German audience was very slow to get into the rythm of the show and I did not really appreciate the amount of people getting up in the middle of songs to go and get a drink and talking at the same time Anyway Chris went on to perform some more of his Footsteps tour with exceptional performances of Turn Turn Turn, Sailing Away, Oh My Brave Hearts, Without You, The Long and Winding Road, Missing You, The Revolution[b] among many others. Interestingly enough I was rather taken back by Chris performing a solos versions of the classic In a Country Churchyard, a song which to my knowledge associates Chris with concerts in Ireland but it was avery warm moving piece that captured the audience especially as it was requested by somebody near the front. One of my main highlights of this show was later on after the Lady in Red walk around which went down very well as nearly everybody was up from their seats. His selcetion of songs that finished the party evening really got me going and a couple that stood out for me was indeed [b]Bal Masque, The Words I Love You and of course Africa - and hearing Chris perform that track just makes you want to jump up and down all night long because he does it to perfection for a song that carries many high notes and at a very fast pace. The sound was spot on with the band performing second to none. Just before the end finale - alot of us up front of the stage had to put up with the behaviour of a very drunk woman who had far too many beers to drink and after been taken up from her seat by security earlier in the show she still insisted to run back in shouting and roaring up at Chris and trying to dance but falling back into people - me among one of them - not very impressed at all - if that was Ireland she would have been thrown out immediately! The show finished with Chris at a high as always with his power ballads of Say Goodbye to it All, Don't Pay the Ferryman, High on Emotion and Snows of New York but there was just one piece of music that really got my attention - one of my all time favourites that I had never heard Chris perform live - Ship to Shore - oh what a piece to hear at my first concert in Germany! All in all a superb event - I must say. Proud to have been there oh and a big thanks to all the gang I met up with after the show - you all know who you are - there are plenty of photographs going around You are all great fun to be with Andrew