Munich Show Review

We have a guest blogger today, Rike.  She attended the show in Munich, and I asked her to provide a review for those of us who couldn't be at the show; she graciously agreed.  Here's what she sent me.  Thanks, Rike!!

~ Hath

Good morning from Germany. I did an audio recording from the Munich show. It's not the best quality, because it was so loud around me. So you can hear more our singing. But you can share it, when you want. you can download it here:

Rike's Munich Download

my short review:

Munich wasn't on my tourplan originally. 3 weeks ago a friend asked me if I knew someone who is looking for a fanclub GC ticket. I was thinking a bit and since I was visiting my son in the week of the show and he lives closer to Munich than I; I said to her I would take the ticket.

I went to Munich a day before, friends of mine were there already and we camped out in front of the stadium for a low number on the list. You know, we don't have seats here in Europe.(only on the tribune) and when you want front row, (for golden circle tix front row is right outside the ramp) you have to be there very early. My tour buddies arrived way earlier than me, so they got No 4 and 5. I came almost midnight and ended with No 72. But thats ok, I'm tall and look over their heads. ;-)

Munich is a nice place for camp out, there are enough roofs, so you can stay dry. And there is a little bistro near the tennis courts, there you can have a shower and you get a delicious breakfast.

A week before the show I contacted the woman who had bought the fanclub tix on her name and she said she would arrive in Munich around 2:30 or 3pm. Ok, I could live with this, it was supposed that the fanclub could go in around 4pm. so plenty of time for her to pick up the tickets and give it to me. She never said that she meant her arriving time was for the hotel. so I was waiting and waiting. And then, because of the amount of people, security decided that the fanclub has to go in at 3pm. Fine!! I had a low number for a good spot, but no ticket in my hands. I went angry and she sent me not so nice text messages back. my friends and the rest of the fanclub were inside for more than a hour when she finally arrived at 5pm. I took my ticket and my wristbands from her and turned around before I would say some nasty comments. Normally I'm not such a emotional person, but all the waiting and so had me shaking and in tears. Julian from the fanclub staff was so nice to me all the time and he gave me a bottle of wat
er and a tourbook for free.

A big thank you goes to my friends, they saved me a spot right on the circle, in the middle. There were the band would stay during the acoustic set. I calmed down and was able to enjoy my 30th show. The support act was a young band from Denmark, "The Breakers." They are not bad, we got worse acts in the past ;).

Our expectations were pretty high after the setlist from Dresden and because we know the band loves playing in Munich. They started early at 8pm (because of the webcast I think), so we could count on a 3 hour show.We wouldn't disappointed.

The vibes in the stadium were incredible. Not even on the tribunes people were sitting anymore after the 1st song. Sometimes you couldn't hear the band, so loud did we sing the songs. I think my ears are still ringing.

I know a lot of people say the show in Dresden was better. But I wasn't there and it was more than a year that I could enjoy a stadium show. I didn't miss something. The guys were on fire, Jon was grinning from the beginning and not even a dead microphone on the circle could change his mood. It was obvious that he was happy to have Richie back. They were cuddling a lot.

But I have to say Richie has still a long way to go. He looks great, he lost weight and he played some hell of guitar solos. But I missed some Richie moments, no middle finger during HAND, his moves when they played Bad Medicine and he has voice problems. You could hear it when he sang IBTFY with Jon. Maybe thats the reason why he is not singing a solo song. And sometimes he was so inwardly-looking. But he really enjoyed the support he got from the audience and when Jon was singing the added lyrics during IBTFY, Richie was standing next to him and listening in astonishment.

Bells of Freedom acoustic is absolutely amazing, I hope they keep it in the setlist.

I needed the slower part of the show to recover a bit, I'm not 20 anymore ;)

But then the show continued and I was singing and dancing. I lost my hope that Jon will ever skip who says from the setlist, but I refused to do the "It's alrights". In my opinion, the Captn and the confetti party is enough *lol*

"The more things change" is a great song for a stadium show, I didn't expect that.

There were no more surprises in the setlist, but that doesn't matter. It was all in all a absolutely great show, great weather, an incredible audience and a band on fire. sure, I'd like to have Undivided, Bounce and Something to believe in on my show. But they can't play their whole catalog on one show. Maybe I get lucky on my next shows. For now I have to recover a bit more. ;)

xoxo
Rike