Beach Party -- a Zeebrugge Review

Once again, many thanks to Rike for sharing her first-hand accounts of her concert experiences.  This was her final show this tour.


~ Hath



Beach Party

Mannheim was my last regular planned show, Zeebrugge-Beach was the encore-bonus show. I added this show to my tour schedule only 2 weeks ago. And since I couldn’t get fanclub Diamond tickets, this show would be the first with a VIP package for me.

The week between Mannheim and Zeebrugge was a bit stressful at work, so I really looked forward to a few days at the beach. But the weather forecast was not really encouraging – cold rain and storm all weekend long.

And when I left my hometown Friday morning it was raining. It was still raining when I arrived at the airport in Berlin. And when I landed in Brussels, it was cloudy, but no rain. Then I took the train to Zeebrugge and the closer I came to the coast the better the weather became. And when I finally left the train in Zeebrugge, I was greeted with a blue sky and the Bon Jovi stage in the sun. But it was Friday afternoon and more than 48 hours til the show would begin and the weather at the coast can change from one hour to another drastically.

Ha-ha, I can see the question marks in your eyes. Two days before the show and she is already there? With a VIP package? Before I bought that package I got a Golden Circle ticket from a Fanclub member. But since all my tour buddies had Diamond tickets, I don’t want to stay in the GC alone. And I made my flight bookings before I got the package. Besides it is always fun to camp out with all the fans. When I arrived there were already 14 people, sitting on the beach and enjoying the sun. I took my shoes off, pulled out a blanket and joined the other in the warm sand. It was sheer bliss!!

After dinner at a nice beach restaurant and an evening stroll on the beach with a beautiful sunset, we’re putted up our tents. In the meantime a few more had arrived, so there were about 20- 23 people.

Sometime towards midnight we crawled in our sleeping bags and the sounds of the waves lulled us to sleep.

It was the next morning around 5am when the sound of pouring rain woke me up. Sh*t, should the weather forecast be right??? I crawled a bit deeper in my sleeping bag and when I woke up 2 hours later the rain has stopped. It was still cloudy and pretty windy, but with that I could live.

After an extensive breakfast at one of the coffee shops on the beach the sun came out. We considered putting down the tents over the day, but since the police passed us the night before and didn’t say a word, we let them there. But it would be turn out wrong, because over the day a lot more fans arrived and they immediately putted up their tents – a fatal mistake. After a lazy day on the beach, some of us even dared to go into the water, we just wanted to go for dinner, when the police arrived and had us putting down the tents and leaving the beach. I think they tolerated the few of us the night before. But now there were almost 30 tents. And even when there was so prohibiting sign, they may have been afraid that we would be too loud. And we couldn’t convince them from opposite. Some of us had already hotel rooms and some had luck to get rooms in a hotel around the corner. And some spent the night in their cars at the parking lot, so nobody had to stay outside in the cold and than rainy night. But the fun was gone.

The next morning was pretty crispy and windy; a cold, sharp wind from the sea. We had a good breakfast at our hotel and after checking out we loaded our stuff in the cars and went to the place where the FC/VIP tent was supposed to be. Around noon the seaside promenade was packed with people. The fanclub Diamond Circle line war the shortest. Fanclub Golden Circle line was a lot longer. But I was shocked that the VIP-Ticket line (Ticketmaster/ local Ticketcompany) was the longest. I’ve never seen that loads of people with VIP tickets. And I could see a lot of fanclub members, who didn’t get their tickets through the fanclub. From what Nick said, the fanclub sold only 130 Diamond tickets (ticket only and both packages).

So while Steffi and Beate went into the circle with the fanclub; Sandy and I went to the VIP pre-party. At the entrance we got our laminate, the tour book and the VIP bag. There was the first disappointment, because the bag wasn’t the dark grey we knew from the shows before. This time it was a yellowish-brown bag, which looked pretty cheap. And then we got 3!!! vouchers for drinks. Do they want to kidding me? And at the stairs down to the pit were waiting almost 30 fans already. Those were fanclub member who don’t want to waste time with food and drinks. They only want to go in the pit and get a decent spot, like Sandy and me. So while we waited, we picked up a little bit of the salads and a small bottle of coke. We could see from our spot the fanclub walking in and after they were in, we could follow. Luckily for us, Steffi and Beate saved a spot in the middle on the circle. We did the same for Steffi in Edinburgh. We let our bags there and went back to the VIP tents and grabbed more of that really good food. Salads, pasta, rice with shrimps – the people next to us in the pit were happy ;). We even gave our laminates to our friends, because they had to pay 50 cent when they want to go to the toilet. Unbelievable!!!

While the support acts were on stage we hung up our banners and flags and talked a bit with the photographers.

Exactly at 8pm the intro was shown on the screen and sounded from the speakers and then they came all on stage. Richie was sleeveless in his blue vest and Jon in his red jacket and those pretty tight jeans. “Happy now” as opener is not bad, I like it. Then “Bad Name” and “Blood on Blood”, the guys seemed on fire. “We weren’t born to follow” and “Lost Highway”; so no “Born to be my Baby” this time. But we got “Whole lot of leavin”; it’s one of my favorites from the LH album. Then “It’s my Life” and “The more Things change”, it’s really a great live song. David Bergman was right behind me, I took a pic of him and I got high five. And the party continued with “Raise your Hands” and “Captn Crash”. The floor was strewn with confetti after that song and not only the floor. ;)

“Bad Medicine” with “Hot legs” and a “Shout” teaser in it and then Jon walked on the circle. He was almost in front of me, when he began “Bed of Roses”. But something wasn’t right, he touched his left leg twice and he didn’t sat down like usual, he only walked slowly a bit to the right and then back. But I could take some great pics, because he was right in front of the sunset – an absolute grandiose view! And he was reading my request banner for “Undivided”, my hope increased a bit. Then he called Richie to join him on the circle for “I’ll be there for you”.  And the song wasn’t even ended when they left the circle – Jon on the right and Richie on the left side (from my point of view). WtF -only 2 circle songs?

Ok, “Who says…”. Before the show we had talked about what would happen when the girls in the first rows would lift their t-shirts instead of raise the arms at the unavoidable “It’s alrights”? *hahaha* Maybe they would play that song 3 times at every show then.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead” – I really like that clapping with Jon and Richie and they have fun with this. Then we got “Garageland”, a not so often played song. “Have a nice Day” and “Keep the faith” and the main set was over already. After a look at my watch I was wondering what we would get for the encore? I still hoped for “Undivided”

Few minutes later the first guitar chords could be heard- “Wild is the wind”. I had this song twice already at my shows, but I still like to hear it. Then Takumi handed the Double neck to Richie, so we thought it’s “Wanted” time already. But after the first notes my finger pressed the record button on the cam, it was “Never say good bye”.  And I couldn’t help me; I was crying almost the whole song. Because I realized it was my last show and I won’t be able to see all the friends for a long time.

Then “Wanted” and Richie was singing the 2nd verse again. “Livin on a Prayer” was follow and after Jon introduced the band and the bows I was looking at my watch again – it was 10:08pm. It couldn’t be over, could it? It was over, Jon pulled out his ear plugs and then they were gone. We looked at each other, disbelief in our eyes. But they didn’t came back, the lights went on.

The show wasn’t bad, we got great songs, but it felt like something was missed. I can’t really describe it.

On our way out we thanked Nick (he is from the backstage crew and did an awesome job, he always takes care of us and he always has a smile on his face). He said that maybe the cold, clammy wind from the sea affected Jon’s voice. I read on other reviews later that the audience was pretty lame, I couldn’t say that from there were I was. Or maybe the guys wanted to fly out as soon as possible to Spain – we won’t find out it. On the printed setlist was exactly that what they played.

Outside the concert area we hugged and kissed our good byes, a lot of tears were flowing. Then we went to the cars and surprisingly fast we were on our way to Brugge, a small town nearly 15km away. There I had a room for that night. The next morning I did a little sightseeing in Brugge, it’s a very old town with a beautiful historic city center. Unfortunately I had only 2 hours before I had to take the train to the airport in Brussels, but I’ll go back there.

The flight was in time and I also was able to catch my train home, so that I could stretch my legs on my couch at 7:30pm. The tour was over for me – definitively. And I felt sad and depressed already. If someone knows a good tour blues antidote, send me a message please.

And I hope I didn’t bore you to death because of my long ramblings.

See you next tour, good bye!

Edit: Rike had included some photos in her review, but they didn't come through for me.  She just sent them to me now; here they are: