ningyo

Ennosuke, I was in block J too, row 1. I arrived shortly past 19:00, was confused inside that some people were wearing wristbands, asked around too, but didn't get one :cry: So yeah, one of the reasons I was underwhelmed... :( I had seen the videos of Cologne before, where 80-90% of the people seemed to have a wristband, and yes, that did look bloody impressive! But in Frankfurt the wristbands were concentrated at the front, and only about 1/3 of the people had one, so there were a lot of dark areas, and it wasn't half as impressive. Interestingly enough, much of what I read about the other recent shows, e.g. Antwerp, is otherwise much the same - lame crowd, concert too short, band rushed through the show, "the been there done that" feeling of the band just doing shows mechanically, ending too abrupt - I just didn't feel included. Chris said that everybody was part of the show, and he probably even meant it, but I just didn't feel included at all, and not because of the lacking wristband. If I had known that before, I could have just watched the videos on Youtube later on - would have saved me 85 euros. It's too bad really - I've been a fan for nearly 10 years now, but could never see them live in the early days because I was a student in Japan back then. Now that I can at least scrape the money together for a ticket, I feel like I paid for lasers and roadies and stage decorations and other people's wristbands - when all I wanted was to see a great band play great music.

Ennosuke, thanks for posting the videos. it looks like you were sitting very close to where I was! personally, I'm a bit disappointed this time. from a technical point of view the show was great. But really, if I just want to see a technically great show, I'll go see Madonna. Seriously, I missed the surprise element - the setlist was the same as in Köln, the effects were the same, and the balloons and confetti weren't much impressive from back where I was. (In Strasbourg a few years ago they had the confettin raining from the ceiling, but I guess that's not possible in Festhalle. the setlist then was also different for every show, every show hat something new and unexpected) Also, I expected more wristbands. I think less than half the people actually got one. Yes, it did look nice, but not as impressive as in some videos of the other shows. And, while they certainly did work hard on the stage :guitarist:, I found it too short, the end was too abrupt. Two encores would have been good, or maybe breaking it up differently. The best part for me was Will, playing 1001 instruments, and singing with Chris. I had the impression that he was the only one giving energy back to the crowd. He certainly did give energy to Chris. (Rock musicians, or stage performers in general, need the energy from the crowd to perform, and ideally they transform it and send it back to the crowd - I was missing that last night :\ ) (possible that it felt different for the people in the front, but for me - small, short, and unable to line up for good places early because I had to work till the last minute - that was not an option) The bad logistics of Festhalle certainly didn't help, so all in all, I'm not taking home much this time, other than a huge astonishment about Will's performance - he's the champion :thumbsup:

Durchhalten! :thumbsup: ich hab leicht reden von meinem warmen Büro aus ;)

is euch nich kalt?

it's snowing in Frankfurt, "all is calm, all is white" the Festhalle is 10 min walk from my 18th floor office :) but right now I can barely see it (well, the Messeturm in front of it) for all the snow. for those who want to grab something to eat, the cheapest bet is probably McD's at the central train station (Hauptbahnhof). there are also some restaurants in the sidestreets opposite Festhalle. me, I have a seat in the front row of block J :D (the Eventim ticket prices are prohibitive though, not nice :veryangry2:) will go via McD's after work, so probably around 18:30. the last time I saw them live was in Strasbourg in 2008, seated less than 2 metres from the C stage, which was just plain awesome. Hope tonight will be just as good!