Hello David,
it was quite interesting to read about the differences between German and US concert goers ... I never had thought that serious numbers of people would leave DURING a concert just to buy beer or snacks. The sound of the ´Koelnarena´ is unfortunatly known to be bad ... worse ... worst (maybe in whole Europe); I live in Cologne and I was in the Cologne Arena for many concerts, 2 times McCartney last year, Eric Clapton this year, now S&G ... and this time the sound was kind of REAL bad during some songs. I didn´t hear echoes like you (I was sitting front of stage row 14), but we had some deep noise from some technical equipment that did disturb the sound during the quiet or lower parts of some songs. So maybe German audience is more enabled to enjoy concerts than German architects are enabled to build concert halls?!
Yor write that you made some pictures / videos .... would it possible to share them? I would be REALLY glad not only to have my memory to preserve this phantastic evening. So if its possible to share some of the pictures or sound just send me an email at:
[email protected]
Thanks! |
As usual, this concert began thirty minutes late. And of course the set list was the same as for every other concert! What made the difference was the behavior of the patrons and the performance of Art and Paul.
The accoustics were worse than in most arenas, with a noticeable echo to the rear. This meant, basicaly, that the same sound could be heard twice, about 0,5 seconds apart! But after a few songs most people stopped complaining and started to enjoy the show.
The audience kept sitting during the entire show. Nobody got up to buy popcorn and beer. Nobody started talking during the less ´familiar songs´ and the arena didn´t empty out for everyone to go the toilet during the Everly Bros. It put the American Concert goers to shame and showed how little respect the american concert goers have for the artists. No wonder that both Paul and Art were in great form, especially during the classics! Paul was as triumphant as ever during Bridge and really let himself go during the rock numbers. Art stood around as usual and tried to find something to do. Hands in pockets time again.
Contrary to other concert reviews this patron found Paul to be in a fantastic mood! Obviously Edi did some nice things to him last night, because Paul couldn´t stop grinning and laughing. He was very clearly enjoying himself a lot. Something that was seriously missed when I last saw him in New York, six months ago. On theat occasion he looked like his dog had just died. Last night´¦´¦.well´¦..he was just fantastic.
Art wooed the crowed by speaking not an inconsiderable amount of german! Much to everyone´s surprise! He welcomed everyone with a´¦.´Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren´, (Good evening ladies and gentlemen) and then said that was all the german he knew. This he immediately confirmed as untrue by saying´¦..´dies ist der fünfzigster Jahrestag seit bestehen unsere Freundschaft welche ich sehr schätze´ (This is the 50th anniversary of our freindship which I treasure) and when introducing American Tune he remarked ´ždas ist ein Lied über mein aufgewühltes Heimatland´. (This is a song about my troubled home country). Throughout the evening came the odd ´ždankeschön´ and toward the end of the night Art remarked that he has always been so fantasticaly received when in Germany and that he dearly loves to be here.
Paul spoke a lot less during this show. No stories about Alice in Wonderland, for example, and only one or two shorter speaches.
The video screen remained in colour for ´žOnly Living Boy´, which was a pity, because the black and white of the previous shows was a haunting touch.
The rearangements of ´ž59th SBS´, ´žCecilia´ and the alternate opening to ´žAmerican Tune´ were nice touches, but it would have been nice to see a couple of changes to the set lists.
Still, all in all a very enjoyable experience. Looking forward to München.
Oh, one thing in the favour of the Kölnarena´¦´¦´¦there was no problem for anyone wanting to use cameras. I took some great pictures, and even managed to video Bridge, Cecila Sounds and Boxer in reasonable quality with sound. No where to upload it to anymore with the closure of the mutimedia part so the memories will remain unshared. There I can only urge you all´¦´¦´¦.go and see them one more time. Only a few concerts left, and then that will be it. I doubt they will ever come to Europe again!!
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