Re: Hamburg reports and comments
Date: August 19, 2007 16:05
Just came back from Hamburg as I added a few days of holiday with my gf and my bro in the area (the Heidepark features some terrific rollercoasters that managed to excite even the die hard rollercoasterfan that I am, bloody hell!).
As to the concert: my gf is more or less a Stones virgin so I was curious about her thoughts. She's not really into their music but loves the spectacle, and where better to sit to watch it all than on the tribune opposite the stage? So that's where we'd picked our tickets. The ticketchange operation that came with the turning of the stage would make our places uncertain however, since the seats opposite the stage were now sold at 20 euros more! So I suspected we would be moved to the upper corner.
But nothing of the kind: our tickets got exchanged for the more expensive ones ("ein extra Bonus für Sie!") and we were opposite the stage as planned, but closer of course.
I must say the ticketchange operation went very smoothly and well organised. We changed them at about 5 pm before going to the city for dinner and coming back at about 7:30. There was no queueing whatsoever. But the logistics involved in the decision to turn the stage are very extensive: it takes more than a hundred staff to (very friendly) inform, direct, re-direct, direct again, change tickets, and direct the way back out. It takes some 12 partytents (with several for every original price class) and miles of fences on a parkinglot next to the stadium. It takes loads of paperwork.
Of course this is all done to make the stadium look less empty when not enough tickets are sold. But if you look at the extra organisation to get this done, you'd almost wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to just leave everything as planned and give away the empty seats. Perhaps they're actually using the sales situation to bring the stage nearer the crowd to the peoples benefit?.....
Anyway, I must say that up where we were the sound was not too good. Most of all it was loud not at all subtle. Especially for people like my gf (and most of the people up there who are mostly not diehards) this is a pity, since it makes all the faster songs sound somewhat resembling to their ears and moreover they can't make anything out of the lyrics. But as we all know, the visual spectacle makes up for this more than satisfying. She enjoyed it a lot and so did I, maybe even more than in D'dorf where I was on the field. But that might have been the setlist.
Strong impressions for all three of us were Midnight Rambler, Ruby Tuesday and Jumping Jack Flash. For me Love Is Strong was exciting as well as it was my first time for this tune. YCAGWYW, which is one of the few my gf knows and enjoys especially, was not played. It was the first time I hoped for it. Well, anyway. Typical remark: "That Keith doesn't do too much with his guitar, does he?" (concluding about the first part of the show after Wanna Hold You). I must say I couldn't argue with her on that. But he made up for it on JJF, where he actually fired one lick after the other.
Oh btw: once again Keith was excellent on Brown Sugar and opened it correctly. I think they choose on giving him more time for playing that intro. He doesn't walk on and open it at the same time, but he's standing still which is better. In Düsseldorf e.g. he walked on, stood still, smiled at the audiance and fired away. Now in Hamburg it was again done somewhat different: he walked on stage in the dark, and the moment he opened Brown Sugar a spotlight pointed at his presence as a surprise, after which the full spectacle joined in. This was very nice.