Live Review : Eiffel Tower set

Context

To celebrate his recent election in May 2007, the new French president set up a "Fraternity Concert" on the next Bastille Day. The gist was to unite people of all generations and nations (mostly Europe though) blah blah, for a giant free gig on the Champ de Mars, right next to the Eiffel Tower.

Probably thanks to them representing Germany, Tokio Hotel was invited to be part of the opening show to Michel Polnareff (cult French singer), in between Italian singer Laura Pasini, DJ Bob Sinclar and Portuguese-born Canadian-living Nelly Furtado.

It ended up with over 500 000 people gathering under the heat of that July 14th, 2007, the most devoted of them being TH fangirls clogging the front rows from the wee hours of the day.

For the ones who couldn't make it to the show, it aired a little later that night on TV.

TH only performed 3 songs, but it was another occasion - after the Trabendo Session - that left me quite impressed. But in a different way, as it was exactly the opposite in terms of setting. Whereas the Trabendo was that small, intimate acoustic gig for 300 lucky few, soft and spellbinding, the Eiffel Tower performance was an exercise in rocking out half a million people with boombastic sound. So the band played three of their most energetic songs.

Set list

1. Ubers Ende Der Welt (their single of the time)
2. Ich Brech Aus (semi obscure track from the second album Zimmer 483)
3. Durch Den Monsun (the first single that had been released in France)

A little mystery of it was that on TV, each song was introduced by pasted titles... And all 3 were wrong. It seems they were supposed to play "Monsoon" (the English version of DDM), Schrei and UEDW. Go figure. I liked the final choice better.

Review

I shall offer candies to the guy who had the idea to film the band's entrance on stage.
See, the show was great, but I guess what makes me squee even more than "boys done good" is to see on their faces how they dig it (... yeah, I tend to run the video every now and then, it makes me bouncy).

Bill's somewhat tense face before he has to go (while the other ones are already on stage musicking).
How he takes a deep breath when he gets the "go", and then slips into "I'm-gonna-rock-this-place-and-I'm-not-afraid stage face" as he starts running. And the close-up when after climbing on the surelevated platform where Gustav is, he gets his first real look at the 500 000 or so people in front of him, and while marking the rhythm and striking a pose as he does his "front man job", he bites his lower lip in a happysquee / impressed / OMGsomanypeople / boyish smile.

Squee.

Which is only topped by when he removes his jacket in between songs (I'm surprised his T-shirt underneath is not soaking wet with sweat, considering how hot it was that day. I want his deodorant brand). Not for the jacket-removing, but for the look on his face. He's gazing at the entire crowd, like feeding on the sight in awe so much that he can barely take his eyes away from it, except to follow the stage routine.

And it's beyond cute.

Sorry, I couldn't find an untagged video that featured Tom

I can't believe how, apart from that, they seem totally comfortable and take up the entire stage so easily. I only ever performed in front of 50-100 people, and while there was no pressure since it was amateur, walking up on stage the first time scared me (not before, oddly, due to the "Eh, don't care, don't know these people, and it's a free show, whatever". The moment my foot touched the stage, I went all OMGWTFamIdoinghere?! and went through the motions on habit alone for the rest).

But my baby band here? All four of them soldier on and go there with a smile, and rock it all like rocking things that rock.

Here, have a cookie.