Live Review : Strasbourg (France), March 6th, 2008
Zénith - 12 000 ppl
I added this gig to my schedule because :
- Strasbourg is only 2 hours away from Paris by train
- one of first shows of the 1000 Hotels tour, so the band was rested (... though not as much as if they hadn't played in US and Canada a few weeks before)
- smaller venue than Paris Bercy
- many friends from the fandom would be at that one
- I learned to combine fandom and sight-seeing, and I'd never been to Strasbourg, and it looked nice
We had planned to try for the front rows there, but when we arrived at the venue a little after 8 am, it was the big rush after they'd just opened the car park gates... So the idea of spending 10 hours in the biting cold (it had been the coldest night of the whole winter), crushed between fangirls, cut down in our enthusiasm.
Especially as in between buying our tickets and the actual show, we had gone to the New York shows, where we had had a much better view with better queueing conditions.
Aside from the show
So, we called it a day and went to the city center instead. ... yeah, so, we found their hotel and waited outside of it to get autographs and/or photographs, and so what? No regret, it was by far my best "outside hotel" experience, even if Gustav was missing (the German girls asked where he was, but I didn't understand Bill's answer). The fans were rather orderly and respectful, the band was relaxed, they joked between themselves, signed for a lot of people, and all was fine.
It was worth the embarrasment for that memory alone : Bill started by our side and merrily said "Bonjour!", only to be answered in German because there were mostly German fans on our side. At which he made a slightly dejected face and said something under his breath (I think it was something like "Oh, you're all German?", with a tone that have meant "Pff, serves me well to make an effort at speaking in French *pouty face*"). I was too amused to correct his impression that everyone there was German.
I swear his face went from ^__^ to ?__? then -__-;,
The "Tokio" in Tokio Hotel is because Bill emotes like a manga character.
Also cute was when he eventually realized that instead of signing in his wake as usual, Tom and Georg had gone to the end of the line, followed by their bodyguard. So at one point he looked up, realized he was all alone in front of us, let out a little "Hey!" [something else in German that I wish I had recorded in video because the whole scene was KEWT], and hastened to go after them, laughing, while they were laughing at him.
Awww...
Sometimes, they're really like frolicking puppies. Or 3 puppies and a kitten.
But I like that in a band. They're fun.
I doubt I'll ever see another session like that, since security seems to tighten at the same time that, to be honest, fans seem to get pushier...
One of the reasons why I clicked with TH is because I was looking for new music to make a change from the depressing stuff I listen too usually... 90es / 2000es pop rock. It always amuses me then that they're labelled "emo", because their music just cheers me up and makes me bouncy. It's the opposite of emo. Nothing else works quite the same way.
I don't get why, but I don't care, I take it like it is.
Anyway...
On to the show.
I traded my mosh pit ticket for a seated ticket (in vain : once inside, nobody checked if your ticket was for upstairs or the pit). The show started on Ich Brech Aus, and it was gone for 2 hours of pure fun and energy. We went down standing by the balconies after one song, because seating at a rock show is dull, and we had a better sight that way.We made room before us for the 3 very little girls (the oldest was 11 yrs old at best) who had been seating by our side before the show, so they could make the max of their first gig without having anyone blocking their view. I regretted their grandmother hadn't bought them earplugs, though. TH gigs are REALLY loud and the girls covered their ears after a while... :(
The stage was different. The TH-logoed square going into the crowd was still there, but Bill didn't jump there for the beginning of the show. He appeared in Gustav's back on a mechanical platform. The separated metal plates were replaced by a circular wall that also went up and down, and even, at some point, hid poor Gustav from our eyes.
The set list was different from the Zimmer 483 in the order, but with only a few differences in the songs played. They simply added back "Schwarz", if I'm not mistakened. But I love this song, so it was a treat. It was introduced by a montage of backstage videos in B&W retracing their career so far, while the guys had left backstage and the stage was in the dark.
I read a review where the journalist found that rather pretentious, but in context of the song, it isn't...
I always found that song poignant and angsty, and in my mind, it sums up their doubts about their skyrocketing passage to stardom. Of course they enjoy it and are making the most of it, but it's gotten out of control a while ago already. So they're surfing the wave, the best they can, without knowing where it's going.
The montage has the same vibe to it, to me. Then the music to Schwarz starts, with the stage still in the dark, and Bill sings from the circular platform suspended above the stage, sitting on the edge of it, legs hanging (and having changed of clothes. I'm not a big fan of that Broadway aspect of the show, though. Except that for some reason, I'm amused by his T-shirts with an added zipper along the back - so he can take them off or on without disturbing the hedgehog hairdo, I reckon? And because he's a zipper fetish).
He must have noticed from the North American shows that people go awwww when he's sitting, because he did that a few other times during the rest of the show, sitting on the stairs on the stage side on Heilig, I think, etc. Tss tss tss, little stage animal. It does fit very well with Schwarz.
The boys were really energetic and happy, and it was contagious. Maybe one of the best shows I've seen them doing, from that POV. I don't know if it was because of the proximity of Germany, or the many German fans at the hotel, but Bill spoke more than on the Zimmer 483 tour.
Obviously I didn't get everything, but this tour's "schedule" included an introduction to Reden, in which he made fun of Tom, saying the following song was a favorite theme of his.
He limited his attempts at French to the usual "Bonjour tout le monde, ça va?", on his first speech. Except that at some point of the acoustic set, while sitting on his stool, he grinned affectionately and graced us with a "Merci mon ami" ("thank you my friend"). It struck me, partly because it's not part of his "French routine" (I haven't heard at any of the other shows), and because it sounded like a quote from a movie, if anything because it's not something you'd really say in French. It's grammatically correct (though "mon ami" is singular and he was adressing the crowd), but you don't call a friend "mon ami" unless you're really posh or really dated. It gave me a flashback from Interview With the Vampire, but I'm not even sure they use that sentence there. Go figure.
I felt they were all a little more relaxed on stage... Moving more freely (the metal wall are less dangerously moving over their heads, too), interacting more with the crowd. As if they had missed the shows after long holidays, or as if the performances in smaller venues in North America had reminded them of the root core of rock gigs vs the big machinery that their shows have become. Or that they appreciated more the luck they had to play in front of crowds of 10 000+ in Europe, after having been back to small shows in NA.
On Der Letzte Tag, many people in the the crowd started the hand wave move Bill made us do at that moment on the previous tour. But he wasn't doing it himself before we started, so it made me feel like maybe he was trying to make some changes to their "show routines".
During the acoustic rendition of "Rette Mich", he let us sing along the verse, and made a funny face because the crowd was singing the old, high-pitched tune from the pre-puberty version, while he can no longer sing it and had been singing the lower version.
The show ended with Gustav doing his little show - the hola.
The only down side was that Bill's voice wasn't as clean and steady as usual - the rest of the story alas confirmed and explained my impression of the day... But at the time I only put it down to the show being the first of that new tour. And it wasn't too bad.
