Live Review : Paris Bercy, October 16th, 2007

That was by far the most insane pre-gig I've witnessed, and I've seen a few. Girls camping from 6 days before the gig at the venue. And the whole place in front and on the side of the venue covered with bareers delimiting the lines. Even the mosh pit had been split in several parts, to prevent deadly squishing. It filled up constantly until it was packed full.
I ended way in the back, because I had come straight after work - knowing that considering the size of the venue and the rabid queuing, there was no way I could get a good seat without taking a day off, and no seat there was good enough for that. On the other hand, I'm not masochistic enough to attempt the mosh pit at a TH gig, either. Death by fangirls is not pretty.

I had purposefully avoided to read reviews of that tour before attending the concert, so I don't know what to expect. But I do notice right away the big square on the front of the stage with a big TH logo on it. Some intro text blasts in the speakers, and the lines of metallic squares crossing the stage start to lift up.
One moment I'm watching as the Tom walks up from the left, Georg from the right and Gustav takes place behind his drums, and the next I realize Bill is on the square that is moving up. Oops. I missed how he showed up there.

I had caught a bad cold two days before and was on cold meds that day, so I was a bit in a daze when the show started, and glad to be far, far away from the mosh pit, and seating in a quiet spot instead. Which may explain part of me missing bits and stuff. That, and keeping track of 4 people and 4 screens at the same time is hard.

1. Ubers Ende der Welt. Unsurprisingly, they start the set list with a power song, the Zimmer 483 hymn, sort of. But Bill isn't quite as energetic as he was when he performed the same song in front of the Eiffel Tower. I can't figure if he's just tired, not really in the mood, or flipped out by the crowd - though the latter is almost certain. The venue is packed full, and it's a 17 000 capacity. That's a LOT of people, all there to hear them.

2. Reden. It gets the fangirls all crazy, if they weren't already. Oh wait, they were. It just makes them scream more.

3. Break away (english version of Ich Brech Aus) : why oh why the English version?!
Little explanation about that : most French fans prefer the German versions. For good reasons : that's how we discovered TH; Bill's singing is more expressive in his own language since he has less to focus on pronounciation etc. And for me in the case of Ich Brech Aus : the song now always reminds me of how they rocked it at the Eiffel Tower set on Bastille Day. Break Away has no such memory associated with it.
And for not-so-good ones : the different language helps making TH different from US / UK bands; and a bit of snubbery for some.
So... the general opinion is : "Hey, since we welcomed you singing in German, why do you bother singing in English when in France? Keep that for audiences that are allergic to anything but English, it will save you work and it will make us happier too".
(some less politely than that - sorry guys)

The audience does not sing along too much. Partly, I reckon, because they don't know the English lyrics. I wonder if the band noticed the difference in feedback from the crowd.

After the song, Bill finally speaks. He attempts some French, but he rather loses it each time he comes back than improving at all. Which gave us a : "Nous sommes très heurants d'être ici ce soir".
Aw, cute. Thanks for trying :D

4. Spring Nicht. A lot of people sing along for that one, it's a fan favorite. And a fan of the other sort (the wind blowing one) makes his black and white lion mane wave in the wind, which... *chuckles* Ignore me, lame stage effects tend to make me laugh.

After that, Bill tries out some English, figuring (and saying, I think) that people will understand better than German : "Let me hear / you make some noise" - yeah, when he says it in two parts, he cuts the sentence between "hear" and you". Thankfully, the French crowd isn't fluent enough in English to care much. Aw cute, again.

And back to German, he introduces :

5. Final Day - I love that the audience has no idea what's the song he just introduced by title, until it starts playing... Then they scream and some sing, but I suspect half of them sing in German, because the result is very indistinct.

6. Wo Sind Eure Hände : yaye, Tom and Georg give some back-up vocals!

Longer speech in German from Bill. I don't get everything, but the global meaning was "Tonight it doesn't matter what's going on outside. Tonight all that matters is that we're here together and this is our [implying the band and the crowd's] song".

7. Durch den Monsun - lot of singing along, and Tom and Georg switch places to encourage the crowd to sing. At the point of the song where it dies down a bit, they completely stopped playing and singing, and the scene went all black. And it all came back for the forceful "Ich muss durch den Monsun...". A trick they'd repeat a few times during the concert.

Very very long speech, ending with (upon listening more in Toulouse) "Ihr tragt uns in die Ewigkeit". Introducing, obviously :

8. Wir Sterben Niemals Aus - awww, my favorite TH song of the moment. I've been thinking for a moment that it's of of their most sincere songs, and upon seeing live, I believe it even more. I was pleasantly surprised that so many sang along, as it's not a single or anything.

9. Stich ins Glück. Bill started singing that one seating. Eh. Poor baby is tired. That, and it's a song for his softer voice.

10. Ich Bin Nicht Ich - a fan favorite since it's one of their first album and all... But it's also one that has been modified quite a lot so he could sing it with his post-puberty voice. So it's not quite the same. Again they played the "stop playing completely and going in the dark" trick on that one. And start back with, instead of "Wenn du nicht bei mir bist", "wenn ihr nicht bei mir seid". Awww...
It might sound demagogic if it didn't seem true, considering how the band livens up on stage.

Bill picks up a megaphone, and the audience goes wild, knowing what it means...
11. Scream - except it's... The english version of "Schrei". There was a bit of singing along... But afterwards when I mentioned it was too bad they sang some in English to a pal, she hadn't even heard. Because everyone around her sang in German.

As he'd done previously on that tour, Bill picked up a girl from the front row to scream a few "Neeeein!" on stage with him.

Little break. Not really an Encore. From the dark start the first notes of :
12. Vergessene Kinder. Bill is kneeling near the edge of the stage on the TH-logo-ed square. Too many girls scream, a few sing along, mostly during the verse, thankfully. Complete dark and silence during the bridge. The crowd goes wild. Tom joins his brother on the TH-logoed square on the stage front.

Bill!Speech about singing that song since he's 9 yrs old. Or something like that. Not a surprise then when they start playing :
13. Leb' die Sekunde. Obviously gets the crowd crazy, and ends with the band making us sing along. (Tom, stop doing that to your guitar, there are kids in the audience, and worse, there are their parents in the audience)

I believe Bill said something about departed people to introduce the next sog. Uh... Forgotten? "Vergessen". New motivation to work on my German : be able to understand what Bill says in between songs. For lyrics I can get translations, but live sentences?

14. Heilig. ... Wow, so many people singing along and right! O_O And it's not even a single, either! I love it too.

Usual "I don't like saying that, but it's our last song for tonight" speech (in German). And in French "Merci beaucoup d'être venus ce soir". And something else in German.

15. Totgeliebt : they fucked up the start of that one. I don't know who started too fast, or if it would need a proper intro live to make sure they start at the same time.
And for maybe the first time of the gig, a bit of twin interaction. Or rather, a bit of Bill "kreisen über" his brother. Which makes me realize that I haven't seen a lot of it so far.
The band bids their farewell and leave the stage. Bill very reluctantly. At that point he would be the neediest performer I've seen live, if I hadn't witnessed Michael Rosenbaum in action...

Encore
As usual, for the encore Tom and Bill came back alone, Tom with his acoustic guitar, and sat on stools near the edge of the stage.
16. In die Nacht I had the feeling that Bill was playing a private joke to Tom and trying to get a reaction from him. Tsk tsk. It was funny though. To see Tom trying not to laugh.

Gustav and Georg join them on stage, sitting quite close on the TH-logoed square for another acoustic version of :
17. Rette Mich. I know it is supposed to be an emotional highlight, but I'm afraid I've listened too much to this song because I loved it so much, so now...
Again, the band leaves the stage. My seat neighbor, a young grand-ma, asks if it's over. I tell her they should play another one. And they do come back.

Encore encore...
18. An deiner Seite
The fan song. Not the "shag the fangirl" song (that's Reden), the "I'll be by your side" one. Bill sits on the wall at the back of the stage, with his legs extended on the side. Oh, the pose. I don't know if I'm supposed to find that cute or to laugh out loud.
Oddly, even though I usually like the song, and the performance was good, nothing bad to say about it... I felt more the demagogic side than the nice one to it. Maybe because of Bill's pose, actually. Too... posed. Calculated.

It cut my suspension of disbelief a bit. But I'm peculiar about performers and performances.
And unlike 80% of the audience, it's not the first concert I attended...

Bill leaves first this time, though not before having thanked the crowd repeatedly in German and in French. Drop that mic and back away now! You're addicted to it!
The other three stay behind to throw water and stuff on the adoring crowd. The last to leave is Gustav, who plays with the crowd for a while, motioning them to go hush, then raising his hands to make the volume of screams raise along.

And that was the end.

Good job, it left me all bouncy and energetic, and my cold was just a bad memory. It came back later, obviously, but after the show I was literally bouncing around with a grin on my face for 2 hours solid. Go figure.

I still don't like giant venues like this one. I had seen Placebo and George Michael (... obviously at different times) in that same venue the year before, and it lacks emotion a bit. Also I could do without the "big machinery" stage effects...