Rambling Report Part 1: Hamburg 1 and 2

WTF am I doing still up?! I'll never wake up in the morning. D: I met with the other Italian fan earlier, the one who was at the concert in Berlin, and now I'm not tired at all. I'll just post this entry I wrote earlier.

The Bela tour is over and, while I'm not suffering from the usual post-concert depression (yet), I do feel melancholy. But I'm very happy I decided to go to 5 concerts: there was no way the Berlin one was going to be enough, I knew that, after seeing one gig, I would crave more and, since Berlin was the last show of the tour, that would have certainly lead to a huge post-concert depression. :P

Quick tour summary: Bela is a total poser but, fuck, he's hot; Holly is one hell of a great bassist; I could see a hundred concerts without getting tired.

Ans here's the usualy report consisting of random memories. I can't assure that every memory belongs to the right concert, things start to blend together when you see 4 concerts in a row and don't write stuff down at once.

I'll start with the two Hamburg gigs. Pictures are on their way, I still need to touch them up in Photoshop.


6th December, Hamburg

- First of all: the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket rocks. I found someone who had one at the first try and only paid 5 euros to get from Berlin to Hamburg. Beginner's luck, I suppose.

- I stayed at the A&O Hostel on the Reeperbahn just around the corner from the venue. The standards were much lower than the other A&O hostels I've been in, but it was just for two nights, so that's OK. Also, I guess those are Reeperbahn quality standards anyway. Check in was from 4 PM, so I just left my rucksack in the luggage room and went down to the club to see if there was already someone there. Of course 5 or 6 people were already sitting there, but I really didn't want to wait that long (I think it was around 2:30 PM), so I just walked past and pretty much stumbled into darth_funk and kiviraat. Small world, indeed. We had a coffee together and spent a couple of hours just chatting in a bar with nice tiger and leopard print cushions.

- I went to the venue around 5:30 PM and there weren't that many people there. Too bad doors opened later than usual (at 8:00 PM, which is the time when the opening act usually starts to play. Damn Hamburg and its nightlife. :P)

- Across from the club there's a church, its bells ring every 15 minutes and at the hour there's a nice long melody. A church right in the middle of the red-light district must do anything to attract attention, right? ;)

- The concert was very good, I could see the band had improved a lot since Dresden (2nd show of the tour). I was standing in the second row in front of Holly and had a very relaxing concert up until "Tag mit Schutzumschlag", when a group of girls started jumping all around me. Meh.

- Bela had to mention Farin again, of course: before "1. 2. 3..." he played the usual "What comes after *insert ridiculous high number*", but the audience was smart and got all the numbers right, so he said something like "Nicht nur bei Farin Urlaub gibt es Abiturienten im Publikum."

- Olsen was talking back to Bela and Bela told him to shut up and said something along the lines of "Don't talk back to me, I'm the one who pays you!" And Olsen said "Yeah, but not much." And Bela: "It is much. In a parallel universe. Or in India, for example."

- Bela really likes having thousands of adoring fangirls in front of him. One of the Ansagen was "Könnt ihr mich sehen? Und gefällt euch was ihr seht?" *rolls eyes* Also, during "Ninjababypowpow" he grabbed the stage structure (no idea what's it called in English, I only know the Italian name because I actually studied it at uni) and started swaying like a stripper.

- The Bobotanz Ansage wasn't the standard one from the CD this time: Danny said something about someone doing some medical analysis and the doctor diagnosing they were a Bobo because he had found traces of tofu and cheap beer (Boheme) as well as traces of caviar and champagne (Bourgeois) in his faeces. Even Bela looked disgusted. XD

- Allow me to be a silly fangirl and say "OMG, Bela winked at me!" I'm perfectly aware he does that with half of the girls standing in the front, but it's still a nice feeling when he looks at you and you can actually see recognition in his eyes.


7th December, Hamburg

- I had a walk around in the morning, bought a red leopard print scarf (♥♥♥) at the Christmas market in Altona, went down to the harbour for a bit and went to the venue in the mid-afternoon. I ended up in the second row almost directly in front of Bela and it turned out to be a rather quiet spot, maybe because the club wasn't as full as the previous evening.

- While I was waiting outside, I could catch a glimpse of a photo shoot that was going on onstage as the security opened the doors for a while in the afternoon. I wonder where/when the pictures are going to be published.

- The opening act was a '50s/rockabilly band with a singer that looked like an elderly version of Elvis and two (TWO!) contrabasses. The contrabass players were totally crazy: one of them started playing standing on one of the amps and the other standing on the contrabass itself. Great.

- The guestlist area was apparently full of St. Pauli football players and Bela kept making football jokes, also because there was a fan wearing a HSV jersey somewhere, who was the main target of said jokes (but Bela apologised after every single one, aww.)

- After Holly's usual "Keiner versteht mich, Alter!" during "Satan, Gott und das Glück" (which I love, btw), Bela hugged him and said "Sometimes men just need to be hugged. But it can lead to embarrassing moments, right Holly? Or is that a bunch of keys in your trousers?" Bela clearly misses the slashy moments he used to share with Wayne. ;)

- I really, really like Holly, his stage presence is much stronger than Tim's, who just stood in his spot in the background, said "Bass" once during the whole concert and that was it. I still miss Wayne, but I have to admit this Los Helmstedt line-up is very good. Even if I was bad and always cheered really loud for Holly (hey, I gotta support a fellow bassist) and only half-clapped for Gary. Oops. :P

- Danny said St. Pauli players were all a bunch of bobos and at the end added Maradona wasn't a bobo, but did a lot of "coco". Yay for lame jokes.

- A group of girls in the front shouted "Bela, du bist so schön!" in perfect unison and Bela said (more or less) "Oh, das ist jetzt eine Überraschung. Naja, danke, ich weiß." Poser. XD After a while the girls shouted "Bela, du bist immer noch schön!" And he replied "Natürlich bin ich immer noch schön, wisst ihr wieviel Botox wir Backstage haben?" And made such a ridiculous grimace that totally deformed his face and said "Every wrinkle was artificially recreated so that it looks authentic!" He also mentioned his "schöner, durchtrainierter Arsch". Poser, poser, poser. But man, it does look pretty well-toned.

- He was wearing a fringe shirt under his black and white jacket. Now please look at this photo I took: am I the only one who thinks of the film "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"? I could totally see him standing on the roof of a bus singing "I will survive". XD

http://www.doitcomics.net/ljfiles/priscilla_b.jpg

- During the usual "Könnt ihr mich sehen? Könnt ihr mich hören?" he said we couldn't not hear him, because they had spent a lot of money on the audio equipment. He then proceeded to repeat the same question without microphone and of course the crowd screamed again (I could actually hear his voice, he was standing quite close) and he commented "Shit, we spend too much money on it!" XD


All right, I guess that's enough for now, I'll try and get some sleep. Rambling Report(TM) about Leipzig and Berlin as well as photos will be posted soon.

Rambling Report Part 2: Leipzig and Berlin

You know what? LJ is actually not blocked. But I don't want to risk it, I'll just post this and log off.

So, here's the second part of my Rambling Report(TM). I'll upload pictures tomorrow.


8th December, Leipzig


- I had to take the train from Hamburg to Hannover and from there to Leipzig, but the first one was late and I thought I would miss the connection. Luckily the second train was late too. Danke, Deutsche Bahn!

- At Leipzig Hauptbahnhof I met up with slash_kitten; we took a walk around the Christmas market, she bought me Apfelglühwein (danke nochmal ♥) and then, since the weather was kinda crappy, we ended up in a Starbucks and just chatted until I checked my watch and found out it was already 4:45 PM and I still had to go to the hostel, check in etc.

- The hostel was an A&O, but it was completely different from the one in Hamburg: the foyer looked like the one of a 4-star hotel and the room was great. If you ever need a hostel in Leipzig, go there.

- I arrived at the venue at 6:20 PM and there was an actual orderly queue! At first I thought "So much for trying to sneak to the front", but I quickly realised people would never stay in line when the doors would open and I was right: the line was sort of L-shaped and once the security opened the door, everyone rushed to the front. Final result: second row between Holly and Bela. *thumbs up*

- Bela's way to make the audience cheer louder: "Ick bin Berliner, ick bin besser jewohnt!"

- Bela's trousers were a bit too big and kept slipping down. No silver thong this time, just plain black underwear. Boring! ;)

- After Holly's "Keiner versteht mich, Leipzig!" Bela commented "Keiner versteht dich in Leipzig? Für dich ist das Glas immer halbleer, oder? Du spielst auf dieser Bühne, mit dieser großartigen Band und gestern hat Gary sogar Oralsex im Tourbus angeboten!" Or something along those lines. The audience then screamed to prove that, ja, wir verstehen dich, Holly, and Bela introduced "Was ist nur los" saying "Alle verstehen Holly, aber ich verstehe die Frauen." And went on saying he had been described as "Punk womanizer" or something and added "Well, it's true". Did I mention he's a total poser? :P (Actually, I'm not sure if he said this in Leipzig or somewhere else, but whatever.)

- Then it was Olsen's turn to become the target of Bela's jokes. Bela: "Ich bin ein Mann der Wörter, Olsen ist ein Mann des Penises." At that Olsen made such a funny face, you could virtually see a big WTF speech bubble above his head. Bela then went on saying Olsen has a big dick but "er kommt nach anderthalb Sekunden". Care to explain how you found out? XD

- The Bobotanz Ansage was about music for "Bumsenmachen". Danny said "Of course if you're Bela fans you would play The Beatles!" At that Bela collapsed on the floor and Danny said "Oh no, sorry, I meant...*insert band I can't remember here* or... Die Ärzte!" and Bela just burst out laughing. After the song Danny said Bela is the biggest bobo of all. And he's kinda right, you know. ;)

- After the concert I caught a glimpse of Schwarwel chatting with the techs at the mixer. Yay, celebrity spotting! XD


9th December, Berlin


- The first thing I did when I got home was taking out my combat boots (they're great if you need to keep your feet dry, but after 4 days I couldn't feel my toes anymore); then I took a long, warm bath and finally ate some decent food. I think I've never loved pasta as much as I did in that moment. :P

- There was another Italian fan at the concert, she had come from Rome to see it and it was her first Bela gig, so we decided to try and get to the front, because a) she's not so tall and wanted to be sure she would be able to see him and b) I was in a "front row mood", you know, to celebrate the last show. We met in front of the venue around 15:30, which is early for a Bela concert, especially in winter. There were already people waiting, but we got to the front row with no problem, in a nice spot on the left side. We wanted to shout something silly in Italian, but in the end we only sang along to "Dracula chachacha", since we were probably the only two people in the audience who could understand the (very silly) lyrics. ;)

- Of course the one time I'm in the front row, they have cameras recording the show and photographers taking tons pictures of the audience everywhere. I'm sure I'll end up in a photo looking ridiculous. D'oh.

- And, since they were recording the concert, Bela had to forget the lyrics of a few songs. He even played the first few verses of "Satan, Gott und das Glück" and then started it again from the beginning. And apropos "Satan, Gott und das Glück", Holly did a bit of moonwalking before it and ended up stomping Gary's guitar pedals and messing up all the settings. Well done, guys! XD

- Bela's introduction to "Was ist nur los" was "Frauen, ich verstehe euch, Alter!" So charming. XD

- Bela mentioned "Rodrigo Gonzalez ist hier" and when the audience wasn't loud enough before "1. 2. 3..." he said "Rod schläft grade im Backstage ein!" I think he may have mentioned Farin as well, but I can't really remember if/when/where.

- The audience started clapping in time at one point and either Bela or Olsen commented: "Berliners are very good at clapping. And they keep the beat!" And then I'm sure it was Bela who said "Too many Peter Fox concerts?" And Olsen replied "Or Die Ärzte?"

- Danny's introduction for Bobotanz was in German this time, even if he said "People who know me know my German is Scheiße!" After the song Bela made various Bezirke scream; he started with the Prenzelbergers, of course, then with Kreuzberg, then Spandau (he pointed at the guestlist area where his family was) and, finally, Neukölln. Neukölln, Alter!

- And after the Bobotanz we got... the Homo dance, featuring Alexander Marcus. No comment. XD

- We got a lot of football jokes as well, mainly about Hertha-BSC and aimed at Olsen and Gary, who were not amused. ;)

- After "Gitarre runter" all the band (except from Holly, who was busy checking something) knelt down in front of Olsen and worshipped him while he played his solo.

- Towards the end of the concert I caught a glimpse of Rod standing at the right side of the stage. When it was over, darth_funk came to me and said "OMG Rod is standing just in front of us!" HAHA, who cares about Bela when you can see Rod? ;)

- After the concert I also caught a glimpse of Frank Z (Maike, you're right, he's really short!) and saw Gary and Holly hanging around chatting with some friends. Danny was there too, but just for two minutes, then he went backstage with his girlfriend. I was tempted to go to Holly and just thank him for the great concerts (yes, I'm a total Holly fan, how did you guess), but in the end I didn't. There wasn't the same laid-back atmosphere from the last tour, when the band used to hang around and chat with fans after the shows. And he was talking to some people anyway, I didn't want to bother him.


So, that's it. Bela's going to play a few festivals next summer (and maybe a couple of warm-up gigs like they did in 2007?), but it's way too early to think about it, I don't even know where I'll be by that time. But even if I go back to Italy, the central week of August is the traditional holiday week for us, so going to at least one festival shouldn't be a problem. I'd prefer a normal gig, though.

Man, I can't believe the tour is already over.