Post by MetroiD on Jul 3, 2005 1:59:11 GMT
I've just come back from the Live8 concert here in Berlin and I wanted to ask if any of you had the chance to visit one of the gigs in any part of the world... It was simply amazing, nine concerts at the same time in the entire planet, for one cause, and being a part of it was something... fabulous!
Well here's how things went in Berlin on 2. July... The show kicked off some time after 2pm with German bands such as Die Toten Hosen, Soehne Mannheims und BAP - and they TOTALLY sucked, as I heard lately. I was there at about 3:30pm and I just caught Audioslave - they did great, but the audience was sooo bored . Well, making my way through the hordes of people in order to get closer to where the action is, I couldn't help but notice that the 17.June boulevard in the midst of Tiergarten was TOTALLY packed, and I thought I hardly stood a chance to get where I wanted to be - in front of the stage, of course . So I got stuck in a pile of drunk punks who started jumping around to Green Day (which didn't make too much of an impact either, apart from the drunken fellas), one of them almost threw up all over me (ew... luckily, my guardian angel is still watching over me ... ), so I figured it would be better to take measures and push my way forward. Btw... did I forget to say that I was TOTALLY alone... all of my friends had better things to do (BETTER things to do than take part in a FREE concert that will make history?!?!?!?), which is a polite way to say - they had ABSOLUTELY no idea what it was all about, or didn't care too much. A crying shame, really, but well, I couldn't possibly miss it, even if I had to be all on my own. So there I was searching for a place to fit in and slowly making my way forward, and all of a sudden I noticed a pack of guys who were singing and dancing along to REM, so I thought, that's where I'm heading. They were totally friendly and instantly joined me to the group; from then on I had a blast, not to mention that we were almost in front of the stage, we could see what was going on AND one of the two moving cameras was constantly flying above/around us... so I figure we'd got quite some air time, bearing in mind that the operator noticed we were totally rocking over there .
As to the concert itself, well after the lazy start Audioslave and Green Day managed to cheer thing up a bit, and the good thing was that we had direct live transmissions from London and Philly as well, so it was sure fun... Chris De Burgh tried to kill the party with his Lady in Red (well, I've nothing against the ol' fella, I just don't think THAT was the song to sing on such an occasion), but then came along Brian Wilson (ex-Beach Boys) and brought along all the good vibrations... Live from London - Snoop Dogg and Madonna - and Will Smith from Philly, and the party was definitely pumping. Then came along Sasha with his summer hits, and Reamonn (a bit of U2 flavour in good ol' Berlin), but we were all waiting for one band to show up - A-ha... No wonder we kept shouting "Morty, Morty" all the time - the guys showed up with quite SOME delay, but at least it was totally worth it. A-ha were by far the best band in the Berlin concert - and I don't just say it because they were my personal favourites there. After them followed a bit more boredom, the perfect time to fetch sth to drink - but there was still Faithless to look forward to and they didn't disappoint - "We Come One" was a unique experience... The end of the day (or the beginning of the new one) was marked by local hero Herbert Groenemeyer (whose songs I'd never EVER heard before, so I felt a bit out of place when everybody started singing along around me). However, I'd had quite a blast myself watching the live transmissions from London and singing along to Sting and Robbie Williams (from what I saw, Robbie just ROCKED Hyde Park). So, at the very end of it, almost 1 am, after 9+ hours of non-stop rocking , I was finally heading home with some memories that I'll never forget, AND the feeling that I was a part of sth that made history there.
By the way, at one moment the whole crowd started clapping along (I think was to one of Groenemeyer's songs) and I found it totally unique, because we all clapped in the same rhythm for more than a minute. Not any delay, just perfect synchronization - and you all know how hard that is to happen at a concert. Now imagine THAT done by 250,000+ people, and try to imagine the sound. I stood there totally awed, it was something amazing to me.
And -yeah- it was really packed in Tiergarten, more than 250,000 had crowded on the boulevard leading from the Siegessaule to Brandenburg Gate and were taking part in the concert, but hundreds of thousands more had flooded the park itself and were also having fun... I think at the end of the day the concert was a total success, even though the bands were not THAT big. And to be honest, I feel a bit disappointed that I couldn't catch the London Live8 gig, because that would have been the concert of a lifetime... With Sting, REM, U2, UB40, Elton John, Robbie Williams, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Dido, Travis & Sir McCartney... WOW! Erm, did anyone of you get the chance to take part in the Hyde Park show? I hear there was a strange ticket system over there in London for the gig - in Berlin it was totally free... but I still believe there were more than 200,000+ gathered in London too... Any reviews? ;D
Well here's how things went in Berlin on 2. July... The show kicked off some time after 2pm with German bands such as Die Toten Hosen, Soehne Mannheims und BAP - and they TOTALLY sucked, as I heard lately. I was there at about 3:30pm and I just caught Audioslave - they did great, but the audience was sooo bored . Well, making my way through the hordes of people in order to get closer to where the action is, I couldn't help but notice that the 17.June boulevard in the midst of Tiergarten was TOTALLY packed, and I thought I hardly stood a chance to get where I wanted to be - in front of the stage, of course . So I got stuck in a pile of drunk punks who started jumping around to Green Day (which didn't make too much of an impact either, apart from the drunken fellas), one of them almost threw up all over me (ew... luckily, my guardian angel is still watching over me ... ), so I figured it would be better to take measures and push my way forward. Btw... did I forget to say that I was TOTALLY alone... all of my friends had better things to do (BETTER things to do than take part in a FREE concert that will make history?!?!?!?), which is a polite way to say - they had ABSOLUTELY no idea what it was all about, or didn't care too much. A crying shame, really, but well, I couldn't possibly miss it, even if I had to be all on my own. So there I was searching for a place to fit in and slowly making my way forward, and all of a sudden I noticed a pack of guys who were singing and dancing along to REM, so I thought, that's where I'm heading. They were totally friendly and instantly joined me to the group; from then on I had a blast, not to mention that we were almost in front of the stage, we could see what was going on AND one of the two moving cameras was constantly flying above/around us... so I figure we'd got quite some air time, bearing in mind that the operator noticed we were totally rocking over there .
As to the concert itself, well after the lazy start Audioslave and Green Day managed to cheer thing up a bit, and the good thing was that we had direct live transmissions from London and Philly as well, so it was sure fun... Chris De Burgh tried to kill the party with his Lady in Red (well, I've nothing against the ol' fella, I just don't think THAT was the song to sing on such an occasion), but then came along Brian Wilson (ex-Beach Boys) and brought along all the good vibrations... Live from London - Snoop Dogg and Madonna - and Will Smith from Philly, and the party was definitely pumping. Then came along Sasha with his summer hits, and Reamonn (a bit of U2 flavour in good ol' Berlin), but we were all waiting for one band to show up - A-ha... No wonder we kept shouting "Morty, Morty" all the time - the guys showed up with quite SOME delay, but at least it was totally worth it. A-ha were by far the best band in the Berlin concert - and I don't just say it because they were my personal favourites there. After them followed a bit more boredom, the perfect time to fetch sth to drink - but there was still Faithless to look forward to and they didn't disappoint - "We Come One" was a unique experience... The end of the day (or the beginning of the new one) was marked by local hero Herbert Groenemeyer (whose songs I'd never EVER heard before, so I felt a bit out of place when everybody started singing along around me). However, I'd had quite a blast myself watching the live transmissions from London and singing along to Sting and Robbie Williams (from what I saw, Robbie just ROCKED Hyde Park). So, at the very end of it, almost 1 am, after 9+ hours of non-stop rocking , I was finally heading home with some memories that I'll never forget, AND the feeling that I was a part of sth that made history there.
By the way, at one moment the whole crowd started clapping along (I think was to one of Groenemeyer's songs) and I found it totally unique, because we all clapped in the same rhythm for more than a minute. Not any delay, just perfect synchronization - and you all know how hard that is to happen at a concert. Now imagine THAT done by 250,000+ people, and try to imagine the sound. I stood there totally awed, it was something amazing to me.
And -yeah- it was really packed in Tiergarten, more than 250,000 had crowded on the boulevard leading from the Siegessaule to Brandenburg Gate and were taking part in the concert, but hundreds of thousands more had flooded the park itself and were also having fun... I think at the end of the day the concert was a total success, even though the bands were not THAT big. And to be honest, I feel a bit disappointed that I couldn't catch the London Live8 gig, because that would have been the concert of a lifetime... With Sting, REM, U2, UB40, Elton John, Robbie Williams, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Dido, Travis & Sir McCartney... WOW! Erm, did anyone of you get the chance to take part in the Hyde Park show? I hear there was a strange ticket system over there in London for the gig - in Berlin it was totally free... but I still believe there were more than 200,000+ gathered in London too... Any reviews? ;D