Concert review Bonn (June 29th, 2005)
I'm back from a very enjoyable concert experience in Bonn and half a day spent on the road due to some storm damage. Apart from that, the trip went smoothly and I arrived safely at the Museumsmeile at around 4PM (opening was at 6PM). To my surprise, there were not very many people already in queue (at least compared to last year, where I was earlier and had to wait over 300m further down the street). I produced my self-inflatable pillow (v. useful invention ;)) and sat down on the ground, prepared not to move the next 2 hours. However when the sound check started and we could hear new songs already, one of the security guards showed some sympathy with us mad fans and opened a gate a tiny bit so we could see the band already :) - of course I got up for that.
In fact the sound check seemed to last forever, which was fine by us all since it meant waiting was a bit less boring that way. Around 6PM, they opened the gates and fans started streaming in. I was too late for anything even remotely front-line, so I took position left off the stage in front of the first barrier. Later on I was happy to have something to lean against to.
After another hour or so the support act came on stage, which in this case was only a female singer and an acoustic guitar player: they were called "Nele (& non-existent band)". Though she was talented, no one wants to listen to the support act for very long and I'm sad to say some fans started booing after a few songs (common courtesy, hello?!). Anyway, by 8PM the Corrs finally came on stage, opening the concert with the classic "Only When I Sleep".
Two more songs and Andrea started her usual introduction in German. She kept on saying "Sie" instead of "du" which is kind of cute (and probably only understandable for somebody German *g*), plus "Es regnet" (="It rains"), which in fact it did because right then a thunder storm rolled over the city. Since the stage and most of the audience area were roofed, we mostly stayed dry, there were just some gusts of rain sometimes.
Right after the introduction, Andrea messed up a verse in "What Can I Do", prompting her to modify the line "And who knows I might feel better / If I don't try and I don't hope" to "And who knows I might feel better / If I don't try and I don't sing" ;). Apart from that, no more funny mess-ups this night, just plain good ol' Corrs stuff.
And new stuff, too! They played an instrumental I hadn't heard before which I'm told is called "Old Hag" (:huh:), and three new songs from their upcoming album "Home": "My Lagan Love" (when Andrea announced that, I first understood "My Love Life" :D), "Heart Like A Wheel" and "Black Is The Colour". Needless to say they were all very, very beautiful and made the concert even more worthwhile.
Andrea of course was a presence on stage as always, and we all were cheering her on extra hard when she put on the hat you see on the photo above: fans threw it on the stage, it had a photo of her saying "My Fans (heart) love me" and various other gimmicks. Actually it was rather funny seeing Andrea peering through the sequined border of the hat LOL.
Opposed to that, Caroline seemed a tad unnerved at being stuck behind the bongos, doing especially in the first half seldomly more than shaking a shaker (=percussion instrument of which I don't know the name ;)). However this changed when she played the bodhran in front of the stage and the crowd cheered like mad for her, chanting her name (in French pronunciation, though ;)). When Andrea introduced her in the end, she was (don't know the correct word for it) shaking her cleavage (?) at us, I guess she was happy ;).
I saw very little of Jim because he was on the other side of the stage, but I caught a glimpse of a feather boa in the Irish colours, and he seemed to enjoy himself :). From God knows where he produced a bag of confetti towards the end and threw it on the huge drums Caroline was playing during "Toss The Feathers", it looked splendifferous :).
This time, I had placed myself on Sharon's side of the stage so I could see her properly, and I wasn't disappointed. She had a "Lansdowne Road"-problem most of the time: and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read this.
All in all, the concert was great, with a well chosen set, good looking band (all in black and all looking fab) and great atmosphere. Only complaint is that it could have been a bit longer, it was over far too fast after roughly two hours.
Set list:
- Only When I Sleep
- Dreams
- Angel
- What Can I Do
- Forgiven Not Forgotten
- Runaway
- Old Hag
- My Lagan Love
- No Frontiers
- Heart Like A Wheel
- Black Is The Colour
- Queen Of Hollywood
- Radio
- Summer Sunshine
- So Young
- I Never Loved You Anyway
- Goodbye
- Breathless
- Toss The Feathers