***Berlin Fanviews Here 23/09/06***

The Berlin show holds a special place in my heart, up there with MSG II and Boston III in 2003, and the Grand Rapids VFC show in 2004. Berlin was my last show of this Euro tour after going to Arnhem, Barcelona, Marseille, and Prague. I also left the show with Jeff's wristband.

Since we were in Prague the night before, the trek to Berlin was a hard one. Traveling from Prague to Berlin by car is hard enough after a full night's sleep, but it was cool to drive through small Czech towns.

Our worry was not getting a good spot in the 10C entry line. We knew that the line can get long in the early afternoon. We got to Wuhhleide around 3 pm and figured there'd be 100 TCers ahead of us. Turns out there were maybe 25. Of course this grew as time went on, since many people decided to make the line wider instead of building the line backwards. Once we were let in, it was a little uphill jog (most people were friendly and walked) up a hill to the arena, then a quick stroll down the seating area to the pit.

We got great seats in the pit between Stone and Eddie, one person behind the barrier.

The weather was absolutely perfect all night.

We thought The Black Keys were the second best opening band we saw on the tour behind Wolfmother. They've got a bluesy rock sound. Also nice to see that they weren't in love with being rock stars.

We were hoping the show would start with a fast opener, since that wasn't common during the shows we've seen this tour. Go was the perfect choice.

Do The Evolution got everyone moving. Nice to hear Rearviewmirror early in setlists again, and without the long solo.

As everyone has mentioned, Eddie spoke a lot of broken German. The crowd loved it.

We laughed when Eddie forgot to introduce Jeff during the show (he also forgot Jeff in Prague). Then a Jeff chant started and Eddie realized his mistake. When this happened in Berlin, we saw Jeff tell Matt that this was the fourth time Eddie had forgotten him. Eddie then grabbed his jewels (truely) and mentioned something about Jeff playing bass (base).

Present Tense, Big Wave, Grievance, and Green Disease were nice surprises before the 1st encore.

Eddie gave a thoughtful speech about Johnny Ramone before Come Back, and I Believe in Miracles was a great and appropriate follow-up.

Eddie's voice shined in Footsteps. Sometimes it seems that his voice doesn't hold up as well anymore on the harder stuff, but it can still command a song like Footsteps.

My greatest thrill was catching Jeff's wristband at the end of the first set, I believe. It's a red wristband with his initials on it. Later that night I drained all the sweat off it and lathered myself in his juices. Seriously, after getting an Eddie pick in Prague the night before--this after not getting any cool band stuff at any previous show--this was icing on the cake.

In summary, the crowd was great at this show (the end of Black was just like the ending of Black in Marseille, and the crowd started a hypnotic chanting sound to summon the band back out after the first set and encore), the weather was perfect, and the band really seemed to have a connection to the music, arena, and crowd, even commenting that on this night, the Berlin crowd was singing better than the Italians.

Thanks to the band for a special night and to the 10C for a well-run tour!

Hey mates,

downloaded the boot yesterday and got stuck in a traffic jam this morning... Good opportunity to listen to the first part up to the first break...

Eddi talkin German... How cool is that? Just beautiful... Goosebumbs and tears in my eyes... What a great contribution to their fans standing there and thanking them in the peoples mother tongue...

Comparing to the Bern concert I've been to, I like the setlist... Got some of my fav songs that they did not play in Bern.

Also listening to the Bern boot, you can hear the croud in Bern better. But I think thats just because Bern was indoor and Berlin outdoor.

Anyhow.. Would have loved to be there!

Cheers

M

Nickrand wrote:

The Berlin show holds a special place in my heart, up there with MSG II and Boston III in 2003, and the Grand Rapids VFC show in 2004. Berlin was my last show of this Euro tour after going to Arnhem, Barcelona, Marseille, and Prague. I also left the show with Jeff's wristband.

Since we were in Prague the night before, the trek to Berlin was a hard one. Traveling from Prague to Berlin by car is hard enough after a full night's sleep, but it was cool to drive through small Czech towns.

Yeah, that was a great trip! I loved Czechia and the views, even though we were in such a hurry and it took quite some hours. The girls prostituting themselves near the border were a very sad sight, I think. So much contrast: they on a dark road in the woods and us driving by on our way to a concert. It made me feel pretty sad.

Nickrand wrote:

Our worry was not getting a good spot in the 10C entry line. We knew that the line can get long in the early afternoon. We got to Wuhhleide around 3 pm and figured there'd be 100 TCers ahead of us. Turns out there were maybe 25. Of course this grew as time went on, since many people decided to make the line wider instead of building the line backwards. Once we were let in, it was a little uphill jog (most people were friendly and walked) up a hill to the arena, then a quick stroll down the seating area to the pit.

We were about an hour and a half later than you since we both got sick and decided to leave Prague a bit later. We did not have Ten Club tickets so there was no hurry. Still, everything went wrong when we arrived: the hotel right accross the road, that I booked many months ago, had given away our room :(. So, instead of going to the venue we had to find another hotel they found for us. That took us more than an hour so we arrived at the venue around 5:30 or later. We could only find one line and that was a ridiculous one: it did barely move. We ended up missing the whole Black Keys set while standing in that same lame row. When I asked the security about it I got a non answer like 'we have to check everybody'. Fortunately we were still in time for Pearl Jam, but I was not really excited anymore, after all this.

Nickrand wrote:

We got great seats in the pit between Stone and Eddie, one person behind the barrier.

The weather was absolutely perfect all night.

Yes it was . We tried the right side of the stage first, seats, but the sound there was horrible. Then we showed our green Bern wristbands to the security and they let us into the front . Many of our friends were there and the ones from the front just left the front because it was a bit too rough there. So we were all together then .

Nickrand wrote:

We thought The Black Keys were the second best opening band we saw on the tour behind Wolfmother. They've got a bluesy rock sound. Also nice to see that they weren't in love with being rock stars.

I'll go and see them in Amsterdam tonight, since we missed them in Berlin (twice, tried to go to the night concert too but by then we were so tired we gave up searching).

Nickrand wrote:

We were hoping the show would start with a fast opener, since that wasn't common during the shows we've seen this tour. Go was the perfect choice.

haha, for us it was not. Even though some of the best shows had Go for an opener, they did it too often. So, before it started one of my friends had already said "if they start with Go again, I'm out" .

Nickrand wrote:

Do The Evolution got everyone moving. Nice to hear Rearviewmirror early in setlists again, and without the long solo.

As everyone has mentioned, Eddie spoke a lot of broken German. The crowd loved it.

it's a trick :P

Nickrand wrote:

We laughed when Eddie forgot to introduce Jeff during the show (he also forgot Jeff in Prague). Then a Jeff chant started and Eddie realized his mistake. When this happened in Berlin, we saw Jeff tell Matt that this was the fourth time Eddie had forgotten him. Eddie then grabbed his jewels (truely) and mentioned something about Jeff playing bass (base).

That was a nice Jeff chant we had there!

Nickrand wrote:

Present Tense, Big Wave, Grievance, and Green Disease were nice surprises before the 1st encore.

Eddie gave a thoughtful speech about Johnny Ramone before Come Back, and I Believe in Miracles was a great and appropriate follow-up.

I also loved that Today your love, tomorrow the world piece right before Come Back.

Nickrand wrote:

Eddie's voice shined in Footsteps. Sometimes it seems that his voice doesn't hold up as well anymore on the harder stuff, but it can still command a song like Footsteps.

My greatest thrill was catching Jeff's wristband at the end of the first set, I believe. It's a red wristband with his initials on it. Later that night I drained all the sweat off it and lathered myself in his juices. Seriously, after getting an Eddie pick in Prague the night before--this after not getting any cool band stuff at any previous show--this was icing on the cake.

I gave up on catching things after being skipped on purpose by that security guy JK in Bern. It made me cry, not because of the stupid plastic thingy aka Mike's guitar pic, but because someone could be so mean. People wanted to give me theirs but it's not the same, ofcourse.

Nickrand wrote:

In summary, the crowd was great at this show (the end of Black was just like the ending of Black in Marseille, and the crowd started a hypnotic chanting sound to summon the band back out after the first set and encore), the weather was perfect, and the band really seemed to have a connection to the music, arena, and crowd, even commenting that on this night, the Berlin crowd was singing better than the Italians.

Thanks to the band for a special night and to the 10C for a well-run tour!

For me there was no real connection with the band and the music in Berlin, so I did not like it as much as most people did. I heard they even wrote 'short version' on the setlist after Alive, so if that's true, that more or less confirms my feeling they were kinda tired/lazy for Berlin. That's also why I did not think the 'you sing better than the Italians' was sincere. It was nice, ofcourse, but not really true. A boy behind me song something about a bodyguard in the Crazy Mary lyrics, with a fat German accent: that was funny.
Anyway, I'm glad most people loved this one, but I could have skipped Berlin this time.

groetjes,
Mirella

Sorry, but I don't feel guilty towards anyone. You don't know me or how I made it in the first place, and I'm just as well entitled to be negative as anyone else is to be positive. I'm just honest. And I'm not even that negative in the message above, imo.
Take it or leave it but don't start about disrespect or I could write a 100 pages paper about the past tour in that regard...
And I waited 5 years (went to the USA 1.5 years after Roskilde) just like anyone else (why the ^&#( am I defending myself here??)

groetjes,
Mirella

Mirella wrote:

Sorry, but I don't feel guilty towards anyone. You don't know me or how I made it in the first place, and I'm just as well entitled to be negative as anyone else is to be positive. I'm just honest. And I'm not even that negative in the message above, imo.
Take it or leave it but don't start about disrespect or I could write a 100 pages paper about the past tour in that regard...
And I waited 5 years (went to the USA 1.5 years after Roskilde) just like anyone else (why the ^&#( am I defending myself here??)

groetjes,
Mirella

Heya Mirella...you're from the dutch ramblings board if i'm right...LOL...well everybody has it own good and bad stuff to say so feel free to do so...if they like it or not...there always be things someone likes and someone dislike but HEY thats life....i had this with the Antwerp gig it was my first but not the best because we had shitty standing places i could not get into the show as i jused to do when i go to a concert...the audience was great do...in Berlin we had mutch better standing places at the side so i gave me a 100 %...LOL...me going all nuts and husband was looking at me like WTF is she doing........

Mirella wrote:

thanks! Yes, that's me too on Dutch Ramblings. I think concerts are very personal; it's not just the band and the setlist but also the other people, the venue, your spot, the opening band, the waiting line, and much more. In Berlin I was tired and sick and delayed. In time only I guess my experience was only half of what it was supposed to be. Part of the 'problem' is also that this was the one concert I was so much looking forward to. Many friends from many countries (including Germany, ofcourse) were there that night, most for their last concert of the tour.

groetjes,
Mirella

Your verry welcome...and yes it's a personal thing...but the only thing that matters is we ALL love PJ no matter what..

Sonja

Hello!!!

Me and my friends are searching for a recording of Lukin (Berlin)????

Kisses

I have to agree with Jocke that the setlist was great! I don't understand people who actually can even say that it was a weak one. I've listened the bootleg for about 10 times now and I still ain't bored with it. It was a surprise how loud the audience actually were. Specially in Animal, Evenflow, Why go home and of course the end of Black...

Personally this was my first PJ gig (been waiting for them to travel to Finland... :-D) and the venue was perfect. Looking forward to see next summers list of bands in Wuhlheide.

Thanks for everybody who were there! With PJ, you guys made such a good atmosphere for the gig.

Cheers!
ps. My wishlist: Pearl Jam to perform in Finland......

zaki wrote:

Check out:

http://www.sonja-niemeier.com/pageID_3751417.html

my girl made this pics from the photo pit!!!

please leave a message in the guestbook if u like the pics.

Zaki

Someone posted the link here before ...those are great pictures btw..i also was at the gig in Berlin...

omniscient wrote:

Who said so?!!!!!Weak?Gosh,some people LOVE complaining..This concert was UNBELIEVABLE!!!I LOVED it!!!

It was somewhere in the start of this thread... Some people are hard to please. ;-)