2016 Stuttgart Porsche Arena 29.Nov.
Nov 30, 2016 9:07:57 GMT
mortified, smokie, and 2 more like this
Post by snakelady on Nov 30, 2016 9:07:57 GMT
As some of you may have noticed yesterday - we left a little late .. :lolflg:
Prior to it all I had explained to hubby that with two support acts the gig would start earlier than usual, doors opening at 6pm accordingly and that we better leave at 4.30pm the latest. In that case we'd have made it just in time. Knowing him I should've said 4pm max. .. He did arrive around 5.20 and with me and the boys ready to go and provisions and beverages packed already it merely took him two minutes to change - plus another 10 to find the tickets.
So when we finally set out we were aware that we might not see the whole set from the accordion trio. None of us was too fussed about that though. We had already seen them at the Hessentag in May (see Herborn gig report) and the impression they had left on all of us was a 'to be avoided if possible'. After about 15min. we had to pass Karlsruhe and fate struck for the first time. The highway that bypasses Karlsruhe on the south side was suddenly crammed with traffic. The traffic jam started right behind an exit, knowing my way around the area, the second I noticed it I screamed 'out ! Here ! Now !' twice .. and then hubby parked the car behind the others ..
A quarter of an hour and 500m later we left the highway at the next exit.The drive through the suburbs didn't cost much and we finally reached the autobahn to Stuttgart from the south. Fast forward to Stuttgart where we changed to the B10 - a similar bypass highway as in Karlsruhe - this time in the north of the city and followed it. We knew it would lead us till near the venue and the parking area and usually traffic is heavy, but still flowing freely. Not yesterday though. The moment our three lanes were reduced to two we were stuck in a traffic jam yet again. So we crawled along, but still none too worried with us fully expecting to soon reach the venue. And then fate struck again. One of those flexible traffic signs where messages to drivers can be passe on suddenly showed 'Status Quo' plus an arrow to the right lane and next exit. Without thinking .. always a big mistake .. we followed it. No idea what the thought behind it had been - to maybe offer those, who'd have bypassed the beauties of the city a thorough tour along its beauties :dunce: - because that's what it did. In consequence the atmosphere in the car became rather dense with us starting to doubt whether we'd make it in time for Heep. At least I now know what the fuss with Stuttgart 21 is about (that's what the hippies you saw were demonstrating against, Billy) - which is one huge construction site with the goal to turn the Stuttgart main station into an underground one. It did cost the then CDU state governor his job back then (the Greens are building it now ) and us our nerves yesterday. At least there weren't any queues anywhere anymore - neither at the car park entrance nor at the venue itself.
Inside my sons wanted to first take a good look at the merch. That's when we heard a familiar noise that suspiciously sounded like Gipsy and realised that Heep were already playing. So we rushed to the wardrobe handed over the warm stuff and finally entered a already well filled Arena. People were standing in loose groups though, so we were able to make our way to a free area on the left hand side relatively close to the stage. It can't have been that far away from the barrier that separated the golden circle. We didn't dare move any further as my men are tall - really tall - and would block the view of most everybody who isn't basketball player size. We enjoyed the rest of Gipsy and when Bernie Shaw greeted Stuttgart afterwards we assumed we hadn't missed much. The Heep stage layout was quite nice, with the green, blue and violett lights and the band played really well including some favourites of mine like Stealing, Sunrise or July Morning, while Bernie kept entertaining and animating the crowd half in German, half in English. They played till 7.30pm, told us they'd return the next year and left the stage to well earned applause.
Then the Quo crew took over and efficiently as always set the stage for the main act. 8.45pm came and passed and so did 9pm. That's when I realised that this wasn't the same Stuttgart crowd as usual. Nobody started to sing any Quo chants, nobody even whistled - everybody simply stood there chatting away happily with their neighbours .. very strange. You can't say they weren't Quo fans - everybody cheered and clapped and did what the band wanted them to do throughout. Many were dancing and headbanging - an elderly guy right in front of me even collapsed after Hold You Back and was carried away by helpful punters and medical staff. Only they did not sing. The only time we got the Quo-oh-ho-ho chant going was during the quiet bit in ROLD.
Guess that's one of the reasons why the band didn't hang around that long after the encore. Francis didn't talk too much either - just kept wondering why all German audiences go aww and less than enthusiastic every time he mentions Bielefeld. It's just one of those cities with a reputation of being hm, let's call it unattractive, Francis.
The band were tight and played really, really well. Like Inna, I just wanted to watch while dancing, to try and preserve it, but the music repeatedly grabbed me in a way I found myself headbanging with eyes closed swept away by the wonderful music. The band sounded so heavy and Francis really put an effort into the solos. ROLD i.e. was simply brilliant, exactly how it should be played. Down Down was another highlight with its 'intro-intro' and the power behind it. The only songs that left me completely cold were WYW, RAOTW and the BBJ snippet. They're not for me anymore.
Francis voice was strong, but I was positively surprised just how good a singer Andy is. He sang his share of Rick's songs perfectly - and what a waste they didn't let him sing all these decades. Yes, his voice is similar in range to Rick's, but maybe Rick's would've held up better had he sung less. Rhino did remarkably well too, considering I don't like his voice. On some songs it did work better than on others though. Ritchie's guitar was lower in the mix than Rick's usually was, but it helped for the solos to be heard better. Generally speaking the whole sound was better than during many Quo tours from previous years - where we were stood it was near perfect.
Something else that deserves mentioning is the lights. Pat marks has definitely found a worthy successor - the light show was simply great ! And another reason I tried to not close my eyes for too long.
So all in all a very enjoyable gig. My only complaint would be the mute audience - how I'd have loved to hear a venue sing Sha-na-na-na hey-hey-hey Status Quo chant one more time.
It didn't feel like a last ever electricgig for me though. I'm shattered this morning, but not sad. Maybe that's because the minute we left the venue I said to hubby 'now get us tickets for Zürich 2018' ! I'm not prepared to accept the finality of it all just yet.
Prior to it all I had explained to hubby that with two support acts the gig would start earlier than usual, doors opening at 6pm accordingly and that we better leave at 4.30pm the latest. In that case we'd have made it just in time. Knowing him I should've said 4pm max. .. He did arrive around 5.20 and with me and the boys ready to go and provisions and beverages packed already it merely took him two minutes to change - plus another 10 to find the tickets.
So when we finally set out we were aware that we might not see the whole set from the accordion trio. None of us was too fussed about that though. We had already seen them at the Hessentag in May (see Herborn gig report) and the impression they had left on all of us was a 'to be avoided if possible'. After about 15min. we had to pass Karlsruhe and fate struck for the first time. The highway that bypasses Karlsruhe on the south side was suddenly crammed with traffic. The traffic jam started right behind an exit, knowing my way around the area, the second I noticed it I screamed 'out ! Here ! Now !' twice .. and then hubby parked the car behind the others ..
A quarter of an hour and 500m later we left the highway at the next exit.The drive through the suburbs didn't cost much and we finally reached the autobahn to Stuttgart from the south. Fast forward to Stuttgart where we changed to the B10 - a similar bypass highway as in Karlsruhe - this time in the north of the city and followed it. We knew it would lead us till near the venue and the parking area and usually traffic is heavy, but still flowing freely. Not yesterday though. The moment our three lanes were reduced to two we were stuck in a traffic jam yet again. So we crawled along, but still none too worried with us fully expecting to soon reach the venue. And then fate struck again. One of those flexible traffic signs where messages to drivers can be passe on suddenly showed 'Status Quo' plus an arrow to the right lane and next exit. Without thinking .. always a big mistake .. we followed it. No idea what the thought behind it had been - to maybe offer those, who'd have bypassed the beauties of the city a thorough tour along its beauties :dunce: - because that's what it did. In consequence the atmosphere in the car became rather dense with us starting to doubt whether we'd make it in time for Heep. At least I now know what the fuss with Stuttgart 21 is about (that's what the hippies you saw were demonstrating against, Billy) - which is one huge construction site with the goal to turn the Stuttgart main station into an underground one. It did cost the then CDU state governor his job back then (the Greens are building it now ) and us our nerves yesterday. At least there weren't any queues anywhere anymore - neither at the car park entrance nor at the venue itself.
Inside my sons wanted to first take a good look at the merch. That's when we heard a familiar noise that suspiciously sounded like Gipsy and realised that Heep were already playing. So we rushed to the wardrobe handed over the warm stuff and finally entered a already well filled Arena. People were standing in loose groups though, so we were able to make our way to a free area on the left hand side relatively close to the stage. It can't have been that far away from the barrier that separated the golden circle. We didn't dare move any further as my men are tall - really tall - and would block the view of most everybody who isn't basketball player size. We enjoyed the rest of Gipsy and when Bernie Shaw greeted Stuttgart afterwards we assumed we hadn't missed much. The Heep stage layout was quite nice, with the green, blue and violett lights and the band played really well including some favourites of mine like Stealing, Sunrise or July Morning, while Bernie kept entertaining and animating the crowd half in German, half in English. They played till 7.30pm, told us they'd return the next year and left the stage to well earned applause.
Then the Quo crew took over and efficiently as always set the stage for the main act. 8.45pm came and passed and so did 9pm. That's when I realised that this wasn't the same Stuttgart crowd as usual. Nobody started to sing any Quo chants, nobody even whistled - everybody simply stood there chatting away happily with their neighbours .. very strange. You can't say they weren't Quo fans - everybody cheered and clapped and did what the band wanted them to do throughout. Many were dancing and headbanging - an elderly guy right in front of me even collapsed after Hold You Back and was carried away by helpful punters and medical staff. Only they did not sing. The only time we got the Quo-oh-ho-ho chant going was during the quiet bit in ROLD.
Guess that's one of the reasons why the band didn't hang around that long after the encore. Francis didn't talk too much either - just kept wondering why all German audiences go aww and less than enthusiastic every time he mentions Bielefeld. It's just one of those cities with a reputation of being hm, let's call it unattractive, Francis.
The band were tight and played really, really well. Like Inna, I just wanted to watch while dancing, to try and preserve it, but the music repeatedly grabbed me in a way I found myself headbanging with eyes closed swept away by the wonderful music. The band sounded so heavy and Francis really put an effort into the solos. ROLD i.e. was simply brilliant, exactly how it should be played. Down Down was another highlight with its 'intro-intro' and the power behind it. The only songs that left me completely cold were WYW, RAOTW and the BBJ snippet. They're not for me anymore.
Francis voice was strong, but I was positively surprised just how good a singer Andy is. He sang his share of Rick's songs perfectly - and what a waste they didn't let him sing all these decades. Yes, his voice is similar in range to Rick's, but maybe Rick's would've held up better had he sung less. Rhino did remarkably well too, considering I don't like his voice. On some songs it did work better than on others though. Ritchie's guitar was lower in the mix than Rick's usually was, but it helped for the solos to be heard better. Generally speaking the whole sound was better than during many Quo tours from previous years - where we were stood it was near perfect.
Something else that deserves mentioning is the lights. Pat marks has definitely found a worthy successor - the light show was simply great ! And another reason I tried to not close my eyes for too long.
So all in all a very enjoyable gig. My only complaint would be the mute audience - how I'd have loved to hear a venue sing Sha-na-na-na hey-hey-hey Status Quo chant one more time.
It didn't feel like a last ever electricgig for me though. I'm shattered this morning, but not sad. Maybe that's because the minute we left the venue I said to hubby 'now get us tickets for Zürich 2018' ! I'm not prepared to accept the finality of it all just yet.