Sept 21: Review from Petr Mrna
It all started on Friday Sep 11th in the evening. I packed my stuff and logged to irc to tell everyone that I am leaving for DM show tomorrow and to show how excited I am :) Then I went to bed though I couldn’t sleep well. On Saturday I woke up at 6am and went to railway station. After long and boring traveling I ended in Prague – the most beautiful town in world :) I was staying at my friend, so we went there and I left my luggage there. I was expecting a call from Ross – American BONGster who was in prague with his gf Amy + friend Patricia for dM show too. We arranged meeting on Vaclavske Namesti – a well known place in Prague. I also called some internet slovak friends who were in Prague in that time too. Unfortunately Ross somehow didnt make it to our meeting point so I went with those slovaks for a drink.
Next 2 days I spent just with walking around Prague and I also checked Sport Hall – the concert venue. I was there on Sunday, and Iron Maiden played there at that time. On Monday evening I met one guy from czechoslovak dm mailing list and he burned me some cd’s. At the time when I was there he got call from friend that DM just arrived to Prague. We also downloaded 2 live mp3 from dm show in Copenhagen. Well, we were pretty excited :-) After I returned to my friend I found there another 3 ppl dressed in black sleeping on the floor. It turned out that they are also his friends and they live near to my town in slovakia. What a coincidence :-)
Tuesday – that was THE day. We left my friend’s flat in the morning and headed to the city center. I should finally meet Ross on Staromestske namesti. Unfortunately the weather pretty sucked and it was quite cold and rainig. Fortunately we met and exchanged some stuff. After this I hurried to metro station Florenc where I had meeting with Honza Pojer – member of czechoslovak dm mailing list, and who was our driver on next 3 dm shows. I met him, his friend Libor + one girl. He had videocamera so we drove to the Sport hall and took some shots. After long ramble (which meant to be shortcut originaly :-) we got to the city center where should meeting of dm fans take place. Unfortunately it was raining so there wasnt too many people. Except some polish fans there was only hardcore of our mailing list. I finaly met those guys personaly. From foreign BONGsters there was Harvey from UK, Dalia from Latvia and Ross from USA. We took some shots on video and started to move to the sport hall. We picked some more ppl, gave the videocamera to the car and finnaly moved to the Sport Hall. There was already a large crowd in front of the gate trying to get in. A lot of fans were just standing around. Waiting was quite ok except damn rain and annoying polish fans who were drunk and quite aggresive. Finaly the gate opened and we started to rush in. Squeezing of few thousand ppl through narrow gate doesnt belong to my best experiences. But we got in to the area and ran to the actual sport hall entrance. There were so many ppl that any security control was impossible – a paradise for all ppl with cameras :) After we got in we put our clothes to cloak-room and bought some stuff. Actually I was pretty surprised by such high prices so I bought just tour book. Then we slowly proceed to in front of the stage. Of course it was open hall without sitting places (only on the sides) so everyone has place that he can fight out. I got quite good place about 15 meters from stage in the right. It was ok, cause it wasnt too close to the stage so there wasnt such big pressure but it was still close enough to have great view of the stage. I am quite tall (196 cm) so I had BEAUTIFULL view on all the ppl, really great. The area was soon full. There have been about 18000 people. People were getting anxious, screaming and after anything happends on the stage (like when those 2 light guys started climbing on their ladders) everyone began to scream and clap – pretty impressive. Then finaly lights went off and Purity started to play. Oh man – my head was going to explode and I couldnt breathe. From all 3 shows I have visited Prague was the most loud one and I wasnt used to it. I couldnt breathe ‘cause of their loud beat pulsating in my throat. But we survived it of course and were even more anxious to see mode :) After preparing the stage at about 9 pm it finaly begin. Lights went off and I recognized remix of plastikman’s painkiller. All people went nuts. I was screaming, jumping and acting like crazy. During Painkiller with lights still off, Fletch, Martin and Dave got in to the stage. It was so strange after long years of seeing them just on pics and videos seeing them live few meters in front of me. I couldnt believe that it’s true. Then A question of time started, those cheesy D M letters were lit and Dave started to sing. This moment was really something that it’s hard to describe. All fans were screaming and jumping and it was really hard to stay alive. A lot of people fainted or were just rushing away from front rows, it was really very hot, large pressure, very loud music and everything, but for those who survived it made a great mood. World in my eyes – live drums added really great edge to the song. It’s no good – nice to see all those videos and reminding all great hits dM made in last 12 years. Never let me down again – this was the song I was waiting for. I was always fascinated by the end of the song where all people were waving their hands, I loved it on 101 and Devotional video. But this one was even better then I expected. After all lights went on I just turned my head and it was the best sight I have ever seen. All those thousands people were waving their hands in the air, anywhere you looked you could see just hands...I have seen that everyone was turning their heads, staring at it and smiling. Definately best part of the show. Walking in my shoes – heh, damn funny videos but what really surprised me were GREAT live drums. Musicaly it was most interesting songs of the show. Unfortunately you cant hear it so well on any bootleg. Condemnation – I liked the piano. In your room – of course album version is better, but I still love zephyr mix and it worked great live. One of the best tracks for going mad on the show – and I did :) Enjoy the silence – I knew the playlist from bong but it was still great feeling when they showed king’s crown and laying chair on the screen in the begining, so you know what it is. Great music at the end + martin’s guitar, one of the best songs on the show. Personal Jesus – does it need any comments ? Reach out and touch faith. Barrel of gun – really good track live and I liked backing videos + lights. After short pause Martin came on the stage and sang Somebody. Beautiful song and the crowd went mad at the end, when we screamed after each martin’s aaaaah :) Stripped – what were that fruits about ?? Just can’t get enough – and that’s all, last look on the now empty stage and moving slowly to the exit. I was completely wet and deaf, couldnt hear anything. Note – Dave was spitting a lot ;)
In front of the sport hall I met my friends again and we should go to the after show party. There were 2 of them, on in the ”Na Maninach” and second in the Roxy club. We choosed Na Maninach and you can guess to which one Martin and Fletch came :-(
I was waiting with Harvey and Dalia for other latvia fans but they somehow didnt come. So we went to the Na maninach club to the after show party. To be honest I was so tired that I couldnt dance at all, so I was just sitting on the ground and drinking water. At about 3am we decided it’s time to leave. So we (Honza Pojer, Libor, Mirage, Ester (slovak fan) and me) left Prague and headed to Brno. Ester took the train from Brno to Bratislava and we went to Marek Fabry’s (Owner of czechoslovak dm mailing list) place. After long and refreshing 2 hours long sleep on the ground we left Marek and headed to Vienna for our next dM show. The route was boring except for wind mills like in 101 movie :) In Vienna we parked in the underground parking lot and hurried to the city center where we had meeting with 3 Slovenia BONGsters at 12pm. Everthing went OK and we met Teja, Tanja and Bostjan. After that we slowly proceed to the Stadthalle. First it was nice trip, because we were going through the city center but later it became boring and it even began to rain. In front of the hall there were almost no people – vienna concert was really the worst considering fans, and it wasnt even sold out. Since it was only 2 pm and we had to meet some inet fans from czech republic we went back to city center – again by walk, so we were really tired..At least we have seen a GREAT puppet show there :) Since those fans didnt show out we took the car and went back to the Stadthalle. It was slowly getting crowded there. We met all internet people and prepared fot the show. The show itself was OK, I had the same place in the right, but people were not so active like in Prague and for example during NLMDA not all ppl were waving their hands. And of course since it wasnt sold out the hall wasnt absolutely full, though there was still a lot of people.
After the show I was abolutely wasted so I was just drinking water and catching breath :) We didnt have much time so we farewelled everyone and with one new passanger – Radek Tomis – we traveled back to Czech republic – Usti nad Labem. I dont remeber anything from the travel, ‘cause I was sleeping and it’s really beyond my mind how our driver Honza did it...We arrived to Usti on the thursday morning and had one free day. We stayed at one flat and spent it with sleep and watching TV :) Next day – Friday Sept 18 – our last dm show :( At 1 pm we left the flat, and took Mirage who arrived from Prague. After short drive we were on czech-german border and it really sucked, ‘cause we spend there almost one hour. After this unpleasant experience we drove diretly to Berlin. It was friday afternoon so the roads were quite full and on some places we moved really slowly. Somehow we got in front of the olympic stadium where already tons of ppl were walking by. It was strange that they were all in blue. Then we found out that there was a football game this evening on olympic stadium :) So we walked further to Waldbuhne, where DM show took place. There we finally could see all dm fans in black. This show was open air, so it was really a special experience. It was an amphitheatre, except small pit in front of the stage all ppl seats were going straight up so when we got in, and stood on the top of it it was really impresive look. Due to the rush hours on the roads we were late and Purity was already playing. Fortunately I still managed to get good place in front of the stage (but again at right side :-/ The show was a killer again, and I met Harvey from UK again (actually he met me :) Too bad that after Just cant get enough we knew this is the end...At midnight we left Berlin and drove to Kolin near Prague. From Kolin I took train to my town Presov in Slovakia and at 6 p.m. I was already home....Full of great memories but sad that it‘s over.....
See you on next tour :o)
I was there and it was fantastic!!!
Totally sold out, full of screaming, waving and dancing fans. Great atmosphere. The sound
was not that good, the bass was on the maximum and a lot of sounds was not clearly
hearable.
Dave was great and full of energy. Andy alias Mr. Clapper was moving (dancing) like a
snake behind his keyboards :) Martin looked a little bit tired but after few songs he
started jumping (on one place) like a kangaroo :)
Their drummer was very good but keyboard player sucked. He played some terrible Vince
Clarke beeps during NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN (if i remember corretly). I did not like him
during somebody either. He played not so bad, differently than Alan but his playing was
not in harmony with Martin's singing. Alan was much better, he was more in sync with
Martin. For those who would like to know about the versions of the songs I can tell you
this:
Alan Wilder music still lives!!! The songs versions were the same like DEVOTIONAL or WORLD
VIOLATION versions. They apparently used Alan's backing tapes but it doesn't bother me
that much cause I want to hear DM which I like most and that is "Alan sounding
DM".
I wonder on how many coming concerts during next years (if there will be any), they will
recycle the preprogrammed versions of the songs by Alan.
The biggest moments were during NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN, ENJOY THE SILENCE, STRIPPED and I
FEEL YOU. ONLY WHEN I LOSE MYSELF was the weakest song played (very weak and dull version)