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[scroll
down for the pictures]
Last
night was the long-awaited Wallflowers show. Marty and I
originally had tickets to see them in Hartford, Connecticut
on September 12, 2001. After September 11 that show was
cancelled, and so we missed seeing them touring for Breach.
Then we moved to Munich last year and I bought their new
album, Red Letter Days, the day it was released (at
Karstadt, the big German department store near our apartment).
Imagine my glee when they announced the European dates for
their Red Letter Days tour, and they were coming
to Munich!
The
show was in a concert hall over near the Ostbahnhof. It
was general admission, no seats, so when we arrived I went
right up to the stage. We were probably about three or four
people back from the edge of the stage. It was a great spot,
and we stayed there all night.
Opening
acts were Dean
Del Ray and Peter
Stuart, both of whom were new to me. I think they both
did a good job of engaging with the audience, which (as
is often the case with German audiences) was fairly reserved.
Not a whole lot of uncontrolled whoopin' and hollerin' going
on in an audience like that. In both cases, they played
alone with just a guitar, although Rami Jaffee of the Wallflowers
did come out and accompany DDR on one song. I enjoyed DDR's
enthusiasm, and Peter Stuart was funny and his lyrics were
smart. I bought his CD on the way out after the show.
I
think the Wallflowers came out around 9:30pm and launched
right into their show. It was a great set. I'll post the
setlist when it's added to Wallflowers.com later, but some
of the highlights for me were "Three Marlenas"
(I love the keyboards on that song) and "Three Ways"
from Red Letter Days. The encores were "Angel
on my Bike" (acoustic with Jakob and Rami), "What's
So Funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding" (Costello
cover), "Heroes" (Bowie cover), and "The
Difference" from Bringing Down the Horse.
The
crowd, I thought, was fairly into it. They really came alive
for the songs from Bringing Down the Horse, and the
band played several from that album: "Three Marlenas,"
"Josephine," "One Headlight," "The
Difference," "Bleeders," "6th Avenue
Heartache," and "Angel on My Bike." People
didn't seem as familiar with the songs from Breach
and Red Letter Days. I would've liked to hear a few
more songs from Breach, which is my favorite of their
albums. Without seeing the setlist, I think they only did
"Letters from the Wasteland" and "Sleepwalker,"
and I would've loved to hear "Hand Me Down," "I've
Been Delivered," or "Some Flowers Bloom Dead."
And of course they did a bunch of songs from Red Letter
Days, which were delivered well and seemed to appeal
to the audience. There was a lot of nodding and some dancing,
although people didn't seem to know the words to the songs
from the new album.
I've
loved the Wallflowers since the summer of 1996, when I was
living in Pennsylvania and in graduate school. I got Bringing
Down the Horse shortly after it was released and they've
been one of my favorite bands since then. Seeing them live,
after all this time, was just amazing. They are a tight
band with a great sound, and last night they seemed to be
enjoying themselves. I like their laid-back vibe and their
old-time guitar and keyboard sound. Jakob Dylan was funny
talking to the audience about the Germanic spelling of his
name (Jakob), saying things like "It's good to be home,"
and "You are my people."
I
only took a few pictures at the show because I was a little
worried about getting my camera confiscated since they had
signs all over the place that they were verboten (they patted
Marty down at the door; luckily, the camera was in my pocket
and they didn't touch me). I was standing behind two tall
Germans (but very close to the front) and I couldn't really
get a clear shot of anyone but Jakob and Rami. Lots of the
pictures were too blurry to share, but here are a few. Click
to see the larger versions.
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