Boyz II Men – Collide Tour

The last show of 2014 was Boyz II Men. Yes, they’re still active! Unfortunately they are largely forgotten in Germany. Their latest albums were released almost unnoticed, which is a shame because in my opinion they were good albums! With their latest album “Collide” they are on tour right now and did three stops in Germany, one of them in Munich in the Kesselhaus, a rather small location with a capacity of 2000 people.

Of course most people came to hear Boyz II Men’s old hits. And they have quite of few of them – especially wonderful ballads like “On bended knees“, “I’ll make love to you” or “The Color of Love“. To speed the show up a little, they added some Motown covers like the Four Tops “Reach out, I’ll be there“. As they were part of the Motown-Family in the 90s, that seemed appropriate and of course fit their own hit “Motownphilly“. The guys squeezed in two songs from their latest album as well, but you could tell that most of the audience was not familiar with them. On the other hand they proved to be very familiar and with Boyz II Men’s biggest hit, “End of the road”, which also ended the rather short show.

Nathan, Wanya and Shawn (forth member Michael had left the group in 2003) are awesome singers, no doubt. Especially Wanya is amazing when he improvises over the choruses. One could say that that’s the reason why they come on their own, without a band, singing to the karaoke versions of their songs. But then again the whole show is quickly degrated to appear like a karaoke show as well. And that doesn’t do them any justice!

Unfortunately it seems as if the show is very low-budget but aimed at earning a lot. The ticket prices were the same as most artists charge these days when they play big venues with band, huge crew, lights, screens, special effects etc. There was even a “Golden circle” in this mini-venue, which is ridiculous in my opinion! That’s why I refused to get a ticket for it and my friend and me went for the normal standing category. I’m usually willing to pay a lot for a ticket but not when it seems like a rip-off! I really love love love their voices and their songs, but a good hour of show with canned music combined with those prices… Come on, guys, you can do better than that!

 

 

Bryan Adams – Reckless 30th Anniversary Tour

I’ve been listening to Bryan Adams as long as I can remember listening to pop music. His best-of album “So far so good” was on heavy rotation for years on my walkman. I even used to try and sing like him, you know, that kinda hoarse voice!? One of his concerts was supposed to be one of the first ones I would attend – but then my grandma passed away a few days before so I let it go. Finally my first show was in 1999 on the Hessentag in Baunatal in the Parkstadium. We had a blast! And it’s still always a blast to see Bryan live.

There’s no big show needed. His bandmates and he come in black, there is a screen for some videos and live footage – and that’s it. The rest is just his voice and his music.

This tour was the 30th Anniversary of the album “Reckless“, so the first part of the show was dedicated to the album. We heard some of the album tracks, all the big hits like “It’s only love” (duet with Tina Turner), “Kids wanna rock” or “Summer of ’69“, plus some of the songs that didn’t make the album (because there was no space left on the vinyl). The second part of the show was basically one hit after another from his other 11 albums. It always amazes me again, how many awesome songs he has in his oeuvre! And I bet that half of the arena sang almost quite as much as Bryan did during that part. It was a wonderful atmosphere!

For the encores, Bryan came on stage on his own and also played three of the songs from his new album “Tracks of my years“, “You’ve been a friend to me“, “C’mon everybody” and the single “She knows me“. He ended the set with the first verse of “Christmas time“.

This may sound strange, but I’m really glad that people like Bryan are still around, doing their thing, touring and all! They’re so much part of my life! It would be so sad to be stuck with those many new, artificially hyped, inauthentic, fleeting stars.

PS: Those pictures might look as if they were from this year’s concert but they’re not! They’re from the 30th of March 2012, when Bryan also played the Olympiahalle. Just saying because we were not allowed to take pictures this time. Don’t wanna get in any kind of trouble!