Beyoncé – The Formation World Tour Part 2

Ok, I’m not gonna say much, because this was the same show as Amsterdam, except for the addition of “Beautiful ones” as a tribute to Prince. BUT I really need to say something regarding the organization! While it was excellent in Amsterdam, it was horrible in Frankfurt! And I won’t go into any details, because there were a lot of things that were annoying, but I have to say this: I will never go and see a show in the Commerzbank Arena again if I can avoid it! We had tickets for Golden Circle 2 and as security was too lazy to arrange the different entries to the arena grounds correctly, we were expected to run three-fourths around the whole arena once they let us onto the grounds, because our entrance into the arena was on the other side. Why they didn’t send us the other way around or let us in through the general standing area is beyond me. But as if that hadn’t already been enough, there were no signs to guide us to our entrance and security was completely clueless and sent us and other people in all kinds of directions. We ended up running two complete rounds around this f-ing stadium, about 2,5 kilometers, because it turned out, you had to run away from the arena to get to the entrance – no chance to find this entrance without knowing the grounds, proper help or signs – and none of the above were available to us! Luckily other people had the same problems so we ended up in an ok place, but not at all where we should have ended up!

I said that a million times, but I’ll say it again: I don’t get why local organizers and security don’t understand or care why you are there early. Is it that difficult to understand that you want to get in first, be at the front? No, it’s not just for fun to wait in front of some venue for hours and hours! Dear security, believe it or not, there is an intention behind that. And if you guys don’t bother giving us the chance to get to the place we deserve, it’s as if you stole hours from our lifetime because we waited in vain, and you stole a part of the joy of a concert experience!  Don’t you realize that phrases like: “Stay calm, everyone is getting in!” are extremely stupid and rude? All I’m asking is that you do your job properly and not just use your position to act way cool and talk down to people!

That being said… Thank you, Beyoncé, for another awesome show that let us almost forget our anger! You’re such an inspiration!

Sarah Connor – Muttersprache Tour

My second concert on the Tollwood Festival this year was Sarah Connor. Apart from her Christmas Show, this was the first concert I’ve seen from her since 13 years. Some things change – some never do!

Things that changed:

• Her supportig act of course. Last time I saw her it was “Natural” – remember them? Well, at least one of their members, Marc Terenzi, right? This time it was Max Giesinger. We really enjoyed his set and everyone sang along to his latest hit “80 Millionen“
• Obviously, Sarah now mainly sings in German. Inspired by her participation in the German TV show “Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert” (imho the best music show on TV!), where she had to cover German songs from Xavier Naidoo, Roger Cicero, Andreas Gabalier and Gregor Meyle, she recorded her latest album in German and also did a lot of songwriting herself. There are some awesomely deep and beautiful songs on the album like “Das Leben ist schön” or “Augen auf“. A lot of people have preconceptions when it comes to Sarah Connor, but some may be surprised to discover her all anew on this record.
• This kinda “naughty girl” affectation is gone. It never really fitted her in my opinion, because I always saw her as this nice woman, who was very natural and open as a person. She did sing a medley of her old hits like “Let’s get back to bed, boy” and “French kissing“, but she did so with some humour. Only her mega hit “From Sarah with love” was done in a serious way but with a whole new arrangement.

Things that never change (hopefully so…):

• girl can still sang! 😉
• She’s still digging Michael Jackson. She sang a beautiful, slowed down version of “Rock with you” and her band and background singers did a very groovy “Working day and night” cover. As she did in 2002 and 2003 when I last saw her, she immediately asked to have our MJ-banner when she saw it during “Rock with you”. She showed it to the audience and danced around with it before giving it back.
• The interaction with her fans is still very intimate. She seemed to recorgnize several of them and really appreciates her followers. People who had bought a special boxset of her latest album where even given a pass and got into the venue earlier. We didn’t stay to meet her after the show this time, because we had just talked to her a year ago when she was in Munich, but I’m sure she stopped for her fans on her way home as always.