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!

Beyoncé – The Formation Tour

She slayed

Full Stop

I guess, if you sell out Amsterdam Arena with a capacity of about 50.000 in just 20 minutes, it means you made it!

If you make people queue for you that early that if people arrives at 11 o’clock in the morning, there are about a hundred people in front of them at their entry alone…;

If people pay 600€ to be as close to you as possible during a concert…;

If you can make people organize through social media to bring yellow and black balloons to your show and blow them up to wave for a specific song…;

If people from non-English-speaking countries know the lyrics to your oftentimes quite complicated, slangy, fast songs word by word…;

– …it means you have the kind of fans that won’t abandon you anytime soon. Bey has all that!

And she deserves it because she’s working really hard and imho she’s one of the most creative artists around these days. Her new album “Lemonade” and the accompanying film are innovative, artistically valuable, interpretative challenging, musically versatile and thought-provoking.

Although the show is less grave and difficult to access, Beyoncé continues to innovate – at least I haven’t seen any water on stage yet: For “Freedom” the whole B-stage was turned into a wadable pool where Beyoncé and her dancers perform their choreography. Visually stunning!

But as always she excels at the good old entertainment-ABC as well. Her vocals on songs like “Me, myself and I” or “1+1” are flawless and her dancing skills seem to enhance with each tour. I could stand there and listen to her and watch her for hours!

Her last song is “Halo“, which this time she dedicates to the victims of the attempted coup in Turkey. And after having wondered, as usual, why we did this while waiting for so many hours, we are so happy that we’ll do this again in Frankfurt in two weeks! See you soon, Queen Bey!

 

Good bye, Janet!

I haven’t posted in a long time and I’m sorry about this. The last half year has been an exciting one with a new workplace, but concert-wise pretty boring, so there was no real need in posting anything and I was too much into my new life that I didn’t want to dwell in the past.

This spring/summer looked like it would become one of the best concert times of my life! With Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé on tour, three of my all-time favorite artists were scheduled to come to Europe and I got two or more tickets for each one of them.

Then, with excitement building especially for Janet’s tour, for which I had four tickets, the whole European leg of the tour was cancelled! What a letdown! I was so much looking forward to the shows, as I’ve always admired Janet as a live performer and I also love her new album “Unbreakable“. Additionally I looked forward to meeting a lot of Jackson-fans whom I hadn’t seen for years. And now all we’re left with are canceled tickets and flights.

I have to admit that apart from the disappointment I’m also angry. Angry because I feel there are some people who didn’t do their job properly and we are the ones to pay for it (Literally! I will lose a few hundred Euros and I know many others who will as well!). From the moment her shows went on sale, everyone I know was irritated that they had booked her for the huge arenas. With Janet not having had any hit in Europe for years and her new album not being promoted, we wondered how they wanted to sell enough tickets to fill these arenas. As there were seating maps available for most of the gigs, it was easy to see that our fear was justified. Everyone hoped that there would be some kind of promo like a TV performance or at least some new video clips before the tour started but there was nothing, nothing, nothing. My friends and me feared a cancellation of the tour, but as time went by and Janet already travelled to Europe and started posting videos to different cities saying that she was looking forward to the concerts, we had to believe that the tour was going ahead. So about three weeks before the first concert was supposed to take place, we booked our flights to Dublin, Düsseldorf and Copenhagen – only to find out a few days later that the tour was cancelled. “Scheduling problems” read the official excuse. “Scheduling problems” my ass! This tour had been set since October, it had been confirmed again after the rescheduling of the American leg due to Janet having an operation, Janet had already arrived in Europe… What a bullshit excuse! They didn’t even have the balls to admit their mistake. And Janet? – She didn’t have the balls either. For a few days she had no comment at all, after a shitstorm in the internet, she released a statement on her twitter page saying she would try her best to reschedule the shows as soon as possible. I believe in a rescheduling as much as I believe that the 2001 “All for you”-tour will ever be rescheduled as promised! There was some speculation that this cancellation had to do with her health problems earlier this year, but if that was the case, she wouldn’t be able to play her date in Dubai at the World Racing Cup on March 26th either. She has lost the trust of her European audience and I’m sure many will think twice to ever buy a ticket for Janet again. It’s a shame because she is such a great artist but right now all I feel is disappointment, anger and betrayal!

I’m just hoping the Mariah Carey’s shows will go ahead, because if I look at the seating maps, it doesn’t look much better! Her shows were not advertised either and her last charted songs are a few years ago as well. I don’t get this new concept of setting up a tour without any promotion. As we all know, a tour today is not the promotion for an album as it used to be but the album is more or less the promotion for the tour – but if you have no album out (like Mariah) or an album that is not selling well, does only have one single and there are no TV performances (like Janet), it’s difficult to market a tour all by itself – especially for artists that are legendary but not particularly “in” at the moment. Add the prices that they ask for, as for more and more concert you need to buy expensive seats, and you have half-empty arenas! Mariah’s ticket definitely was the most expensive one I ever bought with 235€ for a 3rd row ticket in Munich. I did this because I truly love her as an artist and can’t miss her, but I understand when people feel this is way too much and consequently don’t attend! As this is double the price I paid for Janet, I have hopes that the shows are going ahead because they will still earn more money. Plus the tour has already started. So please, have your fingers crossed – my first show will be on Easter Saturday in Luxembourg. Stay tuned!

Janet Jackson tickets for Copenhagen, Dublin and Düsseldorf – now useless…

Beyoncé – The Mrs. Carter Show 2014

I can’t believe it’s already been a month since I’ve seen Beyoncé! I’ve been meaning to write this report for so long already, but I’ve kept putting it off because I didn’t seem to find the time to do it. Isn’t it terrible if your life gets so hectic that you cannot even find the time to do the things you love anymore? This situation has been going on for much too long now and it only got worse during the last months. I’m so looking forward to May, when things will finally slow down!

Anyway, I need to stop whining! Let’s talk about Beyoncé!

I was a little surprised when I realized that this was the very first concert I have ever specifically taken a plane to. I’ve been to concerts in other countries, but that was either connected to some kind of holiday or I took a train or drove by car. So this show had better be good! But I had no doubt about that, come on, I mean… it was Beyoncé!

Cologne being the only German city for the 2014 “Mrs. Carter Show” meant a huge, eager crowd already queuing from very early in the morning. As my friend and I had those Early Entry Tickets again, we just did a short check on the venue and then left for a little shopping spree and a nice lunch at “Mongo’s”. Thanx to our special tickets, we still ended up at the front.

What can I tell you about the show? Considering that it was still the “Mrs. Carter Tour” from last year (see report), it had changed a lot. There were a whole lot of tracks from the new Visual Album included. Already after the opening song “Run the world“, Beyoncé sang “Flawless”. Have you noticed: This is one hell of a catchy tune! We sang it after the concerts for hours…or more like: days! “I woke up like this….” And we joked, that SHE probably really woke up flawless like this, whereas for US it was more like “Sorry! But *cough* I woke up like this…*blush*” the next morning after only four hours of sleep.

Next up was “Yoncé”. I love that song, the beat it amazing! I can listen to it 30 times in a row and it doesn’t get boring, so I was happy that she had included it on her setlist. Afterwards we got some good ol’ Bey with stuff like “Baby Boy” and “Naughty girl“, before another section of new song was introduced with “Blow”, “Haunted” and “Drunk in love”. As “Irreplaceable” is one of my favorites, I was thankful that this time she sang most of it on the main stage and only walked to the B-Stage at the end, shaking hands in the first rows on her way. “Love on top“, also one of my favorites, was then performed on the B-Stage. As nice as a B-Stage may be for those in the back, it’s always a bit frustrating when you’re at the front. Honestly, I prefer front stage only setups! It doesn’t make it so complicated as to where to stand best. I mean, with Beyoncé it was quite ok because she didn’t use the B-stage that much, but there are bands and artists that use it a lot and you’re kinda screwed no matter where you stand.

Of course there was “Crazy in love” and “Single ladies” (she is one hell of a dancer, too!) – but with a repertoire of this size it’s impossible to squeeze in all of her hits into one concert. I have to admit that I always enjoyed her little “Destiny’s child“-Medleys. I understand that she threw it out in favor of her own songs, but DC really had some awesome hits as well! On the other hand, I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed seeing “Heaven” and “XO” live for the first time. Both are just beautiful songs! And fit perfectly together with the closing song “Halo“, which is also one of my fav… do I repeat myself? Yes, I admit, there are way too many favorites among Beyoncé’s songs. Sooo… can we make the show three hours next time, Bey? Please???

Happy new year

Looking forward to 2014???

Hell yeah! 😉

Beyoncé – The Mrs. Carter Show

Beyoncé is one of my favourite artists, and as her last show I saw was not too long ago (22nd of May, 2013), I’m gonna start with her.

As always the concert was absolutely awesome! She never fails to amaze me. I wish I had the time to see more of her shows, but this time it was only Munich for me. My friends and me had “Early Entry Tickets”. These tickets were sold by Beyoncé’s concert promoter and cost 20 dollars. If you used them together with your actual ticket, you were allowed to enter the arena before the general public, which, of course, was quite comfortable. Still I didn’t like the way they, let’s say, “ordered” the crowd. There were special places beside the main stage and inside the B-stage, which could be bought for hundreds of dollars. I really have to state here, and I bet I will do that over and over again, that I strongly disagree with this new way of marketing concerts! The best spots in the house go to those who can afford to pay the most money. Is that really what artists (should) want? Is that a signal they want to send to their fans?

In 2002, I remember, I went to a “Destiny’s child”-concert in Hamburg. My friend and me were the first in line and some time before the gates opened, a lady came up to us and asked us whether we were interested in joining the Destiny’s child-fanclub because fanclub-members would get in first plus receive a meet-and-greet or got to dance with the girls on stage. Of course we joined and it was a once in a lifetime experience to dance on stage with Bey, Kelly & Michelle in front of 10,000 people! But what I’m getting at: What a difference a few years make! Ten years ago it were the members of the fanclub – the people who loved DC’s music, who bought their albums, who followed their careers – that were in the front and rewarded with special treatments. Today it’s those that have the money. One could say this is a reflection of our society in general, but either way: I don’t like it and it kind of destroys the experience! But maybe more of that in later posts! I didn’t want this first post to get that negative, but this really bothers me!

Anyway, Beyoncé live is the bomb and I would recommend seeing one of her shows to anyone who has even a small affection for R&B and full-blown entertainment! You can expect a show that’s on top of today’s standards with an awesome live band, thrilling choreographies and visual effects. And: This girl can sing! She’s even much better live than on her recordings.

I can’t wait for her next tour!

Here are some of my pictures. To make that clear right from the beginning: All pictures I will upload are my own photos, which I have taken from the audience with a pocket camera.