The only bearable picture I took, out of about 20. That’s bad.
Gig afterthoughts, written on 17/07/2005:
Sadly, the concert had to be cut short because poor Brandon lost his voice five songs into the set. After the most pretentious, phoney opening act which even had the audacity to cover a song by The Killers and then brag about owning the first single ever released by The Killers from 1996 (eh? Even their website states that they didn’t get together before 2002 – has somebody been caught in the act of lying?), I was SO ready to see them.
The venue was completely sold out, the gig was on one of the hottest nights of the year, and the audience of a not unsignificant proportion consisted of drunk British army guys (the concert was presented by BFBS Radio 1). Don’t get me wrong, I love the British, my brother basically is one of them, I have spent the greatest time of my life there, and I’m contemplating moving back. So that really wasn’t the problem. They were drunk and obnoxious, but that is ok. What really REALLY pissed me off was, as always, ze Germans. And I will exclude myself from that bunch for now. See, one thing the Germans simply don’t get is the concept of queueing, or generally standing in line. It means that you get somewhere, and in the order you arrived, you proceed to somewhere else.
This applies to many instances in life – let me just name a couple of examples here: bus stops, supermarkets, ticket counters, and yes, you may have guessed it, concerts. If you want to get a good place in the audience, MAKE SURE YOU GET THERE FUCKING EARLY. Don’t stand outside, smoking your lungs out, until the support act is over and then push your way to the front of the audience. You know, most of us aren’t really interested in the aupport act either. We just endure them so we get a good “seat” in the audience to enjoy the main act. Same rules apply if you’re really short. Don’t bitch and moan if you’re standing behind me and can’t see a thing. NOT MY FUCKING PROBLEM. Get inside the venue early, I’m not the “must stand in the first ten rows or else” kinda person. I just stand somewhere, and I like to think that at six feet tall, I’m not such a giant. I should know, because the few people who are taller than me usually end up standing right in front of me.
Yep, I was in a foul mood. The heat, the bad air, the many chain-smokers, the horrible support act, the many rude Germans who just cannot respect the “first come, firt serve”-principle, it all made me very angry. Plus people were incredibly rude. Example: I was talking to my friend and we were joking how the first time we saw the Killers was at a very small club with no more than 30 people in the audience, and the whole gig lasted no more than 30 minutes. There was a long break between the end of the support act and the beginning of the main act, I think it was already 10.15pm and the support had stopped playing at 9.35pm or something, so I jokingly said, “Well, no problem, with an encore we should still be out of here at 11pm” – my friend laughed, she got it, when I heard the very short person behind me bitch in a very sarcastic tone, “Oh yeah, you’re so fucking cool.” I didn’t even turn to acknowledge her, I just thought to myself “I know I am cool, thank you very much.” I mean, what the hell. Was her own company so boring that she had to listen to our conversation and then hate me for the fact that we got to see The Killers before they were big enough to attract such a large and annoying crowd?
I was pretty pissed, but then “Where Do I Begin?” started playing, The Killers came on stage, they started playing “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine”, they were fabulous, they looked gorgeous, I felt love, I was happy. Brandon greeted us with, “We’re The Killers, but we’re here to love you.” Heh. My friend and I both really like Ronnie Vannucci, the drummer, and shared a couple of smiles when he was giving his all. Unfortunately I can’t recall the second and fifth song, but the fourth one was “Somebody Told Me” which I just love, and it almost would have brought a tear to my eye. And then something seemed wrong. I noticed Brandon kept talking to Ronnie during and after songs, and then he said, “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m having problems.” Then he kept stammering, roaming the stage, and then just said, “I can’t sing” and left the stage. He looked extremely upset. The rest of the band remained, looking on. Dave even kept playing this little tune on the guitar to himself. Very cute.
After a while, they left the stage as well. Needless to say, we were a little confused. Well, it was obvious to me that there was a problem with Brandon’s voice, since it seemed very shot all of a sudden, and the last song was cut short. Then a guy, maybe the owner of the venue, appeared on stage telling us that Brandon was having problems with his voice, they were taking a ten minute break to see whether he would get it back, but that we also should be aware of the possibility that he might not get it back. To the people who booed when this was announced: I hate every single one of you!
I think The Killers were supporting U2 in Amsterdam the night before, and U2 in Vienna the night after. All 50,000-crowd gigs. I wouldn’t want to risk doing terminal damage to my voice in some 1,000-Kraut venue in Cologne either! Plus it was so obvious that Brandon was sorry and embarrassed about it, he even said so, so how could anyone hold it against him? He certainly didn’t lose his voice on purpose! The guy standing behind me, the one with the slightly hostile female friend, used this cell phone to make a call to a friend, telling him that the first few tracks were very grand and that he couldn’t see why they would interrupt, since Brandon’s voice was fine. Eh, it was not. It was as if we all had witnessed the breaking of his voice.
Being the troopers that they are, The Killers returned after about 15 minutes and declared they would play three more songs, in a “toned down” version. They kicked off with “Mr. Brightside”, sadly by the time a woman which I have christened “psycho chick” was moshing in front of me by then. I don’t know her nationality, but this much I can say: She was clearly on something substance-wise. She had her back to the stage and sang louder than Brandon. I felt the urge to slap her, because she really spoiled the end of the set for me. Due to the venue being so crammed, there was nowhere else I could go, so I had to try my best to ignore her, which was virtually impossible. Again, I can’t remember the second song they played, but they closed off with “All These Things That I’ve Done”, and poor Brandon couldn’t sing the “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier”-bit, so he let the audience sing it. He also was handed a cup of tea, with honey I assume, between songs and I just couldn’t help going “awwww”.
It’s just a shame really, this gig was a rescheduled one from March were they couldn’t play because Brandon had the flu, so I imagine that he wanted to make up for that, and then losing his voice must have been extra-tough. With other bands I would have assumed that they didn’t care, but the thing I admire about The Killers is that they always seem to be so super-nice and down to earth. When they left the stage, most of the audience seemed reconciled. They got warm cheers, and I thought all was well, until I listened to the clips I made with my Canon Ixus II. As Brandon was leaving the stage, someone with a very loud British voices was yelling, “You fucking pussy.” Now, where is the emoticon for a smilie rolling his eyes in WordPress??
