Finally I had the chance to see Whitesnake,
this tour even reaches the eastern part of Germany. I struggled long if
I'd go there because it was on a weekday, but finally I bought my
ticket.
Arriving at Leipzig doors just opened, so I hadn’t to wait for long and
could make it to a good place in second row. The location wasn’t that
big, so it was almost sold out. Although we have mid September the show
was an Open Air and luckily it didn’t rain.
Few minutes before 8 p.m. the support act entered stage. It was The
Traceelords, same band that did the supporting job for Alice Cooper
earlier this year. I liked them better than at the Cooper gig, but even
after three gigs they couldn’t convince me completely. However they
rocked like hell and people liked them. They got half an hour until the
stage was prepared for Whitesnake.
At exactly 9 p.m. Mr. Coverdale entered stage with his musicians. He was
celebrated immediately! They started with a couple of Deep Purple songs
and the crowd was celebrating every note. The band was in a great mood,
the songs came straight out of the PA and the crowd was happy. Now and
then David Coverdale sang some songs all alone, after he asked the
audience what they would like to hear.
They played a greatest hits set including songs like Bad Bad Boy, Crying
In The Rain, Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of A City, Is This Love, Here I
Go Again and so on. Many times Coverdale directed his microphone to the
audience and it was an overwhelming reaction, not a line people didn’t
know!
The band was playing some great tunes, the rhythm section fit together
like nothing else, honesty Marco Mendoza / Tommy Aldridge is the best
rhythm section I’ve ever seen. Doug Aldrich was playing some great
guitar soli, as he was introduced lot of people were screaming “Dio, Dio,
Dio”. Reb Beach played the left side guitar and even some soli and
Timothy Drury on keyboards, who was introduced as the one that is doing
all the ironing for the boys and girls during the show, completed the
line up.
After exactly one and a half hour the set was finished, but the crowd
surely wouldn’t let them go with out some encores, and so they did, for
another fifteen minutes.
It was a great show, and I am really happy I decided to go as Whitesnake
is one of the bands I always wanted to see live.
After the band said goodbye and people were happy and about to leave, I
noticed the one behind me was crying. I asked him what is up and with
lot of emotions he answered: “20 years ago I wanted to see this band,
and now, aged about 40, I finally had the chance to see them!” You must
know, Leipzig is located in the area of the former GDR (German
Democratic Republic)! Rock on my friend!
The next day I decided to see the show at Berlin as well, and so far I
haven’t regret it, although I better forget the drive back home!
This time it was an inside concert and it was much louder than the first
one!
The Traceelords seemed to have some technical problems this time, the
technicians were on stage lot of times for fixing microphones or the
drum kit. The guy next to me asked “Why haven’t they built the stage
before the show?” As they even did the same jokes like at Leipzig there
is nothing special to say about their gig.
Whitesnake of course have been great again, they played the same set,
only the a capella songs have been skipped. As the place could hold
twice that much people than the arena at Leipzig, the crowd sang even
louder and it really went under the skin!
After the show I wanted to get myself a tour shirt, but for 30 bucks
they could put their shirts elsewhere! No way!
At my way back home may ears were ringing and I felt really tired after
two shows with barely any sleep in between.
But hey, that’s Rock’n’Roll, isn’t it? |
|