Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 9:43 pm
Great review.TD Eye wrote:TD Eye witness reportMilano, Sunday May 6th 2012.
Before.
The gig was planned to start at 21.00 h. Until that time the audience was supposed to enjoy themselves with the usual large balloons, which were dropped just before the stage. But they would never been thrown into the audience! No balloons like many many times beforeA couple of minutes before the gig a femal voice first ordered us to turn off mobile phones. Whilst people were confusingly looking for their mobiles, the female voice continued: no photographs, no audio/video recording. Everyone confused ... No pictures?
This isn't a good sign.
Set 1.
10 minutes later than planned Sensational Fall of the Master Builder came from behind the curtain that would still remain closed for some time. After the curtain opened we saw a really breathtaking setup with beautiful colours and ditto lights. Edgar was wearing a headphones; he doesn't want the in-ear phones anymore.
During the first couple of songs however the sound was distorted by a very low bass sound, was it interference? Fortunately it took not long to solve the problem.
When the first tones (the seagull sounds!) of The Cliffs of Sydney could be heard, I could not believe my ears. Couldn't remember having heard TD playing this before. What I díd remember were the years I hosted a NL/B radio show (albums and cd's, a lot of EM) in the late 80's and that the opening tune was, er.., yes, The Cliffs of Sydney. Eye got a bit emotional.
In the meantime staff members of the venue continued warning people not to take pics etc. The disturbance caused by this was very annoying.I remember a guy being warned with a sign that could only be interpreted as: one more time and you will be kicked out.
The break.
After the first set the female voice returned. What did she want from us now? Well, she said something we didn't quite well understand and then she wished everyone a pleasant evening.
Set 2.
After the break Edgar came on stage and took the microphone and said it is in the interest of the band that people can take photographs as many as they want. So take them. Applause!
Then the second set began with a more than 7 minutes excerpt of Ricochet, beginning with the piano part by Edgar while the other musicians came on stage one by one. This renewed version of Ricochet, close to the original, was absolutely beautiful.
Another remarkable moment was The Blue Bridge, with Edgar (guitar) and Linda (sax) in duet, both sitting next to each one on a stool in clear spotlight.
Warsaw in the Sun seemed slightly different to the previously performed live versions.
Another surprice was a very special version of The Miracle Mile opening track Teetering Scales with Iris and Hoshiko in duet. Great!
The last three songs were real classics and already performed many times. Loved by the Sun this time with Hoshiko on violin, beautiful! TD Eyewitness next to me in tears...
The End.
After the second set Edgar took immediately the microphone, which usually means the end of the show. Without having had any encores?
Meet and greet.
The meet and greet, 10 - 15 persons, was right after the concert. When Edgar arrived he made his statement at once: he was very disappointed that TD had to deal with so many restrictions in this venue. After my previous post on the forum I got some reactions from people that would like to know more about Edgar's statement: Peter mailed: I think it must have been something like " ;#$@!^%*&@@!!@# " Yes, that comes very close, Peter!
Resume.
A very fine concert with some sound problems in the beginning of the first set. Surprisingly no Vivaldi nor Star Wars Theme. All in all one of the best shows in the last years imo. And, once again, a beautiful lightshow with very nice colours. We enjoyed it very much.
We were happy to see one (!) familiar face among the fans: Charles! It was nice to meet again, we hope the rest of your stay in Italy was pleasant and you got home savely!
The show has not been filmed, we have not seen any camera on stage. Andreas has taken many many pics (as usual) during the show and the meet and greet. I presume they will be on his site soon. And probably also some within the TDOC.
The merch had nothing special, so no special cupdisc either. But they had the traditional 6x signed tour poster "The Electric Mandarine Tour". The merch was run by members of the staff of the venue ... remember Olympia, P a r i s?
In the meantime the Zürich gig has happened, I have no information on that one except that I was told that Zlatko Perica would be there as well, backstage. So, anyone seen him?
And finally, for Tangerine Dream this was another show with many restrictions from the staff of the venue... I would not be surprised if the release date of Edgar's book will be postponed due to an appendix which still has to be written ... in Italian
Credits.
Thanks to Edgar and Bianca and all the people of Eastgate we had the pleasure to meet and talk with, especially Bernie and Thorsten, but also Mai, Eva, Kai and all the others.
Finally: watch out for any Eye-phone, Eye-pad or Eye-pod Thorsten!
