Wise Guys in Wesel
January 19th 2005 - Niederrheinhalle Wesel, Germany
Finally it's time to visit the Wise Guys in Germany. We've been looking forward to this day for weeks (months?). I've been counting the days; today is The Day! Today I'll finally get to know if learning and practising German has paid off, and today I'll finally get to know if it's really true that the Wise Guys are better live (compared to their cd's!). We decided to leave early, for we didn't know if it was easy to find, or if there would be a traffic jam... and because we don't like to hurry too much. Totally prepared, with a map of Germany, several prints from map24.de and our passports we drove off. Although we live close to the German border, we didn't ever traveled into Germany. Wesel was easy to find and the roads were quiet, so we arrived way too early. We had a lovely 'Dinner at McDonalds' in Wesel and noticed the McDonalds mayonaise in Germany is better than the McDonalds mayonaise in Holland. We arrived at the Niederrheinhalle at half past 5. The concert would start at 8pm and we could enter the hall at 7pm, so we had 1 1/2 hours to bridge. We found ourselves a nice parking place, listened to some more Wise Guys music in the car and then got out for a walk. We walked around the hall and discovered the Wise Guys car and truck, which were parked on the backside of the hall.
Actually we were waiting for Melanie, Jenny, Martina and Conny to arrive as well. We arranged to meet before the concert would start. But, they were not so early as we (silly dutch people harhar), so we ended up walking several rounds on the parking, around the hall and to the trainstation of Wesel. During the walks we saw Ferenc standing next to the Wise Guys car, calling with his cellphone :P Later, we heard both Sari and Ferenc during their soundcheck (Sari with Du gehts mir nicht mehr aus dem Kopf, and Ferenc with his "dum dum dum" *g*). The doors on the side of the hall were a little open and we could sneek in and hear them do their soundcheck. We got a glimpse of the first row and how close it was to the stage!! ~wow~ In two hours we would sit there, on the first row....
Slowly people began to arrive and we were searching for the other girls. Luckily I recognised them immediatly and there we started, we had to talk in German now... oh oh... First thing we saw when we went inside, were the toilets. After this relieving visit, we could enter the hall.
Let the show begin
8pm! There they are! They started off by singing Wo der Pfeffer wächst, followed by Was für eine Nacht and Du kannst nicht alles haben. During his 'welcome-moderation' Martin and I were given a personal welcome by Dän! *juhu* I wrote him an email in december, warning him for the presence of two Dutch fans sitting in the first row, and he remembered :P He also mentioned the CD Wo der Pfeffer wächst being in the Top 100 for 10 weeks now!! The album is at place 97, so there's still some margin going upwards ;)
The show went on with Hallo Berlin and Monica. Monica is a great song, telling about the most convenient way for the world to be freed of president W. Bush. Great to see and hear this song live on stage! Followed by the 'Ballade der Woche' which was Das wärs gewesen. Clemens was doing great, even wenn he was sick. I think the majority of the people didn't notice him being ill. After this ballad they sang Das war gut. Really cool, it's one of my favorites. After this the men needed some exercise and sang Achtung ich will tanzen. I love this song and it's so great to see the energy of this song with the dancing! I love it. Next came Alter Schwede. Personally, when I hear this song on the album, I think it's a bit boring after several times. But live on stage it's totally different! I loved this performance. After Sari singing about his Powerfrau, Dän told about the commune they tried to start together ;) several years ago. This commune turned out to be a big failure and after years of taboo, they are now trying to get over it by singing the song Du bist dran. One of the most humorous songs on their latest album, and the performance with it makes it even more humorous. Just great. Eddi told about their visit in India begin januar. The Wise Guys support the project 'Two for one world' from Misereor and saw for themselves how much the money is needed. I think Misereor is doing great work, so that's why I mention it here as well. The final song before the break was Nur für dich. Of course, Clemens made the most crazy faces, and although we knew exactly what was coming, I just couldn't stop laughing about it.
During the break we had a chat with Melanie and Jenny, who were also in the first row, only a bit more to the left. I bought Klartext and Ganz weit vorne because I want to get my collection complete, and although I know all the songs, I don't have all the albums yet.
The show must go on and after three times 'ding-dong' the people went back to their seats and settled down to enjoy the second part of the show. Changed into their black clothing they started of by singing Früher. I love this song, but I can't help feeling a little sad everytime I hear this song, ('früher war alles besser = in the past everything was better') because some things were better in the past... but luckely the text is funny at the same time, and I was quickly cheered up with Ohrwurm, *hallo*hallo*, and laughed my head of with Einer von den Wise Guys. It's so silly, knowing exactly what's going to happen, then see it and laugh even harder *g*. Dän demonstrated some vocal percussion before this song started. The way he demonstrates makes you believe it's so easy.... Chocolate Chip Cookies was next in line, the German version considering the majority of german people :P Then came Zu spät, and the performance on stage makes the song twice as good (and I already loved it.. :P). The way Sari sings his 'oh no, no, no!!" is just fantastic, and together with Clemens' faces I almost fell of my chair from laughing.
Although this winter is not so cold and hard, we are longing for the summer already, and that's why they sang Juli. After this Sari told about the girl he couldn't forget Du gehtst mir nicht mehr aus dem Kopf, and then it was finally time for us to sing along with Sing mal wieder. I love this sing along thing :) but the way Eddi was behaving on stage made me uncapable of singing along, especially when he wanted us to sing something unspeakable! I don't really remember if it was in this particular song that Eddi forgot a sentence, he just didn't know what to sing haha :P Next, Martin was very happy to hear King of the Road, which is one of his favorite songs, and then they 'ended' with Deutscher Meister.
The first extra song was Live and let die. We had never heard this song before, but it's great! The way they used the stage lights in this song is brilliant. It makes this song a live song only, on a cd it would be boring perhaps. The second extra was Rasier dich. Sari and Ferenc were acting even crazier than on the DVD, it was so laughable. Sari improvising during the song made it almost impossible for Ferenc to sing along. First, the two were standing so close together that Sari spitted some saliva into Ferenc' eye, who reacted by wiping it away. Then, while dancing, Ferenc threw Sari off the side of the stage and Sari disappeared backstage. Sari came back with a crate (used for bottles of water I think), climbed up next to Ferenc and (being a head taller now), rubbed Ferenc' balding head with his sleeve. Ferenc pushed him off the crate and kicked the crate towards Sari who could barely avoid it. Ferenc tried to get Sari backstage again, started laughing and could hardly sing because of laughing hahaha.
They came back once more for their final song Jetzt ist Sommer. A great end, though as far as I'm concerned they could have sung on forever ;) After this song I felt totally recharged! And, I know now, it's true: the Wise Guys sing so good, it's like listening to the album but together with the energy and humor on the stage it's ten times better to visit a concert!
Afterglow
We found the others again and waited together for the Afterglow, where the Wise Guys would reappear for signatures, pictures and chatting. Clemens wasn't there, he went straight home after the show. The other four, Ferenc, Sari, Dän and Eddi, came after they changed clothing. Our first 'victim' was Ferenc. Still not really certain about my German language skills, I didn't know what to say and said not much to him. Next: Sari! He was very nice, I decided I did want signatures as well so I also went back to Ferenc to ask him one :P I started to feel a bit more comfortable and wenn we approached Dän I really talked to him *g*. Maybe it's also because I had already 'spoken' to him via email, but it was really nice to speak to him about several things. Dän and I also found out that the prejudices Dutch people have concerning German people are correct, and Dän also told us we were the first/only Dutch Fans he now personally knows. Eddi walked by and I was afraid to miss him, so I called him back. When he turned around Dän told him we were 'the Dutch people'. Eddi came to me and started talking Dutch! I was so amazed *pff*. It really sounded very good, but they assured me, my German sounded good as well (ok, if they say so... i'm not that certain yet - that's also the reason why i'm writing this story in English). We continued in German for Eddi's Dutch was not that extensive. All in all, this afterglow was really great. It was so nice to talk to them! And, the pictures are great as well. And...did learning German paid off? Mmm... I think so 'cause I managed, though I could do lots better!
Unfortunately there's always a time to go... and now we had to go while the wardrobe was going to close, and our jackets were still there... Next time I won't bring a jacket ;) But well, ok, we had to go anyway. We said goodbye to Dän 'cause we were still talking to him, and he shaked hands with us for goodbye.
Outside we said goodbye to Melanie, Jenny, Martina and Conny. We really had a great time with them as well!!! We drove home, arrived at 1am in Hengelo, turned on our computer and ordered tickets for the next show in Wesel (in december 2005). We'll be in the first row again, and will be sitting next to Melanie and Jenny!! *spring*!
Full of energy I went to bed, and I didn't sleep before 2.30am. Everything passed my mind again. Luckily we could both sleep in a little, for we needed to work only in the afternoon. But, at my work, and the days after, my mind was still half in Germany.... I even catch myself on thinking in German...(as far as I'm capable haha). Wise Guys, ihr geht mir nicht mehr aus dem Kopf! Danke!
