Wise Guys - Tanzbrunnen

May 27th-30st 2005 - Köln, Germany

As soon as we decided to visit the Tanzbrunnen concert, we agreed to visit Köln (Cologne) for some days as well, and have a little holiday. Here you can read all about our 'adventures' in Köln. If you are only interested in the Wise Guys concertreport, click here, and you'll jump down to the arrival at Tanzbrunnen.

Friday 27th 2005

We left home at 08.00 and travelled by train to Zutphen and Arnhem. In Arnhem we got the ICE to Köln. The journey went well and we arrived in Köln at 12.45. First thing we did was finding our hotel (Hotel Cristall) which was very easy. After dumping our things there, we walked back to the trainstation and looked at the huge Dom cathedral next to it. It's really amazing how big this cathedral is. We were getting hungry and got some pizza. While the weather was so hot we settled down on the grass at the Rheinufer (bank of the Rhine). Later that afternoon we visited the Chocolate museum. In most of the rooms there it was really cool (for else the chocolate would melt :P) so it was really comfortable to be here, and it was a lot of fun as well. The smell of chocolate was so strong, at the end we almost felt sick haha. After this we walked through the Altstadt, the old city center of Köln. Narrow alleys and houses and many cafés and restaurants. We visited the St. Martin, a nice church which together with the Dom cathedral dominates the skyline of the Rheinufer.

In the evening we were meeting some fellow-Wise-Guys-fans. First there were Melanie, Jenny and Martina, who we already knew from Wesel in January. We met Wisey, Nemesis and Carla for the first time. Together we went to a coctail bar and had a lot of fun. Of course, the Wise Guys were hot-topic nr.1 :P After drinking coctails we walked to the Rheinufer for our Vla-party. This might need some explanation..... Let's just say "vla" is a dessert from Holland and cannot be bought in Germany. Then there's this Wise Guy Dän, who somehow has got something to do with vla (the complete story for this can be found here), and he made Martina longing for it so much while she knew vla from her holiday in Holland once, in her turn making the other fans curious about vla (are you still following the story?)... All in all, we brought them vla, and ate it at 00.30am at night at the bank of the Rhine. How romantic... *looool*

After the cocktails, the fun, the vla, and even more fun, we went back to our hotel, and the others went back home. Next day we would meet all again at the concert.

Saturday 28th 2005

In the morning we wanted to visit the Dom cathedral. While it was already getting very hot outside, we were walking in the cool cathedral, watching the magnificence of it. We climbed the tower which were 509 steps. A very heavy climb, for in the tower it was hot and there were lots of people going up and down. But, the view from the tower was awesome. The sky was clear and we made quite a lot of pretty pictures. Unfortunately we had to get down again into the heat of the tower. But, when we had recovered it was time to go to Tanzbrunnen! So we walked over the Hohenzollernbridge for the first time (such a big bridge), and walked to the grounds of Tanzbrunnen.

We arrived at Tanzbrunnen at 12.30. The others from last night were already sitting there, along with about 30 (?) other fans. We settled down and started the waiting :P We were sitting in the shadow and somebody brought a cd-player which was playing... (guess once!)... yes, playing Wise Guys music. The Wise Guys had already arrived earlier. At one point, Dän came over to see these crazy people, and my dear Martin (grrr) had to make clear the Dutch people were also present ;) We had a mini-chat which sounded something like this: Dän: "Seit ihr heute angekommen?" Ich: "Nein, gestern, und wir bleiben bis Montag" Dän: "Ach, schön. Und wie findet ihr Köln? Ich: "Schön!" Martin: "Einfach korrekt!!" Dän: "... aah, das ist das richtige Antwort!" *loool*! (this part is in German for only the German readers will understand the fun of it :P)

While waiting we could hear the soundcheck which was really fun, for there were some new songs which I didn't know yet. Martin watched a little part from the soundcheck because first you could still enter the Tanzbrunnen grounds. Later the gates were closed, when more people were arriving. At 15.30 the gate opened and we ran to the stage. The others had run faster, they stood in the first row, we stood a little more to the back, somewhere in the fourth row, which was excellent. We had to wait for another hour for the supporting act to begin. These were the Rockhousebrothers. They were crazy and musically very good, but it wasn't really my type of music. Though, I thought it was somehow rude or impudent there were some people who kept sitting on the ground, reading their newspaper, while the Rockhousebrothers were performing. The least you could do was stand up and listen to it, right?

Only later, I realised the Rockhouse Brothers are so cool! But during Tanzbrunnen I was too much longing for the Wise Guys. Stupid me. I didn't enjoy the RHB performance enough. Right now I'm quite sure I'll see them again one day. Don't know when, but I really want to party with them!

Time for the Wise Guys to start! After counting down all together they appeared on the stage and started by singing Showtime followed directly by Wo der Pfeffer wächst. The audience was suffering from the heat, but the Wise Guys had even a harder job on stage. Nevertheless the mood was awesome. To be in such an audience is so great! And the Wise Guys gave all they had.

I haven't written down the order of the different songs, though I can mention all the songs they've song. I've wrote it down on Sunday morning so maybe I've forgotten some titles. But I think I've got most of the songs here:

Showtime	Wo der Pfeffer wächst	Achtung ich will tanzen
Einer von den Wise Guys	Nur für dich	Probiers mal mit 'm Bas
King of the Road	Powerfrau	Jetzt ist Sommer
Erzähl mir die Geschichte	Chocolate Chip Cookies (de)	Das war gut
Was für eine Nacht	Ohrwurm	Du gehtst mir nicht mehr aus dem Kopf
Du kannst nicht alles haben	Zu spät	Du bist dran
Sing mal wieder	Denglisch (new)	Mad World (new)
9Live (new)	Feierabend (new)	Hallo Berlin
Monica	Wir werden Weltmeister (new)	Weil ich ein Kölner bin
Ruf doch mal an	Nein nein nein	Sensationell
Mädchen lach doch mal

Update 16 June: After reading Anette's Tanzbrunnen report I found out I only forgot one (1!) song. What a good memory I have ;) The song they also sang and isn't in this list above is 'Deutscher Meister'. So right now the list is complete :P

The funniest thing happened while they were singing Erzähl mir die Geschichte. Imagine a very, very, very hot, summery day. It was such a day. And then Dän is singing: "Es wird allmählich kühl hier draußen. Du hast die Jacke zu gemacht. Die Stadt träumt vorsichtig vom Sommer in dieser frühen Juninacht." It looked like he hadn't thought of these lines being so very untrue today. Everybody was laughing (including Wise Guys), even though it's a very serious song. Achtung ich will tanzen was a very exhausting song today, but still the men were dancing it as if it wasn't warm at all!

The new songs were all great. Because German is not my native language I always have a little problem with understanding new songs the first time I hear them. I should read the text first, and then hear it, if I want to understand it all. 9Live, a new song with the melody of 'We will survive' was in this situation hard to understand for the audience was going wild. The other songs were not that hard to understand, maybe my German is getting better? ;) Denglish is about the anglicising of German language and I can easily understand it for the same phenomenon is taken place in Holland. It has a really funny songtext, and it always makes me wonder how somebody can write something like that :) Wir werden Weltmeister is not about soccer this time, but it seems there are lots of options to become worldchampion *cool*. Feierabend is a new song I already knew the text from. But, today I heard the melody for the first time :P It's a nice song but I need to hear it more often to keep the melody of the strophe in my head (hat einfach keinen 'Ohrwurm-Gehalt' *g*). Mad World is just a very beautiful song (original from Tears for Fears) and this a cappella arrangement is so pure. I love it. I've noticed many times already I often prefer familiar songs in an a cappella arrangement. I feel that way wenn I hear Montezuma's Revenge sing Christina Aquilera's 'Beautiful' and wenn Voicemail sang 'Ramaganana' from Treble, this thought also crossed my mind. Hmmm.... yeah, I know what it is, I'm just an a cappella fan *g*.

Most fun I had was during Ruf doch mal an. It's weird, because when I see and hear this song on the TB-DVD it's one of the songs I like a little less. But, being in the audience (11500 people!) and jumping and clapping all together is just insane! I guess it's just a jump-along-song or something like that :P

Many songs have been sung and it seemed like they just couldn't get enough of it. The show ended after 21.00! It took some time for the afterparty to start, we relaxed a bit and waited for most people to leave the ground. Melanie and Martina had to hand over some presents to each Wise Guy (the summergreetz-action) and we had a little chat with Eddi, in Dutch :P That's really funny, his Dutch is quite good and Melanie and Martina couldn't understand anything of it. Now they know how it feels *hehehe* ;) But, finally I got to know why Eddi can speak Dutch, and the reason is quite simple, he worked in Brussels long ago. We entered the Tanzbrunnen-Theater to join the Afterparty, which actually was a big disco. Dän played DJ for a little time, which was cool - I like his music taste. For the rest, well, we're not really dancing-types.... It was fun with the others, to have another chat, evaluate the concert *g* etc.

We walked back to the hotel (walked over the Hohenzollernbridge for the second time) and made some pretty pictures from Köln by night. It's beautiful! We were really tired from the heat, the climbing of the Dom, the waiting, the standing, the singing, shouting, screaming, jumping. But it was worth it, wow! Was für eine Nacht eh.. Tag!

Sunday 29th 2005

We had a late breakfast and next we decided to walk to Tanzbrunnen again. For the third time we walked over the Hohenzollernbridge. We saw the empty stage, had a closer look to the springs itself (brunnen = springs), and walked through the Rheinpark to the Seilbahn (cable railway). The Rheinpark is really, really big. It would be a perfect place for me to go running or skating!! The cable railway was fun, it took us back to the other bank of the river again. We walked back to the center and crossed a big Flomarkt (flea market). After this walk we had a rest on the grass at the Rheinufer again. Later we walked through the center to see Haus 4711, where eau de cologne is invented, from Neumarkt to the Kölner Pegel (where you can read the water level of the Rhine) and the statues of Tünnes and Schäl, two figures who are often the subject of jokes.

Our feet and legs were starting to hurt at this point, so we decided to walk to the Rheinpark and settle ourselves next to the gate of Tanzbrunnen (AGAIN?? ja!) :P so we could hear the second Wise Guys concert from there while lying on the grass. We agreed to stay there untill we got hungry. If we would get hungry we would leave and find ourselves dinner somewhere. For the fourth time we had to walk over the Hohenzollernbridge! It was getting kind' of boring ;) The sky was getting a little more cloudy and there was more wind. Many poplar-pollen were flying through the sky, it looked like it was snowing. These pollen turned out to be very annoying.... we were waiting for the Wise Guys to start, but it took long, and after a while Eddi came on the stage to announce Dän had probably breathed in some of these pollen with the result a big coughing fit. At that moment he wasn't able to sing, a doctor was on his way. The audience was asked to be patient. After a while, Eddi came with news; in the worst case the concert had to be cancelled, in the best case, Dän would get an injection which would make it possible to sing for some hours.... How regrettable it would be for the audience, I was hoping for the concert to be cancelled, for such an injection didn't sound that healty. Some time later, Eddi came on stage again and he told the audience the concert had to be canceled. He asked for understanding, and got it. Clemens, Sari, and Ferenc came on stage and with four they sang some songs. They needed to improvise a lot and made the audience sing Dän's voice with Jetzt ist Sommer. They also sang Mädchen lach doch mal, Denglisch, Einer von den Wise Guys (with Clemens mouthdrumming), Was für eine Nacht, Nur für dich, Ruf doch mal an, and 9Live.

How regrettable this cancellation was... but health comes first in all cases. We walked over the Tanzbrunnen grounds (for the gates were opened now) and watched some of the outtakes from the new WG-DVD, which was playing on the big screen. After that we wanted to go to the Altstadt to have dinner. But thousends of people were also walking into that direction. We decided to take the little ferry to the other side of the Rhine for this way of transportation over the Rhine was still new for us (for we had crossed the Rhine by train, by cable railway and walking already :D). We found ourselves a nice Thai restaurant, we love Thai food :P After this we walked to the hotel and spend the rest of the evening lying on our bed, watching tv (Martins 'favorite' program was on - GIGA - and he can never watch it in Holland - only on the net, so he just had to see it *g*)

Monday 30th 2005

We had breakfast early and checked out at 10.30. I came up with the best idea ever: walking to the Wise Guys Buro (their office).... It didn't seem to be that far - how one can be mistaken... It turned out to be a long long walk, but we saw other parts from Köln which were less touristic and more urban like we know it from Holland. Watching this 'normal life in Köln' was fun as well, except for the fact our legs and feet were not really recovered from the first 3 days in Köln... So it turned out to be a painful trip and of course we were too stubborn to try any form of public transportation which would have made it a lot more comfortable haha. Somehow the weather had changed into a grey day with clouds and wind. It was too cold to sit down and relax, so we kept walking and walking. We found the Wise Guys Buro easily. Of course we didn't walk so far without a reason: We had bought two postcards. One for Dän: *GUTE BESSERUNG* (get well soon) and one for the other four Wise Guys: *HALLO HALLO*. I had expected there would be a mailbox, but there wasn't, so we had to enter the Buro and deliver the cards personally to the people working there. Because this was something I didn't expected, I hadn't got the slightest idea what to say and after handing over the cards to a woman (I thought it was Clemens' wife), stumbling some German, we quickly went outside and I could almost hit myself for acting so stupid haha. When we walked away I thought about 10 things I could have said instead, and they were all better options - but well *aaarg* ;)

I was getting so tired, but now we had to walk all the way back to the city center! We took another route, which led us through the Volksgarten back to the Altstadt. When we got there we had a late lunch at Burger King and then made an excursion trip in a boat on the Rhine. It was so good to sit in this boat! It wasn't cold and I could finally relax. I took of my shoes and discoverd two blisters. *AUCH* So that was hurting me all day already! During the boat trip I enjoyed the pretty views so much. In two hours we would have to leave again....

After the boat trip we went to the trainstation, bought ourselves some food for during the way back and I bought a Köln souvenir: An "I LOVE KöLN" bag! So cool :P I'll have it signed next time I'm visiting a Wise Guys concert *ggg* Our train left at 16.18. On our way back we thought of several reason to visit Köln again - for we loved it so much:

We haven't crossed the Rhine by bike-taxi yet;
We still want to see the East-Asian Artmuseum;
Martin wants to visit a concert in the Philharmonie (we're still wondering about the silly construction of this theatre, for if there's a concert, you are not allowed to walk over the square that lies above the theater...)
And I want to visit a concert in Senftöpfchen (but therefor I need a better job first, for the drinks are too expensive) ;)
Tanzbrunnen need to be repeatet someday;
They say carnival should be great in Köln....? We could combine it with the Wise Guys Totalnacht (which is a very large concert) next Februar, but that is IF we are lucky enough to become tickets, because those tickets are most-wanted :/
And maybe I should enter the Wise Guys Buro again one day - this time with better preperation *lol*