Wise Guys in Bamberg - Spezialnacht
November 4th 2006 - JAKO Arena Bamberg, Germany
What happened before...
Insane, totally crazy, out of my mind. That's how I feel. We are going to Bamberg, it's about 510 km from home. Why are we doing this? Will it really be worth the trip? It's Friday the 3rd of November and I'm feeling nervous. Nervous and excited. In the evening I'm playing volleyball and after the game I go home early and I tell my team-mates it's because I have to get up early on Saturday morning because we're going to Bamberg to see the Wise Guys. "Bamberg? Where's that?"
Saturday morning: All our things are packed and we put them in the car. But then we discover our left mirror has endured a big push during the night and the plastic casing is broken. D*mn!! We can't drive with a broken mirror! We wait for our car dealer to open. Unfortunately they don't have a new mirror for us in store, but they can fix it in a way we can drive with it. So we leave with an hour delay, at 9.30.
The route to Bamberg is quite easy. We run into a traffic jam near Osnabrück, and we pass several
places where they are working on the road. The landscape is beautiful. We're driving through hills
and the clouds are low. It feels like driving on top of the world. Bielefeld, Paderborn, Kassel
(we're halfway!), direction Würzburg... Bamberg is getting closer and closer. Unfortunately the
tunnel on the A70 is closed... there's a traffic diversion which takes some time. But finally,
after 6 hours, we enter Bamberg.
Lena and Nina are waiting for us, but they're getting worried (and hungry) and when we're driving in Bamberg we receive an SMS: "Sollen wir schon mal Würstchen kochen? ;) Wo seid ihr? *rumnerv*". At 15.45 we finally arrive, and are welcomed by Lena and Nina. We are pretty tired but we can relax a while. We have an early dinner together and then we leave again at 5, to the JAKO Arena!
At this point, the excitement grows. The long, long trip was beautiful, but boring at the same time.
It's weird to be so far away from home, but so great to be with friends again! And now we're driving
to the JAKO Arena together to see the Wise Guys!! It's very close, and we find a nice parking place next to
the car of the Wise Guys Technical Crew. It's a funny sight, their big silver car and our little red
Dutch car next to it. Lena and Nina call Christoph to ask where to enter, because they can enter backstage
to set up the Misereor stand.
They're the Misereor promoters of today's concert. Martin and I walk to the front and there we meet
other people we know from other concerts. We don't have to wait very long before we can enter.
The hall is enormously big and when we enter it's still quite empty. On the left and right of the stage there are huge screens where the camera views will be projected, so people in the back will have a good view as well. We walk around for a while, meet more people we know, and then we sit down and wait. Our places are so great. First row, in the middle, right in front of the stage. We've been very lucky to get these tickets!
First part...
Before the concert starts, we're given some extras on the screens. After all, this is the Spezialnacht, so there'll be some special things tonight. There's the video clip from the song Radio, which has been edited since I've last seen it with the Tanzbrunnen concert. It's really such a great video! And not only because it's my favorite song. If you see the video you just want to drive along in the car with Dän. There's also a small video with some parts of songs, filmed during the concert the Wise Guys gave earlier this year together with the classical orchestra Schumann Camerata. Great to see and hear that, especially a little part of Du bist die Musik. This song has never been on stage, because on the album version the voices are doubled about three times. I love the rougher sound of the song, but to reach the same effect on stage is impossible. Together with Schumann Camerata they are able to create these goosebumps. Great to see that now, although it's just a small part of the song that's being shown. The video clip from Jetzt und hier is also projected on the screens and at 8, just before the concert starts, there's a movie in which dr. Frank N. Stein (Ferenc) and his half deaf assistant Quasi Mono (Eddi) try to produce the perfect Wise Guys fan in their lab. Dr. Frank N. Stein succeeds, but Quasi Mono adds a few ingredients to the potion and he produces the worst possible Wise Guys fan. Sari is playing both fan-roles and he's doing a perfect job. Oh, I do hope this movie will be put on a Wise Guys DVD in the future. It's so funny. After the movie the countdown starts, from 60 to 0. Thousands of people are counting down the final numbers together and then an enormous applause and screaming starts. Eddi enters the stage and the audience gets wild!
One by one they appear on stage, just as we're used to during the Opener. The laughter after Eddi and Sari's crazy faces is not as loud as expected, so they both shrug and sing along. It's so great to hear so many people clapping their hands on the rhythm. This party is going to be great!
I didn't make any notes during the concert, so I don't remember exactly what happened with every song.
And moreover; it would make this report much too long. Although I fear this is going to be a long report anyway ;)
During the first part of the normal concert, the next songs are sung:
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After Denglisch there's the traditional "Zuschauerbefragung". How many kilometers did everyone drive (furthest away was over 800 km), how old are you (most people are between 20 - 40), who is visiting the Wise Guys for the first time today? Etc. etc. This is the third Spezialnacht and the Wise Guys have been looking forward to it a lot as well. They're all healthy and ready to rock the place!
The song Sie bricht mir das Herz is always beautiful to hear live. On the album I think it's sung too fast, but here... wow. 9Live is also great to hear and see again, also because the funny video with Eddi is playing along on the screens. Warum hast du das getan is so funny, mostly because a man sitting on our left broke out into laughter when the refrain started. He clearly didn't know the song yet. And I've never seen so many people join in with Schunkeln. It must be a great view from the stage, because when I look back I see people 'schunkeln' everywhere. A fantastic sight! Only Clemens doesn't like it very much and he looks at us with his most angry face. And all we do is laugh at him ;) Suddenly there are two girls waltzing between the first row and the stage, and they dance during the complete song. What a great idea :) One camera is following them and they're on the screens. The Wise Guys are enjoying this as well.
The Wise Guys are wearing the clothes they normally wear during the first half of a show. Only Ferenc
is wearing other clothing. Did he forget his pink shirt? Well, I don't like pink a lot anyway ;) The
first part of the concert is over so quickly. I can't find words to describe it all. The atmosphere
is so overwhelming. During the break we buy ourselves a drink and we wait for the next part to start. I'm
feeling tired, but so happy to be here and I don't care if I'm tired (schlafen kann man, wenn man tot ist!).
I already know: This is worth the trip!
Second part...
The songs they sing in the second part are:
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The second part of the show the Wise Guys are wearing their usual black suits.
It's great to hear and see some old songs today. But the new songs are just as interesting.
Radio is still my favorite song at the moment, and when it starts I'm thrilled. I just love this song!!
Pity in the second part of the song Dän seems to be distracted or something like that. The timing is just not
right... but still, goosebumps all over me. Relativ is a new song, and the text is really
funny. On the screens a photo-movie is playing along which gives the song extra reason to laugh about.
Paris is also quite new, though I've heard it in Osnabrück already. I really like the
fact Dän has got two new leads, because in the past year it seemed to me that most leads were sung by Eddi,
Sari and Clemens.
Paris is also very funny, because of the French words and sentences that
rhyme with the German text. It reminded us of a Dutch comedian who once said: "When a Frenchman talks about
'liberté', he's talking about freedom. But when a German is talking about 'liberté', he rather
wants tea." Ok, I'm straying here...
The other songs are great as well and I enjoy them so much. To me, Sing mal wieder was
always one of the highlights of a concert, but that seems to lessen. Eddi is still playing with the audience in such
an admirable way, but during the years I've known this song, he's changed the parts we have to sing in a way I like
them less. I just want to sing out loud with all these 5000 people now, I don't want to whisper and groan
with them.
Eddi is introducing Tiefgang and I don't remember what he said, but: During the
past months he's been having trouble introducing this song, because as soon as the audience understood
he was talking about one of Ferenc' rare leads, the clapping and screaming would become so loud that
Eddi couldn't finish his story. Today he's introducing the song in a way even Ferenc doesn't know it's
about him, and only at the end of the story Ferenc breaks into laughter because he notices it's about
him and it's his turn to sing. And only then the audience notices. At least so it appears to me. Good
job Eddi! ;) During the song, Ferenc is bursting into laughter when Eddi is moving like a "Hektiker auf
Reisen". Ferenc forgets about the next line and is just laughing and so we'll never know Eddi's Baldrian
pills were stolen. After the song, the clapping and screaming holds on for a while. Ferenc' popularity is
so big.
With Nur für dich it seems to take minutes before Clemens starts to sing. He's teasing his colleagues while they repeat the intro over and over again. And Clemens is just grinning at the audience.
Schiller (free translation of "Thriller" from Michael Jackson) is the final song
before the next break. I'm really curious, because I haven't heard the song yet, and Montezuma's
Revenge has got "Thriller" in their new theater show as well. Time to compare! ;) No, actually you
can't compare the two versions. Both groups are so different. I really like the choreography the Wise
Guys are showing us. It's very tight, there are many Michael Jackson moves, and the spoken part is just
spooky and ominously! It's fascinating to see. Zombies, werewolves... The text was hard to follow for
me, and I only understood it roughly. But, there'll be taken care of. I'll study "Die Bürgschaft" and
next time I'll be able to sing along ;)
Mitsingteil...
The normal concert is over and we're all having a break before the "Mitsingteil" starts. During this part of the show, the audience is not only allowed to sing along, no; it's meant to sing along! No excuses, the song texts are all being projected on the big screens. So even if you don't know the texts, you can read them and sing along. And because this part of tonight is different, there are different clothes as well. Every Wise Guy is wearing his favorite clothes. Right from the start I think Dän is going to regret to have chosen his warm ROOTS sweater, but he seems pretty happy in it until the end. Sari and Clemens are both wearing white, but well... if it's their favorite... ;)
There are 28 songs in the final part of the show. No breaks anymore, just party!
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To start with Jetzt und hier is a very good idea, because it's probably putting into words what everybody is feeling tonight. "Das Wichtigste sind wir, und das Jetzt und Hier, und dass wir alle hier zusammen sind! Ganz egal, ob das so bleibt oder auseinandertreibt: Es zählt jetzt nur, dass wir zusammen sind!" Dän tells us it's up to us if we sit down or stand up during this part of the show. The result is nice: During the balads and slower songs everybody sits down, during the up tempo songs, everybody stands up to dance, jump and clap. Amazing how this works out. To quote Dän: "Und dann dieses Aufstehen und Wieder-Hinsetzen: Wie ein Mann und wie auf Knopfdruck, als ob irgendwo eine Regieanweisung gestanden hätte."
Sonja Wilts from LaLeLu has come from Hamburg to sing
Das fremde Wesen with Eddi.
Actually it's a pity this song is in the sing-along-part and not in the normal part of the show. She gets a
huge applause and she acts like if she's really nervous. Is it real nervousness or is she acting? I don't
know. Because she's traveled such a long way, Sonja and the Wise Guys will sing another song together. It's
another version from Nur für dich, this time from a woman's point of view. The
text is written by the a cappella group Quempas from Austria.
It's hilarious and every woman in the hall sings along hahaha.
To sing Kaiser Franz, the Wise Guys need help from the audience. We need to
make some sounds to resemble the forest. No problem of course, and during the complete song there are forest
sounds all around us. It's one of the few songs I don't know the song text by head, and I don't read along
with the screens because I feel like I'm missing too much from what's happening on stage if I look at the
texts.
Again it's great to hear old songs, such as Willst du mit mir gehen and
Tekkno. Tekkno is sung so terribly quick, wow!
Mad World sounds like a huge choir all together, and although I prefer to hear
this song with absolute silence around me, it's really beautiful like this as well. Dän is impressed as well,
and he compliments us for singing so beautiful.
Clemens has calculated that there must be people here today who are celebrating their birthday. And of course, he is right. Especially for them, they will sing das Ständchen. Next song is Jetzt ist Sommer, and during the song a polonaise is started by dozens of people from the audience. Hahaha, so funny. I bet that never happened before! After the song, there are quite a lot of kids in front of us who left their places to join the polonaise, and they sit down in front of the first row to have a better view on the stage. Among them, some 10/12-year old boys and girls who are terribly excited to be this close to their stars haha. Rasier dich (free translation of "Something Stupid") is great to see again. Sari and Ferenc are dancing and Sari tries to make Ferenc laugh. But Ferenc succeeds in continuing singing his text.
With Ruf doch mal an a big part of the audience is jumping. King of the Road and Probiers mal mit 'nem Bass are two songs for Ferenc and the audience gets wild when he's finished. Schlag mich baby is still a great choreography, Britney could learn from it ;) After Zwischenbilanz the concert is officially over. But, we're in Germany so there are three extra songs. Although they could have skipped Ohrwurm if they'd asked me ;) But on the other hand, this song has been such a huge success, they can't skip it. The other two extra songs are great. I don't know what time it is, but it must be very late already. Fifty songs on one night :) it was definitely worth the trip to Bamberg!! :D
After the final song, it's time to see the "Abspann". It's a movie on the screens with all the people
who cooperated to make this concert a success. There are a lot of people and the comments written to their names
in the movie are funny. And they all get their own applause! Then, there are "Outtakes" from the filming of
"Radio" and the intromovie, and once again we laugh our heads off.
And then, it's really over. In the hall, the Wise Guys are signing hundreds of possible things (mostly
concert tickets), and Lena and Nina are promoting for Misereor again. We have to wait for them to finish,
and then we bring the Misereor box backstage. The crew is already breaking down the stage.
When we leave the JAKO Arena we are terribly hungry and when we get home at 1.45 we first eat the leftovers of our dinner and Lena and Nina eat vla. That's their price for giving us a place to sleep: vla. When we finally go to bed at 3 in the morning my head is full of thoughts and memories, but I'm so tired I fall asleep almost immediately.
Getting home on Sunday is easy, we don't even need our map. The tunnel has opened again and there's no traffic jam during the journey. Only 5,5 hours later we are back home in Hengelo. And then it suddenly feels so unreal to believe we've really been to Bamberg. Insane, totally crazy, out of my mind. Why did we do this? Was it worth the trip? ... Oh yes, is was definitely worth the trip!!!
