Just got back from Hamburg. Great weather, amazing venue, it was like Sheryl playing in your garden, very familar and relaxed atmosphere, but a rather sleepy audience. My girlfriend and I stood like two arms away from Peter and we also got to see Sheryl that close. Great great venue!!!
Sheryl came out first alone quite early during sunset. They forgot to turn off the waiting music when she walked on stage so she was already on the stage with loud applause AND the music from Jimmy Cliff. She took her signature acoustic guitar and stumbled into a nervous yet beautiful “God Bless This Mess”, mixing up the lyrics a bit at the beginning. After that song, the band came out and kicked right into “Shine Over Babylon”, just like on the album.
Peter Strout is the man. I couldn’t help but just smile at him when he came out and he always responded with nodding and smiling back at me and the other fans in front of him. The guy is spreading a lot of positive energy in the show and he really seemed to have fun in Hamburg. He got a lot response for his guitar solos but he almost seemed a little surprised to have fans in Germany. Well, I hope we did not scare him too much. ;-)
The set featured no surprises, but I have to say the songs from “Detours” really sound MUCH better live. I’m glad only the best ones were played though. The highlights for me were a hard and almost messy version of “Neighborhood” followed by a powerful “Gasoline” with a bit of “Gimme Shelter” thrown in. I think that was the best part of the show, along with a cool drum solo during "Out Of Our Heads" and an almost Zeppelin-ish “Soak Up The Sun” on steroids later in the set. A lot of songs were played a bit slower and with a lot more edge than on the records, that was very good.
The show was rather short, Sheryl was almost rushing through the set, impatiently whenever a guitar wasn't given to her quick enough. People were about to fall asleep halfway through the show regardless, thanks to the poor sequencing. “If It Makes You Happy” was played much too late, that song should be among the first three in the show. Both the song and the show lost energy when it was played so late in the set. "First Cut" and "Detours" kind of killed all the energy that was build up before and it was clear in the Led Zeppelin encore that the audience wanted to rock.
Sheryl was talking a bit between the songs, about how it’s been a while since she’s been to Germany (tell me about it!) and how about gas prices in Germany are even higher than in the US and stuff like that. She was also thanking the audience many times and she came down to the middle of the first row a few times throughout the show, taking gifts from the fans and shaking hands but unfortunately she never walked down to our side. Maybe next time with more comfortable shoes? She moved like Tina Turner in these shoes, it looked really weird.
Though she really tried and be nice and professional I got the impression she was "putting on a show" rather than truly feeling it in Hamburg. I think she was somewhere else with her thoughts (just my impression) but if she was you could definetely not hear it in the performance. Her voice often sounded better than on her albums and not only for one or two songs but for the entire show. She even turned OFF the vocal enhancers (reverb and stuff), whenever that stuff was programmed into her footboard you could hear the first line of some songs with vocal effects and then she almost immediately stomped on her pedals to turn it off.
As for the overall sound, well everything was audible but the mix really wasn't the best and the show was a new definition of volume for me. My ears are not ringing, they are BLEEDING.
The band introduction was a rather quick and rushed one at the end of a song, it really could have been done a bit nicer, especially with a band as good as this one. I don’t want to get into reviewing each band member here, but I think they are all great musicians and Sheryl would have sounded only half as good without them.
I hope Sheryl will come back to Germany in better mood but with the same band and with more songs. If you can, go and see this show. I’m not a fan of the new album but if they’d play more shows here I’d go and see them again any day.
SHERYL & BAND, THANK YOU FOR COMING TO HAMBURG AND PLEASE COME BACK FOR MORE SHOWS IN GERMANY!
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Here is a link to more pictures from Hamburg:
http://www.ndr2.de/pages_special_lib/0,3322,SPM7462,00.html?aktion=aktion1349