music is (my) life

September 19th 2011, Palladium.

so, last (3 of 3) review of my personal black star tour shows. this time i decided to arrive in the city one day bfore the show. and i wanted to book an hotel near the venue. so i took the train from where i live and it took me about 5hrs & 30minutes to arrive to Köln (cologne). went to the hotel, quick break, then checked out the exact location of the venue. spot this black star tour poster here:

then walked back to the hotel (about 13minutes from the venue) & decided, for once, to go to bed early. fell asleep shortly after 9pm & was waken up by my alarm at 5am. got ready -black star tour smile shirt i bought in milano- and walked to the venue. arrived approx. at 5:45am. 2ppl already there xD a guy & a gurl, both not from cologne. the gurl, Alex (bandaids member) arrived at about 2am, the guy at 4am. so we began waiting. a polish gurl came with her dad at 7am. a 4-5 danish ppl came at 7:30am. Francesca (important bandaids & italian team member) & Alice (italian team) arrived at 8am. Jana (bandaids member) & her friend came approx. 8:15am. they brought some paper smileys & hearts for the fan action that was planned for the show. so we started waiting. i 1st didnt talk to Francesca & Alice, but then i thought it would’ve been even more weird to wait hrs and then talk to them occasionally later on. so we started talking, and they were quite shocked at 1st that i was italian LOL we talked a lot. ppl from czech republic arrived. at about 10am the security told us to leave the entrance area and they started building up the barriers. little chaotic since no one wanted to loose his/her place in line & some wanted to sneak themselves to the front of the line - fucking basterds. we started the ‘numbering ppl’s hands’ method while we were still waiting at the front of the entrace but it didnt work out well after moving to that new place. [i was number 3 btw :D] we waited and waited. at about 4pm the line got longer and longer. it even went around the corner. the busses arrived in the morning. one was even already there at 5:45 when i arrived - bet the one of the crew. at 9am 2 of them moved to the parking space in front of the E-Werk: another location that is located directly in front of the palladium. i got told those two where the ones from the crew and the band. Avrils apparently stayed backstage. but, since Brody tweeted they were (out?) eating something, she propably arrived to the venue with a small van. 6:30pm - doors opening. those idiots who reserved their tickets somehow managed to get inside the venue approximately at the same time as us oO stupid security. well, we walked (not ran xD) inside and there - next to Jana (in this order - from the left side of the stage - towards the center and front of Avrils microphone), Alex, Francesca, Alice, was my place. FUCKING FIRST ROW. (after torino 3rd/4th, milano 10th,2nd xD) we started waiting. excitement building up. Sons of Midnight, aussie band, started playing at 7pm. Brody Jenner & Rodney Howard watching from above. really good support. suited nicely. support over at 7:30. waiting for Avril. her crew builds up that partial drum kit they also built up in torino (and then didnt use in the end). since i heard they used it for Stop Standing There in the south american leg of the Black Star Tour i told to Francesca & Alice that we were propably/hopefully getting to hear the *european live premiere* at the show. they didnt believe it at 1st.. Avril came on stage at 8:30pm. with the following setlist.. (*exclusive photo* - courtesy of Avrils crew/Alice Di Loreto)

at the option point she chose to play Nobody’s Home & not Push (unfortunately). slighly mixed up, she played STOP STANDING THERE!!! fuckyea. she played it! not the best version since u could see & hear she didnt play it live in a while, but with Jimmy playing that partial drum kit and Av on the piano it sounded great. so happy she played a song i never heard live :) also, to me, that song has a really unique rhythm. Butch Walker did such a good job producing it. i made videos/pics of the show again. vids, incl. some really good+CLOSE ones since i got a new cam borrowed for this show, up on my YT channel soon - http://www.youtube.com/user/mylivevids . some pics will possibly be uploaded to my flickr account. though most of them werent that good. the show was over at about 10pm. good audience, not jumping too much around, but singing quite loudly. (personal ranking: 1.milano, 2.cologne & torino - more or less equally). Alice got the selist. i stopped by the merch. this time managed to get the tour book bfore it was sold out. (looks incredibly good & has some really gorgeous photos). said bye bye to our polish friends. walked outside. saw they sold some good looking imitation of the black star tour poster, so bought one. Alex waited for me the venue while i accomanied Francesca & Alice to the subway/underground station. on the way we talked a lot, about Bandaids & the Italian Forum. its really incredible to hear what especially Francesca does for Avril every day. to me there’s no fan out there like her. it was a great pleasure & experience meeting them both. i walked back to the venue and sneaked in backstage. managed to catch Sons of Midnight (support band) leaving the venue. had a quick small talk. cool dudes. went to the front again to get Alex since she was waiting there, we went backstage again and almost no one was there. the crew was all inside their tour bus, and there was this other one with the lights on and connected to the electricity of the venue. i decided to check out on my ipod, since i wrote it down, the busses licence plates. i already had two: the one from the crew & the one of the band. that bus who was parked there had a completely new license plate. but it WAS 1 of 3 of the beat the street busses they’re all travelling on. we waited, then decided to knock on the door LOL a guy opened (Avs tour manager?) and he said ‘she’s not here, im just seeing her in 2days in london’ door closes immediately* oO door opens again* ‘she’s not here’. Alex gave him the german flag we made with all of the signatures of the 1st ppl who arrived at the venue ‘German Little Black Stars’ and he wasnt quite enthusiastic, but he say he would give it to her. [small accomplishment]. we decided to leave. to me, the interior of the bus looked quite more luxurios than the usual ‘beat the street’ nightliner so chances were it really was Avrils tour bus. that guy didnt sound very convincing to me. my feeling was saying Avril was inside. but of course possibilities were she really left in a van. so, anyway, i walked back to my hotel..slightly tired. early the next morning i had my alarm ringing. central station to leave the city of cologne. to resume i can say it was a cool tour. seeing an artist more than once is something i just do for my favourites. (& there’s no secret Avril blongs to them). of course the setlist is -more or less.. hehe- always the same, but do u really mind if u love an artist? and, since i love meeting new ppl, waiting with some of them who share the same interest in an artist and that for them its also important to arrive early to a venue in order to get to the front rows and be ‘near’ to the artist on stage, talk to them, share interests, spend time 2gether, is something u wouldnt be able to do that easily in normal life. so its something quite special. as for as my character goes, i can say i love it. the other Bandaids members are about to watch the LDN show at the hammersmith apollo 2nightt, i wish i was there /w them.. and, even if the european leg of the black star tour is almost over, i really hope she comes back next yr. like Deryck Whilbley (ex-husband/sum41 leader) said: ‘its all about her voice’.

September 11th 2011, Mediolanum Forum.

alrightt then. 2nd of 3 of my black star tour reviews. in the morning i took the train towards milano & i met up with a new friend i got to know a few days ago at the torino show. we arrived in milano at 10:45am. he immediately took the subway/underground to the Forum (venue of the show), i had to stop at my hotel 1st to leave my luggage there. i arrived at the venue at about 01:00pm which is, u’re right, not early. i already had the suspect there were a lot of ppl waiting in line (it was a sunday), but i WAS surprised to see already 200-300ppl being there that early!!! so we began waiting. to our luck it wasnt that hot at the line place where we were waiting. we had shadow, the sun was shining only for the 1st group of ppl. Sharifa (co-founder of Avrilbandaids), Georgie (Avrilbandaids), Francesca [wo had birthday the day bfore the show when Av was in Rome, got the chance to meet Av thnxx to Bandaids, requested Everybody Hurts and ‘Fix You’ (coldplay cover) – Av played Fix You later at the show dedicating it to Bandaids - fuckyea] & Alice (both of Avrils Italian Team) werent the 1st in line this time – approx. 11 peeps arrived the evening bfore while those 4 were attending the Rome show.. at about 4pm i went walking around cause i was tired of sitting down waiting. i decided to check to the busses backstage area where in march i met some members of T.Swifts Agency. this time the area was closed, but the fence there is not far away from where the busses are, so we had no problem seeing if someone would have walked out a bus or out of the arena to the bus. 3 beat the street busses + 1 mercedes van (bet Av arrived in that one). we met Rodney Howard – Avrils drummer – a bunch of times since he walked by a bunch of times, & he always talked to us. such a nice person. also met Jimmy McGorman – Avrils guitar player & musical director. i asked him about his opinion on the new Kate Voegele album ‘gravity happens’ since i know he co-wrote a few songs with her on her past records. well, he did NOT understand who i was talking about LOL i repeated kates name 3 times but he didnt understand xD is it hard to understand kate? i understand voegele cause of the many different pronounciations.. in my opinion he couldve been drunk, stoned or just tired xD also met a guy named Matt who was incredibly nice. he was Avrils guitar technician. he swore on his heart that Avril was in a hotel with her friends & was arriving at the venue in time for the beginning of the show. at 6:15pm i walked back to the other side where a friend of mine was holding my spot in the line. punctually at 6:30pm they let us inside the Forum. security did a good job this time (different from torino). they just controlled the tickets, not the bags. (i couldve sneaked in a gun LOL). of course there were already a few ppl inside the arena in standing area, so i RAN to the right side in front of the stage & managed to score a spot in the, like, 10th row – so still very close to the stage. the Forum was, except for just a few places, full oO about 14.000ppl. incredible to me how big Avrils popularity is in Milano. same pre-show playlist with 30 Seconds To Mars, Muse, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters & others. show beginning this time (when everything looked like 9:30pm): 9:15pm. setlist (2 songs difference from the Torino, and i bet the Rome one – which shouldve been the same) was:

1.  Black Star

2. What The Hell

3. Smile

4. Sk8er Boi

5. He Wasn’t

6. I Always Get What I Want

7. Alice (/w instrumental)

8. Fix You (Coldplay cover)

9. When You’re Gone

10. Wish You Were Here

11. Nobody’s Home

12. Unwanted / Freak Out / Losing Grip (instrumental medley)

13. Girlfriend

14. Airplanes (B.o.B Hayley Williams cover) + My Happy Ending

15. Don’t Tell Me

16. I’m With You

—-

17. I Love You

18. Hot

19. Complicated

different from Torino we didnt get to hear I Can Do Better & Push (unfortunately). Smile was moved up on the song order. instead, we got to hear Dont Tell Me & Fix You (Coldplay cover). Dont Tell Me was nice. something different from 2008 when i just heard an acoustic snippet. Fix You was kinda weird. not in a bad way though. it was just weird since im used to hear the Coldplay live version with the whole audience singing along & Avrils audience mostly didnt know the lyrics lol also, Avrils voice was different (of course) from Chris Martins. she sang it very soft. reminded me of the voice in her Adia version.  so i was almost the only one singing along and doing the kind of stuff they to at Coldplay shows xD when Steve Fakete (Avs other guitar player) started with the guitar solo and Rodney on the drums started drumming along at the end of the song i went crazy LOL whatever. 2 memorable moments (apart from the usual 4 times audience solo of the last im with you chorus) were: a) the wish you were here start when the instrumental started and we all started singing, Avril is about to start the song but just sings the first word of the first verses – the WHOLE audience singing it for her. kinda emotional *_* b) at the start of i love you she comes directly in front of our part of the stage (i was in the 2nd/3rd row oO !!!) & starts singing ‘lala lalala, lala lalala, i like your VIBE, i like your VIBE’ anticipating the word vibe one verse earlier :D, she turns to i think her friends who were watching from the side of the stage and laughed in her contagious laugh :D ROFL then some fans pushed some balloons in her direction & she couldve ignored them, but she pushed them back into the audience TWICE :D she seemed to have fun :D 10:45pm – after 3 shows, the italian leg of the Black Star Tour comes to an end. all in all i can say the audience in Milano was so much louder than the one in Torino (no idea about the Rome one since i wasnt there). made a bunch of new friends. after the show i walked out and saw the sign ‘Avril, u no sing Darlin?’ LOL well, in my opinion she couldve sang it. i mean, just acoustically. it wouldnt have been complicated & it would have been nice. i walked to the merch & wanted to buy a shirt & her tour programme – that has some seriously gorgeous photos. just bought her ‘smile’ tour shirt since my friend got one of the last tour programmes. need to get that, maybe 2gether with some pins, at the cologne show in a few days. walked out the venue. this time, different from 2008, it was NOT raining. (even thought it was predicted to rain). obligatory stop at the fast pizza restaurant chain ‘spizzico’ (i always wonder if they supply a pizza for Avril at her italian shows LOL). saw Sharifa, Georgie & Francesca having a pizza as well 2gether with some other Italian Team members. walked outside again. out of the door where after the show in june of 2008 we took a pic 2gether with all members of Avrils Italian Team who were attending the show (i still need to find that pic since i sneaked myself in xD). walked to the backstage area just to take a short look since i had to leave early as i had to take the subway/underground and even change at one station. a bunch of ppl waiting. a security guy comes & tells a mother who was waiting with her 2 daughters ‘a girl left immediately after the show in a van in direction airport’, the mother didnt believe it at first, the security says ‘of course u could believe im lying, but im a father and i also have children’. that sentence made the mother believe him & leave with her 2 daughters.. as well as a few other ppl. i kinda was sure then too that he was telling the truth. i believe after reading the tweet Avril tweeted the next morning that she was leaving in direction New York for an Abbey Dawn fashion show, that Avril left the arena early to get to the aiport/or maybe to the hotel 1st to get some rest/sleep bfore having to leave in the early italian morning towars NYC. [she just stayed there for 6hrs lol & flew back in time for her Amsterdam show on Sept 13th FYI). i took the subway/underground twice to get to my hotel. i wasnt as tired as i was after waiting in the Torino sun, but it was nice to lay in a bed though xD it is hard to imagine i still have the only german show (& last of my personal Black Star Tour) in Cologne next Monday, Sept 19th, ahead of me. wish she will add stop standing there to the setlist. or remember when/4 real/darlin/how does it feel/together/fall to pieces/things ill never say/naked/my world. LOL daydream [another Avril song].