Konzertjunkie

OK, not quite 2008 concerts, but a whole lot of concerts in 2008! And as always, I want to do a short sum-up to look back at the concerts of this year.

LOTS of concerts the year - all in all 76 (presuming that I will see the Busters concert tomorrow night), which is much more than in the previous years. But then, I had a month of vacation more than usual, and (purely coincidentally, of course! ) there was a Kaizers Orchestra tour during that month... And then, there were two Kaizers tours plus festivals this year, and a Die Ärzte tour plus festivals. No wonder I saw so many concerts this year...

I'm not gonna go through all concerts now. Just some statistics: 76 concerts in all, 34 Kaizers concerts (which means almost every second concert, uhem ), 19 Die Ärzte concerts, 8 Disco Ensemble, 5 Busters, 5 Farin Urlaub Racing Team. All of these concerts in eight different countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Belgium), nine concerts both in Stuttgart (which is no suprise as it is the city closest to where I live) and in Berlin (which surprised me, actually ). Seven concerts in Norway and two in Prague. Looking at the map, the northernmost concert was probably the Kaizers concert in Trondheim, the westernmost Pukkelpop in Belgium, the southernmost the Lumnezia festival in Switzerland and the easternmost the two concerts (Kaizers and Die Ärzte) in Prague.

So, what were the highlights? Number one without a doubt were the weekends in Berlin - two weekends in the middle of summer, with three Die Ärzte concerts at Wuhlheide each. Both times I took a flight to Berlin Friday after work, spent the weekends with lots of good friends, and came back Monday morning, in time to go to work afterwards. The first weekend was the best, with perfect weather and all in all just really great. The second weekend was a bit hurried, but still very nice.

Then of course the Kaizers tours were fantastic - especially the concerts in Norway. For one reason, because the setlist in Norway is more interesting. But mostly because of everybody who was at the concerts, especially the ones who were crazy enough to join me on tour. Thanks so much gals, hanging around with you is so much fun! And of course my 100th Kaizers concert was special as well.

Other concerts that stick to my mind are the ones with Disco Ensemble - on their spring tour, I saw them three times as support for the Donots. Didn't care about the Donots, but DE were just great! In fall, they came back for a headliner tour, and I thought long about whether I should go to Wiesbaden or not - the day before they played in Stuttgart, and a two-hour drive. I went there, and I didn't regret, it was amazing!

Then, at the beginning of this month, I saw Die Toten Hosen again, after not seeing them for some years, and I was really impressed. And as a last highlight, I would like to mention Val Lumnezia in Switzerland - also a very long drive, I really wasn't sure whether I should go or not. I did go in the end, and it was perfect.

Of course, if I mention the best concerts, I should also think about the worst. But there weren't that many bad concerts, actually. The FURT concerts, probably - if you are used to Die Ärzte concerts, Farin Urlaub solo is just boring. And because of some coincidences, I actually "had to" go to all the concerts I had decided to see beforehand.

Other "bad" or rather uninteresting concerts were Wir sind Helden (they just can't manage to get me excited anymore), the last concert of the Kaizers Orchestra spring tour at Vega in Copenhagen (they seemed so annoyed on stage, and for a last concert, I really can't understand that), Die Ärzte at Highfield festival (but the rest of the festival was great!), and maybe Kaizers at Kassel or Düsseldorf during the fall tour (there were very few people in the audience, so the concerts just didn't work out right).

But all in all, the concerts were all worth going there! So a really great concert year 2008!

So, what's up for 2009? Not that much, actually. No Kaizers tour, except for some festivals. No Die Ärzte tour, except for some summer concerts. Skambankt will be on tour, so that will be a lot of fun, and there's gonna be some Itchy Poopzkid concerts and some of Die Toten Hosen. Plus of course the Busters tour, starting tomorrow!

So there will definitely be some nice concerts, but not really any tours that will take a lot of time. So let's see, maybe 2009 will be as nice a concert year as 2008, but a bit more relaxing? I wouldn't mind...