Staatstheater Oldenburg 25.04.07 20:30h (8:30 pm)
Melanies
first of three concerts in Germany in spring 2007 took place in the
Staatstheater Oldenburg (State theatre), a gorgeous old building in the heart of
Oldenburg, a charming northern german town.
I met my fellow Melanite Marianne
from Bavaria in Hamburg (she flew in from Munich and I took the train from
Frankfurt) where she rented a nice black Audi car. The car had air-condition and
we needed it because it was unusually warm for April.
A good 3 hour-drive
and we arrived at the theatre in Oldenburg. Thanks to a car-navigation-system we
drove hassle-free (well, amost…). Only once the system fooled us sending us in a
little side street still in Hamburg telling us that we had reached our final
destination already. Not true…. Marianne had to do a new programming and then it
worked properly.
To our surprise the first hotel that we wanted to check
in was full, so we got the last two rooms in another one.
Only little time
was left at our room before we met Brian from England and Michael F. for dinner
in a nice bavarian-style beer-garden where you can sit outside under big trees.
The food was italian and I had a nice salmon-lasagne and some wine.
The
show was scheduled to being at 8:30 and Marianne went there early to take care
of the cd-sale-table. This time there were only 5 for sale (Low country, Paled…,
Old Bitch
Warrior, the Greatest Hits
Legacy and Beaus scrapbook). Low country was quickly sold out because there
were only a few copies left.
Around 8 I joined Marianne to help out a bit at
the cd-table.
The crowd was let in and at 8:30 a guy from the theater
entered the stage telling us that we would see Beau as an opening act for half
an hour, then there would be a 20-minute-intermission and after that Melanie
would start her program.
To a nice round of applause Beau came on stage
and started with his first instrumental that had no title followed by the the
second one that had no title and then a third one that had no
title........
Sorry, no titles at all for his performance. Some sounded of
course familiar but it’s difficult to remember titles to instrumentals. The only
one I recognized for sure was his “Fantasia of Malaguena”.
One he played on
a banjo telling us that he plays it not in the “normal” banjo-playing way….(but
I am not expert enough to tell the difference…)
Beau played six songs and
later when the audience talked to him he received some well-deserved compliments
for his artistry.
The intermission was another chance for the listeners
to buy Melanie on cd and many did so.
At 9:20 Melanie herself entered the
stage together with Beau and kicked off her set with
· “I’m back in town” -
followed by
· “Look, Ma” – with the verse in german that put smiles on many
faces in the audience
· “People in the front row” was next but this time I
was in row 6…. In between she presented us all her liquids that were on a little
table beside her. An awful tasting chinese tea and another tea with honey and
some more ingredients that I forgot. Also a syrup-like medicine that she drank
out of a little bottle and then her Valda-throat-pastils (that I am a proud
provider of). Everything for the sake of her incredible voice. The next song
was
· “Jammin’ alone” where at the end she teached us how to wave our arms to
the “ooh-ooh”-part. The response was not overwhelming – she figured that only
20% of the audience participated. For the next song she wanted 100 % and that
was
· “Smile” with our sing-along-part “I love people who smile”. And yes at
the end of the song we had “a moment” with her.
· “Champagne song” was next –
a powerful version of that not-so-often heard song. She started to take request
and of course there were screams for Nickel Song and Johnny Boy and Brand New
Key…
· “Brand new key” was her choice and the told the story of it (“doomed
to be cute”….) She then spoke the poem of the “Hands” (lace, belgian women and
such – I don’t remember more words…) followed by
· “Baby Day” (Wendy, were
your ears burning?)
· “Crazy love” one of my personal favourites was next and
she asked the “light-person” to dim the bright white lights a bit to make her
feel more comfortable. My guess is that the light were actually dimmed a tiny
little bit but the effect was not really visible…
· “Falling awake” was the
moving song that she wrote with her mother (Polly) in mind and that her mother
could never hear because she died before Melanie could sing her this song. If I
remember right I think she said that she sang it at her funeral… Almost
unnoticed, Melanie blended “Falling awake” together with
· “Rainbow race” –
as if it was one song. Beautiful!!!
· Ruby Tuesday” was again a duet of
mother and son and received a tremendous applause. The audience was really
“warmed up” now (after a slow start)
· “Motherhood of love” was the next
challenge for the audience. Melanie teached us a sentence in sanskrit (the old
indian, well…”India-indian”..- ya know) language that we should sing-along to.
She even asked us up on stage to sing with her. Marianne, Michael F., Dia and
John from England were brave enough to do so. Not me this time – being in the
middle of row 6).
· “Beautiful people” marked the end of her set. It was
10:40 and she just went into a short
· “Smile“ (Reprise), put down her
guitar, bowed and left the stage. We all know what happened next. The audience
burst into a frenetic applause showing that they were not ready yet to let her
go – so after having us all on our feet giving her and Beau a “standing ovation”
they returned to do
· “Extraordinary” that would have been a perfect song for
a perfect ending. So beautiful, so emotional, so touching, moving, haunting…. I
love this song!!!!! But we wanted more, the audience just did not stop clapping
after “Extraordinary”. Mel and Beau went off, the lights were put on but people
stayed and clapped and stood up and clapped. Rhythmic clapping, stomping,
cheering that did bring back 2 tired but happy musicians to perform A BRANDNEW
SONG!!!!!!!!!!!
· “This brandnew song” was not announced with a title. The
words are something like “I am a roamer, a wanderer…” Melanie and Beau must have
guessed that the audience wanted at least one “big hit” as a big final song and
they gave the audience what the audience wanted with
“Peace will come”. A big
hit, a big song and a perfect ending of yet another perfect Melanie-concert. It
was 10:55 when it ended and quickly the cd-table was surrounded by fans who
wanted to buy her cds (After the shows “Paled…” sells very well because people
heard all these beautiful new songs and want to take them home with them). And
of course they were waiting for the promised signing-session. Applause escorted
Melanie and Beau to the signing-table and we all know what happened now….
Endlessly patient they signed, chatted, posed for photos and had a word and a
smile for every single fan. And don’t we just LOVE our Melanie for that? That is
so special that she appreciates her fans as much as we appreciate her and her
sons wonderful music.
Note: I wrote this and captured it as a
"word"-document. The layout was perfect but now, after I copied and inserted it,
it is all weird and different... sorry for the inconvenience in reading.
Anybody - please feel free to edit whatever you want!
_________________________
your's in Melanie-Music
Michael, Frankfurt/Germany