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13 August, 2004 - Scroll down for new sound bits :-)
7 August, 2004 - Scroll down to hear Melissa singing "All The Things She Said"
4 August, 2004 - Scroll down to see Melissa playing with the light toy I gave her! :-)
26 July, 2004 - Scroll down to the end of the Berlin review to listen to the intro to Giant!
24 July 2004
Hello again everybody :-)
Have you ever heard the term... Never Enough? :-) Well... After Cologne, I felt pretty incomplete... tee hee... only two shows on this tour...? No way! So I finally made up my mind on Wednesday to go to the Berlin and Munich shows... Got on the train to Berlin early on Thursday and then got up really early on Friday to catch the train to Munich... :-) yes, I'm crazy... or is that Brave and Crazy? ;-) I knew my buddy Ines would be going to both shows, so I hooked up with her and we went to the concerts... here is what I remember from them. Again... this will be loooooong... and who knows in what order my thoughts will come in... so bear with me ;-) Also, remember I'm not quoting, but paraphrasing... :-)
BERLIN:
After a few times going in without signing before the concerts, she did sign in Berlin. So I was very happy to have my LUCKY CD cover signed :-)
I'd already gotten Kenny's signature on the back of it (I never did catch Phillip or Mark to have them sign it...)
While she was signing our stuff, Ines asked her if she'd play "Meet Me In The Dark"... and that she'd come all the way from Austria... I told her "...just for that song"... :-) Then Melissa said "Have fun tonight!" and I answered "Oh, you KNOW we will!" and she smiled at me... :-)
Thanks
to Susanne, Tammy came over and signed (well, initialed 
)
the wedding pic from the CURVE magazine... oh, and when she saw the pic, she
said "awwww"... She also signed for other
people... One couple got realllly nice Melissa and Tammy signatures on the
VOGUE Cartier ad...
Tammy seems nice...
OK, on to the actual concert... :-) When I ran inside, there was a small space beside Jordy between Phillip and center stage... Jordy went away and when she came back, her spot was basically gone... so I was slowly (but definitely) going to move so she could get in front... it was HER spot. But she was so wonderful to let me stand there, since I'm a shorty :-) THANK YOU SO MUCH JORDY!!!!!!!
I have to say that while Frankfurt and Cologne were very special to me, I had the MOST FUN in Berlin... what a FUN show!!! Melissa was in a great mood, having had a day off (and a sunny one at that- unlike most of our "summer" days so far this year)...
I had some signs made for the concert. So when Melissa came out, we bombarded her with balloons like every other night, but this was the most balloons I had seen so far... and they all ended up by Mark... :-)
I showed her the "LUCKY US again..." sign...
Then I showed her the "Berlin wasn't in my plans... see what you do?" sign and she shrugged and gave me a smirk that said "I'm the sh*t... I'm addictive, what can I say"? :-)
When she came back to my side, I held up the "See you in Munich... LOL!!!" sign and she laughed... hee hee...
I had brought a light toy that makes different designs with different colors and she saw it and came over asking "What's that?... I'm mesmerized... How'd you do that? It has all different kinds of colors" (corrected) so I gave it to her and she played with it... it was cute as heck... she played with it and brought it up to her face crossing her eyes... made us laugh... then she said "I'm easily entertained" (13 Aug 04 -listen to it).
(4
Aug 04 - A BIG thank you to the fan who took this picture!!!)
I then wrote a sign telling her I'd trade the light thinguie for a pick... she read it and gave me the "I dunno about that" look :-) Later on she came back over and started teasing me like she was going to give me the pick but she wouldn't... then at some point she did give it to me, but said she'd get the light thing later... cool... :-) (13 Aug 04 - listen to it - a little enhanced... tee hee...).
Ines was requesting "This Moment" and "Meet Me In The Dark"...
No Souvenirs was on the set list, but she changed it to "This Moment"... wonderful! I'd been wanting to hear that song live! :-) I made a sign saying "Best song on LUCKY" I got a smile :-)
She also sang "Don't You Need" which is another favorite of mine... loved it! I wrote a sign saying "Another Masterpiece!" She smiled on that one too :-)
Now I had a problem: Every time she came to my side she looked down to see what else I had written... but I couldn't think fast enough... I was like AAACCCKKK!!! What do I write??? :-)
I had a sign requesting "Ain't It Heavy" for the next day... Phillip saw it first and he said "Yeah! Ain't It Heavy... cool!"... so I added a note on the sign that said "Phillip liked the idea"... she laughed at that one and said "Well, he's in charge"... :-)
I also had a sign asking for "Good Boys and Girls" When it was obvious she wasn't going to sing it, I added "tomorrow?" and she was like... "Maybe..." I showed it to Phillip and signaled to him to convince her... he was signaling that it really wasn't his call... it was cute.
Susanne had a sign asking Melissa for "All The Things She Said"... by the way, Susanne had asked Melissa if she'd sing the song and Melissa was commenting on how the song didn't seem to be as popular in the States as it was here in Europe.
BTW, most of the night Melissa was standing right in front of me... I could have untied her shoes :-) It was SO COOL!!!
There were some fans from Ireland in the crowd who yelled "Melissa, Ireland loves you!"... and she said "Ireland?" And then said "I'm playing London!"... meaning why did you come all the way to Berlin?... :-) She then talked about not going to Ireland and she should do that... it was more involved than that, though... well, here... why don't you listen to it (13 Aug 04)...?
As she was getting closer to her solo, I held up my sign asking for "Good Enough"... she said "You're asking for a song I never even recorded. Wait... I did record it" or something to that effect... (I don't know if that means she remembered singing it for the broadcast, or she actually recorded it... remember during the chat she had told me it would be on some special CD... so who knows...) (corrected) She then said "Such fans... German fans... Irish fans..." She forgot I was the "American Girl", but it's OK... :-) (13 Aug 04 - listen to it)
Other signs I remember making... the dumb ones... like during "Let Me Go" I wrote "How could we possibly let you go?" :-) During this song, everybody always answers "NO!" when she says "Let Me Go" and she does a few "Let Me Go's" every time... that night she said "I should make this the last song in a concert"... hee hee... :-) I also made a sign during "Lover Please" saying "You better NEVER stop!"... I know... lame... :-)
I held up my sign for "Good Enough" again before she started her solo. I knew she wouldn't do it, but I had to try ;-) She sang "Sleep While I Drive", which was requested by some fans (on a balloon) on my left. Jordy dictated a sign to me that said "Now you don't have to drive alone anymore". She showed it to Melissa and she liked it and gave her THAT look, with her hands together pointing at her... (corrected) and she went "Awwww... danke schon"... I'm sure Jordy was happy :-)
During "Bring Me Some Water" we threw confetti at her and she seemed honestly surprised... In the middle of the song she said "I thought it was safe without any dutch people here tonight" (yes, can you believe the dutchies weren't there???). There was only "half dutch" Viv there so they told her that there was one dutch and she said "Oh. There's ONE." :-) (corrected) Funny... She then pointed to us on the front row like "I can't believe you guys got me!"... The girl to my right had a beer on the stage and got confetti in it... Melissa pointed it out... :-) (13 Aug 04 - listen to it) It was funny!!! :-)
In Berlin was the best (and I think longest, at least from the ones I saw) guitar to guitar action (you know, when Phillip put his guitar strings against Melissa's guitar)... it sounded really good! So I wrote a sign that said "FREAKING AWESOME!" and showed it to Phillip who liked it a lot and to Melissa as well.
During "Like The Way I Do" when her confetti canons went off, I had confetti all over my very sweaty face... so there I was trying to get this confetti off my face. Well, Melissa got a kick out of that, pointing at me and laughing laughing laughing... I mean, she was laughing! (corrected) And she said something to us like "I'm glad I gotcha" (13 Aug 04 - You can't see her pointing, but you can definitely hear her laughing at me here). Phillip thought it was funny too and laughed at me as well... so there, I made them laugh.
I also made a sign for Melissa and Kenny that said "Kicking A** as usual!".
During "Giant", Phillip rubbed the guitar this time against Melissa's belly... so in three concerts I got to see him rub it against her boobs, her bootie and her belly... :-)
I signaled to Phillip asking for his pick and he said yes... but then the dude forgot and never gave it to me...
At the end I threw a light toy (a new one I'd brought along) on the stage and she saw but didn't pick it up... She did look at me like "cool, I will get it". But when Stephanie came out to pick up stuff from the stage (like this nice cowboy hat some folks on the right gave her - and she put on for a little bit), she did not pick up the light toy. So I had a security dude get it back to me.
Oh... normally she introduces "Giant" with a short story about writing it two years ago in Berlin and how she's inspired by Germany, etc... well, in Berlin her introduction was not short. She gave a very moving "speech" about having witnessed the wall coming down and how our country (America) is troubled. She said something like "I want to heal my country"... and thanked Germany for teaching us. I don't remember it all, but as I said, it was very moving and almost brought me to tears...
BERLIN SET LIST:
Lucky
I
want to come over
Angels
would fall
Breathe
Similar
features
Lover
please
Let
me go
If I wanted to
This
moment (changed from No Souvenirs)
Don't
you need
CTMW
The
different
YCSWID
(solo)
MMITD
(piano)
Brave
and crazy (beginning)->Come on out tonight
ITOO
BMSW
LTWID
Encore:
Giant
MUNICH:
So, Frankfurt and Cologne were great for me personally... Berlin was the most fun for me... but let me tell you... Munich, IMHO, had to be the best show of the ones I went to.
She played almost 3 hours...
When we got into the venue (we were first in line) there were already a ton of people on the first row... not fans, but people with friends in "high places"...
Medea, my favorite dutchie (and I mean that!), allowed me to stand on the front row with her behind me... I guess I whined enough about me being so short and they being so tall that she took pity on me... you are a beautiful person, Medea!
This night I didn't really do the sign thing... just a couple of them... there was a barrier and it was hard to write...
I had my light toy on again, and Melissa saw it and pointed at me and gave me a big smile and a face that said "Oh, here you are again!". When she came to my side after "Angels Would Fall" (corrected), I gave her the new one I'd tried giving to her the night before and she said "Did I not get it last night?" and I said "No", so she grabbed it and said "Well, I get it tonight" and put it over by Kenny's drums :-) (13 Aug 04 -listen to it) Whether she REALLY got it, well, that's another thing... :-) I wrote on the package "A deal is a deal. Thanks 4 the pick".
The show started out a bit boring because the set list was quite similar to the night before... which was actually not so bad, because she sang "This Moment" and "Don't You Need" again, so I ain't complaining ;-)
Then the first chords of "Ain't It Heavy" sounded and the crowd went wild! WHOOO HOOOOOO!!! It was GREAT!!! I made a "THANK YOU!!!" sign for her and Phillip, since I'd asked for that song the night before... and got great reactions from both of them :-)
I made a sign for Phillip that said "What happened to my pick?" and he looked at me like "Oops, sorry!" and signaled that he'd give it to me that night.
Woodenshoe had made a sign that said "Will you pick me tonight?" or something like that... Melissa read it and gave her a nod that was a definite "yes"... and she got her pick :-)
A girl had a "Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz" t-shirt which caught Melissa's attention... Ines wanted to hear "You Used To Love To Dance" and she got her wish... that was her solo song. There were a few Austrian fans, Ines included, and she said she'd have to go back to Vienna... she said "I LOVE VIENNA"... and thanked them for coming :-) (13 Aug 04 - listen to it)
It's funny how I normally think of Melissa as just a cool person that would be nice to hang out with... but there are some moments when watching her live in concert that I just go "Damn! She is so damn sexy!". That whole hip thing she does during "You Used To Love To Dance" is an example of one of those moments... very very provocative :-)
(new - 13 Aug 04) She mentioned the Ireland folks from the night before in Berlin, and spoke about how Bruce told her to always come back to Germany (13 Aug 04 - listen to it)
She sang two piano songs... "Ready To Love" for Super-Fan and "Weakness In Me" which was requested... both were beautiful... Before singing "Ready To Love" she talked about Super-Fan and how he'd been following her around from the beginning... then she said "In a good way... not a bad way... That's the difference between Germans and Americans"... I have to say from some of the horror stories I've read from U.S. shows, I have to agree with her... whew... can you say PSYCHO??? As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats the European shows :-) Of course, I have yet to go to a U.S. show, so yes, there is some bias :-)
Before the piano solo, they brought her out a cold wet towel, and she really liked it... so much that she put it over her hair... :-) Later on, she was sharing the coolness with Phillip... I think also with Mark... and with Kenny who covered his face with it... he's so funny! :-) She called it the "love towel" :-)
During "If You Want To" she took the phone from a German girl who dialed her brother Klaus... she was talking to him and she'd giggle and say "he's laughing!"... it was cute... (13 Aug 04 - listen to it) I love that phone thing she does when she goes down on her knees and says "I just wanna talk... I just need to talk... etc"... It's quite a sight! :-)
During "Bring Me Some Water" the dutchies tricked her. She was ready for the cards to be thrown, and they didn't throw them... that was HILARIOUS... she was laughing and looking at them like "Youuuuuu!!!" and kept coming back to them laughing about how they'd tricked her... :-) They threw the cards later during the song.
During "Bring Me Some Water" I wrote a sign asking about "All The Things She Said" (we'd heard her rehearse it during sound check), and she gave me the "who knows" shrug and look :-)
Sure enough, after "Bring Me Some Water" they put the lyrics on the floor and she went into "All The Things She Said"... The crowd erupted! It was AWESOME! This was SOOOOOOO much better than the version I heard from the Fillmore show! It was excellent!!! I LOVED IT!!! At one point she lost her place on the lyrics sheet and it was funny... she had the "oh sh*t, where was I" look but kept singing while laughing... who cares if she sang the right words... it certainly didn't matter... That song rocked!!! Unfortunately, Susanne was not there to watch her sing it :-( (However, I learned from Susanne that when she told Melissa before the London show that she'd missed the song in Munich, Melissa said "oh, maybe I could do it again tonight"... and she did! She's so cool!) :-)
When she was done with that song, she went right into "Like The Way I Do"... at some point she went "Whew" and gave me a look that said "I am pooped!" which I'm sure she was... she'd just spent A LOT of energy and she still had "Like The Way I Do" to go...
Melissa
had the confetti canons at the blast at the beginning of "Like The Way
I Do", like she had in every show. So when the audience was covered
with confetti, Medea got the big bag of confetti she had brought, and put it
out where Melissa could see it. When she knew Melissa had noticed it (Medea says you can tell by the way she
looks at you afterwards ),
she opened it and we shared it over a big part of the front row. When
Melissa started singing the chorus for the second time,
we all threw the confetti. Melissa tried to go to the other side of the
stage (probably to avoid the confetti) but we had good throwing arms, so she
pretty much got the full bag over her (it looked like she even got some in
her mouth!). Then she walked over to Mark and acted the “look
what they did to me” thing. It was definitely pay back time for us!
I forgot to mention that it was my mission to get Phillip's pick and a drumstick from Kenny that night. During "Like The Way I Do" I signed to Phillip so he wouldn't forget that I wanted his pick... so when the song ended, he looked at me and threw his pick at me... OVER MY HEAD! Hello! Of course I didn't catch it :-)
So when he came out for "Giant" I wrote a sign that said "I can't catch :-(" and this time he assured me, via a look, that he would hook me up.
I also asked Kenny for a drumstick with a sign... He smiled and shook his head "No" and I shook my head "Yes" and again he said no and smiled :-)
After Melissa left, and the band was finished, Phillip came over and gave me the pick... what a cutie :-) And a hottie to boot! :-)
Then Kenny came out with his drumsticks (he throws some to the crowd every night), and stood to the right of me. He made a motion as if he was going to throw one, and then put it right in my hand... WAY COOL! :-)
Mission accomplished :-D
MUNICH SET LIST:
Lucky
I
Want To Come Over
Lover Please
Angels Would Fall
Breathe
Similar Features
Ain't It Heavy (YES!!!)
If I Wanted To
This Moment
Come To My
Window
Don't You Need
You Used To Love To Dance
Ready To Love
The Weakness
In Me
If You Want To/Your Little Secret
Secret Agent
I'm The Only One
Bring
Me Some Water
All The Things She Said
Like The Way I Do
Giant
NOTE: I thought I wasn't going to enjoy Phillip's solos, but I found myself really liking them... although most of the time I was actually watching Melissa watching him or doing whatever on the side :-)
SECOND NOTE: Two things from the Frankfurt and Cologne shows... I can't remember which one it was, but Melissa came up front with Mark and Phillip and they were doing a dance... she was going "left, right", "up, down", etc... and then went "front, back" and they were shaking their booties... really cute. The other thing was in Cologne... one of my favorite things to watch - when they all went to Kenny's drums and played them... I was very glad to see that again... I think that is fantastic! :-) Oh! Also in Cologne, she mentioned a tornado that had happened close to it the night before, and she said "We get those in Kansas all the time... but Germany??? I didn't bring it!" :-)
OK, I've saved the best for last :-) Before the concert in Munich, she signed again... Lucky me! :-) This time I had my 12-string (yes, it had traveled with me on the train... tee hee). When she was going to sign it she said "Wow, this is the real thing"... she said it twice... tee hee... then I asked her to please sign "Be Strong Speak True" She asked if I wanted it signed to me, but I chose not to... She then borrowed a girl's silver pen... she wrote "Be" and the pen didn't write well (it is one of those you have to push down to get the ink to come... so she wrote the rest after the pen had ink, and then went back to write over the "Be"... so you can see where she wrote over it... other than that, it is a pretty great signature, I think :-) What do you think?
I've made a minor edit on the "Be" to make the "e" look like an "e" and not a "c" which is what it looked like when she wrote it over... What can I say... I'm picky that way :-) Here's a close up so you see where she had to write over the "Be"... the original "Be" looked really good, but the stupid marker didn't cooperate... but hey, I can live with it :-) After signing the guitar she said "Very nice... very nice"... she was obviously very impressed that I had the "real thing" :-) I said "Very expensive nice" :-) Don't know if she heard it but Stephanie did and smiled... :-)
Needless to say, I am absolutely thrilled that that she signed it "Be Strong Speak True" as I asked... you know... being that I am the one and only bstrongspeaktru ;-) LOL!
Oh! I almost forgot... even though I'd been on the front row during the two previous concerts, I had not really been able to touch her hand for some reason... but this time, as she was walking towards me, she looked into my eyes and gave me the biggest, most beautiful smile, and offered both her hands, which I grabbed for probably a second longer than one should... tee hee... :-)... it was quite the perfect ending of a most wonderful concert experience! I had the best time during these 4 concerts!!!
A big THANK YOU again to Jordy and Medea for allowing me to be on the front row... it really means the world to me that you were so selfless. It isn't just anybody who will do that for someone.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
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