It was the hottest summer ever and Ela, my nephew Chris and I drive down 1000 km to Freiburg...we connected this gig with a little Camping holidays down in the beautiful, mountained Freiburg ? even Ela?s Dog was with us, haha. The long drive was exhausting because it was sooo hot in the car but I was so happy and looked forward to see Travis again after a long time and I was even more happy about Travis break turned out as a very short one :-)...in Chris? case it was even the first time to see Travis live. He was begging me for almost two years to take him to a show and that time we did finally. I was excited how it would be, I never saw Travis on a festival or open air before and I was curious about the new stuff of course. We arrived at the venue about 12 (the admission was planned at 4pm I think). It looked very small ? only a little uni-campus for less than 1000 people. Ela couln?d come with us inside the gig because she was staying outside with the dog ? aaah, what a mess, but that?s the way she wanted it. She enjoyed the gig from outside the same way she said afterwards. :-( made me sad anyway, I wanted her to be with us inside the venue.
The admission started and Chris and I ran straight to the stage and made it in the middle front row again. When we were happy already about our cosy places one of the securities called us back and said "I?m sorry, we made a mistake. You all have to go back to the access. The support band has to finished their soundcheck first"...aaargh, I was pissed!! So we all went back and after a while the security said "alright, now you can go" and it was like a race of ppl *laughs* but we made it to the same place again. It was so hot, maybe 34?C and the sun was burning at the back of my head. It took soooo long until the first band started to play - CB Radio, a band from Freiburg. Never heard of them before. Not bad but it seemed a bit like they hadn?t found their own style yet. They covered a song by Radiohead, I think it was "Paranoid Android" which was pretty cool and the singer had a nice voice.
It took aaages again until the next support came on stage, but it was worth the waiting. Athlete, truly cool band. I loved them from the first moment on ? catchy tunes, perfect for a summer festival. "El Salvadore" and "You got the style" where the best ones to me but they're one of the bands who write only good songs ? so it was ace! :-)
...when they were finished we couldn?t wait the time for Travis finally start to play. It was still hot, but the sun slowly went down fortunately. I tried to sit down for a while which wasn?t easy between all those ppl.*lol* We watched the crew bringing up the equipment and suddenly Neil came on stage and sat at his drums but it seemed like nobody noticed him, haha. It was so good to see him back on his feet again, fully recovered from his terribly pool accident. After a while the whole band came up on stage and the crowd was very special this time ? it was fun to see the lads playing in front of such a small group of ppl. They started with one of Chris? favourite songs (...and mine too;-)) ? "Writing to reach you". And as it?s always on a Travis show...all the pain just disappears and forgotten is the long waiting before :-) Next was "The beautiful occupation". I knew this song before from Travisonline and I liked it, but not special. BUT..since I heard this song live in Freiburg for the first time it IS special to me ? what a great song!!! "Sing" followed and the crowd was singing along so loudly and it was just fantastic. The following "Driftwood" and "As you are" where another songs that everyone in the audience seemed to know, because everyone was just singing along x-)
Then a new song was played...Re-offender. Fran told a little bit what it?s about in this song. He said it?s about when you are in an abusive relationship ? mental or physical abuse and your partner says I?m sorry again and again and you forgive this person over and over again. That was very affecting to me ? this song is just GREAT!! I loved the new album already although I only new a few songs first :-) "The fear" was next and again I took it for "Good day to die" first place, haha...but only for a few seconds ;)it was this rocky version again, truly cool! The crowd just loved it and and looked like Travis had a lot of fun on the stage too. My nephew was happy when the played "Side" next - one of his favourites. At one point a girl behind Chris asked him to step beside a wee bit so she could make a picture of Andy. As we found out later, she was also from our little hometown Neubrandenburg ? UNBELIEVABLE!!! Chucky from the message board. We didn?t know eachother at that point yet. She was joined by other boardies: jmorgain, Glasses 8-), cockroach and cockroaches sister. What a pity we didn?t know eachother yet, because we are close friends now and attend every Travis show together. "Idefinitely" was next and then "Love will come through". I knew this song already but only an acoustic version from Travisonline, so I really liked the live performance of it even more. This song is one of the best ones on 12 Memories! Makes you just singing along to it ? you can?t help it ;-) "Good day to die" (yes, this time really;-D) was a nice surprise. It?s always cool when they play songs from the Good Feeling album. "Humpty Dumpty Love Song" was next?I?m just thinking about how many things I forgot about this concert. Many memories are blurred in my mind. That?s so a pity. There should be recordings, tapes...or whatever of every show you attend, so you could remember all the little details too...aaah, well...whatever. The next song was a very special song ? to me at least. A B-side from the new Album ? "Definition of wrong". This song ROCKED!!! I didn?t understand it was a B-side that night, so I thought it?s gonna be on the Album. At "Turn" the crowd went crazy again. It totally rocked. I remember one guy behind me sang along to the chorus so loudly, he quasi shouted it into my ear. Encore break. I?m not quiet sure what came after the encore break, because...the setlist says only 3 more songs: "How many hearts" (wonderful live!), "WDIAROM?" and "PTFO" (I was very pleased about the new stuff so far :-)) but I know...I could swear it...that Travis also played Coming around that night. I know it so sure because at that song I noticed how cool the people were singing along. The entire crowd was just one wave of jumping, singing ppl, soooo great !!
Afterwards Travis said goodbye and went off the stage. We couldn?t believe it was the end already. It was so short. We where a bit confused about that and many in the audience kept standing there and waited for Travis coming out again but the show was over. One of the security guys gave me a yellow pick of Fran and we left too. Just when we came out the venue it started to rain very hardly ? what a appropriate weather for that night, made us laugh. I asked Chris how he liked it, because during the gig there where some moments when he seemed a bit bored to me but he said it was totally top, he was just totally stunned ? not bored. We met Ela outside and she said outside the venue was a big party. People made barbecue and listened to Travis from there, cool! All in all ? a great night again, which was worth to drive those 1000 km ! :-)