The day I've been waiting for so long finally arrived ~ I didn't feel the excitement that much until the night before the concert. I couldn't sleep a wink. We had to get up early in order to reach the earliest flight and arrived in Dortmund at about 8 am. We had a few problems before checking in, so I was more than frustrated when we found out after our arrival that the bus which was supposed to take us to the main station in Dortmund only goes every once an hour and it just left a few minutes ago! That was the point where our day that consisted 90% of waiting started. After reaching Dortmund main station, we had another 2,5 hours until our bus took off to Cologne.
We managed to reach Live Music Hall by 13:00. We were already tired and sweaty by the time we arrived, not to mention I was making a fuss about not being able to stand in first row due to being late. But that wasn't the case. We were like the 20th-something people there which meant that I was able to see the band up close after all. The first thing that caught my attention there was that the people who came were 80 percent male. Very few girls came, compared to the number of guys and there were a lot of Japanese people too who also attended their gig in Paris, and they had tickets to their London live as well. One of the guys we made friends with traveled to Germany from Saudi Arabia, just to see the girls live. So there weren't only German fans who came but also a lot of people from other countries. (We even met some Hungarian people there which was quite a surprise for us.) We soon figured out that German fans are generally loud. Well, German metalheads to be exact. The amount of 20-40 year old male metal fans was huge. It was nice to experience that a big part of the metal community also accepted and came to like BABYMETALs music as much as to attend their live show which I think proves that BABYMETAL has a firm place in the metal music scene. The feeling of waiting for the gates to open reminded me of a music festival, where tall, long-haired German guys are drinking beer and liquor while singing and shouting, but this time the songs weren't from Metallica and the shirts they were wearing weren't Megadeth shirts, but BABYMETALs'.
The tension was rising as time passed, the people were getting more and more excited and loud. The gates then opened at 19:00. Everyone started rushing. Some to the merch table, others to take their places at the front. Luckily, I managed to squeeze myself in to the first row, almost in the middle right between where Moa-metal and Su-metal's places are. (A kind japanese man who was in his forty's made room for me. Until the actual concert started, we chatted about BABYMETAL and Sakura Gakuin. Soon after that, Marvin and Tim (Two German boys we made friends with while waiting.) joined me. They got me a wrist band, which I am very grateful for. I was planning on buying a shirt, but it turned out that we didn't exchange enough money for it. (The train prices in Germany are outrageous!)
The show started a little bit after 20:00. There was a huge white curtain hanging from the ceiling, not yet revealing the stage and the set. BABYMETAL prepared a little "movie" that was projected by a beamer. It was the story about the "Kitsune God", and a few words of Moa-metal Seitansai, Moa-metal's 15th birthday. After that, the intro song "BABYMETAL DEATH" started, the lightings turned on revealing the girl's silhouette through the curtains. After the first few notes the curtains suddenly dropped and the crowd went completely crazy. I was standing in the first row, but still felt the mosh-pit evolve. (Some people who were standing behind me got pushed and washed away by the moshing people.) Not even 10 minutes have passed when the first few people passed out. One of them was this guy who was drinking one beer after another earlier. - It was propably too hot for him since there was no air-conditioning and he was being squeezed from every possible angle .- The audience got completely pumped up by the second song, "Iine". The girls were very energetic, no wonder they were swimming in sweat already after the first song, but the same went for the crowd. Those around me were sweating on me from all sides. Still, everyone was chanting as loud as they could when the song required it. The third song was "Uki Uki ★ Midnight". I can't even imagine how the three girls had that much power and energy to sing and dance that wildly at the same time, and I also felt a bit worried for them since it's not an easy task to perform on a stage filled with lights, without any air-conditioning wearing puffy multi-layered petticoats. It was undoubtedly a professional performance.
After the third song the Kami band got the spotlight. All members performed their own solo parts which was very incredible. I don't have much of a knowledge about music but they do have awesome skills. The members were very active not only musically speaking but their faces were also expressive enough to give us the impression that they were also having a blast.
When I saw the fancam videos from their French concert, I only found "4 no uta" being performed by Moa-metal and Yui-metal, which left me assuming that "Onedari Daisakusen" will be left out, but to my greatest surprise they sang both songs which made me very happy because it's one of my favourites. Also, Su-metal performed "Akumu no Rinbukyoku" and "Akatsuki" as well. I usually don't listen to girl bands, but Suzuka's voice is like candy to my ears. It's natural, not too high-pitched only when it's necessary and it's very smooth. The last song before the encore was "Gimme Chocolate!!". Some people were throwing glow sticks on the stage. (When one stick fell right in front of Yui-metal, -assumedly- the manager looked like he'd wanted to put the whole audience on fire.) When "Gimme Chocolate!!" ended, the girls left the stage with their usual "See U!" phrase while posing.
The encore songs were "Headbangya!!" and "Ijime Dame Zettai". "Headbangya!!". Halfway through the song Moametal got the mic and started singing the chorus. Her singing voice got very refined. The people kept on cheering 'till the very end. Everything was slippery from all the sweat and it got harder and harder to breathe between so many people but the tension just got higher. "Ijime Dame Zettai" started with "Wall of Death", it was incredible. By the time I noticed, the people around me kept changing because everyone was washed away by the moshing crowd, except those who were standing in the first row.
The whole thing lasted for an hour. I was originally hoping for a 1,5 hour long show, but all-in-all it was still perfect. It was to be expected from underage girls, and they weren't just standing there singing, but performing complex and energetic dance coreographies which is a huge thing from small girls like them. The show was perfect, the girls were truly professional. It was evident that they are doing this since their early childhood. Not to mention their appearances... They were beautiful. I'm not really into idol-culture, and I never understood idol otakus or wotas, but I think I got a little closer to being a part of the idol fandom myself. Their appearances were astonishing, I didn't know where to look. Whatever they did, whatever faces they made, it suited them. To be honest, I never found Japanese performers pretty before. (This was not my first Japanese concert.) They always looked worse different than in videos, but these three girls were pretty much one of the most prettiest things I have ever seen so far.
At the end of the live we waited for our friends to leave the venue. After we met them, Issei, Marvin, Timmy, Manic and I headed to the train station, we bought our train tickets for tomorrow and decided to go for some beer. We ended up at "Mumu", a gay bar in downtown Cologne after a 30 minute walk. (It wasn't intentional, our legs hurt from the endless standing and we just wanted to sit down as soon as we could to drink something cold.) While we were taking some pictures on the way, a girl who also attended the concert ran into us and decided to head to the bar with us. We drank "Kölsch" that Timmy recommended. It was the most bitter beer I drank so far. When everyone finished their beer we went back to the train station where we saw Ine off. It was already 2:00 am, and our train was supposed to depart at 5:10, so the longest hours of waiting started. To tell the truth, I didn't particularly like Cologne... It's allowed to drink and smoke anywhere in the city, even in bus stops. Everything was flooded with cigarettes and garbage. People just threw their rubbish away on the streets instead of a garbage can and after midnight the dome's stairs were covered in broken glasses and more garbage and cigarettes. Not to mention the train station in Cologne which was fully occupied by mice! They got on the platforms, the railways, the garbage cans, they were everywhere.
We decided to rest at Mc'Donald's where we fell asleep for a bit, but it was so uncomfortable that I forced myself to stay awake instead.
It seemed like we were waiting for ages when the time for us to leave finally arrived. Marv and Timmy saw us off at the station. We promised to meet again soon and said our goodbyes. We took the train to Dortmund and then reached the airport by 7:00. We were a bit afraid of running late but we managed to get there an hour before departing. That day was a 24 hour-long journey for us. Where only a few hours were spent with staying at the same place. In the end we were so tired and worn out that we were barely able to stay awake. But taking everything into consideration, it was more than worth it! \m/
[SETLIST]
01 BABYMETAL DEATH
02 いいね！ Iine!
03 ウ･キ･ウ･キ★ミッドナイト Uki Uki ★ Midnight
04 神バンド (Performance of God Band)
05 悪夢の輪舞曲 Rondo of Nightmare
06 おねだり大作戦 Onedari Daisakusen
07 Catch me if you can
08 紅月-アカツキ- Akatsuki
09 4の歌 Song 4
10 メギツネ Megitsune
11 ド･キ･ド･キ☆モーニング Doki Doki ☆ Morning
12 ギミチョコ！！ Gimme Chocolate!!
アンコール (encore]
01 ヘドバンギャー! !(MOAMETAL聖誕祭version)
Head Bangya!! (MOAMETAL vocal version)
02 イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ Ijime Dame Zettai
Labels: babymetal, babymetal cologne, babymetal concert, babymetal europe, concert review, germany, köln
BABYMETAL concert (Cologne, Germany 2014. 07. 03.)
The day I've been waiting for so long finally arrived ~ I didn't feel the excitement that much until the night before the concert. I couldn't sleep a wink. We had to get up early in order to reach the earliest flight and arrived in Dortmund at about 8 am. We had a few problems before checking in, so I was more than frustrated when we found out after our arrival that the bus which was supposed to take us to the main station in Dortmund only goes every once an hour and it just left a few minutes ago! That was the point where our day that consisted 90% of waiting started. After reaching Dortmund main station, we had another 2,5 hours until our bus took off to Cologne.
We managed to reach Live Music Hall by 13:00. We were already tired and sweaty by the time we arrived, not to mention I was making a fuss about not being able to stand in first row due to being late. But that wasn't the case. We were like the 20th-something people there which meant that I was able to see the band up close after all. The first thing that caught my attention there was that the people who came were 80 percent male. Very few girls came, compared to the number of guys and there were a lot of Japanese people too who also attended their gig in Paris, and they had tickets to their London live as well. One of the guys we made friends with traveled to Germany from Saudi Arabia, just to see the girls live. So there weren't only German fans who came but also a lot of people from other countries. (We even met some Hungarian people there which was quite a surprise for us.) We soon figured out that German fans are generally loud. Well, German metalheads to be exact. The amount of 20-40 year old male metal fans was huge. It was nice to experience that a big part of the metal community also accepted and came to like BABYMETALs music as much as to attend their live show which I think proves that BABYMETAL has a firm place in the metal music scene. The feeling of waiting for the gates to open reminded me of a music festival, where tall, long-haired German guys are drinking beer and liquor while singing and shouting, but this time the songs weren't from Metallica and the shirts they were wearing weren't Megadeth shirts, but BABYMETALs'.
The tension was rising as time passed, the people were getting more and more excited and loud. The gates then opened at 19:00. Everyone started rushing. Some to the merch table, others to take their places at the front. Luckily, I managed to squeeze myself in to the first row, almost in the middle right between where Moa-metal and Su-metal's places are. (A kind japanese man who was in his forty's made room for me. Until the actual concert started, we chatted about BABYMETAL and Sakura Gakuin. Soon after that, Marvin and Tim (Two German boys we made friends with while waiting.) joined me. They got me a wrist band, which I am very grateful for. I was planning on buying a shirt, but it turned out that we didn't exchange enough money for it. (The train prices in Germany are outrageous!)
The show started a little bit after 20:00. There was a huge white curtain hanging from the ceiling, not yet revealing the stage and the set. BABYMETAL prepared a little "movie" that was projected by a beamer. It was the story about the "Kitsune God", and a few words of Moa-metal Seitansai, Moa-metal's 15th birthday. After that, the intro song "BABYMETAL DEATH" started, the lightings turned on revealing the girl's silhouette through the curtains. After the first few notes the curtains suddenly dropped and the crowd went completely crazy. I was standing in the first row, but still felt the mosh-pit evolve. (Some people who were standing behind me got pushed and washed away by the moshing people.) Not even 10 minutes have passed when the first few people passed out. One of them was this guy who was drinking one beer after another earlier. - It was propably too hot for him since there was no air-conditioning and he was being squeezed from every possible angle .- The audience got completely pumped up by the second song, "Iine". The girls were very energetic, no wonder they were swimming in sweat already after the first song, but the same went for the crowd. Those around me were sweating on me from all sides. Still, everyone was chanting as loud as they could when the song required it. The third song was "Uki Uki ★ Midnight". I can't even imagine how the three girls had that much power and energy to sing and dance that wildly at the same time, and I also felt a bit worried for them since it's not an easy task to perform on a stage filled with lights, without any air-conditioning wearing puffy multi-layered petticoats. It was undoubtedly a professional performance.
After the third song the Kami band got the spotlight. All members performed their own solo parts which was very incredible. I don't have much of a knowledge about music but they do have awesome skills. The members were very active not only musically speaking but their faces were also expressive enough to give us the impression that they were also having a blast.
When I saw the fancam videos from their French concert, I only found "4 no uta" being performed by Moa-metal and Yui-metal, which left me assuming that "Onedari Daisakusen" will be left out, but to my greatest surprise they sang both songs which made me very happy because it's one of my favourites. Also, Su-metal performed "Akumu no Rinbukyoku" and "Akatsuki" as well. I usually don't listen to girl bands, but Suzuka's voice is like candy to my ears. It's natural, not too high-pitched only when it's necessary and it's very smooth. The last song before the encore was "Gimme Chocolate!!". Some people were throwing glow sticks on the stage. (When one stick fell right in front of Yui-metal, -assumedly- the manager looked like he'd wanted to put the whole audience on fire.) When "Gimme Chocolate!!" ended, the girls left the stage with their usual "See U!" phrase while posing.
The encore songs were "Headbangya!!" and "Ijime Dame Zettai". "Headbangya!!". Halfway through the song Moametal got the mic and started singing the chorus. Her singing voice got very refined. The people kept on cheering 'till the very end. Everything was slippery from all the sweat and it got harder and harder to breathe between so many people but the tension just got higher. "Ijime Dame Zettai" started with "Wall of Death", it was incredible. By the time I noticed, the people around me kept changing because everyone was washed away by the moshing crowd, except those who were standing in the first row.
The whole thing lasted for an hour. I was originally hoping for a 1,5 hour long show, but all-in-all it was still perfect. It was to be expected from underage girls, and they weren't just standing there singing, but performing complex and energetic dance coreographies which is a huge thing from small girls like them. The show was perfect, the girls were truly professional. It was evident that they are doing this since their early childhood. Not to mention their appearances... They were beautiful. I'm not really into idol-culture, and I never understood idol otakus or wotas, but I think I got a little closer to being a part of the idol fandom myself. Their appearances were astonishing, I didn't know where to look. Whatever they did, whatever faces they made, it suited them. To be honest, I never found Japanese performers pretty before. (This was not my first Japanese concert.) They always looked worse different than in videos, but these three girls were pretty much one of the most prettiest things I have ever seen so far.
At the end of the live we waited for our friends to leave the venue. After we met them, Issei, Marvin, Timmy, Manic and I headed to the train station, we bought our train tickets for tomorrow and decided to go for some beer. We ended up at "Mumu", a gay bar in downtown Cologne after a 30 minute walk. (It wasn't intentional, our legs hurt from the endless standing and we just wanted to sit down as soon as we could to drink something cold.) While we were taking some pictures on the way, a girl who also attended the concert ran into us and decided to head to the bar with us. We drank "Kölsch" that Timmy recommended. It was the most bitter beer I drank so far. When everyone finished their beer we went back to the train station where we saw Ine off. It was already 2:00 am, and our train was supposed to depart at 5:10, so the longest hours of waiting started. To tell the truth, I didn't particularly like Cologne... It's allowed to drink and smoke anywhere in the city, even in bus stops. Everything was flooded with cigarettes and garbage. People just threw their rubbish away on the streets instead of a garbage can and after midnight the dome's stairs were covered in broken glasses and more garbage and cigarettes. Not to mention the train station in Cologne which was fully occupied by mice! They got on the platforms, the railways, the garbage cans, they were everywhere.
We decided to rest at Mc'Donald's where we fell asleep for a bit, but it was so uncomfortable that I forced myself to stay awake instead.
It seemed like we were waiting for ages when the time for us to leave finally arrived. Marv and Timmy saw us off at the station. We promised to meet again soon and said our goodbyes. We took the train to Dortmund and then reached the airport by 7:00. We were a bit afraid of running late but we managed to get there an hour before departing. That day was a 24 hour-long journey for us. Where only a few hours were spent with staying at the same place. In the end we were so tired and worn out that we were barely able to stay awake. But taking everything into consideration, it was more than worth it! \m/
[SETLIST]
01 BABYMETAL DEATH
02 いいね！ Iine!
03 ウ･キ･ウ･キ★ミッドナイト Uki Uki ★ Midnight
04 神バンド (Performance of God Band)
05 悪夢の輪舞曲 Rondo of Nightmare
06 おねだり大作戦 Onedari Daisakusen
07 Catch me if you can
08 紅月-アカツキ- Akatsuki
09 4の歌 Song 4
10 メギツネ Megitsune
11 ド･キ･ド･キ☆モーニング Doki Doki ☆ Morning
12 ギミチョコ！！ Gimme Chocolate!!
アンコール (encore]
01 ヘドバンギャー! !(MOAMETAL聖誕祭version)
Head Bangya!! (MOAMETAL vocal version)
02 イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ Ijime Dame Zettai
Labels: babymetal, babymetal cologne, babymetal concert, babymetal europe, concert review, germany, köln
Anett ||
In ❤ with food and Johnny's.
