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29/03/07 -
GENEVA ARENA, GENEVA Review by Steven Stanley: Myself and Turner met Karl at the hotel in Geneva and checked out the city straight away. From there myself and Karl went to the Arena, while Turner proceeded to get wrecked! We arrived at the venue (which was next to the airport runway!) at 6.30pm when the doors were meant to be opened... loads of people were already there and doors infact opened about 7.00pm. Security was very tight and full body searches were being had for cameras. I shoved mine down my sock at the last minute and got away with it... as did Karl. Once inside we headed straight for the b-stage and got a prime position at the barrier as nobody knew about it. What seemed like a huge arena on the outside wasn't the case on the inside... large areas were curtained off where seats hadn't sold and there must have only been around 3000 people inside. A vastly different story I'm sure compared to the Zurich show the night after where the crowd would have been 4 times the size... I guess the French part of Switzerland don't dig rock music the same as the Germans. It's maybe why BA hasn't toured France for 8 years seeing as Geneva is practically in France. It did feel like a bar gig at times with the b-stage being a stones throw away from the mainstage... kinda cool actually. Support act 'Lovebugs' were very good indeed and time passed quickly. BA's appearence was delayed by at least 20 minutes due to what looked like technical problems... for this reason his secondary b-stage stint was rushed through and he only got one woman up on stage for 'She's Only Happy'...'Get Down Tonight' was also dropped. All that wasn't really missed though as he came onstage sporting a gorgeous new Gold Gretsch guitar and started 'There Will Never Be Another Tonight' on his own for the first couple of verses, before the band kicked in and got the song going fully. Absolutely awesome. 'Can't Stop' and 'Please Forgive Me' followed on the b-stage before BA started 'The Best Of Me' and walked to the main-stage while singing the song actually through the crowd! It was cool to watch the lights from the back of the arena for a change and the highlight of the mainset was the re-generated 'Summer Of '69' whiched rocked just like it did in the 90's. Largely the mainset was very acoustic based and had it not been for the b-stage the show would have been frankly rather dull as a returning fan as it offered nothing new. For me, the acoustic version of 'It's Only Love' just wasn't the same either.
(Above) Mickey playing up to the camera and singing along with me! But, the b-stage was re-introduced and hats off to Bryan to listening to the fans... it's what the show needed and it's certainly spiced it up once again. It was awesome to hear 'Seven Nights To Rock' once more and very cool to hear 'I Got A Woman' for the first time (which I videoed). During this song myself and Mickey kept pulling faces at each other and drumming together... it was awesome, what a legend he is! He also gave the drumsticks to Karl and I too which was a great memento to have after such interaction with him. As I mentioned before, BA got one woman up during 'She's Only Happy'... the crowd it had to be said were awesome and they wanted to rock. BA then went back to the mainstage to end the show acoustically. Karl and I went back to the hotel to have a few drinks with Turner afterwards and we had fun talking about the gig. In short, the b-stage was awesome... and so was the rest (if you hadn't seen him on a regular basis recently). Setlist: | |||
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Pics and vids by Steven Stanley TO VIEW A DOCUMENTARY FROM THIS SHOW WHICH INCLUDES ELEMENTS FROM THIS SHOW GO TO THE 'SNOWPENAIR' REVIEW.
The K-man!
BA ending 'Can't Stop' on the b-stage
A sign by the 'Gents' I saw that directed the band back from the b-stage
Keith back on the b-stage 2nd time round with a signature Gretsch |
