posted December 07, 2002 06:30 PM            

I have previously posted (on this very board) that it's not wise to comment immediately after the show, especially after a few cocktails. But I did, in fact, shoot off my big mouth.

The evening started innocently enough, I guess. Mamabear and Papabear got checked into our hotel, and headed down for the shuttle. Now the shuttle is supposed to run every 10 minutes, but after waiting for close to 20 minutes, we took a cab.

We got to the HoB fairly early, about 6 pm. We met Martin, drknight, Charlie (I think), and a really nice girl, whose name escapes me now. Sorry! Most of us enjoyed the jambalaya. Good stuff! As we were finishing up, Laura and Marleen came by to visit, and we were then joined by Ron and Paul K. You couldn't tell, but I think that Ron was under the weather. Hope you're feeling better, Ron!

After dinner, we headed inside. Godfather was gracious enough to invite the Bears upstairs for his private party. And when Godfather throws a party, it's an event! I was told by the waitress that I could NOT pay for our drinks. Even at the bar, I could only leave a gratuity. A great big Bear "Thank-You" to Godfather.

I tell you, the Godfather hangs with an interesting bunch. As part of Godfather's work involves security, I'm not naming any names here, but these are interesting people. Other guests included record industry execs. I didn't get to meet everybody, and it's definitely my loss.

The opening band was a lot of fun. Tainted Love is an 80's cover band. Fortunately (for them), they didn't do any Berlin songs at this show. They had good stage presence, 3 lead singers, and the sound was quite good most of the time. I think somebody stuck a microphone into the speaker, and the resulting feedback was rather unpleasant.

Once they finished up, Berlin took the stage. Set list was:

The Metro
Drug
No More Words
Shiny
Pleasure Victim - acoustic
Lost my Mind
Never let me Down
With a Touch
Take my Breath Away
Stranger on the Bus
Dope Show
Sex / I Feel Love mix

Blink of an Eye
Masquerade

For those at home not keeping score, that's seven songs from the new album. Also, the set started with The Metro, and ended with Masquerade. Drug didn't start the set, but it was second. So if anybody thinks that the posts are not read, that the fans have no input, they are really wrong. Because as I see it, this is what a lot of people have been asking for.

Once again, the performance was incredible. Terri shows her vocal prowess every time I see her. On the drive up, I was playing the "greatest hits" cd. Terri's voice is so much better now. And, in agreement with Paul K, I prefer the "live Berlin" to the "cd Berlin".

Dallan's performance on the strings is always awesome. I think that Dallan's mic was turned off, but that didn't affect his playing in the least. It's so cool to watch Mitchell work. The way he hops around in those big klunky boots is really a treat to behold. I've heard singers say that they couldn't have a backup singer with Linda's talent, because she might upstage them. Well, Terri and Linda are great together, and when Linda gets the chance, she soars too. Chris is just the nicest guy you could ever meet, and he plays the drums pretty dang good to boot.

Now that it's been shown that people actually read these posts, I must be more careful about what I say. As Godfather was quite tactful, let me try too. I was not impressed by the sound in the upper level. There, I said it. I know that Paul K has a trained ear, understands sound, and praised the sound at the show. I will not argue with Paul K. I know that he is right - the sound was good for him in his location. I'm sure that Terri had perfect sound in her ear monitors. I assume that the sound was good downstairs, at the board, where Scotto took in most of the show. But the sound where I was, on the upper level, on the side, was really bad. The sound started off ok, and by the 3rd song the sound was degenerating. By the middle of the set, the sound became awful. To my untrained ear, it sounded like the volume was turned up to 11 (ala Spinal Tap) and the amps were totally over-driving the speakers. It was loud, very loud, but all the sounds blended into "white noise". By the end of the set, the sound returned to a more normal sound. The Bears are not sound engineers. I don't know the technical terms for what I heard, or even how to describe it properly to a sound person. But after 11 Berlin shows, I know what the songs sound like in a live setting. The songs were not supposed to sound the way that I heard them.

Anyway, I'm sorry that Godfather had a bad experience. I'm thankful that The Bears had the chance to meet and hang with the Godfather. I hope that "time heals all wounds" and that he'll soon be back.