Let's talk about Rock Im Pott.
The setlist for both Rock Im Pott and Rock En Seine was essentially the same, except that Speak In Tongues was omitted in Germany. It was as follows:
Kitty LitterIt happened at Rock En Seine as well as Rock Im Pott, and I'm not sure why. The entire set was great, but the final songs were the best, by far. It was as if it took them a while to properly get into it, which is strange as it's not as though they're new to this in the slightest.
Battle For The Sun
Every You Every Me
Speak In Tongues (omitted at Rock Im Pott)
Black-Eyed
Special Needs
For What It's Worth
I Know
Slave To The Wage
Bright Lights
Meds
Teenage Angst
Song To Say Goodbye
The Bitter End
Encore (they never left the stage for this at Rock Im Pott)
Running Up That Hill
Post Blue
B3
Infra-Red
Battle For The Sun is so full of tension. The camera angles on Brian Molko's face emphasised that, which I suppose is a benefit of a livestream as opposed to actually being there, but even without the cuts, it would have been a dramatic performance. Fiona was wonderful on the violin, as usual, which is one of the best aspects of Battle For The Sun. Bright Lights was so much fun to watch, Brian and the rest of the band on backup vocals all seemed to be loving it. Meds will never lose its power, ever. The Bitter End was positively epic with absolutely brutal work by Steve on the drums, and their cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill was heart-achingly perfect. Those were definite highlights. B3 was also great; the band really seems enthusiastic about their newer stuff, which is always reassuring.
Before they played Teenage Angst, Brian introduced it with we're going to go back in time now, to a time and place and a time when we were all far more innocent than we are now. That was simple, simple and fitting.
Steve is one of my favourite current drummers because he is so passionate and violent while he works. He never looks like he's anything but throwing himself into it. The entire band seemed to be in good spirits; not necessarily chatty, but Brian and Stefan were both interacting with the crowd and pacing the stage. The atmosphere looked wonderful, from here.
One thing that I love about Brian Molko is that he is truly a class act. In both France and Germany, he addressed the crowd in their native language -- he spoke English at times as well, but a good percentage of his banter was in those languages, and I just feel like that's a really classy thing to do. Stefan did the same, although he spoke less overall, but still: classy.
The crowd at Rock Im Pott was great, very enthusiastic and willing to participate. They had their hands over their heads clapping quite often, and every time Brian asked them to sing a line back, they were there; it's between you and me, they shout it back on an intense performance of Post Blue. They also had a bunch of balloons at one point. Kind of weird, but okay, also kind of cool. Everyone sang along to Bright Lights, and it was great to see that the crowd was also a fan of their newer work.
They did a lot of camerawork during the livestream, almost too much. Some of it was great - the cuts to Brian Molko singing right up into the mic emphasised his dark intensity; they had some great close-ups of the guitar, bass, and violin work; there were some wonderful shots of Steve's ferocious drumming - but some of the cuts were unnecessary and detracted from the music, really. Such are the perils of a livestream, and we were lucky to have one at all, so I oughtn't complain.
In Paris, one of the closing shots was of someone holding a sign saying Happy You're Here, and I think that's a fitting note to end on. Until next summer, gentlemen.
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