Live in Hamburg, Germany, 18.08.1997
Text written by Vanessa Hischer
Photos taken by Vanessa Hischer
If I'd known before I would've had said goodbye to my brain earlier ..
The venue for today, the Marquee club, is a very small dive in the middle of Hamburg's popular red light district. It was unknown to me so my friend and me arrived early around 5 p.m. to check it out and maybe catch a first glance at the band which turned out to be more difficult than I thought.
The door was open so I walked right in to find out about the price, etc .. and at first behind the door I crashed into Robbi. He waved us welcome but at this moment the owner of the bar kicked us right out. Since it was a very sultry day we got ourselves some chairs outta the next bar across the street and spent some more hours in the late summer sun by the house wall where we attracted some more individuals, for example Mr. Stuverud who joined us for a warm beer.
At 9 p.m. the doors were openend and about 8 people were there to enter. But at 10 p.m. the place was filled with
people. It was difficult to breathe .. and the trip began ..
I have to confess to you that to this date I only owned one Tribe After Tribe album. That's why you forgive me about only trying to remember some songs afterwards. Anyway, nearly the whole Pearls Before Swine was played on this day besides 'Ice Below', 'Proud & Beautiful', etc ..
In the middle of the set the thrilled bar owner began to fill up Robbi's glas of wine again and again which was cheered to the Hamburg audience more than one time. And after that the exhausted mob was asked about any requests for today. As the Northern lights in front of the stage chose nothing so far, Robbi said: "We can do some Bu$h if you like ..?". Imagine the answer to that question .. :)
After all, the rest of the gig turned into a big jam session. The band played some Doors ('When the music's over') and
Robbi just occured to introduce Doug to the crowd: He's my king - in my silent moments.
.. well, better late than never.
As after a nearly endless version of 'Uh-Oh' musicians and audience as well rushed out of the door, the rain outside won the battle of the evening - it was pourring like hell down from heaven - but the crowd was sure enough about the master of the evening ..
And after I got hold of a drumstick and a kind of conversation with Robbi we set out for our way home.
As mentioned earlier, I never experienced such an intimate concert before - what orgastic chaos that was. It was like an energy injection we all needed to make room in our hearts for this boundless love and pure and happy exhaustion. There's no other way to explain why I nearly hugged the car park guard ..
