Live Review : Saturn Showcase at the Showcase, Paris (France), October 28th, 2009

Showcase, Alexandre III bridge, Paris

Context

Hallo, alle!

For once in my life I won something, and it was a ticket for the speshul 3D concert + real showcase of Tokio Hotel in Paris, on October 28, 2009.

The day before I checked where was the venue, how to get there and how long it would take, as I was going to go afterwork. It looked pretty, cosy and hype, in a "lounge" way, hidden under the bridge (downtown, is where I drew some blood... sorry, digressing). I'd never heard of it before.

As it turned out, I'm not sure it was worth winning, since they let in everyone anyway, so being in Paris anyway, I could have just turned up for it. Which wouldn't have been an issue (I loved that they let everyone in in Köln, since I was part of the ticketless crowd then), but that venue, unlike Köln, was packed well over its capacity.

And it wasn't designed for that kind of shows. Initially the show was supposed to take place in the suburbs on the parking lot of the brand new giant Saturn store (sponsor of the 3D mini-tour), the day before. But it was moved to that day and venue, kept secret, for reasons unknown. Probably security, though it's not sure whether it was to avoid having to deal with thousands of uninvited fans, or to make sure that said fands, mostly young girls, would not have to come back home through areas not-so-safe at night...

3-D set

After a thorough checking of IDs and invitations, everyone had to leave their bags and coats at the checkroom. We were allowed to keep cameras though.

The venue was overcrowded, hysterical and overheated well before the show started, and it started with the 3D show. Regardless of the absence of any real band member on stage, people shouted and waved like loonies as if it were real. Go figure...

Saturn Showcase - 3D show
To give an idea of how long and narrow the venue was.

Saturn Showcase - 3D show - 2
After I zoomed mich zu diiiiir!

The stage was too low and the banners as well, so in between heads, arms and digital cameras, hardly anybody could see anything.

Which added to the usual hysteria factor of TH crowds... What also added to it was that, apparently, there were haters in the crowd. People who got in JUST to cause mayhem, pogo-ing and what not. Music hooligans? o_O

Saturn Showcase - the lounge area
Tried to see from there through the pillars, but it didn't work any better

The 3-D show was interrupted twice to tell the crowd to calm down and to move back, to leave more room to the first rows that were suffocating. But to no avail (French crowd are not disciplined, TH crowds are not disciplined, so mostly-French TH fan crowd? Forget it). At the second time, even after setting the lights on again and more security people to enforce the order, they just gave up. So I think we were shorted of one song from the 3D show. Anyway, I'm not complaining, I didn't have it too bad, because considering my short height and the fact that after all, I'd seen the Nokia show, I decided to watch all that safely from the back. Where at least I didn't suffer from crowd moves or fangirls screams. I was more inclined to stay alive than to greet ghosts of light. And the sound is usually better at the back.

And that's not even the real back of the venue...

Live show

A guy next to me, seeing that even with my arm stretched up I could barely hold my camera above the sea of... other arms and cameras, offered to film for me, and got nearly all of Ubers Ende Der Welt for me. See? Not everyone there was a jerk ;)
Thank you mister!

I took videos since pictures were useless, and besides, it IS about the music after all :

Pony-Bill experiments on Ubers Ende Der Welt - with a different chorus tune

Pony-Bill and friends perform lady-killer Schwarz

It's Automatisch how fangirls turn into hysterics...

And it was already over. I don't know if the show was meant to be that short, or if it was abridged due to the chaos in the venue. For me it was okay, even though I know others felt cheated. But hey, it was a free gig, you couldn't expect a full length show. And I would kill for another acoustic mini-set, I just love those. Automatisch is just 200% better acoustic.

Plus I had to hurry back home, because I had a long-planned trip to start early the next day, but that's another story (and another fandom) entirely (it is, I swear, Ms Franz, bad coincidence ;__; ).

And we got gummies!

... Seriously, at every TH event now I get gummi bears. Do they have an unspoken deal with Haribo, or what? Not that I'm complaining, they're like Gummi bears themselves (bouncy, colorful, all different, sweet and just a bit sour), but...