07/07/06 - PIER 2, AARHUS HARBOUR, AARHUS

Review by Martin Agervig:
Being a massive BA fan is difficult! When you attend a show you want it to be better than the last one you saw, and unfortunately that isn't always possible. The b-stage was in use, the band give it their all and the songs were great, but still something out of the ordinary was missing. Kids Wanna Rock, This Time and Open Road was dropped from the setlist and that was a shame. The setlist lacked a bit of extra rocking. Other than that it was what we expected.

My friend who's also a huge fan and hasn't seen him perform live before thought the world of Bryan's performance, and I can understand him. Bryan and the band were great. Always interacting with the audience during the songs he gave the crowd what they wanted and they responded with lots of singing, cheering and clapping. Between the songs on the other hand there were not much to talk about apparently. Bryan remained strangely silent during all of the set when he wasn't doing a song. Not like him as I recall other shows.

He started on the b-stage and the sound was close to awful. As we were very close to the b-stage we could hear the drums in real-time and we could hear the drum sound coming out of the main speakers and it sounded like an echo because the distance to the mainstage delayed the sound. Fix it Bryan! Speakers on the b-stage would do the trick. The b-stage is an entertaining and fantastic way to add a little something extra to a set but the sound has to be fixed.

From the b-stage he moved through the crowd and onto the mainstage during Best Of Me. He didn't actually walk through the crowd. Security paved the way for him.

After that he played hit after hit and everyone were happy. The When You're Gone Girl was Bettina from Krarup ("Between Viborg and Herning..." as she said and we all knew where it was! NOOOT!) and she was awesome. She said she couldn't sing and they turned down her mike so we never really got to hear if she was right. She really gave it her all and made the best of the situation.

During the second set at the b-stage my girlfriend got picked to dance on the stage to She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'. She was up there with four other girls and they all certainly enjoyed the moment shaking every body part they could shake... Nice!

The turnout was impressive. Having played another two shows in tiny Denmark two and three days before this one, I must say that an estimate 20.000-25.000 was amazing and certainly a lot more than everybody expected (Hence the enormous queue outside...).

Another very good show by Mr. Adams and the boys but since he can't play new songs 'cause he hasn't finished that darn new album yet he should have added a little extra something. Maybe in shape of older or more unknown songs. (No songs from Bryan Adams, You Want It... or Room Service or any b-sides). A shame because that would have made it really special to us big fans.Back to the difficulties of being a fan of such a great live performer; You naturally expect the shows to get even better with time, but in reality we're just spoiled to the extend of obscurity, because this guy really knows how to cut it live... Excellent, Bryan, once again, excellent.

Setlist:
***b-stage***
There Will Never Be Another Tonight
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Please Forgive Me
The Best Of Me (walks to main stage)
***b-stage***
Somebody
18 Til I Die
Let's Make A Night To Remember
Back To You
I Think About You
Summer Of '69
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
Everything I Do
Cuts Like A Knife
When You're Gone
It's Only Love
Heaven
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Cloud #9
Run To You
***b-stage***
There's Gonna Be Some Rockin'
Seven Nights To Rock
She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'
Straight From The Heart
All For Love
***b-stage***

**********

Review by Karina Hjorth:
My friend, Lars, and I arrived to the pier at noon and tried to find the entrance. First we were told that it was on the right side of the ticket sale, so we took position there. Then we were told it was on the left side, and we went over there. Nothing looked like an entrance. We then went for a walk around the pier and looked at all the ships and came back ½ an hour later. A few people had now gathered at the fence - still no precise sign that it would actually be the entrance.

A few more people, including Linda, Avi and Gitte had shown/showed up around that time. We started queuing and just had a nice time. It rained a bit once in a while, and it was quite windy, but it could have been worse.

During the day there were two free concerts at the area. The first one at 2 pm., and then we found out that it was actually the entrance we were at, 'cause the moved some of the fence and let in people. After the first (Sko & Torp) concert another couple of hours went by and the next concert (Poul Krebs, who was support act in Kolding) started. Again the let people in the same place. We knew that the area was gonna close after this second concert and people would have to leave, so instead of going in already, we just stood put.

Then about 1 hour before the gates would open for BA's gig the queue formed in front of the gate and quite a few people had joined. We were about 20 people who had been there all day, but since we were in the front of the queue and the stage area was just about 100 m. away, it seemed likely that all who wanted it would make front row.

Oh well.. not quite... Remember, I told you that the entrance had moved once already? Now - just 45 minutes before the gates were supposed to open, they suddenly decided to move the entrance.... to the opposite site of the area!! People started running! In between people looking at the ships, in between guards, in between bicycles and not at least cars! All the way around, and the long formed queue was a mess.

Since I'm in a wheel chair, Gitte, Lars and I had no chance of reaching the front of the queue again, and only half the way around the area, we found out that probably hundreds (maybe thousands) were way ahead of us. We turned back - angry, confused, irritated, disappointed (feel free to add more adjectives). We headed for the guards who had told us to move and politely asked them to let us in. "No can do", was the answer we got.

Then we headed for the ticket sale and as calmly as possible tried to explain the situation to them - and then we asked for the event manager (luckily, I knew his name). They tried to call him - at first no luck, and we were told that the entrance was on the other side, and that they had moved it due to safety reasons.

So what? We didn't care, and we raised our voices a bit. Then another phone call and finally an agreement! 20 minutes before the gates would open, we were let in at the emergency exit which had pretty much been the original entrance, where we had waited all day.

We headed for front row.. I knew, I gambled here, 'cause with a wheel chair front row isn't always the safest place to be. We tried to fill as much as possible to save space for the baddies who had arrived early, but when they were finally let in (and now had to run MUCH farther), it was impossible for us to keep space. I know that some made front or second row, but I'm not sure about all.

Then we had 1 hour of waiting. The guys were set to start at 9 p.m., but they didn't enter B-stage until 9.30. I had desperately tried to get in contact with some of the security guards to be sure that if it got too tough for me up there I could get out and maybe sit inside the fence to be able to still see the guys, but no security were in sight, until the entire B-stage was over, and BA had done BOM. Then they were far out at each side of the stage, and I gave up hoping that people would be considerate (BA got up on the bench right to the left of our position during BOM and that caused a bit of pushing, but we made it through).

Before BA started the gig he thanked people for showing up though the weather wasn't that good and at that time it had started raining a bit again. That caused Bryan to say something like: "If I get electrocuted up here, just... throw me out on the boats" *lol* Oh, sweetie... we would never through you out like that - at least not until we had tried CPR ... I'm sure I can handle mouth-to-mouth, if someone else handles the heart massage :-P

When BA got to the main stage he asked if anyone knew where the Mexican boat was. No one really gave him an answer... Hey B - there were more than 100 ships at the Tall Ships Race! Do you really think we had time to make sure where each and everyone of them was?*LOL* Oh, well.. maybe we should have researched on it, 'cause right after Bryan said that he had heard they were serving free tequila, so if anyone wanted him after the concert, we could find him there ;-)

BA picked a girl from Karup to sing with him. He tried hard to pronounce it, and in the second try he actually did very well. He asked about where it was, and the girl explained that it was between Viborg and Herning. BA clearly recognized Herning and repeated the name of the town, but obviously he didn't know about Viborg, so he just looked pretty confused saying that we all knew where it was, but he was a bit lost... Hehe... However, the best thing was when he asked her (Betina was her name, by the way), she told him that she worked with mentally sick people, and that made Mickey make a funny face at BA, and while nodding BA quickly continued that then she was in the right place *LOL* (no doubt!)

Betina was VERY nervous, but she actually did quite good. She was there with 5 friends, so I guess she ended up walking away carrying a huge bundle of t-shirts ;-)

Anyway, the audience wasn't as enthusiastic as they were last year in Herning, but it was okay - especially during the major hits as SO69, EID, CLAK and so on.

A dude jumped over the fence after having dropped a plectrum that was thrown his way, but he didn't find it before he was "politely" told to get back on the other side. I don't know if he found later on, but after the first encore Bryan threw his plectrum directly to Gitte, but since it hit her nose and fell to the grown, he right away jumped over the fence again to pick it up. Lars and Gitte couldn't reach it, but fortunately the dude couldn't find it, so Gitte got the security guy (or was it one of those from the Red Cross?? Could be...) to pick it up and give it to her, so she got it after all. The dude yelled at her: "WHY??", but hey... it was meant for her, Bryan threw it to her, so why he was doing trying to get it, was not our problem.

BA finished at B-stage - a bit sad for me 'cause that was when he gave Straight from the heart, which is my favorite. Oh, well... I was glad to hear that most people sang along.

After the gig it was almost harder to get out of there than it was to get in. A Danish singer (Thomas Helmig who is actually from Århus, so he was definitely on home territory) was playing after Bryan (and some fireworks), and many people intended to stay - and even more wanted our spots, so I pretty much kept yelling "WATCH OUT" all the way out *LOL*

We went around the area and found the backstage exit, waited a while and waved at Keith when he left.

We didn't see Bryan or the rest of the guys, but later on I found out, that Bryan had left the area with the Mayor (and I actually saw him leave, so Bryan must have been hiding in the car) and went to the Mexian tequila boat - exactly as he had said on stage that he would! Damn us that we didn't listen to Bryan, when he actually told us himself where he would be...

Oh, well.. It was a great concert - some of it was... should I say "an experience", but someone really should teach the event managers and the security how to organize the entrance part!

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Pics by Getty Images & Karina

Bryan on the Gretsch

Bryan starting 'The Best Of Me' on the b-stage

Keith waves goodbye after the show