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Mainz Gemany, June 27th 1997

setlist;
The Emperor's New Clothes
You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart
I Am Stretched on Your Grave
A Perfect Indian
This IS a Rebel Song
John I Love You
This is to mother you
Petit Poulet
Thank You for hearing me
In This Heart
Fire On Babylon
The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance
ENCORE;
I Am enough for myself
Redemption song
He Moved Through the Fair

From; Mars-L

I am not good in writing reviews, but here is my review of Mainz July 27th.

After a drive of 4 hours we finally arrived in the VolksPark of Mainz, I suspected a lot of people there to get in (being there just 2 hours before it started) but we where the first.....(great to see all the shaved heads :-))) The concert (being part of a Mainz-festival) would take place in a large tent. I took a tape recorder with me to record the concert of Sinead, and was hoping the security wouldn't find it when I got in. But suprisingly they didn't seek at all..... So I wish I brought my video-camera with me, which quit some people did, and Sinead didn't even care, she even smiled in the camera's during the songs !! About maximum 1000 people watched the show (might even be less), but the tent was full.

The first to come up was a German female singer + band, who can be placed in the same kind of musically catagory as Sinead, though she ofcourse sung in German. I didn't really like it, but okay she may be a big German star (???). She over acted a lot, though the music was good and the lyrics where not bad. Humorous was that she wanted to sing a french song at one point, but before performing it she translated the lyrics in German......Typically german habit IMHO. Like they also always overdub english spoken movies with German voice-overs.....

But after an hour it was Sinead's turn (btw, the venue was seated, and it probably wasn't allowed to stand up, which I don't like because it's harder to let the music take over the control of your body without being able to move on the music)

Sinead came up in a white/creme "blouse" and legging, with next to her 4 female background singers, young girls looking like they were just picked from the audience, but their vocals where very good. When Sinead got on stage she started immediatly with singing, no introduction at all. Also during the concert she didn't say a word between the songs (okay 2 times she said Thank You when the audience applauded). She looked very relaxed but shy, and she looked a lot older compared to when I saw her last time (1995), raising 2 kids makes her a lot older, and probably the US part of the concert also costed some energy. But during the show she became looser and was making jokes with the girl next to her.

After the first part of the concert (which lasted in total about 80 minutes) Jake (her son) ran on stage, probably thinking the concert was over, but Sinead (probably) told him to get off. After that she went of stage with him and the rest of the band. The audience shouted "Zugabe.....zugabe" (German version of We Want More :-))) wondering wether Sinead did understand it :-)) But ofcourse she came back (cause the encore is a normal part of the show), and she sung I am enough for myself, segued in Redemption song (of Bob Marley) which probably became a standard song in the encore since Portland, followed by He Moved through The Fair.

A lot of songs differed compared to the album version, esspecially because the background singers/choir was used a lot. Esspecially This IS A Rebel Song was a lot better then on the album (which is already a great song there).

And she finally used her lyrics written years ago; At the end of Fire On Babylon she segued in an about 30 seconds repeat of the lines "We're swimming in the deep blue, yes I'm swimming in the deep blue....." There's one line extra in this "lyrics part" but I can't hear what she's singing.

And again there where some technical problems, one speaker was cracky when the sound became to hard esppecially with bass sound, though I doubt Sinead did notice it, cause she didn't react at all (which she did in Rome by shouting to the technicians a lot). The background singers did notice it, cause they where looking from the speaker to sinead and vise versa.....

About my tape recording.....SH*T...... The first 30 minutes wheren't recorded at all (didn't push the buttons the right way) and the last part is recorded in an awfull quality (microphone problems) everytime John hits the big drum the sound stops.... So the entire tape became trash :-( Gladly enough there wasn't much drums in the song Redemption Song, so that one is recorded in a reasonalble quality (or better said; better then nothing)

All in all, this was the best concert I've ever seen or heard (on tape etc), every song was done without missing one note (which normally happens to Sinead a lot IMHO), most songs where done in a great version. Very worth the drive of 7-8 hours in total.

From: Christian.A.Kloeckner

Although the Pinkpop-Gig seems unbeatable (and tonights concert did NOT beat it), it was a very fine evening in Mainz. As a little thank you here's my REVIEW:

Sinead o'connor was the opening act of this years Mainz Zeltfestival, so the gig took place in a tent in the Volkspark. Approximatly 2000 people visited the unfortunatly not soldout concert, which was supported by Nanette Scriba (This WAS a local act, not really bad but pretty close to it). Starting at 9 o'clock Sinead had to fight some technical problems that terminated this evenings version of emperors new clothes. During the next songs the band got better and better and reached a first highlight with "I am stretched..." and the following "perfect indian". My personal favorite tonight was "Petit Poulet". Remarkable the large amount of musicians forming the band, first time including a background section formed by 4 young ladys (schoolgirls?), giving their best, which work pretty perfect on singing and less perfect on dancing. Sinead was in a good mood as it seems, but not reaching the very special spirit she had 1995 at the pinkpop-festival, which was my favorit concert the last years. Unfortionatly the tent was chaired, so sometimes the last kick was missing. But it was a very good concert by a brilliant singer and a very good band promoting a ones again brilliant minialbum! I think, that's it.

Christian.