Und hier noch ein ausführlicher Bericht - gefunden im "Greasylake"-Forum:
............
First of all I would like to thank Christoph aka tuytje! He is responsible for making me decide to make the trip to Paris!
At first I wasnt sure off going to Paris at all. Why? Well, the standard setlist in Gelsenkirchen, the money, I didnt have a ticket, I was afraid of getting bored with the rising songs since it was going to be my fourth show since Rotterdam, the trip from Belgium to Paris, the bad weather reports, etc. I went nonetheless and more than glad to have done so!
We arrived in Saint Denis at about 4 pm, parked the car in the parking lot which cost us 20 euros. At five I found me a ticket through a guy from London who was selling loads of them. I paid 30 euros, face value was 45euros! I am a solidarity worker, he said, LOL. That alone was worth the trip. The catering around the stadium was oke, loads of beer and food tents, the rising album playing loudly all around, but expensive! Inside the stadium I paid 6euros for a beer for gods sake!
We arrived with four people but all of us had different tickets with different entrances. So we got split up. Luckily my ticket directed me to a gate where I met two of my Belgian Bruce buddies, rockaddict (Stephanie) and Peter. We started queing and at 6 the gates opened. Every ticket was checked under a scanner, causing some delay. Fortunately, my ticket proved to be legit, you never now with those scalpers!
So the three of us ran all the way over to the stage to find out there is no pit! First impresson of the stadium : Stade de France is a magnificent stadium though I dont think its that much bigger than say The Kuip in Rotterdam. Anyway, we took our position immediately to the left of the right screen, second and third row. Suddenly we hear an acoustic guitar behind the stage and some seconds later Bruce hits the stage with his acoustic guitar. I estimate about 600 people have already gotten into the stadium. But when Bruce hit the stage everybody came rushing in as fast as possible. People went crazy! Bruce plays Does this bus stop?, Growing Up and This Hard Land. He seemed to be in a great mood. During the part of Growing Up where Clarence is supposed to jump in, Bruce walks over the Clarences mic to goof around. This alone was worth the trip! Bruce greets us and says;C U in a little while!. What a treat. I wonder why he did this. Was he in a fine mood? Was it to thank us for being the first to enter the stadium? Or was it his thank you; for us queing in miserable weather conditions (it rained every now and then, during the concert we got treated to some heavy showers, and I mean heavy, the kind the gets your underwear wet). Anyway it once again proved his genuine spontaneity. Hope he does this again!
On with the show. I would like to stress that its massively important where you are positioning yourself for those stadium shows. We were some where in the first three to four rows and were surrounded by loads of Spaniards, Italians, Dutch, Swedes, Germans, Belgians,etc;all but French! The people around us were very nice, some passionate Italians and very nice people from Holland. Hope to meet them again! We chatted the two hours away, which made the long wait more than tolerable. At a quarter to 8 it started raining heavily, but it didnt bring us down, not in the least. We quickly realised that the crowd was going to be awesome and that the weather wasnt going to spoil that! On the contrary! People were very loose. Maybe the absence of the pit contributed to the great atmosphere upfront, I dont know, but fact is that this was the greatest crowd I have ever seen! As far back as I could look people were waving hands, dancing, pogoing, etc; Even in the far stands!
It may sound stupid but its a fact, the show keeps getting better! The Rising songs didn(t loose their punch at all, not even after hearing them for the sixth time!! Bruce looked fitter than during the past shows, Patti IS a necessary addition to the band, other band members looked more relaxed as well, Clarence hasnt played this well in a loooong time, etc; Most of the bands wives and children were watching from the side of the stage. Stevies wife seemed to be having a great time!
The show was brilliant with killer performances of songs like Marys Place, Into The Fire, Lonesome Day, My City, Worlds Apart etc; The new songs really stand out! Many surprises : Wholl Stop the Rain? (no sax solo from the bigman though), My love (one of many highlights), a near perfect Jungleland (Bruces voice is top!), Be True (premier), Trapped (premier), Ties that Bind, Seven nights to Rock (world premiere and they nailed it, the crowd went nuts, Bruce restarted it three times! I even prefer this one to the Detroit Medley), etc; My 24th show and definitely the best Rising show I have seen so far!
But I am sure Milan and its crowd will even top this one! A big thank you to Christoph Tuytschaever, Karin and Marc, Peter and rockaddict, my GF who was in absentia, the Dutch girls and all the people around us for turning this, once again, into an unforgettable experience. This has truly been a night of triumph for Bruce. Legendary Night!
..........
Na da bin ich gespannt, ob er recht hat und die Show noch in Mailand getoppt wird... Jedenfalls, denke ich, wird dort in punkto Wetter das Gegenteil der Fall sein - SONNE pur... Vielleicht gibt's dann eine Hitze-Entschädigung???
Ohhhh - what a "BOSS"-Year!!!!!!!!!!