(Report by Julia, future Templar)
By getting up in the morning of the 10th of July, I already felt that this day would become a very special one in my life. A flood of adrenaline flew through my body and I couldn't sit still the whole day...It was the day of my very first GOTTHARD concert. When we arrived at the small festival ground in Freiburg, where GOTTHARD were set to play in a big circus tent, only a few fans were already there though it ws one hour before the concert was to start. But anyway, the mood was great. The fans who were there were all talkin about GOTTHARD, the fanclub that runs a little bad in these days and - of course - the new album, Domino Effect, and the upcoming show that evening. The later the evening grew, the fuller the tent became. Me and my friend managed to get to the first row and we were happy...
And then, 8 o'clock, baseman Marc Lynn, drummer Henna Habegger and guitar player Freddy Scherer entered the stage. A strong base line and a heavy drum sound made the people around me scream and smile. The opener, Master Of Illusion, from the new album had started and Leo Leoni and (last but not least) Steve Lee entered the stage. The crowd was brewing and though the tent was only half-full (maybe about 1500 people) it was an incredible great mood in there. The more songs the guys from Switzerland played, the better their sound became. In the beginning of the set the sound wasn't perfectly mixed and the guys first had to acclimate to the small stage, so it seemed. But after the first two songs it just sounded great, nothin but great... Anyway, GOTTHARD managed to light the spark from the first moment on. The fans were on their side.
Their third song, Anytime Anywhere (from the Lipservice album) and some more great rock songs like Top Of The World and Mountain Mama rocked our thirsty souls. The guys showed up with their phenomenal DEEP PURPLE cover song Hush and were able to deeply touch our hearts with amazing ballads just as Heaven and One life One Soul. My flesh began to creep when the whole crowd sang along the line ...one life, one soul, forever I go - follow me, follow me, don't let me go... and when I was lookin around I knew that I was not the only one who felt that way...I felt like standing in a big community of rock-lovin' people whose hearts needed to be fed with the strong sound of GOTTHARD.
Leo once showed up with a beer bottle that he drank on stage and after doin this he used the bottle to play his guitar with it; and then, Steve showed up with his harmonica by startin' with Sister Moon. The two guys definetely proved that they were multi-talented! When they finished their normal set with Heaven fans wanted more, of course.. and the band showed up again for an addition, playing The Oscar Goes To You and Lift 'U Up making the whole crowd jumpin', screamin' and really rockin' their souls out. It was an amazing feeling to be swept along in the flood of rock'n'roll, when you can't stop smiling, when you need to move your body and when you can just forget about anything and make your brain shut down for a while.
In the very end of the concert, Steve and the keyboard player showed up once more and performed Falling, only with keyboards and vocals. They definitely made their fans bein' totally amazed. When finishing their last song, Domino Effect, the six guys from Switzerland had absolutely proved that they were allowed to call themselves something like 'heroes'. Steve with his phenomenal voice and his powerful rockshow; Leo with his amazing skills to play guitar (even with a beer bottle); Nikola Fragile (guest musician) with the possibility to make the same sound with his keyboards as Leo's guitar and duel with him (very great part of the show!!!); Marc rockin' his soul out on stage and givin' the strong and heavy GOTTHARD sound to our hearts; and Freddy accompanying him with his great lookin' guitars.
Alltogether, the show was nothin but amazing! I've been to a whole lot of concerts in the last two years but this was really one of the best ones!
GOTTHARD did just become an even bigger part of my life than before and I hope they're goin' to stand tall in the music business for a long time and keep on rockin' us, their fans in a way like they did in Freiburg. GOTTHARD didn't care about how many people were there, it made no difference if it was 15,000 or 1,500 fans. They just wanted to do the same we wanted to: have a great time together and get back to mind what Rock 'n' Roll means...and they managed so.
Setlist:
Master Of Illusion
Gone Too Far
Anytime Anywhere
The Call
Top Of The World
I Wonder
One Life, One Soul
Letter To A Friend
All We Are
Dream On
Sister Moon
Come Alive
Mountain Mama
Hush
Heaven
The Oscar Goes To You (1st encore)
Lift 'U up (1st encore)
Falling (2nd encore)
Domino Effect (2nd encore)
