May 2009

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Hotel Cristall, Cologne

21.05.2009 in Travel! | No comments

The Hotel Cristall is a 3 star hotel in the center of Cologne, Germany. The location is hard to find by car but easily reachable by foot (as long as you find the Dom). It has no parking lot and available parking space on the road near the hotel is limited. Nevertheless, there are some large parking lots in a 600m radius available.

The personnel at the reception was kind and friendly, the welcome very pleasant. I had a “standart” room (84 available) which was clean and tidy, not very spacy, but had everything you need (TV / Minibar). The roomcolor was a bit unusual though, the green walls remembered one of a hospital or a mental clinic :-)
Breakfast was included an quite good. (Yeah I got up early for once)

All in all a nice place to stay if you just need a room to sleep and a breakfast. Nothing fancy and not a place I would book for a longer stay. The prices are very reasonable.

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Sophia & William Fitzsimmons @ den atelier

21.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

No 24 hours after having seen the hard-rockers of AC/DC in Cologne, I’m back at home and in my favorite club. Sophia are playing at den atelier with support act William Fitzsimmons.
First of all, this man amazed me. He’s a gifted singer/songwriter who plays sad and slow folk songs, just he and his guitar. Buy his records (or download them on iTunes, whatever)

Sophia were great, the place was less crowded than their last gig in Luxembourg, but this time it seemed that only the fans where there, and less people who showed up without knowing anything about the band and the music. A circumstance that pleased me, an it felt like the band liked it too.

All in all a great concert evening, very different than the night before.

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AC/DC Black Ice Tour – Cologne, Germany 19/05/2009

20.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

I had the great luck to get tickets for this AC/DC Tour (german stadium concerts were sold out in 77 minutes). They are one of the few bands that one has absolutely to see in your life (or theirs) comparable to the Rolling Stones or for british heavy metal fans maybe Iron Maiden, too.

As a stage design adept, I was amazed by their setup. Even with exclusivly up to date gear being used, the influence of  a classic rock’n'roll stage with it’s tons of par cans was clearly visible as intended by the designers. Centerpiece of the stage was an impressive train influenced by a famous train accident in 1895 at the “Gare de Montparnasse”, Paris. In a animated video intro, the Rock’n'Roll train, was heading towards a city, when Angus was seduced by 2 girls who made the train derail. After several Pyro effects the LED Wall spitt and revealed the Stage and the train replica.

The lightning grid was inspired by the architecture of several train stations, with it’s large roof arcs. The many washes and Studio Beam fixtures gave the stage a neat rock’n'roll look.

The setlist had a reasonable lengt and all the most wanted songs could be found in the set. Angus’ solo in the center of the stadium was a real highlight and this not only because of the 6 follofspots used. The crowd was fantastic, all in all a great night and superb show.

Thanks to AC/DC and their road crew.
For those about to rock, I salute you.

Cologne - People waiting for AC/DC AC/DC Black Ice Tour - Stagedesign

AC/DC Solo AC/DC Stage - Hells Bells

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Mac III

4.05.2009 in Buy!, Touring! | No comments

A few weeks ago I had the chance to lay my hands on a brandnew Martin Mac III for an hour. Here my first impressions.

This fixture is big, and by big I mean enormous. The 2k was not a small fixture but this is definitly no kids playground anymore. The design is well done and everything looks nice which means it’s a fixture that you don’t have to hide because of its uglyness. :)

One thing I didn’t like was the new display. Even if the kryptographic 4 char messages were often not understandable and the navigation drove most people crazy, the shortcuts on the old Martin Menus were a great feature. Turn the display by 180deg and go to address 1 were usefull time savers. The known shortcuts seem to be missing (untill now) so that it took me 3 steps to turn the display around. That’s OK when you are standing with you two feet on the ground, but is annoying when your hanging somewhere on a truss.

After switching it on I was surprised by the brightness of the new Mac III. In a good way! The lamp is powerfull, the colors are, spoken in martin terms, astonishing even on the boundaries. Unfortunatly Martin kept the habit of putting unusable gobos into their fixtures. Third party suppliers will be happy, I am not.

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