Livingston & Dellé @ Essen Original

[tj_teejay]

What a sweet way to end a rather blah week. I went to Essen last night to watch Livingston and Dellé together with hai_di. The concerts were a part of the (free) open air event called Essen Original. I had been there a few years ago (like five or six?) where I had seen H-BLOCKX play live. But I have to say, I enjoyed Livingston much more!

I had already seen them in Düsseldorf a few weeks ago (at another free gig with hai_di and anaithis), and I quite liked them, even though I had never heard about them before. When I saw they were going to play at Essen Original, I knew I wanted to go! A plus was that Dellé was going to play directly afterwards. Two for the price of none? I'm there! 

Met with hai_di before the concert, and we arrived just at the right time. The band before had finished and they were taking a break to get the stage ready for Livingston. The crowd had thinned quite a bit, so we got a really good spot close to the stage. I think we were in, like, the 6th row. The view of the stage was great. Perfect! They started playing right on time at 9:45 PM. And, boy, did the guys have fun! It's so refreshing to see a band of five on the stage, where they share just how much the boys enjoy what they're doing. And how much they love sharing it with the audience.

I also had the impression that they were happy with the crowd. Pretty much the whole Kennedyplatz was full of people, and Livingston managed to make them move and sing. After they announced their last song, people shouted for an encore, and then they came back to the stage to play another song. The best part was when they finished singing but the crowd still keep singing Oh-oh-oh-oh, which made them take their instruments back up and join in again.

After the show, we meandered to the right of the stage to see if maybe some of the band members would come out and talk to the few fans who were lingering. We talked to a group of girls whom we had already met in Düsseldorf (the ones with the flags). And after a little while, the drummer (Paolo) indeed joined us. After all the groupies had gotten photos with him, he came over and gave hai_di a hug (they had met before a few times) and shook my hand. We asked a few questions, such as how the new album is coming along and when it's supposed to come out. (Paolo said maybe April 2011.)  We quickly got to talk to Jakob too, but the guys had to leave two minutes later to grab some dinner. I felt very much like a groupie, even though I can't really say that I am. What was kinda funny was that I told Jakob I had seen them for the first time at the REWE Family Fest in Düsseldorf this summer, and he was like, "Oh, uh, let's forget about that gig very quickly, please." LOL! Hey, it wasn't so bad, trust me. Otherwise I wouldn't have driven out there last night to see them again.

We kept hanging out close by because the guys had promised they would be back after dinner, but that never happened. We watched Dellé on stage for maybe 45 minutes, which was cool too, but we weren't really in the crowd but more on the sidelines to get the chance to maybe catch Livingston again when if they came back. Around half past midnight, we figured that they probably wouldn't be back, and since we were both tired after a long week, we went back to our cars. And all I can say is that it was a great night! Wonderful music, a great concert and some gropuie-ness to finish it off. What more can you want?

By the way, does anyone know what the difference between the normal album and the Pur Edition is? The songs seem to be the same, but the Pur Edition is 7 EUR cheaper than the normal edition on amazon.de. What does the normal edition have that the Pur Edition doesn't (or vice versa)?