Graf Zeppelin Haus / Friedrichshafen

Report by Igor Vukomanovic.
Publishing with kindly permission by Paul Deblond.
Original on www.blackmoresnight.nu

After a long and exhausting 750km drive from Zagreb, Croatia my girlfriend and I arrived at the beautiful town of Friedrichshafen on the lake Boden to see the Blackmore's Night show. I've been a huge fan of Blackmore's Night ever since I first heard the album "Under a Violet Moon", about two years ago, so there was no way I'd miss a live performance once I heard the new album and a tour is planned for this year. We arrived at the venue only half an hour before the start, so the best seats were already taken, which did upset me a bit, but it all turned out ok at the end. The hall was full and to my delight, there were many people dressed in renaissance garb. Soon the Italian band La Zag opened the show with some very nice tunes. I think they played for about 45 minutes, and after another 15 minutes of waiting Blackmore's Night started with "Cartouche". It was no surprise for me, since I was familiar with the set lists of some past shows of the tour. Besides the fact it sounded great, it was an amazing experience to see Ritchie and Candice perform live.

The atmosphere at the beginning was somewhat static, since all the people were just sitting in their seats and clapping after the songs. But, after some of my favourite songs like "Play Minstrel Play", "Under a Violet Moon" and "Past Times With Good Company", (the songs for which, personally, I think would've been much better if they were played later during the show, not in the beginning), Candice invited the audience to come near the stage. People responded immediately and so did I. Quickly, I got up and ran towards the stage. It was already crowded, but I managed to take an excellent position in the middle of the second row of people, so I was just a few meters away from the band. Now the show really started! The crowd went wild. Judging from the shouting and delight when Deep Purple songs were played, there were many Deep Purple fans around me, and they surely helped create the great atmosphere.

The show went on amazingly well, and the highlight of the whole concert for me was Lord Marnen's absolutely stunning solo violin performance at the end of "Durch Den Wald Zum Bach Haus". It seemed as if like he was going to explode from all the energy he put into playing - he even broke a few fiddle bowstrings :-) As the show was getting close to the encore, the crowd was getting wilder and wilder. Especially after the great "Fires at Midnight", "I Still Remember" and "Ghost of a Rose". Of course, I have to mention Ritchie playing on the hurdy gurdy, which was superb. I was getting a little bit anxious at that point since they still hadn't played "Self Portrait", which is one of my all time favourites, just like "Spanish Nights" - which was seemingly not included into this tour's setlist, and I really don't understand why :-( (Well maybe I'm just too much attached to the "Under a Violet Moon" album - I missed many more songs from it, like "March the Heroes Home", "Fool's Gold" and "Castles and Dreams", to mention just some of them).

We got several encores, which included solo keyboard performance and a few surprises. The greatest surprise for me was the "Wind in the Willows", because it wasn't played on the previous shows for which I had seen the set lists. As opposing to "Queen for a Day", which surprisingly wasn't played at this concert. After a few songs, I was now very anxious about the "Self Portrait", and on two occasions in between songs I shouted "Self Portrait!" out of desperation. I don't know if it made any difference, but after that, when they came out on the stage for the second encore, "Difficult to Cure" with "Self Portrait" was played! The band just kept going off and on the stage, it was really funny to see how nobody (except Ritchie, it seems) knew what was going on and what will happen next. When Ritchie got off the stage the third time, Candice seemed so puzzled that she knew not what to do :-) Then she joined Ritchie backstage, and when they returned, they whispered something to the other members of the band. It was interesting to see how, seemingly, none of that was planned, since the keyboard player was frantically searching through the sheets with music...for the one last song, which was "Now and Then". All in all, it was a beautiful, beautiful show. It surpassed all my expectations, I was even considering going to the last show of the tour in Trier, Germany on July 17th (but unfortunately couldn't do it).

Showtime: 2 hours and 20 minutes

This is the setlist, as I remember it (the song order is most probably not all correct).

Cartouche
Play Minstrel Play
Under A Violet Moon
Past Times With Good Company
Minstrel Hall
16th Century Greensleeves
Soldier Of Fortune
Mr. Peagram's Morris And Sword
Diamonds And Rust
Village On The Sand
Durch Den Wald Zum Bachhaus
Fires At Midnight
I Still Remember
Ghost Of A Rose
Renaissance Faire
The Clock Ticks On

Encore:

All For One
The Storm
Home Again
Keyboard Solo
Writing On The Wall
Difficult To Cure / Self Portrait
Wind In The Willows
Now And Then

Cheers!