Hello Venezuela!

No, that's not a new tour stop. But who knows... maybe it will be one in the future?!?

Just checked blog statistics, and saw that we do not only have readers in Germany, USA, UK, Ireland, Austria and Belgium (Guten Tag, Hello, Servus, Dia Dhuit, Salut to all of you!) but also one in Venezuela. That's pretty impressive... unless that person was looking for 1D instead of LMD and clicked the wrong link (no offense to One Direction fans though ;-D).

So Bienvenido, dear reader from Venezuela. I'm sure, Lee would be happy to know he has fans in your country ;-) (If he doesn't already know.)

But now back to Europe... Germany... Cologne. And I don't want to waste any time today but begin with yesterday's show right away. Not sure if you've read other reviews by now. If yes, you've probably have heard how absolutely BRILLIANT it was. Best show of the tour so far, for sure.

The venue, Studio 672, is rather small and intimate with a low stage, and with ca. 120 people it was almost sold out. Most of them were clearly there for Paper Aeroplanes. It was Lee's turn to start the evening, after being 2nd at the last two shows. Indicator that he would be first was that scarf with the British flag attached to his mic stand. You know... this one:

Showstart was around 8:30pm and it didn't take long until it was clear that this show would probably a bit different from the others. Of course it always helps when a club is as packed as the Studio 672 was. And it also helps if the audience is willing and ready for an evening full of great music... and to give artists they have never heard of before a fair chance.

So after "Joanna" and his first HILARIOUS story he had the attention of everyone in the room.

Well... everyone but one. Yes I'm looking at you, lady in the first row. She couldn't be bothered to even crack the tiniest smile. Not once. Like... how is that possible? You don't need to be a fan of his music. But managing to keep a completely straight and bored face the whole time while he's cracking up everyone in the house is an achievement on its own. :-/

But I digress. Sorry.

So Lee was in top form yesterday, and since there was no shortening of the set this time, songs like "Falling In Love For The Last Time" and "All The Wrong Places" were back on the list. One highlight, once again, was the Clint Eastwood/Fresh Prince/Amadeus/MfG/Billie Jean mashup. The biggest reaction always comes when he's rapping that MfG song part though. Everyone on Germany familiar with the song knows that it is already difficult to keep the German lyrics in mind. But coming from an Englishman ... this IS impressive!

Guess many of those who had never been to one of his shows were very surprised when he unplugged the guitar to come down from the stage to perform "She" in the middle of the crowd. It's in fact quite the unusual thing to do but no one can really escape him when he does it. Very smart move ;-).

But no matter how great a performance is... there comes a time when it's over. After he had left the stage, people around us - all PA fans - started chatting. One girl said that she had never heard of him before, had checked out a couple videos on You Tube, but that the live performance had totally blown her away! Well, yes Dear, that's exactly what happened to many of us ;-).

Her girlfriends were obviously equally as impressed and even asked us for flyers! Now they may not go from not knowing Lee at all to new Street Team members... but having them interested and maybe checking out some links is a good start.

In the end, what happened to them, basically happened to us before. I refuse to accept a "I don't like him" from someone who hasn't seen a live performance.

Which means: if you want to spread the word about how brilliant a performer Lee is, drag your fiends/family to a show with you ;-) You can't help but love him, once you were in the same room and heard That Voice ;-)

Alright... where was I? Oh yeah,,, end of Lee's part.

When Paper Aeroplanes started with theirs, we were surrounded by people filming the whole show. That girl who had been super impressed by Lee's performance, was filming for her friend in the USA who's a big fan and doesn't have a chance to come over. The things fans are doing... ;-)

After Sarah's & Rich's official set they came back together with Lee again and the first song was again "Girl In New York". And then something happened, that seemed to be a problem at first (technical difficulties) but ended up being a treat for everyone.

While one of the techs tried to fix the problem without success, Sarah suggested that they'd all perform the last song unplugged amidst the crowd. (I like to believe that Lee's unplugged session inspired her ;-)). No sooner said than done, and a second later people were standing in a circle around the three of them and were completely mesmerized!!

It was one of these moments where you say to yourself: Self, I'm really really thankful that I was lucky enough to witness this great moment :-)

Audience went wild after this and of course no one wanted to accept that this evening should be over already. Everyone wanted an encore.

And we got it!!! All three came out again after a couple minutes and performed two more (Paper Aeroplanes) songs. Lee didn't sing, he "only" played guitar, but that didn't matter. He was back onstage for two more songs was all that counted.

You know... I basically suck at writing reviews. I still hope I could somehow get across, what a wonderful, one of a kind evening that was at Studio 672 in Cologne/Germany on March 23, 2014 :-)

Some photos.