The Best Show So Far

It must have been the first time ever that we went to Berlin and, other than going to a show, just stayed in the hotel room. But we want to set priorities: blog posts needed to be written and we hoped to catch up on some sleep. Also, a wise man once said that sightseeing is overrated anyway.

One last glimpse on Monday morning, and then we had to say tschüssi to Berlin.

After two and a half hours on the road, we arrived in Greifswald and checked into or hotel Hotel & Restaurant Alter Speicher. Or we tried. But the friendly lady in charge had to finish waiting a resturant table first and so it took a tad bit longer and included one ladie's room break each for Stefie and me.

And then we asked for the Wi-Fi voucher.

"How many devices? One?"
"No, four. Two laptops, two phones."

Really too bad that I could't take a photo of her facial expression following that answer to show you here. Would have made your day for sure. OMG...
 
[Note from Stefie: Thank God we had been to the ladies room earlier . It was a pee-your-pants moment. Also later we asked her for the way to tonight's venue. Her directions were surely great for people who are totally familiar with Greifswald. :-/ But thank God Google Maps is our friend... ]

At least the hotel and the rooms seem to be very nice.

So then we were off to explore Greifswald. We had been here before in January 2013 but that was a) in the deep winter and b) we had stayed a bit outside and c) didn't have any time for a closer look. What we saw now was really really nice.

Greifswald, officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald, is a city in northeastern Germany. It was founded in 1199 and granted town rights in 1250. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about 250 kilometres (160 mi) from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed by a small river, the Ryck. It is also located near Germany's two largest islands, Rügen and Usedom, and it's close to three of Germany's 14 national parks. Together with Stralsund, Greifswald forms one of four high-level urban centers of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The city's population is about 55,000, including many of its 12,500 students and 5,000 employees of the University of Greifswald.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Old Town with some of the main sights is located only a few walking minutes from the hotel. On our way we saw this:
 

Swell. But Gera is still holding the poster record.

Then we arrived at market square and it looked like this...

... and this (the red building is the City Hall)

... and this

... and this

Beautiful, isn't it?

Then Google Maps helped finding the way to Brasserie Hermann. It was only a good 10 minute walk from the hotel. Once there, we asked about door opening times and also reserved a table for 6pm for a pre-show-dinner.

Back on the market square we wanted a little snack and a refreshing beverage and went to Café San Marco.

Highly recommandable if you're into slow and sh*tty service, Apfelschorle (for all non-Germans: mix of apple juice and sparkling water) that's made with non-sparkling water and therefore tastes like very water-y appeljuice, too warm on top of it, tomato-mozarella toast that contains mozarella that comes in a feta cheese camouflage... I could go on. If others are familiar with that location and have only made good experiences... great. Than we just maybe had a bad day.

[Note form Stefie: also stay away from their Latte Macchiato, it contains ca. 97% milk foam and 3% coffee :-/]

We made plans for more sightseeing on the next day.

At 6pm we arrived at Brasserie Hermann and ordered grilled chicken salad. Soooo good!!!

7:30pm was the time for those with tickets to get into the room where the show would take place. It was a seated show and man... there were a lot of chairs. Who knew the room would be so big, once the restaurant tables were gone (we had our dinner in a separate room).

We were lucky enough to hear the last bit of Lee's soundcheck before we went in and took our seats in the first row.

The stage looked rather gemütlich with the different light fixtures they had set up.

Before the show began, a guy from www.ckkt.de, who organize these shows at Brasserie Hermann and the nearby Café Koeppen, came to welcome us all, to introduce tonight's artists... and to announce that the show was sold out. YAY!! We learned afterwards that around 140 tickets had been sold. That's pretty amazing!! Probably helped that both Lee & Paper Aeroplanes have played in Greifswald before and obviously left a very good impression.

Little side note: it has become very clear throughout this tour that both Lee & PA sort of "benefit" from each other. There are the Lee fans who hear PA for the first time and like them a lot, and definitely PA fans who had never heard of Lee and are sold on him after his performance.

There was that girl, also first row, and we heard her say about Lee before the show "Who is that? Never heard of him before." Then I watched her during his performance and thought that this is the facial expression I must have had when seeing him for the first time. Totally in awe! After the Gorillaz cover we heard her say "that was the best cover I've heard in my whole life". Her reaction was typical for so many we've seen over the last 13 shows.

And Lee? He was in great spirits!! And the audience was, too. From the very first minute... laughing hysterically about his stories (which caused him to even push the envelope a bit; seriously, he could totally have a second profession as stand-up comedian!)... cheering after each song like the whole room was filled with his fans alone.

Greifswald, you have won the award for best audience on this tour so far. We forgive you for screwing up the "moving with your auntie and uncle in bel-air" line, because you were making up for it with everything else.

It was an almost perfect set. Almost? Yeah. A) it was too short (though Lee's sets are alwys too short if they don't last at least 2 hours) and B)  You're Not Her was missing from the setlist. Seriously, Lee. That's a new fan favorite. It should never be missing from the set list ;-)

Oh, and it would also be nice to have him come out second for at least one of the last two shows.

Or both...?

Pretty please! ;-)

(No offense to Sarah & Rich of course. We like you guys very much.)

Nothing new to report about the last two songs. A Girl In New York sounds so so so great with Sarah on backing vocals, and Newport Beach was performed again acoustic in the middle of the room. (Just wished someone from the venue would have thought to put a spotlight on them, they were performing almost in complete dark. Ah well... hopefully the people in the back could still see them all just fine ;-)

I'm sure for everyone at Brasserie Hermann the show ended way too soon. What a brilliant evening it was!!!

Thank you Greifswald!

And while we're not posting a video from yesterday's show, we want to include a link to Lee's performance of Hindsight at Cafè Koeppen from 2012. Check it out. 

Café Koeppen, Hindsight

The evening in pictures.