A view from the hill - Mannheim

Der Osterhase brachte mehr als Eier

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:33:00 +0100

Neben viel Schnee, den man sogar zum Skifahren genießen kann, hat mir der Osterhase diesmal noch mehr mitgebracht: das Ende meiner Mannheimer Zeit. Bye Nordbaden, welcome back Südbaden! Zum Auftakt hatte der Osterhase meiner Family dann auch noch ein paar kleinere Erkrankungen mit eingepackt, aber das soll die Freude nicht mindern.

A great evening with a tool

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:19:52 +0100

Yesterday, I voted for Tool as the best live band, although I hadn't seen them yet, as the concert was tonight. Well, they didn't let me down, they easily did win the price as the best live band this year [1]. The concert hall, Mannheim's Maimarkthalle, was a particular disappointment. Or in fact it wasn't, it was just the horrible surrounding I've expected it to be.

The warm-up band, Mastodon, was also a nightmare. Usually, I don't care about bad warm-up bands, but this time the sound was so loud you couldn't ignore them. The loudness was really a problem. Sometimes I felt it was just too loud although I brought and used a pack of ear protectors. Apart from that, Tool were great, especially the light show was the best what I've seen so far.

[1] It was only the fourth concert for me this year. Tomte has been great, Til Brönner (my first Jazz concert ever) was very nice, too, and The Horror The Horror, this years' best newcomer in my opinion, played a nice concert, too (although they had to fight a rather tiny location, Freiburg's Jos Fritz cafe and its ridiculous time table). But Tool was way more exciting.

That's not the sun going down but the earth spinning around

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:56:00 +0200

Yesterday evening, I went to see Tomte, a great German guitar pop band. It was quite a funny evening, with Thees, the singer, showing dias upfront. The concert was quite great, too, btw.

Afterwards, walking the bridge over the Neckar, I encountered a view that makes living in real citites so interesting: At the head of the bridge workers were digging and ripping out lanes of the tram, producing lots of noise and smoke. With the huge lights illuminating the night, this alone was quite a scene. But at the same time below the bridge on the water, 19 swans were swimming silently on the river. I love these contrasts you only encounter in larger cities.