JULY 16TH, 2008 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

[andy]

"You keep me hanging on" was a real tread!
I've always loved that song, Lou did a wonderfull performance of it.

Lou brought in a little snippet of Chuck Berry in 'Oh Jim'.
The instrumental intermission between 'Oh Jim' & 'Carline says 2' was quite expanded with a star role for the backing vocal singer (didn't get her name).
Fernando started a wonderfull 'Satellite of love' - I would have prefered to hear him finish it rather than the odd switch half way through to 'walk on the wild side'. Fernando is great.

Lou seemed tired of his songs to me though - half of his vocals deliveries were very detached with all the attention going to improvisations.
I love improvisations. I hate it when you can't fully enjoy them 'cause some childeren' choir keeps going on and on and on. The orchestra didn't add that much either, expect maybe during 'Power of the heart'.

This was my 3rd Berlin show and I feel it's been enough now.
With all the improvisation going yesterday, I sat wondering what a great instrumental album or tour these guys could prodcuce. More of a jazzy approach.
Last night they sometimes went quite far from the normal form of the song they were playing.
But since it was a concept - Lou Reed's Berlin - they had to get the thing back on the tracks.
My advice: loose the concept!

[Funcity]

This was my 3rd Berlin show and I feel it's been enough now.
With all the improvisation going yesterday, I sat wondering what a great instrumental album or tour these guys could prodcuce. More of a jazzy approach.
Last night they sometimes went quite far from the normal form of the song they were playing.
But since it was a concept - Lou Reed's Berlin - they had to get the thing back on the tracks.
My advice: loose the concept!

sounds like a great show. was it sold out? how did reed look? you say he wasn't into the vocals as much. you think he was tired or bored with the lyrics? (songs)
not sure what you mean "lose the concept".? get back to Berlin or continue and expand on the improv?

2 hours of LR with lots of improv-- i would have love to see that!

[Changeling]

I loved it!!

special surprise during encores:

Satellite Of Love/Walk On the wild side
Rock & Roll/You keep me hangin' on!!!!
Power of the Heart

Best Berlin show I've seen

I hope someone taped this!!

[andy]

@ Funcity: Loose the concept = get rid of the choir, the orchestra and the concept-setlist.
These men can put up one amazing show!
But at a few moments during this particular show, it became obvious that Lou's band was having tremendous fun improvazing, but the orchestra and the choir couldn't follow them.
The dictum 'less is more' would surely have applied to this situation.
As I said, I would love to see this band take on a jazz approach: no songs, just music.
Put John Zorn there too and you have one f*cking killer band!

As for Lou's vocals: I never got the impression he was really trying anything there up until 'You just keep me hanging on' when he became very enthusiastic.

[Pig Related]

I really loved it! I expected a rerun of the 2007 show, but was pleasantly surprised. It felt like Berlin clashing with Lou's modern sound (Ecstasy and onward) as opposed to the more strict (yet passionate) performance of 2007.

I'm glad I saw both shows. Now I hope to see some non-Berlin Lou Reed shows!

[Lorraine]

Hi all, I was there too and I think it was a great concert! Only the sound was a bit less for me than in Amsterdam 2007. Maybe that's because my hearing is becoming worse.

I was very happy to have had a very very close look at Lou so now I have his sign on my concert ticket It took a couple of waiting but it was worth it. Really nice .

As you will probably know, in 1978 Lou did a version of "You keep me hanging on" too. You can hear it on "The sheperd of brooklyn".

Anjo