Robert Francis - SR1 Unplugged - 01.06.2014
Two days after the gig at the Rockhal Club, I was sitting in a friend’s car, listening to the radio, when the host suddenly announced an intimate gig by Robert Francis in their studios – good thing I wasn’t behind the wheel at that moment (and I think my daughter on the back seat felt slightly embarrassed by my reaction, oooops ;) ) But there was a twist: tickets to that gig could not be bought, only won. And this proved to be just as difficult as I had feared. It was all about calling the radio station at a special time and then being selected, which is of course impossible if you don’t even manage to get through :/ I was already getting slightly desperate (to say the very least), when FINALLY, three days before the gig, I was lucky enough to win my tickets. I’m sure it was only due to all my lovely friends keeping their fingers crossed for me, so thanks for that! None of these friends however wanted to/could come with me, so I posted on the Facebook event page of the Luxembourg gig to see if there were any takers for my spare ticket. It took like 30 seconds to get a reply. Thus, I could not only make sure the ticket went to a „real“ fan (it was obvious that so many people just called because it was for free), but also had some very nice company during the gig itself ☺
The radio station was SR1 Europawelle which has its studios at Saarbrücken, a 45 minutes drive for me. Doors were said to open at 7, so we made sure to be there at a quarter to. To be let in at 10 minutes to 8. Yes, we could wait inside the building, but that wasn’t really an advantage because at some point, it startet getting really hot and there was a distinct lack of oxygen. Luckily, the studio itself had air condition and we soon felt better there. I was slightly disappointed that the venue was seated (I knew it sometimes was the case for these gigs but had hoped otherwise for this one, esp. as the radio hosts had mentioned several times that the winners would be „standing“ in front of the stage), but we managed to get a rather decent spot in the forth row. Vision was somewhat limited though, so I didn’t take too many photos which, on the plus side, allowed me to more fully concentrate on the music.
Hm, „unplugged“ doesn’t seem to mean what I thought it did, and what the dictionnary still tells me, for this gig definitely was NOT acoustic. But I’m not complaining, the sound was absolutely brilliant! Especially Star Crossed Memories and Mescaline gave me goosebumps and during the last song, Little Girl, I had tears in my eyes. Which is even more surprising as I hadn’t even known it before (it’s from Robert’s first album which I didn’t have –now I do, of course). Let’s see if I can manage to decipher the setlist
Darkness Good Hearted Man Keep On Running Ukiah One By One Take You To The Water Eighteen Love Is A Chemical Baby Was The Devil Star Crossed Memories I Like The Air Mescaline Junebug Little Girl (yay me! LOL Pretty much the same as in Luxembourg actually) Expected to hear more songs from the new album, Heaven, but again not complaining!
As I said before (and as others also noticed), the audience wasn’t necessarily composed of fans and even though I’m sure many were „converted“ that night (which is, I suppose, one of the goals of such gigs), it took a while for the spark to ignite. Maybe Robert should have talked more and earlier, for the introduction to Mescaline surely won him loads of sympathy – and no, don’t rehearse your speeches, they’re much cuter this way ;) For Junebug at last, everybody was up and clapping along. Only to have Robert announce: „Now that you’re all standing, I’ll play you the saddest song.“ So true. Sigh.
Then came the worst part of the evening. No, I’m of course not talking about taking pictures and getting stuff signed, I’m talking about – being interviewed. At least, I managed to avoid it for the TV cameras, but the radio guy (who was very nice, don’t get me wrong) got a hold of me and asked me what felt like loads of questions. Seriously, how do people ever get used to this, it’s so awful! The only thing even worse is actually hearing yourself talk on the radio – which happened to me the other morning, but fortunately, they had reduced my statement to just one sentence, at least in the clip I caught. I hope they left it at that, and if not, that nobody recognised me (luckily, I wasn’t asked my name). I, for one, wouldn’t have recognised myself if I hadn’t remembered what I said. Does my voice really sound like that? How can anyone even bear hear me talking? LOL
Came my turn at the merch table. As I was pretty happy with the pictures I had taken at the Rockhal gig, I wanted to get one of them signed. I had to make it two though as I didn’t have a really good one featuring the whole band, so I chose one of Maxim, David and Ben doing the backing vocals to Pain and one of Robert alone. They seemed to quite like the idea ☺
When I presented Robert with his, he asked me if it was from Amsterdam (don’t know why, maybe he wore the same t-shirt there?) and I told him it was from Luxembourg and how much I had enjoyed that gig, but that the one from tonight was even better. He said „thank you“ and when I was already walking around the table for taking a picture, he suddenly exclaimed „Ah yes – I remember you!“ *swoon* Explains my more than broad grin, ahem.
Robert also told me to come back, and I promised I would, but for now, the European tour is over ☹ However, if you’re in the US, you still have the chance to catch him at a gig and you should absolutely take it! (dates)
It was such a great evening and the thought that I might not have won those tickets still makes me feel slightly sick o_o
