Sophia - Feb. 18 ’04: Forum, Bielefeld (D), with Jansen & Lawn

Review
this show was back in februari and it feels like yesterday and ages ago at the same time. nevertheless i promised to write some kind of report so therefore..

always cool to play in bielefeld, this was our second time around. first time was really sweet, so we were looking forward very much to our return. we got there a little late on a very rainy wednessday afternoon, but since the PA was build up at a easy pace we had to wait anyhow.

our waiting was cheered up by the nice chatter and stories of sophia's soundman AJ (or something quite similar to that ;-) our soundcheck was too short but things were 'sort-of-ready' when we had to leave the stage. just a short break to feed ourselves and then it was time to play.

we had andreas from audiotransparent with us on piano and violin so we could add a flavour to our usual sound. we intended to play the more slow or mid-tempo songs just to fit the picture a bit more with sophia. but our question 'slow or fast song'? made us play 'tide' anyhow ;-).

with the recording of our video a few days before i had to retune on of my guitars. on stage it's a horrible way to find out your axe is way out of tune, so i had to change guitars really fast during one song.. on the other hand, the quite impressive crowd was enjoying what we did anyhow, so after 35 minutes we left the stage satisfied.

can't tell how much i enjoyed to see sophia again, it had been awhile. just found my spot at the back where t-shirts were sold and listened closely. it took some effort to get into the songs, but when desert song no.2 was played i rushed to the front. it's def. an epic song. on the other hand, 'so slow' has never sounded more impressive than this night. seems like i *really* understood the essence of the song more than ever before. after that highlight the 'river song' and 'another trauma' were included in this excellent set; and with a nice 'lemmy from motorhead-story' this evening ended with a smile on almost everyones' faces.

we were quite happy with the response and the sold merchandise that night. in fact we were so enthousiastic we drove home without it. phonecalls from both booker and AJ made us return to the forum to pick up the merch late at night. i won't bother to explain how late we were back home again to lay our head on our soft pillows, but it was *late*. who cares. we had another few nights to look forward to with sophia...
T-tuszz, Lawn (www.lawn.nl)

Photos by Lawn
Pic by Lawn

Pic by Lawn

Pic by Lawn

Pic by Lawn


Photos by Jan Hastaedt