It’s the end of December! So it’s time for another “concerts of the year” blog entry, looking back at all concerts of 2011! And a little outlook on 2012 of course…

Let’s start with the statistics: I saw 49 concerts this year – less than I had expected before I counted, but still quite a lot. Count in the literature reading (of a rock musician *uhem*), the four Sonny musicals and one WWE event, and I’m at an average of more than one concert/event per week again… *argh* No wonder I was kinda tired of concerts and especially festivals a few times this year!

Yep, especially festivals: I attended 10 festivals this year, one in early June (Rock im Park), on in mid June (Southside), and the rest in the seven weeks from mid July until early September. OK, I only attended one day for half of the festivals, but that still leaves five full festivals with LOTS of great music! And temperatures between 5°C and 30°C, thunderstorms and waterfalls, mud, and sunburn as well.

For the first time, I “worked” as photographer at some of the festivals and spent the first three songs of each band in the aisle in front of the stage. It was fun, no doubt, but I found out it’s not really what I long to do. It’s nice once in a while, but I’ll rather concentrate on the music instead of taking pictures that I’ll never ever look at again (and that are too bad to make any money out of them – especially since I don’t plan to make money out of going to concerts instead of going there to enjoy the concerts!).

Of course, most of the concerts I saw this year where somehow related to Kaizers Orchestra – all in all, I saw them 20 times this year. *cough* That might sound boring, seeing one band over and over and over, but it’s not. I love their concerts, I can’t get enough, and for some reason I don’t get tired of seeing them. There were some weaker concerts of course, like the one in Gent or at Eier mit Speck, but then there were so many concerts where I had blinking hearts in my eyes after they went off and couldn’t stop smiling for hours afterwards. Hell, I was close to tears at Vega! Because of Kaizers, and because of the beautiful time I had with my tour- and travel companions. THANK YOU for the wonderful time!

Apart from Kaizers, I saw four concerts of Die Ärzte (ok, actually three were not Die Ärzte but Laternen-Joe, but… you know how it is), four of Itchy Poopzkid (including an amazing tour conclusion just a week ago), and four of Monsters of Liedermaching (and these four were all completely different).

The last years, I listed the “geographical dimensions” of my concert trips – that’s not really that impressive this year. I was traveling a lot, but not really that far… I guess the south-eastern point would be Wien or Graz, south-west would be Gampel (probably the best festival of the year! Even though Serengeti was also amazing, just way too cold and overshadowed by the shootings in Norway). North-west was Amsterdam and north-east probably Oslo, with Øya and the Spektrum concert.

Most impressive concerts? Hmm, that one’s always hard to answer. Especially since all concerts are so different… I already mentioned the Kaizers tour, and all in all, that’s probably my favorite. The most surprising concert for me this year was Fozzy in Copenhagen. Yes, in Copenhagen… I never traveled that far for a band I hadn’t seen live before. But it was SO SO SO worth it! They just blew me away. Newcomer of the year was definitely Kraftklub. I hadn’t heard about them before I saw them live at Serengeti, where I instantly fell in love with them. I saw them again at Mini Rock (another great festival I haven’t mentioned yet, but it should be mentioned because it started out as a tiny festival and has constantly grown over the years, without losing its great atmosphere) and then just a few weeks ago at a club show. The club show was so crowded it was hard to enjoy the concerts, but then, it was impossible to not enjoy it. They will make it big! No newcomer but someone I hadn’t noticed before is Wirtz – I saw him at Taubertal, was very impressed, loved his gig at Gampel as well and was a bit disappointed by his club show a few months later. But then, I didn’t know his songs well enough; I do love the album now that I have it. And finally, I must mention Xutos & Pontapés; a Portuguese band that actually played in Switzerland and Luxembourg this year, yay! Great concerts, and a great experience as well.

So, what’s coming up in 2012? Actually, I thought at a concert a few weeks ago (don’t remember which concert it was, it doesn’t really matter either): “OK, maybe I should cut back on concerts a bit next year; if I don’t see so many concerts, I might appreciate the ones I see even more.” Makes sense, right? Sounds like a plan, right?

Well, looking at my concert schedule for 2012 demolishes that plan, sort of. =;-) There’s already 31 concerts planned; 16 times Die Ärzte, 7 times Kaizers Orchestra (and they haven’t even announced their European tour yet…). Plus probably a few festivals – Mini Rock is pretty much set, Taubertal would be fun again as well, and the rest is up to the bands that will be playing.

Guess I will be busy next year as well. Happy 2012!