Frannz Club
Berlin, Germany (11.11.08) 
   
    _
 with Fergus


1
Lying             
2
Golden Brown      
3
Poison                  
4
Need One              
5
Da Da Da Da      
6
Baby Blue       
7
Phoenix
8
Snowman
9
Carnies
10
Valentine  
11
Army Dreamers (Kate Bush cover) 
12
Sandpaper Kisses
13
Black Steel
14 Intro      
15 Too Tough To Die

Here's an interview from that day on Radio Eins


Here's the setlist (signed by Martina), click on it to see it bigger:



Here's my review of the concert:

First of all: the concert was great!!! The only disappointing fact was that Martina played only 60 minutes. I'm also ashamed of my city that the concert obviously wasn't sold out. But this way it was a special and intimate experience.

I was expecting a band or some background singers (like at the Paris show), but this concert was different: it was only Martina and a percussionist (Fergus?). So they had to play all the instruments, Martina mostly keyboards, guitar, a sort of xylophone (for Poison) and some percussion instruments. Fergus played every kind of percussion instrument that you can imagine, even some that maybe are not instruments at all! He is not only very talented, but also a very funny guy. Also Martina was in a particular good mood, talking a lot to the audience, making jokes and just being extremely charming. And Martina and Fergus worked great together, music- and humour-wise.

The concert started with Lying with Martina on keyboards and Fergus (I really hope that IS his name!) on drums. It was played similar to the album version. Second song was a cover, Golden Brown. I never liked this song very much, but it seems Martina can turn anything to gold (the pun was not intentional). Next was Poison, completely different than the album version (like most of the songs that evening, because they were played with very few instruments, like stripped down versions). It started with a Didgeridoo, then Martina on that xylophone-thing and Fergus on drums, like this version on You Tube. A rocky Need One with Martina on guitar was followed by Da Da Da, including audience participation (we had to sing one part of the da da da's). Another highlight was Carnies (people recognized it, because it was played on the radio quite a bit) and Sandpaper Kisses (which is one of my favorite songs from Quixotic). She mixed the really quiet and softer parts of that song with a rock part in the middle, which was really cool. Martina showed that her voice is really versatile, it can be soft, but also powerful and overwhelming. The last song from the regular set was the Tricky classic Black Steel, which was great! Fergus was really good on the drums on that track, Martina played guitar and even added a strange, punky solo in the middle!

The two encores were fantastic: first Intro, which started with Martina singing different parts that were recorded and then looped, so that in the end she had three voices in the background (sorry that I can't explain it better, she also used this technique earlier, although I can't remember in which song exactly). Then the show ended with an intense Too Tough To Die and a long drums solo, while Martina already left the stage.

Afterwards Martina was still hanging around the bar for a long time, talking to people, selling T-shirts, CDs and posters and signing all kind of things (like the setlist that I pilfered from the stage). She was as charming and nice as she was on stage, and it was funny to see how "normal" she talked to everybody. She said that the background singers from the Paris show were busy and also that it didn't work so well. She wants to come back to play in Berlin (or in Germany in general) in spring, maybe then with a third musician.

All in all it was a great show and evening, and everybody else seemed to really enjoy the show as much as I did (judging from the almost permanent smiles on people's faces around me). See you next spring, Martina (hopefully)!

 

   
 

 
 
 
 
 


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