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Despite the fact that the weather wasn't really with us, this weekend, it still were some days - on June 26th and 27th - worth to remember.
It's not that we have like every month or so the opportunity to see Ra:IN live anyway, so what ever work might have appeared - it had to wait until that weekend was over! There was not much of thinking back and forth about it, but grab everything that was needed and off to Ra:IN's Gigs in Germany! That will rock, we were sure, and it indeed rocked!

- Friday, June 26th - Ra:IN live in Berlin, Magnet Club

Praying to St. Peter please NOT to let it rain right now - prayer was successful.
Berlin is hell of a huge city (at least from my own point of view - others now would get back to me like 'what about Tokyo!?' But still, Berlin is huge for me!). So I'm never sure whether I already visited places I pass, or not. My friend and me weren't even sure whether we went the right direction to the venue since Berlin seems to have a weird system to number houses. Looking out for some crazy looking people, we eventually reached our goal, being welcomed by an enthusiastic fan that was about to give us a number to get into the venue nicely ordered.

Admittedly - I reacted way too rude back then - and even now I feel sorry about that, but ... "Hey! that's not Tokio Hotel!", I thought. Or to quote Roger Murtaugh (From the movie "Lethal Weapon" for those who don't know): "I'm too old for that shit!" (laughs) Ok, i got, what i deserved - so I couldn't sign the nice cloth fans brought along for Ra:IN, nicely written the name of the band on it (you can see a photo of that in DIE's blog entry for that day!)

There weren't many fans - sadly - many said it was because many didn't know about it: "For example, here was nothing and we’re coming from Kiel (the very north of Germany). So, even if people in Berlin would have known about it, nobody else would have been informed..." So, next time, fans were agreeing all over the place, there's much more promotion needed!

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The concert itself, was nevertheless a worth one to remember. Actually, the few people there didn't drag the mood down in any way. Rather, it was a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere, and I believe, the performing acts had at least as much fun as the fans! It's a great experience to attend a concert in such a familial circle on contrast to the mostly big concerts many of those fans were used to see: "But it was really a relaxing concert! It was easy going."

The evening started with a quite short, but great performance of Mike Breeze (vocals/keyboard; Mirror, and X JAPAN fan) and Leif Astroid, catching the sympathy of the attending crowd with their - in my impression Rocky-Horror-Picture-Show-like performance. Original and great! As a candy for all X JAPAN fans that were there, they couldn't resist to play a medley of Say Anything and Endless Rain, that motivated the crowd to sing along enthusiastically. If you haven't heard of them before, you should definitely check them out!

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Leif's and Mike's performance was followed by Zamza 'n Banshee - first thing that caught my attention was the appearance of bassist Banshee Aliouxce (don't ask me how to pronounce that name without having a knot in your tongue afterwards, I have NO clue (laughs)). Everybody knows Edward Scissorhands? That was my first thought when I saw him - especcially since the rest of the band, including singer Zinc White, looked quite.... 'normal' compared to Banshee, who used to have a nice sip of JD on stage just when the performance starts. Though, Zinc himself is a master in confusing people about gender issues (if there had been a bet, I definitely would have failed LOL).

Their performance wasn't really of my taste, though. But with that opinion, I'm for sure not the majority, since apparently most fans in both, Berlin and Köln, enjoyed to listen to the songs of their new album "MANGA" - just have a look at the Köln review! ;) (Though, they didn't by far play as many songs as they did in Berlin)
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After Zamza 'n Banshee it took quite some time to remove their equipment from the stage and build up that for Ra:IN, but once it was done, ladies and gentlemen, the psychedelic masters themselves entered the stage and presented us a fantastic performance that, in my opinion, deserves a comparison to legends like Pink Floyd. If you have a look at the four members before the show - rather easy going and better don't hurry - I actually wonder, how they gather up the power for the stage. But maybe, that's their secret - keeping all power until they're on stage! I'm usually not such a big fan of keyboards, but there are a few exceptions I make - besides Deep Purple and Pink Floyd, Ra:IN definitely is one of those. They know how to combine rock with keyboard and computer arranged tunes in a way that their songs take the listener to a musical trip through a fantasy land. DIE for sure is a master on his keyboards and computers to mix up the songs that they sound like out-of-this-world - especcially when you hear him and Michiaki singing - their voices alienated thanks to earthly computer technology. PATA's guitar and Michiaki's bass paralyzed me more than once and instead of headbanging and rocking, like the fans there used to do, I sometimes found myself just standing there, following their fingers running over the neck of their instruments. And Tetsu - devil behind drums - he had beaten the shit out of it! Unbelieveable when you have a look at him before, trotting around rather asleep than awake as it seems.

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All in all, it was an evening that was worth to attend - nice, easy going - quite fitting to Ra:IN, isn't it? And it made curious of more! So, we headed over to Köln for another unforgettable evening!

Click here to go to Cologne!

Written by Maverick
Edited by Asuka Miyu, Hypno

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