Concert review *** THE CRANBERRIES AT ' GLORIA', COLOGNE

On the 8th of September 2002, it was finally going to happen: I (Michi) was going to see the Cranberries live, after 8 long years, together with two friends (Becky and Brina), who I coincidentally got to know via the "Zombieguide". Wow! I was really nervous, partly due to the fact that I was going to see Brina and Becky for the first time.
At first, we watched some Cranberries video tapes and then went to Cologne. I somehow still could not believe that I was to see the Cranberries live within three hours time. Additionally, it was an "insider concert" as such as it was a TV recording for Arte. We were really lucky to get three of the 200 very sought after tickets (see below). And they were just 18 Euro, what a bargain!
After a stroll through town, we went to the "Gloria" at around 5.30 p.m. Excitement grew stronger when we saw all the outside broadcast vans infront of the "Gloria". In the meantime, we made fun of some Cranberries supporters. We knew that one must be a bit crazy as a fan of a band, but it was a bit shocking to see how crazy some of the fans really were! At around 7 p.m., doors were supposed to open but it was delayed by a typically Irish quarter of an hour. Of course, we ran rightto the front and were happy to get a nice spot.
It was quite cool: the stage was almost only up to our knees, there was hardly any security staff, no safety trench and cameras everywhere! We got to know some nice people from Cologne, a big hello to them! Before we could finally see the Cranberries, Ray Cokes, who is the best presenter after Charlotte Roch, appeared. He was in a good mood and, after a couple of failed attempts, eventually presented the Cranberries. I thought it was really cool that Becky and Brina lifted me up so I could see Ray better...We thought it was so funny, because in the morning, we had watched an old MTV show (X-Ray) where he interviewed Dolores. A short moment later, we saw Don Burton, Dolores's husband take a peek from behind the stage...Suddenly, the lights went off, "...Showtime..." some folks uttered and we held our breaths...
In the spotlight, we could see Fergal (our hero) entering, followed by Noel and Mike! The lights went on again, Dolores came on stage and the audience started to cheer! First of all, they presented their new single, "Stars" which sounded a lot more like rock, in contrary to the last album. We thought it incredible that Dolores was so close we could have touched her! You could even see Fergal perfectly, which was really important! However, the camera teams and photographers were somewhat disturbing....
After the second song, "Ode To My Family", the audience sang Happy Birthday to Dolores as her birthday had been two days before. Dolores thanked the audience with a shy "Thank you" and continued rocking with "Linger". After this song, they slowed down a bit and played "Chocolate Brown" and "Dying In The Sun" with Dolores playing the keyboards brilliantly. "Animal Instinct" and "Pretty" followed, and in between the songs, Dolores told a little bit about them. The audience went really wild when the intro of "Daffodil Lament" started and they stayed wild during the following songs "I Can't Be With You", "Free To Decide", "Salvation" and "Zombie" right until the end. The four of them gave it all, Dolores took a glas of water and poured it over her head without further ado! We were completely out of our minds with excitement and jumped around to all the great songs.
Unfortunately, the show was over after 45 minutes and because it was a recording for TV, the Cranberries did not play any extra songs but finished this unforgettable concert with their old hit "Dreams", which live sounds three times better than on CD!
When we were still happily standing infront of the stage taking in all the impressions, the crew started to rebuild the stage and suddenly someone threw Fergal's drum sticks into the audience, one of them heading straight in our direction. Becky and me jumped into its direction immediately and after a short tussle I got Fergal's drum stick! This, of course, was the high point of the night for me. The first Cranberries concert and I caught Fergal's drum stick, that somehow consoled me about the Cranberries playing only 45 minutes.
The three of us are agreed that we will go and see the Cranberries again on their next tour. Hopefully, the audience and the Cranberries will be as brilliant then as they were in Cologne.

Thank you to Katja for the translation from german to english

Concert ticket for the GLORIA