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Elton John and band performed in Mainz on July 19, 2014
Tuesday, July 22 2014 |
Fan report by Mireille Herz.
The concert took place at the very picturesque but somehow weird Nordmole in Mainz – picturesque because the venue is right next to the river Rhine, weird because they had just fenced in part of an abandoned industrial zone and set up the stage. So we had the water flowing to one side and a long-forgotten building site to the other.
Bright Light Bright Light, the opening act, took the stage at about 7:15 pm and played for half an hour. The music was well-received even though spectators were just filing into the venue at the time. Singer Rod Thomas remarked that the people who had tied their boats close to the area and were floating on the Rhine had the best seats. That was certainly true. He expressed his gratitude that Elton had taken him along on this tour.
The first bars of “Funeral” started at exactly 8:00 pm, and Elton came on stage shortly afterwards. He was wearing his blue ensemble with the large “EJ” embroidery on the back. Midway through “Bennie” he looked at a photographer with a huge zoom lens standing close to the stage and yelled “F*** off!” He stopped singing while the band played on, got up from his stool pointed at the man and yelled the F-word again. An assistant rushed to Elton from backstage. Apparently, the singer ordered the photographer to be sent away. Needless to say, second half of “Bennie” was sung quite aggressively. Elton excused the incident afterwards: “That guy was getting on my nerves.”
Elton remarked that this was his first show in Germany after we had won the World Cup. He congratulated the team and said that the entire band had kept their fingers crossed for Germany. The Cup was well-deserved by the great German soccer team. Certainly, these sentences were greeted by huge cheers from the audience in the nearly sold-out venue.
Towards the end of the show, Elton introduced the band members in traditional fashion, i.e. with joke names. I remember that Kim Bullard was “Floyd Pisspot” and Matt Bissonette “Mike Hunt” – pronounced by Elton to sound like “My C***”. Nigel Olson and Davey Johnstone were graciously called by their real names.
After about 2:20 hrs the show ended and the overture of “The Lion King” was played.
The set list was the same as in Kiel a week before. Following is the complete set list of the Mainz show on July 19, 2014:- Funeral for a Friend
- Love Lies Bleeding
- Bennie And The Jets
- Candle In The Wind
- Grey Seal
- Levon
- Tiny Dancer
- Philadelphia Freedom
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Rocket Man
- Hey Ahab
- I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
- The One (solo)
- Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
- Your Song
- Someone Saved My Life tonight
- Sad Songs (Say So Much)
- All The Girls Love Alice
- Don´t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
- The Bitch Is Back
- I'm Still Standing
- Your Sister Can't Twist But She Can Rock'n Roll
- Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
- Circle of Life/Can You Feel the Love tonight (solo)
- Crocodile Rock
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