After a few very nice days in Paris it was time to board a TGV to Stuttgart and be amazed by how fast and comfy this train ride is. The second part of my trip would be a quick stop in Germany for a bit of sightseeing and, of course, a concert. The band: Marillion. I am seriously beginning to think that liking them is contagious. After seeing them three evenings in a row in Stockholm in May, I pretty much put their new album on repeat and listened to it over and over again so many times that I just wanted to see them perform it live again. Last May I had listened to their whole album only once before seeing them play it live, they are that type of band: I don’t need to know all of their songs by heart, I know I’ll enjoy their gigs. Their latest album is called An Hour Before It’s Dark, and it deals with some very current and imperative issues. Worth a listen, both for the lyrics and for the music.

The location of the concert was a nice auditorium in an area that was a bit deserted: Liederhalle. The only people around were a few students and the audience and that was about it. The access to the venue was easy and well managed, can’t say the same about the security, it just felt like there was none at all. The location looked very good and as audience I think we were very well taken care of, except the fact that you had to pay with cash for drinks and merchandise, which feels very unusual these days. The event started with the opening act: June Road. A very lively duo with a Marillion love story background, playing indie folk and engaging with the audience with their warmth and talent. Their setlist was short and fun to listen to.

After they were done, and after a short break and a reminder to put our phones aside, Marillion appeared on stage, this time, with an extra guest: Luis Jardim who was there to take care of percussion – everything from shakers, bongos to even a cow bell. They quickly went into playing the entirety of their new album. H (Steve Hogarth), the singer, has his own special way of interacting with the audience, from cracking jokes to poking fun, to being sometimes a bit too sarcastic. One by one, the songs, which are usually made of 3 to 5 interlinked parts, were enchanting the audience. A few of them got standing ovations but nothing stirred more appreciation from the public than the marvellous handling of the guitar by Steve Rothery. From the first chord it was quite obvious that people were enjoying the music. But if I though Swedish audiences were passive, well, the German one was even more bland. But at the end of the day, I think all of us were there for the music, which is something we got plenty of, and showed gratitude for numerous times, some louder than others.

About halfway through the album, and through the setlist, obviously, it is time to listen to Murder Machines which is one of the few self-standing songs on the disc, and which has a very dark undertone to it, and a guitar riff to clap for frantically, especially when the guitarist moves forward on stage to step into the spotlight as to somehow draw our attention to the magic of the music. The song was followed by the Crow and the Nightingale, which H introduced as a tune written for Leonard Cohen, another self-standing song. This one was followed by the 5 parts of Sierra Leone which was an absolutely flawless, breathtaking performance. We all heard it, we felt it, even the whole band seemed to acknowledge it. And while still being under the spell of the previous track, the banked started playing the final song of the album: Care, after which we all knew that it was time for the older songs, all of us hoping that they will play some that we like. They started with Quartz and that was the first and only song of the evening that I didn’t know and didn’t care about, but the audience really seemed to enjoy it. Then they took a tour of some of their older albums with me being extra happy for Afraid of Sunlight and The Great Escape. For the encore they close to go with something that is oh so fitting for the current times: The New Kings, a 5-parts song from their 2016 album FEAR, which sends chills down my spine when I listen to it, like the whole album from which it is taken. Nevertheless, good song, especially for those who have the ears to listen. The last song of the evening was Sugar Mice, a piece from the Fish-era, where Fish is the band’s former lead singer. The old-school fans were ecstatic, and this was the only song when we actually stood, as until then we had been a very well-behaved audience. All in all, I believe this was one of the best gigs that I ever attended, and I say now as I said then: I don’t think I ever heard a band sound so good live before. I left the venue feeling happy and wishing the concert had been longer, even though Marillion spent around two hours on stage. But it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for a morning train ride to Frankfurt and from there onwards to Copenhagen for the third and final part of my holiday.