The Hooters are back!They promised to come back this year and they kept the promise: again the Hooters are touring Europe after last year's succesfull re-union tour. And what about a new album? Well, there is none but will they play new songs during the tour? These were basically my thoughts when I was on my way to Speyer which is very close to my hometown Karlsruhe. In Speyer it was easy to find "Halle 101", a Rock Club where the Hooters rehearsed the tour and where the tour starts. Of course I was too early at the club, but fortunately I was not the only one: when I arrived at 5:30pm some other fans were already waiting for the doors to open at 7pm.At 8pm the show started with some special guests: a duo (Olli and Mathias) were entertaining the crowd with cover versions of some known and some unknown songs and we all had to wait until 9:30pm before our heroes entered the stage. "Brother don't you walk away" from the "Zig Zag" album was a good choice to made the audience sing and dance and the 2nd song was a real surprise: a new song ("That's the way I will remember you") with Fran on lead vocals! What followed was a good selection of the Hooters "Greatest Hits" with e.g. "Fighting on the same side", "Graveyard Waltz" which again, like last year, was used as intro for "500 miles" or their big hits "Johnny B." and "Satelite". You could see how the band enjoyed the show. There was no sign of beeing nervous but many signs of joy of starting the tour finally. Only John had some bad luck this eveing: his gituar had to be replaced frequently due to technical problems. Nobody cared due to the great songs and among these songs were 2 "new" ones: Eric's "Untill you dare", which was played as a new Hooters song (like last year) and "Give a litle love" which sounds like a Beatles song. As useal during Hooters shows time went by very quickly and after "And we danced" the band left the stage for the first time. During the encores again something new: bar-stools were placed on the stage for a small accoustic set which started with the strangest song of the evening: Eric on mandolin and Rob on keyboard played a song which is difficult to describe. Also part of the accoustic set: "Nervous Night" and "Boys will be boys" with the other Hooters joining Rob and Eric. The accoustic set was followed by "25 hours a day / Don't knock it till you try it" in a very extended version with parts of other songs like "Won't get fooled again" or "Funky Town". The band was as enthusiastic as the audience. Like last year part of the show was reserved for songs written for other artists ("Time after Time" and "One of us"). And finally the greate finale: "Day by Day" and "Mr. Big Baboon" with Eric on Sax again. To sum it up: a very, very good start of the summer 2004 tour. Since I know, that normally the band is getting better and better during a tour I'm really looking forward for my next Hooters show in June. The only negative point: "Gimme a stone" from the "largo" album was missing. Hopefully only during this show... Pictures of the show can be found here: http://www.hgkrumm.de/photos/hooters_2004_05_21/hooters_speyer.html 
2 Links: Hooters Homepage: www.thehooters.net Official Hooters Fan Page: www.TheHooters.de © 05/2004
by Hans-Georg Krumm |