It must have ben my 19. Chris Rea Concert since 1983. And under guitar-playing aspects it was maybe the most brillant. Chris has focussed everything on his guitar: even the old songs like "on the beach" appeared only as a basis for new-styled guitar-riffs; and these have been really virtuos. As told from the other gigs of this tour, Chris mixed classics and blues-songs in a very curios way. A ballad after an up-tempo-song and immediatly a ballad again... It was hard to follow the mood. But captivating.
Very sad in my opinion, that Chris (again) did not talk to the audiance (to us) at all!! With high speed he jumped from song to song to the end, not even one short break between the numbers. It was really breathless.
Chris said some years before in an interview, that he feels uncomfortable on stage and that he is happy when it´s over. Mmhh... On the other hand he is a real LIVE musician who sounds much fresher than on records. So why is he not willing to bulid any relation between stage and audience? It would cost him nothing, to stop for a few seconds after a song, to hold on, a smile maybe, say anything to the people that shows him as a human, not as a guitar-playing maschine... I do admit that it must be an enormous stress and painful for his sick body to play & sing 90 minutes. But it would be even easier for him, to make short interruptions. Chris is a fighter, and we could experience it again on the Santo Spirito Tour. It would be even more pleasure for everybody (also for the band who was only staffage on that tour), when Chris could fight his ambition to be a guitar-god, and show the soft-hearted, sensible singer/songwriter again. I do hope that there will be a 20. chance to see that great musician. Then maybe not in the big Olympiahalle, but in a intimate Jazz- or Blues-club, "with all time of the world" to share good musical feelings. Anyway, it was a great evening again. Thank you Chris.