Capacity: 11,700

Concert starts: 9pm (to be confirmed)

Address of venue: Kurhausplatz 1, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany. MAP

Website: www.wiesbaden.de

COMMENTS

Back in Germany after a brief diversion to Chantilly for the show there, and arrival for the touring production into Wiesbaden. The Bowling Green, whose name comes from the English game of bowls, is a lawn bordered on three sides by the theatre, the Kurhaus arcades, and the Kurhaus itself.

Tickets for this concert go on sale on Friday, February 5th, at 10am CET. Tickets are restricted to 4 per person. You can order tickets through Ticketmaster.de or Eventim.de

Our thanks to BD's regular contributor David Benjamín Ruiz Hall for sending in the scan of his ticket, which you can see to the right. Click the thumbnail to see the ticket in greater detail.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

The second of the German shows, held at the Bowling Green, in front of a mixed audience. From people we know who were there, the fans were balanced by a reasonable amount of those who only seemed to have a passing interest in the show, with a keener interest in sinking some beers, while the sun went down. The bright evening did measure some of the atmosphere in the second half, with some of the light hitting the top of the stage, but didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the fans.

We'd love to know in more detail how the concert went from people in the best position to report back. So, did you go? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Hans-Jürgen Müller

After seeing Gilmour last September in Oberhausen with quite an interesting and (for me) surprisingly overwhelming gig, I ordered 2 tickets for the European leg of his Rattle That Lock World Tour 2016 some months ago. From his 2 German shows, I decided to pick the Wiesbaden show, because it's only about 60 miles away from me.

Having said this, I was concerned about that outdoor gig, as you'll never know about the weather conditions and 8pm as the start of the show would be a killer for all visuals for most of the time, as it won't be really dark before 11pm. So I generally prefer indoor shows, where you can see the shows as they were planned with all the details.

After a one hour drive to Wiesbaden, we (my wife and myself) parked our car in a small street near the venue and took the 5 minutes walk to the Bowling Green. I've been there a week before and checked the area, so I did know where to park the car. Luckily, the weather was perfect - not too cold, not too warm and mostly: no rain!

When we reached the venue, there were very long lines of fans waiting at the 2 entries on the west side. Really bad organisation, these small entries! Because of the personalized tickets, the security checked the ID cards and it took a while to get finally into the venue.

The Bowling Green is actually a lawn square with 2 big fountains just in front of the Kurhaus and the Kurpark in the centre of Wiesbaden. We were located in block B2 row 8, near the stage, slightly on the left hand side (in front of the backing singers). You could already hear the intro sound tape with all these Floydian sounds (including several times the Echoes ping).

I'm not sure, if there's been still problems at these small entries or the pure brightness of this evening (with the sunbeams on Mr. Screen), but the show started almost half an hour late. Gilmour came from the right side, kissed Polly and entered the stage. Later on, Polly took photos from various positions throughout the show.

The setlist for this show included nothing new, this time with One Of These Days as starter for part 2 after the break and with The Great Gig In The Sky in the first half.

Especially at the beginning of the show the bright light was really a problem as the the sunbeams met the stage, that opened up to the west. So you could barely see the visuals and the Rattle That Lock video wasn't even shown on Mr. Screen. One of these vari-lites surrounding Mr. Screen didn't work correctly and was finally omitted from all actions for the rest of the evening.

Well, German crowds are not famous for their enthusiasm. So, this time, the crowd was fine, but in parts not too much interested in the gig altogether. Some were there, obviously because they want to be part of an expensive event and didn't matter who's on stage. In the quieter parts of the evening, the running for the next beer would increase rapidly and annoy all fans, who were there to witness a musical event. Besides that, the constantly filming with all these smartphones was really distracting us from the show. No thoughtfulness, no concerning about others - unfortunately we live in egoistic times!

Coming back to the music: Gilmour and his band played with much gusto and the master himself enjoyed the evening very much, with a broad smile on his face from time to time. No really big mistakes during whole of the gig, the band seemed confident with all the tunes throughout. I couldn't say that this band is better or worse than last year's.

Of course, David is the musical centre and his guitar playing and singing is mainly responsible for the feel of the songs. As last year, his playing is without any doubt on an absolute high and considering his 70 years, his voice sounds surprisingly fresh and powerful.

Although the evening included a few songs that (honestly) I would have kicked out of the setlist, I really enjoyed 165 minutes of music and it got me into this typical Floydian feeling. Hard to describe, but any fan will know it. It's the music, the sound, the lights and Gilmour with his guitar, that all come together in a perfect moment, that will send shivers down your spine. For me, that's been especially during his solo at the end of In Any Tongue - magical!

Highlights for me were In Any Tongue, High Hopes, the comeback of One Of These Days, Fat Old Sun, Sorrow and of course Comfortably Numb. What a great live song and what a great song to end the show! And the lasers during that song were great to see, as it was almost dark. The solos in In Any Tongue and Sorrow were really long, so this is a clear indication of Gilmour's positive mood.

All in all, I'm glad, that I went to this gig and enjoyed it a lot. Who knows, if Gilmour will ever get on the road again! And if he really gets back into the studio for another album, then, maybe, we'll meet again some sunny day...

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover David's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!