77 Bombay Street in Kloten

I had about two seconds to decide: Do I tell the presenter on stage now, that it’s my 38th 77 Bombay Street concert, get the full attention and eventually take home the t-shirt, or do I come up with anything else? I didn’t come up with anything else. Never mind! And after he told the whole arena the number of my concerts, and obviously none elese could top it, I held the toasted challange t-shirt in my hands. Size XL. Haha, this is going to be my new nightgown.

Yes, last weekend was my 38th 77 Bombay Street concert. The first one I’ve seen quite exactly 3 years ago. And now, finally after 6 long months without “Up in the sky” or “Low on air”, without the four Grions brothers, we were standing in a 7,5 thousands arena to finally see another concert of the Bombays. Of course in front row. Of course with many knwon faces in the audience. Okay, it’s not exactly true, maybe a bit exaggerated. I’ve seen 77 Bombay Street at the end of April as support act of The Baseballs , but this was only a short unplugged set. Can never get enough ;). And no, the arena wasn’t packed. But still well crowded.

I was strolling over the Toasted Challange area. The team competition took place in the whole outdoor swimming pool area, similar to Takeshi’s Castle that you maybe used to watch on TV. The contestants in toast costumes or tight, pink power ranger suits crossed my path – otherwise I didn’t really get hooked by this event. The TV show definitively used to be more fun and where were all the people cheering on the teams? Hip Hop was played on the area and the atmosphere seemed rather lame. I prefered to go looking for my friend. There they were sitting in front of the area entrance – Kolping arena Kloten. You had to exchange your ticket for a wristband. Of course the desk for it was at the other side of the area. Where I just came from. So back again. Because if you’ll be queuing and the doors open, you don’t want to have to leave your spot, just because you don’t have a wristband yet. That 2-3 hours before doors opened none was there yet, you can imagine? 😉 Two girls from Berlin, who had won tickets and flew over for it, were surprised about this. In Berlin it was different and huge queues already hours ahead. I think, about 1 hour before doors opening the first ones appeared and 30mins ahead the big crowds arrived. And yes, I was right. Because we had our wristbands already and none really checked bags, we reached with some orientation problems our spot in front row quite easily.

The concert started shortly after 9pm, after the t-shirts were given out and the band announced. It was great that most parents with their children had seats. You didn’t have to look after the kids under your feet all the time. Sounds maybe not so nice, but without kids inbetween (or at least only a few) the atmosphere is simply better…”It’s Now”, “Wake Me Up”, “47 Millionairs”… I believe, we know the whole setlist by heart anyway. The usual mix out of new and old songs. It’s still a pity that “Barbara May” is only played instrumental nowadays, incl. mundharmonica of course. But Matt keeps singing with the audience then and is messing around. This makes up for it a bit 😉 I love it, when Esra leaves his drums to come to the front siging “Clown”. During Roll Over Beethoven you could see the influence of THe Baseballs and we got some “Rock’n’Roll”. Really suits them. Back then during the  “Dead Bird” times (unfortunately the album isn’t available at all anymore) there was more rock’n’roll. And after had already metinoned Mama Buchli’s birthday at the beginning, the birthday song couldn’t be left out. Funny and cute how the whole arena sang “… happy birthday, dear Mummy…” and Mama Buchli became the mum to everyone for a moment. They also gave away CD and Bombay shirts then. Unfortunately couldn’t get one. But I had the one of the Toasted Challange. You can’t have everything 😉

Again it was 1,5 hours of total fun. I sure hope it won’t take another 6 months tot he next concert. But at the end oft he year there is luckily the „das Zelt“ tour. I hopefully will see some of you there? And who knows, maybe they’ll already present us some new songs as a little sample how the work on the new album is going and what we can expect?! Hope dies last 😉