2001/03/01, Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany

Written by Tina von Stein (t_von_stein@hotmail.com) for Dominion mailing list

I have mixed feelings about yesterday's gig at the Columbiahalle in Berlin. If the Columbiahalle is sold out, then it is really SOLD OUT. It was really too crowded! When the concert was starting, Vicus and I (about 10 m from the stage, at the right side) were stuck like sardines in a tin. It was impossible to move or dance or whatever. Too crowded to be happy in my opinion, especially as therefore everyone was forced to stand still. It's always like this when the place is sold out.

It became worse: I've finally managed to persuade Vicus to put me on his shoulders for the start of the gig. And when I was up there (haha, we were a bit early, the concert was just about to start) the security guys began to blink at me with torches! And they had damn angry faces. This was horrible I think. They gave me the feeling I do something forbidden or bad. And this happens in my home town!

During the concerts some security guys actually struggled through the crowd to pull people down. I've found that rather depressing, especially in my home town. I wanted to have all the other ones from Dominion to feel as fantastic as I felt in England. Some of you might remember the fat, big, bald (and bold) security monster? He headed towards the center of the action and I do hope that none of you was harmed or whatever. The whole thing reminded me of breakfast with Luigi in Leeds (hi, Luigi!) when he told us about fierce Spanish security who would not allow anyone to climb.

I made a good decision then and made my way towards the center (where the wild action is going on, I could not find the word "moshing" in my dictionary and do not know the proper use). There was more space (because of moshing) and more action and more fun. The big THANK YOU of the evening for Pete who let me float high above the crowd.

The sound was very very good. Voice and music had a good balance and one could understand the lyrics well. The first song was Dominion, not my favorite as a opener. I think it has a better effect in the middle of the set. No First and Last and Always at all. Sad. No Vision Thing, no This Corrosion, no Amphetamine Logic, but a great Something Fast!

And Mr. Eldritch was so sexy! Black leather trousers, black tight short-sleeved t-shirt. He looked so cool! We could see him quite clearly. In between songs he said two or three times "alles klar?". This means "everything alright?". The fast version of Body Electric was played, yeah. Urgh, I simply do not like this version of Temple of Love.

I retreated to the back before the last encore started. I noticed that the Columbiahalle was crowded everywhere and people could not move, but for me it was a great gig.

I'm a bit of an outsider in "real-life" and for me it was so special again to meet a lot of nice people, to have a couple of true hugs and so on. The last two weeks have been very special for me and I am proud to have been a small part in the Sisters world.

See you all next tour, I promise,

Written by Christian Wojtysiak (CWojtysiak@aol.com) for Dominion mailing list

Tina:
> It was really too crowded! When the concert was starting, Vicus and I (about
> 10 m from the stage, at the right side) were stuck like sardines in a tin.

Guess you stood only few meters away from me. It was impossible to get closer to the stage.

They audience really sucked. Never saw that many G***s at a Sisters gig I think. Some people at the front were aggressive like hell and the rest of the audience seemed to be pretty bored (I will never understand why people pay 50,- DM just to show their new hair style or G*** outfit). However the performance of the Sisters was great (although the sound sucked a little during the first songs).

Have anybody seen any photographers at the gig? They had to pay 200,- DM to get a photo pass. (Remember the incident in Berlin with that photographer who tried to sue Von?)

> (haha, we were a bit early, the concert was just about to start) the security
> guys began to blink at me with torches!

Saw that - so that was you. The security was crap.

The track list was a mix of new and old stuff: one old song, a new one, then another old one and so on.

If I recall it right Von said "aber nur die richtigen" after War On Drugs (guess he wanted to say that the "war on drugs" should not be done on drugs in general but on certain drugs only - H e.g.). How right the man was - I think some people in the audience took some drugs before the gig which were not good for them.

One of the highlights of the day for me was meeting up with some people from Dominion I haven't met before: -bat, Speedy Dave, Tina, the godgirl, Tobi, Isabelle, Stuart etc.

Written by Christian Pommerening (body.electric@gmx.de) for Dominion mailing list

Opening with Dominion/Mother Russia was a really bad choice, even more unsuitable than Temple Of Love Over the whole gig almost no movement / very less ovations from the audience. The band started rather bored, insecure and with far too much smog From Summer on, the stage was clear and Andrew in better mood. The audience really sucked and a gig is always as good as it's crowd Although Andrew gave a lot and he has really tried to make it to a good gig for the very few that were enthusiastic The venue was totally sold out, quite hard to get a good place, but nobody moved I'm quite sure half of all visitors were disappointed and will not return for another Sisters gig I enjoyed it, but it really wasn't the best gig I've ever seen

The Berlin crowd sucks!

Thanks to Christian W. for the ticket thing (jetzt hast du wirklich was gut!) and cheers to Posy, Robin, Tina, Stuart and the forgotten ones.

Written by Stuart Czuba (stu@czuba.freeserve.co.uk) for Dominion mailing list

The Berlin audience remained motionless for the duration of the gig yet did come to life at the end to applaud. The band also chose to remain in the smoke for a lot of the set and weren't particularly interested in acknowledging the audience. Starting the set with Dominion doesn't help matters - if you're all way the up to 11, where can you go from there? None louder.

And it was certainly overcrowded, from where we were standing we could see up into the balcony and it was packed there too.

When did he add Israel's flag to the right shoulder of his Chicago Police jacket? I'm sure it wasn't there in the past.

Written by Anders Blixt (andersblixt@yahoo.se) for Dominion mailing list

Everything of importance has been said - what a crap venue, I can't believe it! Completely incompetent staff at the bar (anyone else cared to wait for their beer one hour?) and aggressive security combined with an oversized crowd (who had little interest in the band it seems) made this gig far from good. Even the band acted somehow "superficial", maybe they learned from the crowd.

Fun however to have a chat with people from Dominion, who were mostly easy to spot in their York shirts! And 10 points to Giving Ground and Robin, for always lifting the spirits a pinhole!