Ramping Up For Vegas NTO Style - Part 2

September 1, there’s a surprise on the NTO blog.

What’s the significance of that date? Why it’s the twins—Bill and Tom Kaulitz—of Tokio Hotel celebrating their 21st birthday. In the meantime, the NTOs will be having fun at a little watering hole called Las Vegas. While we pack and travel, enjoy a blast from our recent past with Annette’s review of the Humanoid City tour in Padova, Italy—Part 2.

Concert
The electronic voice comes on and the curtain drops. This particular curtain must have been made of lead because I have never seen a curtain drop that fast in my entire life. Tom + George appear and then the egg starts to open. I see a HUGE cloud of smoke. Suddenly Bill emerges from the cloud of smoke. OMG, by the grace of the GOOD LORD himself, I have an unobstructed view of Bill. I can see all the way to the stage on a diagonal angle with hardly any cameras in the way. I do a mini squee dance out of insane happiness. I feel like I am super close. Something about where I am standing and the padding on the floor, to cover the tech cords, allows me to have the most amazing view of Bill in all his gloriousness. His hair seems super dark, darker than the previous day's concert. Did he dye it last night I wonder? His voice is magnetic. I hang onto every word of Noise and sing along to the lyrics at the top of my lungs. He stands at the microphone stand throwing his arms up at one side than another. He barely moves his center of gravity and then shifts his hips. I fangirl for a moment and then catch my breath. He sings a line, moves an arm, shifts hip to other side. I am BLOWN AWAY. The crowd is going nuts. They scream at the top of their lungs and shout every lyric. These Italian fans know all the words. Un-freakin-believable, how the right mixture of teenagers, 20-somethings, fanboys, parents (even pushy fandads), and NTO’s make ALL the difference. Bill is soaking in all our energy. You can see the happiness written all over his face, hear it in his voice, and see it in his movements. I, Annette am one of those people who made him this happy. This thought will FOREVER be imprinted upon my memory of this day and brings me immense amounts of joy.

Tokio Hotel goes thru the English setlist. At several points during the show Bill lets out a woot as he is running up the side steps. He actually does this three times, I counted. He moves effortlessly around the stage, working every corner of the room. He spends time on the landing of the stairs on each side singing to this section of the audience. He jams out during the interlude of each song, wildly dancing his Bill dance. Arms are flailing, legs are moving, the non-microphone holding arm resting in a fist on his thigh. I can NOT take my eyes off him. I follow him around the stage like he is an enemy mercenary soldier and my life depends on knowing his exact position at all times. When he runs off the stage to change, I look at Tom and sometimes Georg and Gustav. HELL, the other members of the band could have been BUCK NAKED and I would not have noticed because I only had eyes for Bill this night. The fans never stop singing or screaming. This spurs Michelle and I on to greatness. We scream at the top of our lungs the entire night at the end of every song. Several days after the concert and I can barely talk. That’s how long and loud we yelled. I dance along to each song and sing loudly opening my mouth as wide as possible to let every bit of air in and every bit of intensity out. I am riveted on one goal and that is absorbing every bit of Bill that I can. As the crowd sings, we gesture towards the stage every time the lyric is you, specifically in Human Connect To Human and Hey You. Bill points towards us at these you’s. He also gestures towards the ground when singing the word here during Phantomrider. BEAUTIFUL!!!

Too much at this show that was PHENOMENAL, I could talk about it forever. A few moments permanently etched in my brain are:
#1 At the beginning of the show, the 1st time Bill speaks, he asks us if we are excited to be here and we scream at the top of our lungs, the standard chat and response. Then he continues on, which shocks me a bit because normally he doesn’t talk this much at this point. He tells us that the band is sorry they can’t bring us the entire show. The top egg is missing so at first I think this is what he is referring to and I rack my brain trying to remember if he apologized at the other shows with only ½ egg. He goes on and says something about the f---ing b--ch fire department. Whaaaaaa? I turn to Tricia and say did Bill just say f---ing b--ch? She confirms that I have not completely lost my mind in some kind of Tokio Hotel fan squee meltdown and that Bill did indeed say that. He then instructs the audience to raise our middle finger to the fire department, of course we oblige this request immediately and while loudly shrieking. From this point on I know this show is going to be HISTORIC.

#2 The 1st time Bill comes down the catwalk I swear my heart stopped beating. I’m not sure how I managed to not faint from the experience and continue breathing. Some things being automatic is good. Bill is singing, can’t remember what song, and he starts walking towards me, he is getting closer and closer. As I see and feel him coming towards me, my mind and heart starts racing. It is like he is in slow motion and if I just hold my breath I can slow him down even more. I stand there like a deer in headlights, just frozen in that space of time. The closer he gets, the more beautiful he gets. Is this even possible? The answer is yes. I felt like I was clicking on the photo to begin and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, yet I wasn’t clicking. MIND BLOWING. He stops at the end of the runway and looks out into the crowd. He is EXQUISITE. Being that close to that bone structure is THE experience of a lifetime. I can see every detail on his face. Those eyes, those cheekbones, the lips. GOD broke the mold when he made Bill Kaulitz. A synapse in my brain fires. Wait, can he see me? Quick Annette, smile, just in case he can, I instruct myself. I beam the brightest smile which oozes from all of my pores. The light coming from my eyes in those few seconds of time had to be the most incandescent EVER. I feel as if I could reach out and touch him. If he stretched out his long arm towards me and I stretched out my long arm, I SWEAR we would touch fingertips. Then he turns and heads back towards the stage. The view walking away is just as good. Compact butt in skintight catsuit. Nice.

#3 Dogs Unleashed goes down in history as the sexiest song ever. Whoever came up with the idea of Bill straddling the motorcycle is a GENIUS. The music starts, smoky haze and the bike comes into view. Bill is leaning over the right handlebar stretching that catsuit material within an inch of its life. It feels like he is leaning over a lot further than in any of the previous concert videos I had watched. Most likely not and it is just the amazing view I have of everything he is doing that makes me think this. He straightens himself up while jamming out to the music and the drumbeat begins. Bill slaps the seat of the bike hard, as if he were b---ch slapping somebody who just called his mamma a ho. I jump back a bit as if he just slapped me across the face. It is a little startling, but uber sexy. He totally rocks out to this song feeling every note of the music in his whole body. You can really tell that it is one of his favorites by the way he gets into it. During this song a piece of hair on the right side of Bill’s head falls down onto his face. Michelle says it happens when he took his glasses off. She must have better eyesight or memory than me because I don’t recall this. What I do know is that, until the break before Zoom this hair is persistent at not wanting to bond with the rest of its peers. Bill tries many times to put this piece back up with the rest of his hair to no avail. He sweeps his hands thru his hair on multiple occasions during the next few songs. Every time he does it, it gets sexier and sexier. I have vivid imagines of this hair sweep movement in my internal hard drive. I would like to give a SHOUT OUT to this freewheeling, independent strand of hair for standing up to what it believed in. On Padova concert day it was that it should run free like a dog unleashed. God Bless You, little piece of hair.

#4 In Your Shadow is the only time my brain registered something that was not related to Bill and this is only after Bill killed me with his uber seductiveness. I did not own this song because my newness to the fandom at the time of the release of Humanoid did not allow me to realize that I need to purchase EVERYTHING. Now my monthly budget includes a Tokio Hotel category. I digress. Bill gives his little spiel about special someones, I awwwww because I now have 3 new NTO BFF’s, and starts singing. He is sitting on the stairs with his legs bent at the knees which are almost touching. After a few lines, he moves his left knee to the side so that he is sitting spread eagle on the steps. I almost die. Where I am standing, my vantage point is of the view right between his legs. It is just too much for me to handle. Later on in the week my traveling companions and I have a very heated discussion over whether Bill’s movements are deliberate pursuits intended to induce massive fangirl squees or just a function of his gangliness. Bill’s slight body adjustments send me reeling throughout the concert, but are really noticeable during the quiet moments of Shadow. Knees touching, knees apart, legs straight out feet close together, feet apart. Big beautiful feet. GOOD GOD. After Bill moves from the stairs position and starts running around the stage, the background vocals start. The voice is beautiful, so deep and haunting. Who is this? I begrudgingly take my eyes off Bill for a few seconds to notice that this is Tom’s voice. It is gorgeous and I am in awe. Luckily, at some points in this song they are standing next to each other so I can digest the both of them at the same time. No clue why I never noticed this before, but in Padova Tom’s background singing on Shadow was EPIC.

Soooooooooo many more things I could gush over. This review of Padova could potentially reach War and Peace proportions. I will leave the concert section with two brief observations. Sweat was dripping out of Bill’s catsuit from the elbow due to the intense heat in the venue magnified by his own awesome hotness. He wiped his brow multiple times during the show. Just more swoon inducing screen caps to be played in the rewind of this show in my mind. During Zoom, my ABSOLUTE favorite song, at the beginning he sang a couple of lines with his eyes closed. Sweet, sensitive, Bill. Oh, how I love you so. Forever Now, I was right underneath the confetti, Bill and the guys were right in front of me, my hand was reaching out to grab some of the pieces (I ended up with one red and one blue piece which I pressed in a book) and the show was over. EPIC!!!!!

After Concert
We hit merchandise which was conveniently located right behind the tech center. I propped myself up against a pole and stood staring at the stage as it was dismantled. All the black boxes marked Tokio Hotel are so rock star and super cool. We grabbed some water and headed outside past the food trucks. Finally ending up right in front of the barriers blocking the side entrance to the venue where the equipment trucks were parked. After a couple of pictures, some major squee action, and a conversation about leaving vs. waiting to see the band exit, we decided to wait for a bit. It was insanely foggy outside. As the waiting crowd thinned out, we decided that even if we were lucky enough to see the band leave the venue, any 6’ 3” guys could walk past us and we wouldn’t know the difference because the thick blanket of fog prevented us from seeing 5’ in front of our face. So we walk away, past the gypsies with the non-official merchandise towards the car, through the fog just me and you.

Tom and Bill - Hope you have a fantastic birthday celebration planned.

*NTO Blog does not claim ownership of any photos.

Ramping Up For Vegas NTO Style

The twins—Bill and Tom Kaulitz—of Tokio Hotel will celebrate their 21st birthday on September 1. We’ve got a wonderful surprise for the NTO Blog on that day—mark your calendars.

In the meantime, we are celebrating in NTO style with a trip to Vegas: shopping, ATV rides, rock wall climbing, a little gambling and lots of conversation, eating, dancing, with much laughter involved.

While we get ready to descend on Las Vegas, enjoy a blast from our recent past with Annette’s review of the Humanoid City tour in Padova, Italy in March.

Pre-Show Line
The NTO Italian posse got to PalaSport about 5:30pm. We found parking and followed the other fans walking towards the venue. There was a radio booth playing karoke Tokio Hotel at the end of a long driveway filled with fans. We took a spot on the sidewalk rather than stand in the line jammed together, figuring if we held our ground we could just interface with the line once it started moving. What difference did it make if we were standing in the line or right next to the line? Tired fan logic. Tricia and I walked up to the front of the venue to see how long the line was. It wasn’t really that bad. We saw a Bill Kaulitz lookalike and took his picture. He was super tall and became a landmark of sorts later on. Once we returned to the group we just kinda hung out and sang to the karoke music until the line started moving. The line never appeared to get any longer because all the newly arriving fans would walk around it up to the front or stand on the side. This was a slight concern. We saw a ton of teenage and even younger fans, lots of fanboys, and a serious amount of parents, especially fandads.

Barriers placed on both the right and the left created a bottleneck of sorts. Once the line started moving, fans were mushed in the center from both sides. In Padova, I got to know some fans intimately. I felt like I was a blanket in one of those space bags with the air taken out, before the air is taken out. We must have stood for at least 1 hour like this being pushed and shoved from every direction, holding onto each other for dear life. Since we were in such tight quarters, I could not take off the rain poncho I had put on earlier when it started sprinkling raindrops. This ended up being a good thing. The plastic material on this poncho made me like butter on a hot grill. I was able to slide thru groups of fans quickly due to the slippery nature of my raingear. NICE!!!!! Unfortunately, this resulted in Maria losing grip on me at once point. I panicked, but Tricia had enough foresight to pull me forward so we didn’t lose 2 people. Luckily, Maria has super curly hair so we could spot her out and were able to regroup quickly once inside the venue.

Two unique observations from the line: #1 Fandads are relentless. An Olympic sport which pits teenie fans against fandads would be a close race. These men were BIG and had absolutely no problem pushing a woman aside, if it would get their little girl into the venue a bit earlier. I appreciate the lovie dadness of all of this, but chivalry men, please. We witnessed a 6’+ fandad go full force into a 5’ 9” security guy. This man slammed into security so hard it looked as if he were trying to knock him down. The security guards, about 6 of them, lock arms to form a barrier. They say "go" or something equivalent in Italian, lift their arms, and let fans underneath to the next set of interlocked guards. Once they have the proper number of people in the middle between the 2 sets of guards, we would be walked up to the zigzag entry to the venue. A unique method of crowd control. This interlocking of arms prevented this fandad from being able to bust thru security. Once I was in the zig zag line, other fandads were trying to edge me out on the sides. Tricia informed me to watch out for this, so I put my arm out to grab the barrier so nobody could get passed me.

#2 Maria and I met some lovely Italian fans. One girl spoke English very well and we started talking to them. They asked us if we came from USA to see Tokio Hotel, how long we were in Italy for, and a bunch of other questions. After we answered, the one girl would tell the non-English speaking girl what we had said. This was priceless because we got to see her facial expressions as she was hearing our story. These fans told us the USA was lucky in our Tokio Hotel fandom. Lucky?, we asked. Yes, she said because since we speak English and so do the guys, we can understand the interviews. Italians have to wait for a translation if they don’t speak English or German. This statement put a whole new perspective on the idea that the USA is unlucky because Tokio Hotel caters to Europe.

Pre-Show Inside Venue

Once we enter the venue we see that it is crowded. There is a floor area and then a balcony section with seats. The balcony is already two people deep standing and seats are filling up quickly. The barrier and catwalk are surrounded with people. Michelle, Tricia and I plant ourselves right in front of the tech center, a little to the right. We are about 10’ from the far right corner end of the catwalk. I do my best Bill spread legs photoshoot stance and use my foot to mark our spot with an X to claim it. While a member of the posse holds our ground, the others go get water, bathroom, etc. We start waiting and observing. The energy of the crowd is ELECTRIC. You can feel the anticipation in the air. The venue is smaller in scale, but it is jammed packed. A sold out show we hear. YEAH!!!! The boys are gonna be so happy. It is roasting inside. I am wearing a tissue tee and I am boiling hot. Italians are wearing sweaters and leather jackets. Whaaaa?

Fans start screaming for some Italian music duo seated in the balcony. Security hands out free water to fans at the front. We determine this is to make their job easier because no water meant somebody is surely fainting. We see a fangirl get pulled out from Tom’s side. Her eyes are rolled back in her head. It is quite distressing. Everybody takes a sip of water. At one point four 20-something Italian girls behind us come up to either Tricia or Michelle, and ask us to move over. Move over?? One of the fans is short and can’t see over us. There are empty spots in front of us, we tell them, just move there. No they say, they want us to move. WTF?? We tell them no and they start talking about us in Italian. If they wanted our spot they should have gotten to it earlier. You don’t just tell somebody I want your spot, move, and get mad if they won’t move. Hell, if that’s the way it works I should have gone up to the PRIME barrier spot between Tom and Bill and told some other fan to move. Right?

Fans chant Tokio Hotel, pre-show music starts playing. We notice there is no light rigging for the four light technicians and get nervous. We figure out that there is no way the whole egg is going to fit in the venue. There just isn’t enough room from the stage floor to the ceiling. No biggie. We bop along to WMBW Remix which Michelle and I love. Nobody is around us so we have plenty of room for girlie dancing. Fans sing along loudly and others start chanting Tokio Hotel again. Not in the middle of the remix, we groan. 99 Problems (Jayzee’s rap) comes on. People are screaming, the air is thick with intensity, and the temperature is rising now since the front doors have been closed a while. The show is about to begin.

We’ll take a breather now, so come back tomorrow for Humanoid City, Padova Review, Part 2.

Glamnation

Going to Italy and attending the Welcome To Humanoid City Tour was the first time I had been to a concert since taking my daughter to see NSync. It was such a different experience, and I was so glad I had decided to get past my fears and go with my gut!

We did a lot of voting for Adam Lambert when he competed on American Idol, and I love that he is a fan of Bill Kaulitz, frontman for Tokio Hotel. When the tickets for his ‘Glamnation’ tour were announced, I decided my kids and I were going to the next concert together. Since the youngest is only 5 years old, he stayed home with my husband.

Our tickets included free admission to the Orange County Fair, so we arrived at 5pm for the 7:30pm show. I opted for VIP parking, and we were parked right next to the Tour buses!

At the fair, Nicholas tried out Morse Code, and the kids all spent quite a bit of time at an Anime Booth they’re big Anime fans!

After some very disgusting fair food (thank God they didn’t want to try deep fried Twinkies!), we head to the Pacific Amphitheater.

We have fairly good seats in the Orchestra, Section 1. Allison Iraheta is up first, and Orianthi joins her for one of her songs! She’s full of energy and has that cool rocker voice I remember from when she was on American Idol.

Next up is Orianthi. Can I just say she smokes any guitar player I’ve ever seen?! Of course, she sang her hit ‘According To You’. But when she starts playing Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ I realize this girl will take on the difficult and make it look like a walk in the park!

Then we have a break waiting for Adam, not too long though.

He starts with what looks like a more stylized version of the ‘Mad Hatter’s’ outfit from the Alice movie. Everyone is on their feet, and my son is standing on the seat next to me because he can’t see over the crowd. Then it’s off with the coat and on to the next song.

When ‘Ring Of Fire’ starts we’re all screaming and clapping.

‘What Do You Want From Me’ is amazing, Adam has such a soaring voice!

Then comes the best moment of the whole concert. Adam starts ‘If I Had You’ with its driving beat. My fist is in the air and I’m rocking out, and my son grabs my fist and we rock out together! I don’t know how to explain how special it is to share this music with my family.

We had the BEST time together, and they’ll remember this experience for a long time to come.

Catering Services Proposal - Tokio Hotel Tour

Dear Tokio Hotel Management,

We’re looking forward to having you back in the U.S. for your Humanoid City Tour. We know you’re not ready to disclose details, but we want to help with the advance planning. As such, we present you with our proposal to be the band and crew’s hospitality and catering service.

Today and the next three days, you’ll see that we have wonderful meals lined up geared to the tour city, along with recipes for samples. We’ve even customized the menu for Tom’s and Bill’s vegetarianism, as well as Georg and Gustav’s more carnivorous tastes. We’d also be happy to make said recipes for your review.

Today, it’s New York. A city known for its wide variety of ethnic enclaves, and perhaps the best Italian food outside of Italy! We know that Tokio Hotel has their own ‘Kaulitz Pasta’, but maybe they might like to try this menu on for size:

Killer Koolaid
Caprese
Grilled Asparagus
Manicotti w/optional meatballs*
Toasted Garlic Bread
Tiramisu
*Manicotti w/optional meatballs, because the meatballs are the only non-vegetarian part of this dish. Tricia’s mother passed this recipe down to her.

Sauce: Start at least 4 hours ahead (can be made the day before)
3 large cans Progresso crushed tomatoes
1 small can Del Monte tomato sauce
Salt to taste
½ cup wine
½ tsp. chopped fresh basil
Pinch of oregano
Garlic (1 to 3 cloves to taste) sliced
Fry garlic in 1 tsp. olive oil until golden, not brown. Put all ingredients in a large pot with a lid (do not entirely cover pot, leave a vent). Simmer for 3 hours.

Manicotti: Dough-
2 cups flour
½ tsp. salt
1 egg
Enough water to make dough (about ¼ cup)

Make well in flour. Sprinkle with salt. Put egg in well and stir with finger until absorbed. Add enough water to form dough. Knead until smooth. Let rest for 15 minutes. Cut dough into fourths. Roll out ¼ at a time until opaque. Cut into rectangles and place on floured cloth to dry. Make filling. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Slowly add rectangles of dough in small batches. Keep at a boil while cooking each batch and immerse in cold water when noodles are al dente.

Filling –
2 large containers of ricotta
1 mozzarella, cubed
2 eggs
¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
(some milk if ricotta is dry)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
Grated parmesan cheese for topping

Mix all ingredients, let stand in refrigerator while noodles dry.
Coat bottom of baking pan with sauce. Take one noodle at a time and drop a dollop of filling in middle of noodle. Roll up and place in pan. When pan is full, coat with more sauce, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and freeze or bake in oven at 325degrees for 1 hour or until hot and bubbly. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Italian Meatballs:
1 lb. ground beef (over 10% fat, less than 20% fat)
3 slices day-old bread (slightly dry), crumbled in a blender
3 TBS fresh chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
3 TBS grated parmesan cheese
Salt to taste
1 egg
1/2 tsp lard (or olive oil, if you like, but lard makes it taste better)

In a large bowl, mix ground beef, bread, parsley, cheese, and salt with your hands. When well blended, add egg. Form into meatballs (about 1" to 1.5" diameter). Heat lard or oil in skillet, coating bottom. Add meatballs. Brown meatballs on all sides. Check center of one of the meatballs to see if it's cooked through. Add meatballs to your favorite sauce and let stew for at least 10 min.'s before serving. You can also leave them out of the sauce if you want to freeze them for a later date. Makes about 12 med. sized meatballs.

Thursday's menu heads to Houston, Texas.

A Rocking Good Time -- Torino, Italy Final Review

Turin/Torino


This city was the first of four Italian cities hosting Tokio Hotel’s performances. Each of us will share our perspective of the concert. Annette has the platform for the final part of review:

Concert, cont'd

Before the acoustic set begins, Bill starts talking and his voice is all husky and low kinda like the World Behind My Wall video intro. It is AWESOMELY sexy and I faint a little bit. He clears his throat and his normal speaking voice returns. This man is BEYOND amazing. Even him clearing his throat is sexy. Tom says Grazie mille, crowd goes wild, and then Georg says something. I have no clue what he says, but Bill chuckles. It was beyond cute. I faint several times in a row during Shadow as Bill sits on the steps and spreads his legs open. GOOD GOD!!!!! This song is accompanied by split screen pictures of Bill and Tom on the side screens. It is so beautiful to see these images while Bill is singing. My heart is full of love for KSquared as I watch this.

Throughout the entire show Tom is seriously on fire. He is rocking out as hard as I am girlie dancing, if not harder. He doesn’t stop for a second. He jams on his guitar as if his life were on the line. It is truly impressive and results in me spending a large amount of time watching him. His face contorts into a variety of expressions that make him look as if he were in immense pain. He is not wearing blue tape so I assume that is just him feeling the music. The Italian crowd really loves him because they burst into screams whenever he talks or does something special.

Monsoon and then Forever Now and the show is over. Confetti comes down and I watch as the boys disappear from my view. All that I have waited for and pined over for the past month is complete. But I get to do it all over again tomorrow at Padova, so I am happy.

After Concert

We hit the official merchandise stand which is CROWDED and make our purchases. I run back inside to try to get some confetti off the floor, but the stage is already being torn down and the black gates are up so I can’t get my hands on any. We make our way thru the gypsy non-official merchandise, which is crappy quality by the way, and out to the front.

Hope you enjoyed a touch of what we'd experienced!

A Rocking Good Time -- Torino, Italy (#3)

Turin/Torino

This city was the first of four Italian cities hosting Tokio Hotel’s performances. Each of us will share our perspective of the concert. Annette has the platform for Part 3 of her 4 Part review:

Concert (cont’d)
By the time the guys get to Pain of Love there is a fangirl who has wedged her way between myself and Patricia. The pit at a Tokio Hotel concert is like being a soldier on the battlefield. You have to take control of your space in order to secure your area. I obviously FAILED at that endeavor. Anyway, fangirl was fist pumping to Pain of Love like she was a rejected Jersey Shore candidate. She was also jumping all around her secure area and seriously impinging on mine. I quickly decided I was way too old for this and didn’t want to spend the entire concert moving around her to get back to my spot next to Patricia. Plus, I was missing the rest of my crew. So I tapped Patricia on the shoulder, told her I was done with the pit and was going to the 2nd level. Pain of Love was over and the sexy Bill voice-over intro to World Behind My Wall was playing. I had 2-3 minutes to haul ass from the pit to where I needed to be.

I turn around and proceed thru the crowd. The hyped fans won’t let me out. PEOPLE, if somebody is trying to remove themselves from the pit, you let them go because that means YOU GET CLOSER. Hello??? I get frustrated and rely on my college day abilities to lead a crowd of girls from the front door of a frat hour to the beer, and just start pushing people aside. Once I clear the crowd, I seriously book it thru the venue, up the stairs to the 2nd level where I put my arms around Michelle and Maria and completely freaked them out because they weren’t expecting me. We keep the group hug going thru the 1st few notes of World Behind My Wall.

The rest of the concert goes by quickly. I felt like if I blinked I would miss something. The view from the 2nd level is a lot different. I can’t see anything up close. I end up focusing on the two side screens a lot to see the facial expressions of the guys. I do have an awesome view of the span of the stage, with the open egg, which is impressive. The show started with the egg open, forgot to mention that earlier. I can also clearly see the background screen with the cool graphics. These change as the songs change and are AMAZING.

My eyes take in the whole scene and my ears the songs. I focus on each of the guys. Bill’s singing is BEAUTIFUL and I love his dancing. He flails his long arms and insanely long legs. His legs are seriously 5 miles long and skinny. So sexy hexy. He moves with the beat and I move along with him. Where we are standing is only one fan deep. The rest of the fans are sitting in seats behind us and hardly move. Odd??? A couple of girls dance, but the rest of the people, possibly parents, sit there. How could this be when I am jumping up and down and dancing like a freakin’ maniac?? I was just way into the whole show. I sang at the absolute top of my lungs with my mouth open as wide as it could get. I girlie danced, moving my arms and legs as wildly as I could. I jump up and down to several songs as the music takes over my soul.

Come back for the final episode of Rocking in Tornio with Tokio Hotel.


Feel free to ask questions about the concert or the Torino leg of the trip.

A Rocking Good Time -- Torino, Italy (#2)

Turin/Torino

This city was the first of four Italian cities hosting Tokio Hotel’s performances. Each of us will share our perspective of the concert. Annette has the platform for Part 2 of her 4 Part review:

Concert
A lot of the concert is a blur. I remember hearing a robotic voice and the first notes of "Noise" and all of a sudden there was Tom standing in front of me. I have no recollection of the curtain dropping at all. I recall just being frozen in time, standing in the middle of a pack of screaming fans, staring at Tom. He was HUGE. Much bigger in real life than I had imagined. I'm used to tall guys, but for some reason the angle at which I was looking up at him made me feel like he was super tall. And much bulkier than I had thought. Not sure if this is really him or his oversized pants and puffy vest that made me feel this way.

As I try to take this all in, I am struck by the fact that all I can see between my eyes and the stage are fan arms with cameras. I don't want to date myself here, but my past concert experiences are way before all this technology came to be commonplace. I tried moving my head around and standing on my tippy toes to get a better view. I am 5' 7" so I had a slight advantage over shorter fans, but at the time I wished I could have been 5' 10" or something. As I am thinking this, all of a sudden I see Bill.

The sight of Bill makes my heart beat much faster. I swear to God he is 8' tall and not 6' 3" as the fan data indicates. I am BLOWN AWAY by how lean and tall he is. Like Godzilla knocking over big buildings tall. And his hair is HUGE. That combed back pompadour part is much bigger in person than from my computer screen. And the eye makeup is PEFECTION and super dark. Natalie must have used some kind of crazy liquid black over or under black shadow because it was the blackest jet black I have ever laid my eyes on.

After these initial impressions I just try to meld with the music and dance as much as I can. It is hard to see what is going on because all I can see is fan cameras. I feel as if I am watching the show thru their camera screens. Did I really just fly over 4,000 miles to see Tokio Hotel thru a camera lens? NOT. I try to adjust to this by constantly moving my head to get a better view as I sing along with the music.

Come back for Part 3 of the 4 Part review.

Feel free to ask questions about the concert or the Torino leg of the trip.

A Rocking Good Time -- Torino, Italy (#1)

Turin/Torino
This city was the first of four Italian cities hosting Tokio Hotel’s performances. Each of us will share our perspective of the concert. Annette has the platform for Part 1 of her 4 Part review:

Pre-Show In The Line
The NTO posse got to PalaTorino about 5:30pm. This is after a HARROWING drive from Milan and all over Turin. As soon as we arrived at the venue, we understood why the Italian Fanclub had advised a warning. It wasn't really in the best area and the gypsies selling non-official Tokio Hotel merchandise have commandeered the entryway up to the back of the line. Fans were already lined up all the way from the front of the venue to the back of the wall where the gypsies were stationed. We found the end of the line and stood and waited for 2 hours in the rain. Not just spritzing rain, constant coming down rain.

Luckily I had purchased ponchos for us all to wear. Other fans had umbrellas, which due to the sardine-like quality of the line, a couple of us got caught under the cover. This was both good and bad. Good because you got some extra rain protection. Bad because if you weren't standing in the right place, you found yourself a runoff deposit for the rain coming down the umbrella, so in essence you got double the rain. Great, huh? It was cold and we only had on shirts and sweaters, so we got drenched. We did the Tokio Hotel line dance, as we now call it. Fans screamed as the group in front of them gets let it; and then you shuffle shuffle forward a few feet, jammed up to the person next to, in front of, and in back of you; and then you stop. This occurred until we got towards the front of the venue, climbed over heaps of garbage, and finally got in.

Pre-Show Inside Venue
The venue is larger than it appears from the outside. A big floor with seats at the back and then a 2nd level with a ton more seats. We had seated tickets which put us in this 2nd level. We were on the floor on Tom’s side pretty close to the barrier but decided to go to the seats, since at Padova we had just general admission tickets. BAD, BAD, BAD idea. This is what an agonizing drive from Milan on concert day will do to your brain. Result is stupid decision making. We should have just stayed where we were and seated ourselves on the floor like other fans were doing.

Instead we made our way to the 2nd level and got seats in the 1st row so we could grab hold of the barrier at our level. We got some food, water, one beer to share, tons of free makeup and some flashing Tokio Hotel light thingy, waited, and tried to find the official Italian Fanclub booth. After about 1 hour and seeing the venue not really fill up, Patricia and I decided to go for the floor. We went downstairs and got 11 heads from the barrier on Tom’s side about 1/2 way between center stage and the stands. The fans around us were nice. Some Italian girls had a "we love Georg" poster. Other fans had backpacks which they used in a defensive way to jockey for position. The fans were mostly college age girls, not very many young teenagers or boys, and a couple of other Italian NTO's.

Every time anything remotely indicating that the show was about to start happened, the crowd screamed. Curtain moved, equipment testing, light guys (4 of them) take their places, etc. Pre-show music played and there was some singing. World Behind My Wall Remix was INCREDIBLE. Why hadn't I heard this before? I had World Behind My Wall German, English, video, acoustic. Patricia and I sang along to the music and bopped as much as we could in the sea of squished together fans.

Come back for Part 2 of the 4 Part review.

Feel free to ask questions about the concert or the Torino leg of the trip.

Welcome To Humanoid City Tour

What is Humanoid?
Humanoid is the most recent album released by Tokio Hotel. The title was chosen due to the same spelling in German and English, a marketer’s dream. The album was produced in German, the groups’ native language, and in English for greater distribution, on various dates in October 2009. The album has a standard track of 12 songs; meanwhile various extended and bonus CDs featured different tracks based on where they were purchased (such as Amazon, Hot Topic, Best Buy).

So far, three songs have been released: Automatic, World Behind My Wall, and Dark Side Of The Sun (June 18). Each song has a video that can be viewed at Tokio Hotel site and purchased at iTunes.

Humanoid received Gold certification in seven countries and one Platinum. In our estimation, the album reflects the growing maturity of Tokio Hotel. The techno rhythms provide a great dance sound with strong beats and great vocals. Lyrics continue to reflect the myriad of emotions that Bill shares with the world. Bill and Tom Kaulitz were producers on the album making sure to keep creative control of their work. Kudos to the twin team!

Our personal favorites from the album (and this was hard to nail down):
Tricia – Human Connect To Human
Annette – Forever Now (1st favorite) and Zoom (all time; personal connection)
Maria – Zoom and Down On You (extended track)
Michelle – In Your Shadow (only on the Hot Topic CD) and Screaming (extended track)

When and where was the tour launched?
A European tour was created to promote Humanoid album – Humanoid City Tour. The tour began on February 22, 2010 in Luxemborg, was scheduled for 32 cities (three cancelled), and ended on April 14, 2010 in Paris, France.

Details of the tour?
Rehearsal – Rehearsal took place in a secret location in London, England.
Stage – Designed by Misty Buckley - Visit her site (see Portfolio for photos)
Costumes – Designed by Dean and Dan Caten, twin fashion designers – Visit their site

BTW, Bill Kaulitz opened DSquared’s Fashion Show in Milan with a prototype of the costume.

Reviews of the tour?
Since we specifically went to Italy to see Tokio Hotel live at two concerts, each of us will give our review of the tour in upcoming blogs. We don’t really care what the so-called experts have to say – good or bad. The good thing about being “never too old” for Tokio Hotel is that we have lived life, know what we like and dislike, and not afraid to walk against the mainstream for what we want. So you’ll never see us fawn over someone’s opinion – great if they are like-minded, but really, we don’t care. And you’ll never see us use our platform to make derogatory remarks for a reviewer who doesn’t get it. Again, we don’t care.
We love Tokio Hotel.

Giveaway:
One person will be randomly selected on July 4 for posting the answer to:
If you could choose that perfect European city for Tokio Hotel to perform, which city would it be? Why?

The winner will receive a copy of Bill Kaulitz photo spread and German language interview Stern Magazine February 24, 2010