The Mission at Metropol in Berlin, Germany on 13 July 2024

The Mission at Metropol in Berlin, Germany on 13 July 2024.

One of a handful of gigs that the Mission have scheduled for July 2024, culminating in a show at the Castle Party festival in Bolkow, Poland the day after this date. This short string of shows had begun with a couple of days of rehearsals followed by a gig at my local venue in Arlon, Belgium, so I had seen them a few days earlier. No photos or review from that show, since I was busy doing other things as part of my Promoter team duties for the evening.

A bit more relaxed this evening, I make my way to the meeting point (Vamos bar) with a mate from Berlin and catch up with the usual suspects. The venue for tonight is a former theatre and concert hall built in 1905 which reopened as the Metropol in 2019. The interior, where the Mission play is an impressive hall with a tall ceiling, 2 balcony levels and pillars that obscure the view of the stage if you are not standing in the right place.

I make my way towards the stage and place myself strategically next to one of the pillars. Into the 1st or 2nd song, a couple of very tall German guys position themselves right in front of me, so I barely have a view of the stage. Oh well, no photos tonight then, is what I think to myself.

After the 3rd song (I think it was), Wayne comments that the audience seems rather a long way from the band. In fact, the stage has a large empty area in front of where the band is set up, before which is the press pit and then the crowd barrier in front of which the audience is standing. Wayne invites people from the crowd to come and sit on stage in front of the band to fill up the empty void. That was my cue to work my way from my obscured viewpoint to the front and onto the stage with help from Joe from the crew. I spend the rest of the main set sitting on stage in front of Simon.

From my new vantage point, I am able to take some clear photos of the band, without getting in the way of anyone’s view with my phone camera. Despite ending up with a very sore arse from sitting down for most of the set, I am able to jig around a bit from the waist up. My phone camera battery dies just before the Tower Of Strength encore, so I make my way off the stage to the front of the crowd where the bulk of the Mission following is making its presence felt. 😉 I unfortunately miss taking pix of the impressive lighting display that the venue projects onto the ceiling. There are plenty of photos of this out there, but I can only describe it as a bit like experiencing the confetti thrown by the faithful during Wasteland, but somewhat less messy 🙂

In the end, it was a very hot and sticky gig (even sitting on the stage) with a great view of the band, which turned my initial disappointment of not being able to see anything, to a wonderful unique experience. Thanks Wayne for the brilliant idea to invite us up.