Here’s another round of Bad Omens. Yay. This review is split into two halves, one for each show, but since there isn’t that much difference to say I guess it’s not worth making two seperate posts
Offenbach: The venue
The first concert took place at Stadthalle Offenbach and … well … the venue is what the name says. It pretty much reminds you of the place where the local Carnival club would have their events during the main season of carnival. First of all: Parking is a disaster. There are two free parkings in front of the venue, a smaller one and a bigger one. When we arrived, we got one of the last spots that you could actually consider as a valid parking spot – in a very stretched definition. The ground is in a bad condition, there are holes all over and people give zero fucks, they just park wherever they want. So if you park there, get prepared that it might take you a while after the show to get out of the parking lot. Also, if the weather is bad, you’ll get dirty and you’ll have lots of fun maneuvring your car into one of those parking spots.
The entry went well, but getting into the hall itself was confusing. Once you were in, finding the toilet was a whole new struggle. At least there were a lot of toilets (like … REALLY a lot) and they were clean and in a good condition, but still. I almost got lost. Finding the coat check or the merch wasn’t that much simpler and then finding back into the hall … really, I didn’t understand the architecture of this building. There were signs, though, but I didn’t see them because I am an idiot.
The venue isn’t deep, but very very wide, so there’s a long front row but the spots on the sides most likely suck a lot. Also there’s a seated part up in the back, and seated tickets were sold seperately. Also there was a wooden floor and ceiling, which was kinda fascinating given that Bad Omens used pyro during their show. After observing the venue I expected them not to, but I got surprised and they still did. Due to the wooden floor you could feel the bass in your entire body and also it made the stomping during Noah’s announcement of Dethrone a lot more fun and you could actually feel that people were stomping along.
Also we didn’t use the coat check (we hardly ever use it) and I think we didn’t buy any drinks because we didn’t want to get out again. Thankfully the security handed out water.
So … I don’t know, the venue had its good and bad sides. Won’t turn into one of my fave venues, but there were a few cool aspects about it.
Offenbach: Poppy
Poppy for the third time was a cool experience, especially because this time I could actually see her. And at this part of the tour, a larger part of the audience was ready and willing to indulge in her music and performance. Also since this was the first time I could see, this was the first time I noticed her biting a piece out of an apple and then tossing it into the crowd (I think after Bite Your Teeth). While we hadn’t seen much during the first shows and somehow Poppy had seemed a bit like … a doll, we saw her actually show emotions this time. She seemed to enjoy her performance and I loved her energy. What I still didn’t like was the start-playthrough-end of her set. There still wasn’t really any kind of interaction with the crowd, but somehow it fits her vibe I guess. So all in all, I had a really good time during her set this time.
Offenbach: Bad Omens
I have to say it again: THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I COULD SEE SOMETHING! I was completely enlightened. While at the first Cologne show I started crying the moment I saw Nicholas Ruffilo basically because that was the first time I could see anything, I had a very good view on him in particular in Offenbach. We were somewhere in the 5th row, or maybe a bit further to the back, but not very far from the stage. So that was really cool. And it was definitely worth it, because we got the fun part of the tour.
Fun part of the tour? Yeah, I guess every Bad Omens fan has seen the videos of Nick performing What Do You Want From Me in the black Matrix-like coat Poppy later wore for V.A.N. and with black sunglasses – and Noah crawling between Nick’s legs đ It felt very special to get this unique moment on tour. And since I could see a lot more, I could enjoy the set a lot more. Also there either wasn’t much of a moshpit (I personally think that the venue’s not meant for moshpits anyway) or it didn’t reach us except for right at the beginning of the show. Which gave me a slight advantage because the pressure pushed me through some very tall dudes that had sneaked in front of us before the set (oh, yeah, gotta love how many total assholes there are that arrive late, stand in front of much smaller people on purpose and then mock you if you ask them to move a little. It’s one thing if you queue early and get into the front rows, but can we please agree that sneaking in later and then stopping in front of smaller people is a dick move and karma will hopefully kick your ass if you do that? Thanks. The same thing happened two days later in Tilburg and if I needed one more proof why I hate people from the deepest bottom of my heart I got it there.)
So this time I got to genuinely enjoy the show instead of being tossed around in a poorly executed wannabe-moshpit. And it was great. And I have nothing else to say actually.
Tilburg: The venue
Our last show was at Poppodium 013 in Tilburg and this time we were early for queueing, which was a bit of a bad decision because urgh, it was FUCKING cold. Also parking in Tilburg is expensive. There’s a parking garage right next to the venue (Tivoli) and I think the parking ticket for the whole evening was around 10âŹ? Last time we were at a concert at Poppodium we parked our car at Koningsplein parking garage, which is I think even more expensive and further away, but a) we didn’t know that there was another a bit cheaper one next to the Poppodium 013 and b) we knew the other one from when we were at a concert at the Little Devil, to which Koningsplein is definitely closer than Tivoli.
To be honest, I love the Poppodium 013. They have lockers which you can even reserve in advance or book via phone right at the venue. They’re 2.50⏠each, but be prepared in winter because thick coats might not fit in, that’s why we left them in the car. It was a bit of a tetris game to squeeze three hoodies and two sweat jackets into the locker. Apparently there’s another locker room in walking distance with bigger lockers though, but we didn’t use that one. But since Dutch venues are superior, you find all necessary information on their website.
We didn’t buy any drinks this time because they sell Pepsi and the like and as I have mentioned in my ILLUMISHADE review for Uden, I can’t drink that for the sake of my life. So I can’t judge the prices.
Concerning the concert hall, it’s wide and quite deep. There are balconies (that I hadn’t noticed last time we were there) and in the back of the room there are steps. First we planned to go there but since we were so early this time, we managed to get good spots in front of the stage (until the afforementioned assholes arrived, stood in front of us and ridiculed us when we pointed it out. I love people.)
So once again, I honestly love the Poppodium 013. Only downside for me this time was that I personally didn’t like the sound that much. At least I personally felt like I couldn’t hear the vocals very well, but one of the people I went with said that she heard Noah better than at the show in Offenbach. So maybe even that is subjective đ
Tilburg: Poppy
Laaaast round. And this time the crowd was really having it. At none of the shows we’d been to I’d seen so many people not just vibe to her songs, but to sing along and scream „POPPY WE LOVE YOU“ in between. And her performance was really good. Also I loved her dress at this show, was definitely my favourite outfit out of the four shows. Still, there’s not much to add in comparison to the other shows.
Tilburg: Bad Omens
When Bad Omens started, the moshpit started – and the pressure got so much that we basically were pushed through again and I somehow ended up somewhere in the 4th row? Which felt very intrusive when I noticed that the people around me had numbers on their hands, which meant they had queued significantly earlier than us (we didn’t get any numbers so someone must’ve given up on giving them to people). But since the pressure from behind was so big and there was no movement back there was no way back for me either and even if I wanted to for a moment I had zero chance to go back again. Also this had meant that I was now in front of the assholes that had pushed in front of us and to be honest I enjoyed that.
My spot meant that I couldn’t move much because it was so tight, but it also meant that this time I had a very good view on Jolly, which was kinda nice as well. Another downside was that now I was surrounded by absolute die-hard fans that sang along so loudly that I heard more of their voices than of Noah’s. Also I felt almost bad because I am anything but well-educated concerning Bad Omens lyrics and I can hardly sing along more than the choruses, no matter how much I love a song and I felt a bit like a weirdo because I was not screaming my lungs out (also I was starting to feel tired because that was the third concert that weekend, so I didn’t feel that much like singing along anyway, I just wanted to vibe and enjoy).
All in all I enjoyed it. Once again I’ve seen a lot of their performance, although I apparently missed some of the best parts as I was told after the show, but since I was feeling really drained (and also post-concert depression and hormones started kicking in) I was feeling really down already throughout the show, so sometimes I just stood there with my eyes closed while trying not to cry.
At this show, they left us waiting for quite a while after Just Pretend before they came back for the encores. Actually the unexpected waiting time took so long that a girl next to us had to leave before the show was over to catch her train. That was weird and also extra exhausting and I think people around me must’ve asked themselves why I was there in the first place because I must’ve looked so sad and disinterested that some of them started checking in on me. I promise I had fun, I was just slowly sinking into a deep mental low – and I was very tired.
But after those two shows I can say that … I love this band. I love them from the deepest bottom of my heart. Which is fun, because I used to skip their songs on Spotify when I heard them for the first few times because I wasn’t a big fan of Noah’s vocals in The Death Of Peace Of Mind or Just Pretend. It wasn’t until I heard Artifical Suicide and Dethrone that my interest grew and it was the guitar riffs in Miracle, IDWT$ or What Do You Want From Me that made me like them. And now I love them a fucking lot. I might not agree with everything they do. I hate the VIP upgrades with a burning passion, especially at this tour, where they were basically a rude scam since you didn’t get much for the amount of money people paid. I also hate their „limited merch drops“ and I think they’re exceptionally bad at communication.
But I could not not love Nicholas Ruffilo in a matrix coat with sunglasses. (Yes, this is a friendly reminder that not all Bad Omens fans are Noah-fangirls. đ)