“It's that weird band”

before the show

This trip to Berlin couldn’t come soon enough, and once it finally came, it turned out to be one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. The area we stayed in was amazing, and I enjoyed the city so much more than I was expecting. It was great to see the venue on our first day here and then pass by it over and over again every day. Nothing beats staying in a hotel that’s literally 5 minutes from the venue :)

Some favourite Sparks-adjacent memories from the days before the show include: looking for Sparks vinyl in many record stores and finally finding some a day before the show, bringing my Sparks & MAD! stickers to many different places (this is a total STICKERS CITY, so much of that to be found in so many areas!!), spending a long time waiting next to one screen by the venue until it would show the MAD! tour poster and I could take a souvenir photo of it :3 …and spending an even longer time standing at a Long Red Light countless times, at the crossing between the venue area and East Side Gallery on the other side of the street. While humming the song to ourselves.

The day of the show itself was also great for sightseeing, and here’s the first big advantage of a seated show: no worrying about having to get there early! Let’s see more of the world then! We managed to find the same bear statue that Sparks posed with for a 2023 tour photo on this day, so of course we also had to recreate the photo! :D There hadn’t been any new taken-somewhere-in-the-city tour photos from London recently, so it was so amazing to finally have an opportunity to do this :3 !!

It was truly such a great time. I think back to this entire time we spent in this city often, and it always fills me with such warm feelings. Perfect little trip to end this amazing Sparks Tour season with!!!

But, back to the day of the show! It was already starting off GREAT, because I showed up for breakfast in the hotel in my MAD! tour shirt, and lo and behold! A man sitting at a table next to us asked if I was going to the show as well!! And I was like “yes!!!” and he was like “we’re going too!” and I was like “awesome!!!” And then we all ate our breakfasts. The first time someone recognised my band shirt… And it was stellar. This was going to be a legendary day, I already felt it!

Taking advantage of our ability to still do other stuff for most of the day, we did our sightseeing, and then, after dinner, realized that there was a certain thing we were now able to do at our leisure too, since our hotel was so close to the venue and we didn’t have to hurry to prepare for the show at all… It was all quite spontaneous indeed, so the way it progressed is still one of the greatest and most memorable events of all time to me, personally.

So, now I’m going to show you how that went. In comic form! To shake things up a bit!!

...

So that happened, in fact. Still giddy from the experience, we prepared for the show, and aimed to get there a bit before doors still, because we still had other plans! Like meeting an internet friend who was also attending the show!

Now I’m gonna talk a bit about the venue area again, because it was so cool. A big open space, with restaurants all along the sides, and a big fountain in the middle. There was also a much bigger music arena on one side, where people were gathering for a show on our first day here, which was cool and exciting to see. Now it was already time for Sparks fans to start showing up, and it was great to pass one such fan on our way there… whom I’ve already seen in London! In the same shirt I had then even, which I got another compliment for, ahaha. It’s a small world for Sparks fans, isn’t it?

As we waited there and also took obligatory photos of the Sparks screen over the venue door, we could also see other Sparks-merch people sitting in front of all those restaurants, and it was so priceless to exchange knowing glances and coy smiles among ourselves as we passed.

Soon after doors I got to meet up with @crystalblast !!! Whose friend showed up in a totally dashing Ron cosplay. Respect! I was wearing my identifying Hello Kitty cap :) We chatted for a bit, and Crystalblast would be one of the first people to hear my Spotting the Sparks story, which was so exciting! It was super cool to finally meet in person! Wow, my internet friends are real! We exchanged some little gifts and I was gifted this awesome illustration!! I instantly regretted not wearing my NOW REAL Beat the Clock shirt again for this show, because it would have been just SO PERFECT, hahaha.

Eventually, it was time to start getting inside and looking for our seats, and the venue was totally dashing and cool inside too. My mum and I walked over to the balcony for a little while, and enjoyed an alternate view of the open space below us, which we’ve gotten so familiar with over those past few days. We unlocked the secret, bonus area. We were finally about to do this all again for real!

I was also curious if we’d meet any other Poles at this show, since it seemed like the most likely place for that to happen. Sure enough, we heard some Polish people having a smoke break on that balcony. But, funnier still, was when we already got to our seats, and just as we sat down, we heard someone close by say in Polish: “so now we’re going to have to just sit here and wait??”. LMAO. If they’d known how much easier we had it here with the wait and the seated venue than in London! XD

But first, BEFORE we found our seats… It was such a great feeling to walk past all these rows and get closer to the stage still, all like “yes… we’re getting even closer than that… and now EVEN closer!”. Those 4th row seats were a total blessing. Such an amazing view of the stage, and right in the middle too! This was going to be spectacular.

The remaining time before the show went by IN A FLASH. Those seats and not needing to queue for hours really do make a huge difference, huh… It was almost TOO FAST. But also, another Sparks show can truly never come soon enough.

SHOWTIME!!!!!

The show started right on time again, and as Ron and Russell walked on, EVERYBODY in the front rows got up from their seats to do their applause. They were all cheering for our guys so hard already!! Wow, this was really going to be an amazing night. And then, as they went into So May We Start, only some people sat back down (for a moment!), but most of them were still standing. My mum and I looked at each other, all like: “ok… so I guess we’re DOING THIS??” And we stood back up again. And we spent THE ENTIRE SHOW standing with all the other people in the front. It was freaking PERFECT!!!

(btw Russell had his red suit from the first London night again. I had really hoped for the teal or dark blue suit at this show, so I had the briefest imaginable moment of mild disappointment for about two seconds about it, but then it passed like a breeze. It was time to see the best suit again. And my ultimate favourite suit now as well. This show cemented that.)

This SMWS absolutely swept the floor, even compared to the two performances of it that I had seen previously. THEY JUST NEVER STOP GETTING BETTER! Russell did his maybe greatest SMWS leaps to date, it was kind of unbelievable to be able to see it all STILL. I feel like the entire song passed by SO fast though. God, we were back in Sparks dimension again, and time was no longer real.

So, having said all that, you better believe that this performance might be the biggest case of my personal holy grail of sorts now – there’s no recordings of it to be found online! NONE! (unless they’re still just lying around in somebody’s vault… please come forward if you have anything, should anybody who has recorded any part of this song read this… (I’m deciding to start believing in miracles today!))

I really love the fact that even despite this, I still managed to memorize so much of how it went… So at least I’ll always have that! One especially great moment was when, after Russell’s first leap, I suddenly became aware of what Ron’s big role was during this moment – he was playing away on his keyboard while staring into the audience with the widest grin. I kind of couldn’t believe I was really seeing that! HA!!! Wow, I’ve really missed out on some things, being on the not-Ron-side so far at these shows. And to emphasise again how big this moment was, this was also one of the first things my mum pointed out about the show later at home – we were both going about it to each other, all like: “did you see Ron DO THAT???”

Also, can’t forget to say that the sound was FUCKING AMAZING at this show?? The second London night already didn’t seem so bad compared to the first, but THIS. This is what it should’ve been. I know it now. Russell’s voice sounded so very clear and you could appreciate the tearing of the guitars even more. (And you could also actually hear that there’s an echo on Russell’s voice after the “start” in “so may we start”? Wtf????)

This was the day when I finally got into Do Things My Own Way live fully and forever, truly. Damn, Russell with all the moves again!!! He was SO bouncing everywhere. Also, his hair was so fluffy and cute, he was just SO SO adorable at this show, as adorable as it gets. sory I CANNOT contain this thought anymore, without that disrupting my honest written record of how I truly felt about it all at the show(s). My Russgirl self was completely unprepared for how adorable he is in person. And how, um. Adn, well, I would feel the repercussions of this for many months to come. I’ve still not recovered. (I don’t think. that recovery is actually possible at this point.) No regrets about it though. We live and we love or something. amynway     .

But no for real, I literally can’t get over how he has all these silly moves and it’s so awesome how he does the “roll the dice” thing and everything and is all so… idk, statuesque…? while doing it. Just like I’ve said previously, he just fucking OWNS that stage every time! While being so adorable about it. You just got to love him, man…..

Oh wait, should I also mention that it amuses me greatly that there’s no single official correct version of the “not a fad, is that so bad?” line, basically. I’m pretty sure Russell did a slightly different variation of it at every show I saw, haha.

Before Reinforcements, Russell welcomed us to the show, saying: “Good evening to our friends in Berlin!” :) and then he said that they had been really looking forward to playing here in this amazing city again for a long time! And now, a cool thing about THIS song, because it’s one of the very few fortunate ones that someone out there actually recorded in full!

(I was so right to record a lot at this show, I even had a little list of moments I loved but hadn’t caught yet but still wanted to record myself, haha. There’s really not that much that other people recorded and shared from this show, at least compared to London. London totally spoiled me. Therefore, I’m so very glad I have all this stuff now that I can remember the show by to this day. I could never bear for it all to get lost to time eventually.)

Russell then introduced Academy Award Performance in a wonderful fashion, saying that they did this song “in the dark ages of 1979”, with the “quasi-German, sort of!” Giorgio Moroder… “I mean, he’s Italian, but he’s right near this border” (? ok I can’t be sure exactly what he said here but SOMETHING about the border) “...he kind of has an accent in every language” (😭). As for the song itself, I spied something like another attempt from Russell at a Bothering Him™ (the Ron) moment :3

So, around the time of this song or so, it became so obvious to me that both Ron and Russ were in a fantastic mood today. Russell was interacting with the audience so much, and he was, SOMEHOW, even more energetic than he was the last time I saw him in London. He was also definitely enjoying being very chatty and joking around a lot, and the people were responding to everything so appropriately.

The feeling of connection between the band and the fans was so strong and beautiful. The atmosphere during this entire show was truly like NOTHING I had experienced previously. We were all loving them so much and wanting to let them know. The overwhelming feeling I got was that we were all there to hang out with them and have an amazing time together, and they were as happy to be there with us. If that's not magic and one the greatest displays of the beauty of humanity, then I don't know what is.

But. Back to the music… This was maybe the greatest Goofing Off of them all, and you know it couldn’t be any different with an audience like this. These were the greatest HEY ✊ HEYS ✊ of all time. I was really LIVING that moment. And shoutout to Eli for killing it with that solo again, have I really not shouted him out yet on this song?? The man deserves it.

I loved loved loved Beat the Clock, Russell was absolutely killing it with the falsetto!! And the way he said “parts of me un-RAvelling” was so cool. I was really loving what the guitarists were doing during the “too bad there ain’t ten of you” etc. part, also!

And, dude, who knew that the SEATED show would be the best one for dancing actually. Everyone had their designated space, so you didn’t have to worry about bumping into people and you could literally just dance as much as you wanted without a care. Several people went into the aisles very early on too, so it was a total party down there that whole time!!

The next song, Please Don't Fuck Up My World, was from an album that was called, in Russell’s words: “A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip… Drip… Drip…”. And the song seemed very relevant at the time, but he forgot how many years ago it was exactly…? People immediately started shouting out: “FIVE!” (I was one of the people. Don’t test me with stuff like this. Or ok, do test me. If you’re Russell Mael. I didn’t know it yet before this point, but, obviously, I’ve been actually preparing for this moment all along.) Russell said: “5 years… – say authorities up front. So, 5 years ago let’s call it…” 😌

Once we got to the song’s first chorus, we were all doing the wave with Russell, and it continued for most of the song :) I’m also gonna link to a moment in this video at 2:35, because I like giving people heart attacks (that person recording is much stronger than I could ever dream to be).

Running Up a Tab at the Hotel for the Fab thought. It was. oh. my. GOD. An entirely different league than anything else in all senses. THIS WAS THE BEST HOTEL 4 THE FAB IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANKIND. BIG, HUGE, contender for the best moment of the entire tour for me. It was both the audience’s energy and Russell’s delivery that really made it, but I also still think that they just kept making this song even more of an event every time!!!!

(boring aside about minuscule details regarding the instruments: I remember noticing this time that there were those extra hits of the tambourine during the bridge, and wondering if they have always been there, or if that was even a part of the song on the album? And my findings are as follows: there was no tambourine in London yet definitely, BUT on the studio recording it IS there?? SO quiet that I never noticed it before, so when I did I was like HELLO WHAT I never ever heard this… but yeah, I guess the show does evolve even in the smallest ways over time,, which is very exciting to a details-oriented person like me, haha)

But anyway, yeah, god. This was just a different type of existence for me. There’s even a video of the entire song, which I’m eternally grateful for. One moment that stands out to me especially is how Russell would do a sort of pose before the instrumental (THE JAMMING OUT) parts, as if inviting everyone to clap along, standing with his arms extended, before he continued with the clapping. And he did that during other songs too!! And gosh, after this song I really had a moment like, dang, THIS SURE WAS SOMETHING ELSE!... Time to collect myself quickly.

This was also definitely the best Suburban Homeboy of them all!! Ron had his Fuck The Sun cap on again, and the cheering and applause he got after each verse was overwhelming. Then, Russell came back with the greatest gestures of all time, even pretending to write something down and then put it in his pocket on the “and please keep your receipts” line. Or should I just put it that way, that it all went like: props ✊ to our peeps 🫲 and please keep ☝️ your receipts ✍️ !!!

At the end, Ron threw his cap away, and this was my first time seeing that happen, so I remember thinking at first that he was trying to put the cap down next to his microphone and struggling with it or something, so then he decided to just hurl it far away instead XD Then, Russell introduced the “UNIQUELY BERLIN” vocal stylings of Mr. Ron Mael, which had Ron all 😌😌😌

Once again appreciating the nearly noise-adjacent vibes of the intro of All You Ever Think About Is Sex, with all that guitars action. When Russell introduced the next song, Drowned In a Sea of Tears, my mum went: “something for me! :D” !! It’s her fav song from MAD!, along with My Devotion and Lord Have Mercy :) ^____^ Russell did his exclamation point thing too, this time saying that it was there “to make you know for sure that we’re VERY mad”, teeheehee.

Russell’s dance moves were amazing and he also did a fun hand thing at the end that looked like pushing someone away or something. Sort of like “enough, go away!!”. And his falsetto was beautiful. He also did this thing of like, throwing his mic from hand to hand sometimes, hehe. Showing offfff (a little bit) <3

This JanSport Backpack was LEGENDARY, to me, because it was maybe the greatest case of me appreciating how much cooler everything, but especially the lights, gets, when you’re pretty much right in the center spot in the audience. THOSE LIGHTS!!!!!! We straight up entered JanSport dimension at that moment. It was breathtaking. Russell’s DAOW 🖐 DAOW 🖐 was so fun, both at the start of the song and at the end, and I could finally rest easy, having captured those precious moments at last.

During Music That You Can Dance To, and the “tonight tonight” part specifically, I ascended once more, and mum was a big huge fan of Eli’s dance moves. This one was suuuuch a party again, and god, I just loved everything about it. And it had one of my favourite things: Russell ALMOST not making it in time to pick up the microphone and resume singing. TWICE. Then, after the song, people applauded for so long, and after a while Russell did a pose like “I can’t hear youuu”, which made people cheer EVEN MOREEEE. But right after that he gestured like “ok ok that’s enough” 😭 (while obviously mouthing “thank you”).

(I’ve actually completely forgotten about this entire thing after the end of the song but there was a video of this and!!!!! I was definitely as delighted to see it then as I am now learning about it again. And several other things from this show that I learned about again similarly. Man…..There were just SO many things!!! 🥹)

It might’ve been during the next song, When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way’?, when some of the people in the front sat down for short periods of time, and thus our view of the stage would become completely unobscured for these very short moments, which was kind of mind-blowing in a way. Nothing but Sparks in front of us, even if just for a couple seconds… My mum and I would swap places once or twice so we could both enjoy it, and we giggled about it a lot, when the people’s seated-status would change a second after we did it. (Also, I always love when Russell does the “in heaven ✋ or hell 👇” thing during this song.)

(Also I can’t forget to mention the moment that I can’t place at any specific point of the show anymore. But there WAS a moment. When I did something like a polar opposite of drifting away for a second. I suddenly became incredibly aware of the fact that, wow, I’m really there. With the Sparks. And then went right back into the usual partying business seconds later. Just another little thing that still stands out. It was yet another of the greatest types of Moments.)

Once My Way came to a close, Ron already started playing The Number One Song in Heaven, when! Huh, Russell still had something to say?? HEY HEY WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW. Ron stopped playing momentarily and Russell said: “I know I interrupted him…”. People laughed and Russell continued, because he still had things to say about My Way, as you can hear here. In short: Russell wanted to talk about the success of that song in Germany specifically, because it meant so much to them, and it let them do such great things as “travel up and down the autobahn” for something like a year, and also appear in TV shows… “...weird TV shows. And stuff”. People laughed a bit about it all too, and this was honestly one of my favourite moments of the entire tour, it was just so funny… and stuff. Russelllllll, we love you so much.

But oh yeah, the number one song, huh. What can I even say about it this time around. It was incredible, as always. I finally caught the LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA moment on tape, which was so very important. And, gosh, the ending… again! After this, Russell decided to announce that he would now unbutton his shirt. …Thank you for being so considerate and warning us, Russell!

This Town was yet another reminder that, man, being in the center really makes things even better. Incredible time and such a spectacle!!! Everyone screaming “OH NOOOOOOO!” was glorious. This also gave us three separate times of Russ totally nailing that high note (that I’ve seen on this tour!)

The moment after the post-This Town applause was priceless. Russell went: “Would you like to hear a couple more?” People: “YEAHHHHH!” Russell: “Okay!”. The cheers went quiet, but nonetheless, Russell still did a theatrical “SHHHHHHHHH” 🤫

…I really like this guy!

This was the greatest Whippings and Apologies EVERRRRR, and the vibes were absolutely immaculate the whole time. Russell was in full “little bug scuttling around the stage” mode… I remember standing there (bobbling lightly) with my camera and following him with it, directing it from left to right and back again over and over, which was so funny, HE WAS SIMPLY NOT STOPPING. He was also interacting with the audience a lot and coming over to clap and bounce with people… it was all around a TOTAL BLAST!!! And all that RAPID super FAST clapping at the end too!!

I have next to no recollection of Lord Have Mercy, but I’m sure it was super lovely <3 More waving!

In general, my videos from the show came out pretty nice, but the photos are unfortunately not it (I didn’t even try taking too many anyways). So, have my ONE decent photo from the end of the main show!

I also don’t remember much from The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte, besides the irrefutable fact that it absolutely slapped! Russell: “Now she's leaving the place 🙂‍↔️➡️ 🙂‍↔️⬅️ Someone's taking her place 🙂‍↔️➡️ 🙂‍↔️⬅️”. And doing all the yeah-sad-wow-bads together!!!

Also, I should definitely mention that Russell was thanking us all so much at this point of the show. It was all really just so!!!!! AWWWWW… and stuff… He said after this song that they’ve always had great experiences in Berlin, but that this show “certainly tops all of the shows we’ve ever done here”. I AM SURE OF IT!!!! IT HAD BEEN COMPLETELY OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!

Band introduction time! In Russell’s words, they have “amazing musicians and dancers… SLASH dancer”. Referring to Eli there of course, whom Russell went to introduce, but Eli was having a snack at that moment?? Russell said: “what you got there?” and then: “um… he needs a little energy boost at the end of the show!” Hehe.

He introduced all the guys and declared: “aaaand… that’s about all the people I can think of!” Except… Oh yeah. OH YEAH. RON RON RON RON RON!! The Ron chant that followed was amazing, and Ron was even sort of conducting the chant with his hand in the air as it went on. Russell did the funniest possible walk to join Ron, and said: “on… keyBOARD.” (emphasising ONE keyboard) (Ron: ☝️) “on… composition.” (Ron: 😌) “on… I don't know, what else?”. People shouted out their different answers, but the most popular and loudest one by far was: “EVERYTHING!”. This got a giggle out of Russell :~3, and it was all around a SUPER CUTE MOMENT!!! (I actually even posted about this moment before, so I’ll just link to it again!)

Best Ron introduction EVER!!! Yes, you could say I was definitely looking forward to this happening again, because these moments just always get better and better over the course of the tour!! And that makes me so overjoyed!

Russell thanked us all so sweetly ONCE AGAIN, and he really emphasised the AMAZING AUDIENCE part!!, and also shouted out the people further up in the balconies, way up at the top! He said: “we’ve seen you the whole show, so you weren’t forgotten!” :))))))

And then they did one more song.

I think I can truly say this and mean it completely: that this All That was one of the most beautiful moments of my entire life. It felt SO even more beautiful than ever on that day. Not even in a sad way, just, so beautiful. Russell was absolutely glowing the whole time, which I'd be able to see even better later, thanks to a video I found of it (❤️😭🥹… favourite Sparks video of all time? maybe!). The way we were all swaying along to the song, and really feeling the atmosphere of the whole evening once again, but even more strongly… I wasn't even crying, I wasn't even close to crying. I was just. so. happy.

But also. In the other sense of things. Russell’s *BOUNCE BOUNCE* :#3 💖 And his hair flapping as he was bouncing.. He was just sooo 🫠🫠🫠💖 !!! AHHHHHHHHH. ah…

And, in general. Just. Yeah. What can I even tell you. There’s nothing like actually being there yourself to feel it as it happens, and feel the atmosphere. And simply sharing that moment, not just with the musicians you love, but with a person who’s important to you. And with all these other fans, who were definitely sharing the same sentiment, and, though strangers, we were all there together, connected in that loveliest moment, even just for a couple more minutes.

(We both did the wave with mum throughout, and we would sometimes go out of sync and accidentally bump into each other, and have a laugh about it. Just. What can I say. Precious moments! Just… precious… <3)

So, what else was left after that? Oh yes, audience photo!! Russell said they’d love to have “a souvenir that will be with us forever and ever”, so he asked us for a photo “with all of you fine people”!! We took our places and did our Sparks concert things, and Russell even added: “Places, everyone! If you wanna be seen”. Well, we already knew we wouldn’t make it into the photo almost certainly (the ONE single downside of being in the center 😔), but it really didn’t matter. I’d later learn from the photo though that people in the front even had a big banner! That is very cool.

Then, more reminders from Russell that it’s been “a truly spectacular evening”!!!, the classic Pushing Ron moment again, with another mini Ron chant following… Russell even walked up to take a gift from someone from the first row! Sweet!

They both stood there, taking in the applause, for a little longer. I was really feeling the end of it now. I remember just mentally going all “no no no, don’t leave yet! just one more song, just this once”... we’ve been so great, we could make this one exception! We could, right? Maybe it’s silly, because how else could it possibly end? This whole moment felt like it went on for a long time, but still not long enough. The big sadness was almost there, but I still managed to just barely push it away, for now.

And, you know what happened next, and what helped me so much at that moment? The fact that, right before they both left, Russell said: “See you very soon, okay?” ...My powers of projecting made it possible for me to decide that he was also regretful about having to leave. They must have felt how much the audience loved them – it’s really not anything you could even try to dispute at this point. And I’m sure they had a total blast, just as much as we all did.

And this one simple phrase actually made me feel so much better. Just. right at that moment. …They really love us too, don’t they? And who could’ve known what “very soon” would end up standing for, but I guess in my case it will mean about 11 months. Which is both a long time and no time at all. How blessed I feel to not only have been able to do all of this after all this time, but to also now have this promise that it wasn’t going to be the end. At all.

after the show

Sparks may have left, but we still had things to do. We were back in business immediately. We weren't done here! Yet.

People started leaving one by one, but I realized I could still try to repair my mistake from the last two times. So I got over to the barrier, in hopes that I could trail onto the line of people gathering there for a chance at a setlist grab.

And now, get this. There were two people ahead of me, and two setlists left, as I'd learn in due time. So, the person from the crew handed this one woman a setlist, and the guy next to her tried to snatch it himself from her hand, and that’s… just. so shitty?? You simply don’t do that, man! And IMO that should be enough to disqualify you from getting anything, and yet… that guy got the last setlist anyway.

So I ended up standing there last, a bit like: “hmmm… OK, then!” I didn't even feel like it was the best time for me to feel about it in any particularly strong way, and I did get over it mostly, as this was only my first real attempt at this… You can’t really expect everything to work out the first time you do it, you know…

But oh well! There was hope that I’d still be able to catch Crystalblast and that we could talk all about the concert! But, as I spent more and more minutes in front of the venue, and people started appearing more and more sparsely, I realized that we’ve probably already passed each other by now, unfortunately…

But ok! There was still ONE MORE THING I could still try to do!

…Which I’m going to present in comic form, once more!

Falling asleep was definitely hard on that day. And going back to sleep at like 4 in the morning was also hard. We would also discover this one amazing thing on this day, which is that: no queueing + no standing for hours + normal temperatures outside = not feeling completely drained out of life forces by the end of the day. Awesome! I’m really starting to see the appeal of seated shows. But ONLY if the audience decides to make it a standing & dancing show in the end actually. Lol.

It was once again “going back home, or to the country, at least” time the day after the show. Although our train ride to Berlin was only something like 5 hours? our bus drive back from Berlin took. twice as long. Those trains just had to stop their transit THE DAY we were returning, huh… 😔 So what we didn’t get to feel yet in Dying on the 6th, we sure made up for after that journey on the 7th. And then, eventually… well. The trip was over.

So… this is it! My Sparks Tour 2025. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that I was able to go to this one more show – I feel like, without it, the feeling of it all being unresolved in some big way would have not let me function normally at all for months to come. But, instead: all this happened! And it truly ended up being one of the greatest days I’ve ever had. Craziest, too, if I really think about it. But mostly greatest.

I wasn’t even THAT terribly saddened about having to leave Sparks again, (...FOR NOW), not as profoundly as after London, that’s for sure. I still missed them a lot though, of course… But now I had all these memories!!! This whole time, this entire tour, was truly like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. I often think about how my mum said after the show that she totally gets it now. She gets why I’d want to see them several times. Once wouldn’t have been enough. Thrice wasn’t enough. Who knows if any number over that would have been. Or ever WILL be. Likely not.

Very likely not.

(now I’m ruining the impact of that last line because I still want to put the obligatory videos compilation link here. for consistency.

But yeah. Thanks for reading. I really got to relive my old writer dreams with this one especially, now I think. Lol.