Here I sit at Ron’s new killer G3 PowerMac (what a heck of guy - he has just brought me a Heineken, too) trying to convey to the rest of the Berlin Fan World what I’m sure many of you also believe is basically a religious experience! It turned out that this show was more so than usual for Ron and myself….

Ron has already sent some of the photos he took with his digital camera, but I have integrated a few of his post-processed shots here to help tell the story. (After getting a bit of a bum steer on the photo policy, I had the night off from photo duty. This was OK since I ended up being drafted as official substitute dance partner by a very zealous female Berlin fan and her boyfriend at our table, which is quite another story!)

After driving around Santa Barbara for a while and taking some ocean sunset photos, we arrived at the Coach House about 5:30. Since the doors didn’t open until about 6:45 PM, we had some time to get a few shots of the Coach House like this one (Ron and I both thought the sign was cool so we included it):

While we were waiting outside, we could here Terri’s beautiful voice and the rest of the band doing a sound check with I Can Love and a few other songs.

The Coach House show was somewhat unique in that it was the first of our last five shows in which we were seated. We had really good seats just to the right of center stage. (Thanks for the usual, very timely, concert date info, Rob!) As I have found with most Berlin fans, they are some really sociable people. Each group of people introduced themselves as they were seated at the table.

The warm-up band was "Eve’s Garden", which performed a pretty decent set. This was a four-piece band with female lead vocalist/acoustic guitar, lead guitar, bass, and drums.

Berlin started with a short synthesizer intro to Masquerade that I hadn’t heard before and Terri came out to the usual warm welcome. (At this point, I was drafted for dance-duty. By this time I had ingested a few beers so I didn’t mind if I made a fool of myself. My zealous partner was not at all shy about going right up to the edge of the stage in front of Terri to shake hands. Terri responded, "You are beautiful." She was also quite the dancer, even if a little too much Chardonnay had flowed.)

Berlin performed their full set from many of the previous shows with the addition of For all Tomorrow’s Lies. Terri commented that this song could be added because Charlotte could sing back-up harmony. This song is another one of my favorites and I was really glad it was added to the performance.

A scanned version of the playlist is shown below (this was supplied by a donor whose identity shall remain unknown unless the donor wants it otherwise, later). Note the recent addition of For All Tomorrow’s Lies.

It was also interesting to note which fans were singing along to the various songs. My dance partner was singing Tell Me Why. I was singing For All Tomorrow’s Lies. Confession Time is another one of Ron and my favorites (hope it makes it on the remix). Most of the crowd also really got into the audience participation portion of No More Words. Dallan sang the lead vocal on Never Let Me Down.

As usual, Terri and the band gave an outstanding performance. I have yet to be even slightly disappointed by their live performances. Ron and I were trying to come up with a one-word characterization and I think he finally did it with the word, "explosive". I don’t know if it is possible, but I believe Terri’s voice sounds better than it did on some of the earlier Berlin recordings, even in a live setting using sound reinforcement. In fact, I really like Courage from the new EP since it showcases Terri’s dynamic range in addition to her range in pitch, even though she exposes the limit of the venue’s reinforcement gear on a few occasions. (Dynamic range is something that I find is generally rare with rock and pop recordings and even worse with many rock/pop radio broadcasts). One example of extended dynamic range is after the first few lines when she sings "familiar". The first few syllables are so sweet and delicate and then Terri just rattles the house with the last syllable when she shifts down a range and powers it out with such purity! The last three notes of the song are also sheer magic to me.

If you have the opportunity to see Berlin, they are a must-see. Their performances give me the same feeling I had when seeing Miles Davis perform in several shows shortly before his death. The music is eclectic, the performance is flat-out captivating, and the show always ends too soon. (I know,…this from a guy who has seen them five of their last eight shows in the past four and a half months and going to our sixth next weekend. Obviously, Ron and I are completely captivated by the magic of Berlin!)

The quality of the sound reinforcement was excellent, even on the sidewalk during sound check!

Back to a few more highlights…

As usual, Terri thoroughly involved the audience, holding hands with several fans at the tables near the stage and off to the side of the stage in front of the reinforcement gear.

I had my once-in-a-lifetime experience during the Harry O’s show last November; it was Ron’s turn during this show. Terri walked right out onto our table amidst wine glasses, purses, cameras, napkins, leftover dinnerware, and a manila folder I had. (This contained my last review and some beautiful photos of Terri at the Seattle Underground show Ron had gotten as a gesture of appreciation for the EP from Paul Hagopian, which turned out to be significant later). At any rate, Ron got the VIP treatment from Terri during her performance of The Metro, which culminated with her dynamic vocals a few inches away from Ron’s face. Many of our fellow table guests wondered whether Ron was going to survive the ecstasy!

Terri also gave an extended embrace to another fan several tables over.

As many fans already know, these are all great examples of the endearing connection and rapport Terri establishes with her audience.

As for some of Ron’s photos, he got what I believe are several great shots of Terri:

(This next one was taken right before or after STEPS, which is an intense song.)

During the performance, Terri introduced the rest of the band. Ron was able to get much better pictures of the other band members than I could at the 1/6 Universal performance.

First of all, on keyboards was Scott Warren (hope we have the spelling and last name right), whom we later found out was with the band prior to the first show we had seen at the House of Blues in September when Ray was keyboardist. Although Ron was battling the low light, he managed to get what I thought was a fairly ethereal picture of Scott.

Next we have Dallan Baumgarten on lead guitar, who was quite far from our side of the stage, behind Terri.

Dallan is followed by Rodger Carter, their drummer and percussionist preparing for Courage at the djembe.

Ron tried his best to get a good photo of Charlotte, but was, alas, unsuccessful. She was not as well let, being farther back on the stage, and the one good chance was missed. Instead he ended up with about six or seven blurry shots (not good enough to post to this esteemed web site). We’ll try again next time, Charlotte!

Finally, Ron has a shot near the end of the show where Terri cruised out between the tables of the lower level near the stage where we were, and up toward the back of the Coach House during Take My Breath Away.

Back to Paul Hagopian’s pictures….At the end of the show, we waited for Terri just in case her "Unofficial Knights" might get to meet their "Queen" (and maybe get her autograph on some of Paul’s photos). While we were waiting, Dallan walked by and I flagged him down. We had a great conversation. We also got his autograph (although the picture that Dallan autographed for Ron eventually wound up on the wall of the Coach House).

We were about last in line (and shaking in our boots when it looked like this was really going to happen) when some of the other fans saw the photos and asked where they had come from. (They were a big hit, Paul H.! Terri really likes your work.) We told the story of the EPs and the review to another fan and about that time, Terri’s special someone, Paul, commented to Terri that "we were the guys from the (RJA) web site".

Conversation ensued in which we discussed the review, the EPs, and how much we liked her new material. Terri really appreciated the review (which her Paul had printed for her…Thanks, Paul! You are really a class act and fit right in with the rest of this "Berlin culture".) She also appreciated all the effort for the EPs. She asked why we had done what we had and I told her we wanted to give something back to her and the band. I commented that I know of no other performer with the stage presence and connection she makes with her fans, using the example I experienced during Courage at Harry O’s, etc.

As we were talking, Terri blew us away with her sincere appreciation. Even off-stage Terri exhibited that same window-on-the-soul sincerity in her eyes that makes performances of songs like You Don’t Know so moving. I basically poured my heart out to her, telling Terri how special a performer she was and how much she and her music meant to me. At this point, I received an extended hug from Terri, which was like a religious experience! (I didn’t have the presence of mind to tell Terri how I felt, in the words of John Crawford (that were written on a sign hanging from my mouth as I was applauding after You Don’t Know at the 1/6 Universal show). As I’m sure her Paul will agree, the sign said "YOU ARE THE REASON AND THE RHYME".

Ron also had a similar experience after commenting on Gabriel as some of his favorite new material, how each show was special in its own right, and how everyone who received the EP has been loving it to death.

Terri very graciously autographed several of Paul H.’s (what a lot of Pauls in this tale) pictures for us. Ron was kind enough to donate the photo Dallan had autographed for Terri to sign for display in the Coach House. Then the chief of security also wanted a picture (I didn’t get his name, but he was one cool dude, especially when things got a little wild with some of the dance action down in front) so he got one as well. Finally, another fan asked me for a photocopy of one of Paul’s pictures that I had for Terri to autograph. I let her make a copy and she returned the original.

I don’t know when Terri finally got out of there, but this was yet another example of how much she gives to her fans.

Terri is beyond the Diva class in my book. To echo the sentiment of some of the recent comments (as well as an uninvited Indian gentleman who proclaimed to me during lunch last week), you are God! Terri, you and Berlin embody the finest that the music industry has to offer.

Finally, in closing, I would like to sincerely thank Rob, the awesome keeper of this web site, without which, none of this would have been possible!

The Unofficial Knights of the Berlin Roundtable, SoCal Chapter,

Paul K. and Ron B,