- Saturday, June 27th - Ra:IN live in Cologne, Die Werkstatt

With a group of the Xplosion staff, we decided to meet up in Köln for the weekend of the Ra:IN gig. So on the 27th of June, we set off from all parts of Europe.

Around 17:30 we left our hotel and headed off in the direction of Die Werkstatt. On our way we enjoyed some lovely Subway sandwiches and the rain that had decided to start to fall, that evening.

By the time we arrived at Die Werkstatt, we were pretty wet, but thankfully that didn't seem to have dampened anyone's mood. There was already a small crowd assembled on the parking lot, waiting for the doors to open at 19:00. To pass the time, we decided to talk to some other fans who were going to attend the concert. And we watched people hurrying in and out of Ra:IN's tour bus.

At last, it was 19:00 and after having had our bags checked, we trooped downstairs into the concert hall. Although to be honest, the word "hall" seems out of place, as it was more of a large room, with a raised platform at one end.

Along one end of the hall, a table was set up with merchandise of both Ra:IN and Zamza N'Banshee. Here is a list of Ra:IN's available items:
- T-shirts (3 kinds)
- Towel
- European Tour Poster
- Special European Tour EP (contains songs Circle and Psychogenic)
- METAL BOX album
- Hard Rain And Rocks Live DVD

By 19:30 the small, but very enthousiastic crowd, had gathered around the stage to hear the opening act: Zamza N'Banshee. They played a total of five songs from their album MANGA, and were really very good. Their very unique style made us sing along, whenever we could catch the words. So check them out! I remember them playing Satori but I don't have their setlist...

Afterwards, the crew quickly removed all the equipment from Zamza N'Banshee and replaced it with Ra:IN's equipment (and several bottles of Jack Daniels and beer XD). Then DIE, PATA, Tetsu and Michiaki came out onto the stage themselves, aided by loud applause and yells.

They opened with FREE, followed by Crying! both from their album Before The Siren. Needless to say, that this made us all very happy, as these are both fantastic songs!

Throughout the whole show, there wasn't a lot of talking except for DIE saying that it really was very hot.

They finished with playing Wish and then left the stage. But after several minutes of everyone shouting for an encore, they returned. Somehow DIE had managed to find the time to change his shirt in the meantime. So we got to enjoy WITHIN YOU before the concert was truly over.

We lingered in the hall a little longer. There was still the opportunity to buy merchandise, and we could also meet the bandmembers of Zamza N'Banshee. But we got chased out of the hall pretty soon, as there was another event scheduled for this night.

Thankfully it had stopped raining, so we could wait outside on the parking lot. And the waiting was well worth it! The crew carried a table outside with some chairs, to hold an unannounced signing session. So we all got our merchandise signed. And afterwards we got to take some pictures with the band.

Then it was all over. The band left and so did we.
All in all, it was an awesome weekend!

Written by Ami
Edited by Maverick

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