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Marc Anthony played one date at the Sportpaleis Indoor Arena in Antwerp, Belgium as part of a short European Tour on Thursday 19th June 2008.
As soon as we saw this event advertised, we knew we had to go, no matter what the cost, and before long a small group of 9 hardcore fans had signed on the dotted line so to speak, and our group were Belgium bound, and couldn’t wait :o)
Getting there as cheaply as possible was no easy task, and various options were considered, but eventually our group of 5 settled for flying from Liverpool to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, followed by a train journey from Amsterdam to Antwerp. Whilst the remainder of the group decided to use the Channel Tunnel and drive.
Our flight was an early morning one, so after a couple of hours sleep at Mike’s house in Chester we headed for the airport. It was going to be a very long couple of days, but I was so excited I was in danger of bursting. Our flight left on time, and after a short wait in the airport at Amsterdam, we caught the next available train direct into Antwerp. Two hours later we arrived at Antwerp Centraal station right in the heart of Antwerp and our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express was approximately a 20-30 minute walk away. Our hotel was in a great location, close to all the shops, bars and restaurants of Antwerp and was situated right next to the docks.
After checking into our rooms we hit the hotel bar and waited for our friends to arrive. A few beers later (apparently Belgium boasts some 400+ different types of beer!!!) we became very hungry, and could wait no longer for the others to arrive, so we went off in search of food. By the time we came back our friends had just arrived, and we all had just enough time left to get ready for the gig.
The hotel had provided a couple of coaches for people going to the concert and we arrived at the arena shortly after the doors had opened, so we were able to make our way straight to the front of the stage and wait for the show to begin. Here we met up with some friends from the Netherlands whom we’d met in previous years at the Antilliaanse Feesten in August.
Whilst we waited for the show to begin DJs were playing some great music for the crowd, then around 9pm the support act, a reggaeton band called Ghetto Flow came on stage. They only played a few tracks and were probably only on stage for around 20 mins, but not being a big fan of reggaeton I was quite pleased, especially as when they were playing……….OMG………. the noise!!!! We were directly in front of some huge speakers, and I have never heard volume like it in my life before. The base was sooooooooo loud it hurt your ears and you could feel it vibrating in your throat, and even worse, your heart felt like it was being sent into an involuntary rhythm in time with the music – it was a very bizarre sensation, and not a particularly pleasant one either. A few times we had to cover our ears!!
After a break which seemed to last an age, the real show started and the musicians (15 in all) came onto the stage. The lights then went out and the crowd started to roar as the music began - then the lights came back on revealing Marc at the top of the stairs. He kicked the show off with his version of Hector Lavoe’s ‘Aguanile’ and the crowd went berserk, very nearly lifting the roof off the arena (I get goosebumps just thinking about it now). I knew this was gonna be one hell of a gig! That was then followed by ‘Valio La Pena’, which again had the crowd in raptures. He played all the tracks he is famous for including ‘Tu Amor Me Hace Bien’, ‘I Need to Know’ and ‘Ahora Quien’ etc together with a couple of tracks that I was less familiar with. The main set ended with ‘Mi Gente’ which is my favourite of his tracks at the moment so I was well chuffed as I had been waiting for him to sing it all night. He then came back on stage and did a few encores, much to the crowd’s delight.
Throughout the show he gave every song his all, belting out one great track after another, and at times was performing some pretty amazing vocal acrobatics ……. this guy can sing!! The musicians did a superb job too. You could see that Marc and the musicians were enjoying every second of it, as were we. He even took his shoes off at the beginning and did the rest of the show barefoot – some lucky devil close to us got them thrown to him too!!! All in all Marc was on stage for an hour and a half, but it all ended far too soon for my liking. Following the gig we went back to the hotel on a high and after sitting in the lobby for a while talking about it, we decided to go to bed for some well earned sleep.
The next day after breakfast we headed back to the station and caught the train back to the airport. We had allowed plenty of time in case of hiccups in the journey and arrived back at the airport just over 3 hours before our flight. We spent some time wondering around the shops and cafes in the plaza at the airport which is absolutely huge – you could easily spend the day here, not to mention lots of cash.
We then managed to check in early so headed straight for the bar in departures, where we then stayed for a couple of hours – we got carried away with the beers though and suddenly discovered that our flight was being called, and had been for some time. How can you be in the airport 3 hours and still be late for your flight????? We were very nearly ‘those passengers that get called by name over the tannoy’, but after a mad dash through the airport we reached the gate just in time!
Despite the cost and all the travelling, this trip to see Marc Anthony live was well worth all the effort, and given the opportunity we’d all do it again in a flash. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often so I am glad I was there to enjoy it, and every one of our group would agree. We even managed to turn it into a mini beer festival too as an added bonus :o)
Next big thing on the agenda was going to be the La33 gig in Birmingham in a couple of week’s time – yee haa, life is good.
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