The human race, really, is pretty amazing.

If a wildlife documentary showed you a species gathering together in tens of thousands to sing and dance together, it would be gripping, unmissable television. If it showed this happening in torrential storm conditions with all of the assembled creatures showing no signs whatsoever of losing enthusiasm, you would sit and shake your head incredulously at the utter wonder of nature.

I looked out from the side of the stage on Saturday and saw the Rock Am Ring crowd going pleasingly berserk to Charlie Brown and couldn’t help but be astonished. Now, I’m not generally one for gazing in wonderment at humanity. The fact is, I tend to prefer keeping the majority of it at arms length if at all possible. How could you see this though and not let your stony heart be just a little warmed?

I can’t work out whether Saturday was great because it was a superb crowd, because the band had really hit a stride, because the setlist changes had hit on the magical flow or just because I’d made it through the stress and finally felt like I could look up and take in my surroundings.

I suspect as ever, that it’s a combination of factors. Whichever way though, it was a bona fide blinder. I’m also not sure if the new stuff has made it around the internet after the first show, or whether folks were genuinely greeting it rapturously on very first listen.

Whatever is going on here though, feels pretty bloody good to me.

R#42