My New York adventure began on September 24 when I took the train from Hannover to Düsseldorf to catch the LTU flight to New York. The plane took off half an hour late at 2:15pm. After a quiet flight we had to queue at the immigration, which took another ninety minutes.
So off I go by AirTrain to Jamaica station from where I take the LIRR directly to Penn station. This was also where my hotel, the New Yorker Ramada) was located - vis-a-vis the Garden. After checking in and refreshing myself I had a beer and burger supper at the Hard Rock cafe.
After a short night and a long breakfast my first duty that day was to collect my concert ticket, so I hopped over to the Garden where I picked up my ticket with no problems at all. I then stored it safely in my hotel room.
I spent the day with a little tour to the Empire State Building and to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. Finally it was 7pm.! Here we go the the Madison Square Garden; just enough time for two quick cigarettes. I could have taken my time smoking them, because I have rarely had such smooth and relaxed admission. No pushing at all and I was even taken to my seat.
The show began about half an hour later than scheduled but there was immediately a good atmosphere. There must have been many older Genesis fans because they really freaked out during the older songs. I found this show much better than the Berlin gig on July 03, 2007. The sound was stronger and I had the impression that the band warmed up to the audience much quicker. The drum duet was longer, I think, and Chester and Phil had lots of fun. Even Mike Rutherford, who is usually quite calm, really got going during one of his guitar solos - great! The whole show was over far too soon, before I knew it, it ended with Carpet Crawlers. I spent another half an hour in the Garden to digest this fantastic concert.

Of course I could not go to sleep right away, so I went out for a drink. The next morning I travelled to the airport for my journey home, after a brief visit to Ground Zero. Today I have arrived happy and content in Hannover after a great concert in New York.

written by Manfred and translated by yours truly

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