It was a Monday evening when the Irish band Picture This put on a show at Im Wizemann Halle in Stuttgart as part of their 2024 “Parked Car Conversations Tour”, named after their album, which was released this year.
The band consists of Ryan Hennessy (vocals), Cliff Deane (bass), Owen Cardiff (guitar) and Jimmy Rainsford (drums). With them on stage for the show was guitarist Nicky Brennan.
Opening up the evening is Australian singer Sam Fischer, accompanied by guitarist Marton Bisits. They started off with ‘I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’, instantly making the crowd cheer by exclaiming ‘Stuttgart, what’s up’ after it. They continued with the song ‘Simple’.
Before playing their next song, Sam mentioned it being their first time in Stuttgart and that ‘it’s so good to be here’, saying they had such a good time on this tour and expressing gratitude for being here and meeting the fans of Picture This. He continues by mentioning they have ‘been on the road all year’ and that ‘what’s been cool to go around the world and see which crowd sings the best’. This is then followed by Sam asking the crowd “So my question for you tonight Stuttgart, is will you sing with me?’, explaining to the crowd they’ll have to sing a verse back to him.
Before starting with ‘I Got to Live’, Sam explains that he wrote it during a time at which his life ‘was changing rapidly’, and he could only ‘focus on everything that wasn’t happening’. Connecting back, he says that after the week he’s had up to this show (he started his Picture This Support Run on October 14th.), the song took on ‘a new meaning’: elaborating that he’s grateful to be alive and repeating his gratitude for being on this tour run and for the fans that have turned up to his set. As asked by Sam, every time he sang ‘Oooh – Ooh, Oooh-Ooh, Oooh-Ooh’ the crowd sang it back to him.
As a 4th song of his set, he performed a cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’. Before the next song ‘Carry It Well’, Sam mentioned a quote from the song: “Just because I carry it well, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy”, explaining that the song is about his mental health, emphasising that social media doesn’t represent real life and that it’s okay to feel the way you feel. Sam and Marton ended the set with the song ‘This City’, concluding with ‘Stuttgart, my Name is Sam Fischer, thank you so much. I have loved tonight so so fucking much. We’ll see you next time okay!’.
Following this support set which got fans very enthusiastic, clapping and cheering all along, it was now time for Picture This. Their set started with drummer Jimmy walking on stage, writing ‘Stuttgart’ with a heart behind it on a car which was part of their stage design, to intrigue the audience from the start. Following this, the other band members walked on stage, singer Ryan exclaiming ‘Guten Abend Stuttgart!’ (good evening Stuttgart). The band then started with the song ‘Act of Innocence’, the crowd instantly clapping along to it. This is followed by ‘Unconditional’, with fans continuously singing along. Their third song of the night was ‘Call It Love’, after which Ryan said ‘Dankeschön’ (thank you) to the crowd. Continuing this German he said ‘Wir sind Picture This und wir kommen aus Irland’ (we are Picture This and we are from Ireland), and then ‘We’re very happy to be here’, expressing his gratitude for the ‘amazing, loving, fun, warm, happy energy in the room’.
After their 7th song of the night ‘Natural Disaster’, Ryan took a moment to introduce the crowd to the rest of the band and himself. A fan gifted Ryan a drawing of himself, which he gratefully held up for the audience to see. Picture This then did the song ‘Addict Of Magic’, the crowd showing their continuous enthusiasm with clapping, waving their hands in the air, and singing the song back to the stage.
Before bassist Cliff introduced the song ‘Leftover Love’, he said ‘You guys are the best fucking crowd’. Following this was ‘Middle of Love’, a collab with Dean Lewis, as well as ‘Somewhere Close To Heaven’, a collab with Rae Garvey. All this time, fans were dancing, with even someone on someone else’s shoulders during it.
While the band played ‘Never Change’, the room was lit up by phone lights. During ‘Addicted To You’, Ryan got handed a fan’s phone, taking a video on it from the stage. Before the next song ‘You & I’, Ryan said that the band feels that outside of Ireland, it’s Germany that first supported them, with this expressing gratitude for German fans and the fact that they’re able to play shows for them. During ‘You & I’ the band and the crowd went down and then jumped up and down, Ryan saying ‘We’re all gonna jump as high as we possibly can, alright’. Even when the song ended, the crowd kept cheering and clapping, to which Ryan had no other words but ‘Thank you so much, it means the world’.
The encore started with ‘Get On My Love’, including moments when the crowd sang part of the song without the band singing as well. The band ended the evening with ‘Take My Hand’. Picture This on stage was energetic the whole evening, and this energy transported over to the crowd. Supported by interactions such as Ryan pointing his mic towards the crowd, people vibed along during their whole set, clapped along often and sang back songs in this packed room. When the band started to walk off of stage, ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA blasted through the speakers, during which the whole room celebrated with the band one last time that night.
