You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Amsterdam’ tag.
[scroll down for complete setlist]
Finally the wait was over, Flight of the Conchords made it to Amsterdam!! Positively giddy with excitement myself and my motherflippin FotC partner in crime entered Melkweg only to find a room ful of chairs!! Oh no! We had wanted to be within sweat-spray distance of New Zealand’s finest gangsta folk duo, but we made do with seats on row ten in stead.
Jemaine and Bret opened the show with The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room) and the crowd gave a huge warm welcome. They make up a ludicrous story about the origins of the venue name ‘Melkweg’, claiming it pays tribute to the olden days when the people of Amsterdam used to don wigs made of old milk. “It was a bit smelly though. Yeah.. those were the days”. Milkwig laps it up.
The set continues with gems like Robots, Jenny and Think About It. After a while the boys admitted they hadn’t really played for a year and were a bit rusty, this then became the running gag of the evening. Before playing a new song about wooing ladies in the thirteenhundreds, they explicitly asked the crowd not to record and YouTube this delicate moment. They threatened to out Holland for being a filthy country due to the recent binman strike if we broke our promise, which went down with a big laugh.
Later on you could see they were struggling with the in between song banter, “this is the longest gig ever”, “we have now officially run out of things to say if you hadn’t noticed”, citing jetlag as the culprit. However, the moments when the boys address their mistakes or mux up the words and burst into laughs are actually the funniest. They play Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymnoceros at practically twice the normal speed, after Jemaine finally gets the hang of the guitar tabs, but it works out alright.
They play a few more songs than planned because “we’re staying until we get one right!” and end the main set with hilarious version of Mutha’uckas with Bret on a mini drumkit swallowing all the supposed swear words until there are hardly any lyrics left.
The encore, with Bret & Jemaine coming back on stage wearing flashing robo-boxes on their heads, is ironically plagued too when a piece of their equipment won’t work: “This is awkward. It was supposed to be our grand finale”. But it is soon fixed and Too Many Dicks (On The Dancefloor) is a worthy gig closer.
A wonderful evening with the New Zealand (“much funkier and more modern than your old Zeeland”) twosome. But where were the season 2 classics like Hurt Feelings and Sugalumps? Just as wel I’m going to see them again in London in two weeks!
SETLIST
01 The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)
02 Robots
03 Jenny
04 Think About It
05 [New song about wooing a lady]
06 Bus Driver’s Song
07 Foux du Fafa
08 Boom
09 I’m Not Crying
10 Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymnoceros
11 Bowie’s in space
12 I Told You I Was Freaky
13 Business Time
14 Ladies Of The World
15 Song For Epileptic Dogs
16 Mutha’uckas
[encore]
17 Too Many Dicks (On The Dance Floor)
You might have notived brokenbranches’ recently rekindled affections for stadium rock bands of the nineties (I was very happy to score some tickets for Pearl Jam’s August show yesterday), and I can’t help but wonder: am I getting on a bit? I recently read that your music choices in life have pretty much been determined by the age of 30, after that people don’t really absorb new music anymore. This theory leaves me with 5 months to do my last discoveries, and so it was I ended up in Paradiso last night to whitness Adrew Bird in action.
For some reason I’d never really looked into Mr. Bird, I had heard a few songs, but they didn’t really stick. However, music friend C assured me he was well worth going to see live, and that’s enough for me. Paradiso was jam packed and temperatures had already reached tropical levels when second support act Laura Marling took to the stage. I really like her music, but her acoustic set sadly all but drowned in the noisy venue.
As a newbie to the Andrew Bird live experience it was great to see how he builds up each song on the spot. In under a minute he’ll easily record six loops to accompany himself, anything from a whistled melody to hand clap rhythms to a violin plucked tune, very impressive indeed.
It struck me as a kind of musical paint by numbers, with all the different elements in place amounting to great compositions. Andrew’s vocals seem more like one of the many elements of the composition than the main focus of the songs, which I found very refreshing.
A few of the songs that really struck me were Why?, Anonanimal and A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left, but I will be definitely looking into more of his material. Luckily there were some committed youtubers out there to relive some of the evening, check out the clips below thanks to StartBeginning:
A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left
Dr. Stringz / Fake Palindromes
Why?
Adele performed at Paradiso tonight, a gig that seemed long overdue since she very successfully released her album 19 in Holland back in January. Upon arrival we were afraid we accidentally stumbled into a Katie Melua concert from the look of the crowd: predominantly 40+ women, target Sky Radio demographic, gently swaying side to side during the rather tedious opening act Steye. Yikes!! Has poor Adele been overplugged on our national airwaves?
However, any fears the crowd might be a passive bunch were inmmediately taken away when Adele took to the stage: rarely have I heard an artist get such a warm welcome as she did in Paradiso tonight. She seemed a bit taken aback by it all and giddy too, which was endearing. She was very chatty with the audience, which made for a good atmosphere in the room. She joked how she thought this would just be another gig but then was shocked to see the size of Paradiso (“Oh my god I’ve never seen so many people in one room!”), and then realising it was one of the biggest gigs.
She openened the set with Right As Rain and played almost the entire 19 album in the course of the 1 hour concert (bar one of my favourites: My Same). She already won the audience over with her funny candid stories (for instance about wearing her favourite lucky knickers and big sweater, making her very hot and sweaty), but it was obvious that Adele’s talent as a singer would easily win anyone over regardless. With seemingly hardly any effort at all she sang beautifully, putting real soul into her songs. She was supported by a very decent band, including a 4 piece string section.
One or two songs that had become a bit flat to me from over-rotation of the album really got a new shine to them in the live performance (First Love springs to mind, not a peep to be heard from the audience). She also performed a few covers: The Coral’s Dreaming Of You and Bob Dylan’s Make You feel My Love which is also on the album, but the standout one was Etta James’ Fool That I Am, sung straight from the gut. Is this girl really only just 20 years of age?
On the downside she played Best For Last without the band, and I really missed the funky bass. Also, perhaps because of nerves, she ended a few songs with a giggle on the last note which was a bit of a shame. She was in such good form throughout the concert though, that these are minor issues. After the first two songs for instance, her bass got taken away by a roadie. She ran after him to get it back and said “This bass is the worst ever! I don’t want it, does anyone here want it?”. One eager fan in the front was the lucky one and she even went to get a pen to sign it for him. Later on, reflecting on all her chatting: “Forgive me, I’m talking loads of shit because I’m a bit tipsy!”.
Adele closed the show after merely an hour (“That’s it when you’ve only got one album!”) with Chasing Pavements, which had pretty much everyone in the crowd singing along. She was all smiles when she heard it and even held out the microphone for the obligatory “you sing it!”, which somehow never gets tired when you’re one of the singers-along. After the encore an unusual thing happened: rather than rushing for the door the majority of people stayed where they were and there was at least 5 minutes of shouting, clapping, hooting and hollering for a second encore. Even when it was apparent it wasn’t going to happen any more! I think it’s safe to say Adele made an impression in Amsterdam tonight.
See Adele sing Etta James’ Fool That I Am live at Martyrs’ in Chicago in March this year:
[thanks to alexandergrooves]
Getting to Patrick Watson on Thursday proved to be a bit of an ordeal. Having spent the whole week teetering on the edge of sleep I was not in my most alert state, and it wasn’t until I met friend MB at the station that I realised I had forgotten the concert tickets. Blast and damnation. No choice but to jump back on my bike and cycle through gridlock traffic in a combination of rain and hail to get the tickets back at my house and then race back to the station again. I decided I should laugh it off rather than spending the rest of the night cursing my stupidity and the horrendous weather, and put Watson’s The Storm on repeat on my iPod to add a touch of drama.
By the time we got to Paradiso in Amsterdam we had been drenched in downpours twice over. It was quite a funny scene in the bathrooms downstairs, watching everyone attempting to dry their hair under the hand dryers. The whole we-all-braved-the-storm-to-get-here vibe added to the atmoshere. Paradiso is probably my favourite venue anyway, such a difference from the vastness and anonymity of Ahoy.
The support act was a treat: up and coming Dutch band Voicst (from Amsterdam) played a nice little set and really got the audience warmed up. Their singles are well worth checking out: Everyday I Work On The Road, which got a lot of airplay on 3fm, and the older Whatever You Want From Life.
Patrick Watson & co took their time getting on stage, but then proceeded to mesmerise the audience for a good two hours. They came out looking as if they’d just woken up, hair disheveled, washed out clothes and Patrick sporting that same old cap he seems inseperable with, but there was nothing stale about their performance. They gave every song their all, sometimes a bit too much it could be argued. Particularly when some songs evolved into an all out noise fest, you could sense the audience got a bit disconnected the longer it went on.
But they know their boundaries and would then switch to a small intimate song such as the beautiful The Great Escape or Slip Into Your Skin. The band were still experimenting with chains, toothbrushes, balloons and saws, as I remember from their Lowlands gig last August. Although there was more room to experiment in Paradiso, I got the feeling there was a bit less energy and fun on stage compared to that festival show. But then I guess constant touring is a tiring affair.
It’s not to say they appeared lackluster, on the contrary. Luscious Life (my favourite) was played with real intensity for instance, and the acoustic in the audience performance of Man Under The Sea (“it’s become a bit of a party trick” Patrick chuckled) was still a lot of fun and had everybody grinning and participating. Most notably one guy in the audience who seemed so swept up by the moment he didn’t realise his screechy vocals were almost drowning Patrick out.
Well this was one concert well worth getting drenched for! I particularly enjoyed the insane and insanely talented drummer Robbie Kuster and of course the charming man himself, mr. Watson. Sweet oh luscious life.
Admittedly there were a lot of glittery brooches, there were black stockings, high heels and lipstick, there were the lederhosen and there was even a recorder-solo, yet Rufus Wainwright easily gets away with these frills without it becoming a camp charade. How does he do it?
First and foremost: by singing his knee-high socks off. I was stunned at the consistant power and pitch-perfection of his voice throughout the 23 song setlist. And it’s not as if there’s a lack of drama and high notes in a Wainwright show, but he nailed it every time. Quite frankly, swept up in the brilliant performance of a song like Do I Disappoint You, you don’t even notice there’s a man in lederhosen singing it to you.
Then of course there’s the band, 7 skilled and brooched multi-instrumentalists that make “An evening with Rufus Wainwright and band” run like a well oiled machine. If there’s anything to find fault with, it would be that perhaps it’s all a bit too well oiled. Compared to Arcade Fire last week (which is not a very fair comparison, but for the sake of argument), there were certainly no band members running across the stage posessed by the sheer energy of the music. Each song was like a neatly packaged parcel, with a bow on top.
Las but not least, it’s Rufus himself. His charming between-song-chatter easily wins you over. Wether he’s encouraging the audience to get a few drinks down them in the break, referencing the people with portable beertanks that walked through the crowd when he opened for Keane (Rufus opening for Keane, it sure is an upside down world we live in), or when he’s telling a random story and gets a bit self conscious and boyishly says something like “well, whatever, I had fun”.
The one thing that bugged me about this whole “An evening with…” concept was the sitting down!! I know this is in part a personal thing, I just find it impossible to sit still when I’m enjoying music. Last night I was constantly very aware of the huge black mass of people around me just sitting in their chairs whilst the band is churning out one great song after another, how extremely unnatural! “Why don’t we all leap up and sing and yell and dance??” I kept thinking to myself, but then again, I didn’t do it either. I joined the herd like a good little sheep and in stead sat twitching and writhing around within my personal chair space.
Next time you come Rufus, please leave the chairs at home. I’ll definitely be there!
Below is one of my (far far away & blurry) photos, the setlist and a snippet of Between My Legs with the Dutch competition winner Michelle.
01. Release The Stars
02. Going To A Town
03. Sanssouci
04. Rules And Regulations
05. Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk
06. The Art Teacher
07. Tiergaren
08. Leaving For Paris
09. Between My Legs
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
10. Matinee Idol
11. Do I Disappoint You
12. A Foggy Day (Judy Garland cover)
13. If Love Were All (Judy Garland cover)
14. Beautiful Child
15. Not Ready To Love
16. Slideshow
17. 14th Street
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
18. I Don’t Know What It Is
19. Poses
20. Complainte De La Butte
21. Millbrook – dedicated to best friend Fred
22. Get Happy (Judy Garland cover)
23. Gay Messiah
brokenbranches 
