Propagandhi

About a week ago we went to see Propagandhi in the Melkweg (Amsterdam). It was almost 8 years ago that I saw them, so I was really looking forward to it. And they didn’t disappoint: it was fucking awesome. We were in front of the stage, with the moshpit right behind us.. so it got pretty wild ;). I didn’t make any pictures, and the only guy I saw making pictures had to be evacuated because it got so messy… but i found some pictures on Flickr anyway :)

And a great YouTube video.. Less Talk, More Rock and Haille Selssasse up your ass. We’re the only ones holding hands during Haille Sellasse lol:

And as a bonus, here’s Purina Hall of Fame:

Nine Inch Nails

Last wednesday we went to see NIN in Amsterdam for their Wave Goodbye tour. I missed them the last time they were visiting the Netherlands, so I was glad I got a second chance to shell out some money and finally see them.
The selection of songs was diverse, even some songs from the Pretty Hate Machine album, as well as from Further down the spiral, Broken, The Fragile, The Downward Spiral … and of course the new albums as well. All in all, it was the perfect mix of old and new songs, and if I ever have the chance to see them again, I’ll be there.

Next up: Propagandhi!

Booker T. & the M.G.’s

Saturday March 21st we went to see Booker T. & the MG’s; you can find a review here. It was much more crowded than the previous week, when John Cale and Vic Chesnutt performed. I didn’t bring my camera, but instead I borrowed some pictures from the previously mentioned site.
My review: they were awesome, and I got to hear my favourite songs (Green Onions and Hip Hug Her).

Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper

Booker T.

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and Steve Cropper

Booker T.

“]

John Cale, Vic Chesnutt + Elf Power

Yesterday we went to see John Cale and Vic Chesnutt in ‘het Paard van Troje’ in the Hague; Vic Chesnutt performed together with Elf Power. John played really passionate, it really was wonderful to see him perform. He played some older songs like ‘Fear’, ‘Amsterdam’, ‘Paris 1919′, Dying on the vine’, ‘Pablo Picasso’ and  ‘Things’ from a recent album. Especially ‘Amsterdam’ gave me some shivers the way he sang it. Wonderful.

The second performer we came to see, Vic Chesnutt, played together with Elf Power. They played a lot of songs from their ‘Dark Developments’ album. Vic was really relaxed and laidback.

Here are some pics:

The Black Angels in Paradiso

Previous thursday (December 11) we went to see the Black Angels in Paradiso. It was pretty neat, and the crowd was appreciative as well. The sound was ok, but the volume of the voice was too weak. But the droning was still pretty nice, so it was not a big problem :P.

Mogwai in Oosterpoort, Cohen in Ahoy

On saturday (Nov. 1) we went to see Mogwai in the Oosterpoort, Groningen. We saw them before, but it was already a long time ago, and I didn’t listen to their music for a long time. Still, it was nice to see them in such a small town. It was fairly crowded, but I don’t think it sold-out. They played really well, much better than I remembered from the previous time.

Here are some pics, from here

Two days after that, on monday Nov 3rd, we went to see the poet of all poets, Leonard Cohen. We’d seen him in July already, but after seeing him once we couldn’t let the chance go by to see him one more time. Charming and humble as ever, he played for approximately 3 hours, so we were lucky it was a seated show. We weren’t allowed to bring our camaras, but here are some pro images. The sound quality in Ahoy still sucks, but Cohen’s sound engineers made it suck much less than with the Cure.

Leonard Cohen

Approximately 2 weeks ago, we saw Leonard Cohen performing in the Westerpark (Amsterdam). He was really charming, suave (especially with his hat), and was very generous to the band and to the public. He did two sets, after which he came back for the encores. He was such a passionate singer, clenching his fist, sitting on his knee… Truly a wonderful performance.

I’m happy to say we’ll see him at least one more time, in the beginning of November. The bad news is he’ll perform in Ahoy, of which I’m not too fond (sound quality was very bad the last time). But I have confidence that the soundguy from Leonard Cohen will amaze me like he did in the Westerpark. And we have much better seats now, so all in all I’m optimistic.

Setlist:

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Ain’t No Cure for Love
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson)
In My Secret Life (Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson)
Who by Fire
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye
Anthem

Tower of Song
Suzanne
Gypsy Wife
Boogie Street (with Sharon Robinson)
Hallelujah
Democracy
I’m Your Man
Take This Waltz (Leonard Cohen after Federico Garcia Lorca)

Encores:
So Long, Marianne
First We Take Manhattan
Sisters of Mercy
If It Be Your Will
Closing Time
I Tried to Leave You
Whither Thou Goest

Roger Waters in Landgraaf

Last weekend (Sunday, May 11th) we went to see Roger Waters in Landgraaf. As Landgraaf is at the other side of the Netherlands (judged from Groningen, Friesland and Amsterdam) we decided to stay in Maastricht for a couple of days (friday to monday). We had a great time (and nice weather!) exploring the city and surroundings. On sunday we went to see Roger Waters performing the complete ‘dark side of the moon’ -album, along with some songs from his own carreer and some Pink Floyd songs. The performance was nothing short of phenomenal; a lot of visual effects along with explosions, flying pigs, large screens, a giant prism, excellent sound (the quadrophonic system used made that you could hear explosions from all directions during e.g. ‘Bring the boys back home’), and an enthusiastic Roger and band.

Some reviews (mostly in Dutch) can be found here.
I had a great time, and if I ever get the chance to see him again, I’ll be there.

The band consisted of:

Roger Waters – Bass And Vocals
Carol Kenyon – Backing Vocals
Chester Kamen – Guitars And Bass
Dave Kilminster – Guitar And Vocals
Graham Broad – Drums
Harry Waters – Hammond Organ
Ian Ritchie – Saxophone
Jon Carin – Keyboards And Vocals
PP Arnold – Backing Vocals
Snowy White – Guitar
Sylvia Mason James – Backing Vocals

Setlist:

Set 1:
In the Flesh
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense, Part I
Perfect Sense, Part II
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

Set 2:
Speak to Me
Breathe
On the Run
Time
Breathe (reprise)
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Encore:
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in The Wall Part II
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

Some pics from this show are shown below. Although we were not that far removed from the stage (though we couldn’t count Roger’s wrinkles), most of the photos suck. Erik Luyten did it a lot better (maybe press -entrance?). Well, here they are: (The bottom 2 photos were made by Erik; see his Flickr page).

(The gallery is a little fucked-up; it doesn’t take you directly to the full -size image … )

night time panorama of the Maas

day time panorama of the Maas

Roger strolling

silhouette shot of the band

Roger with band

the complete band

Roger rocking

RW – DSOTM poster

You! Yes You!

fear builds walls – all religions divide

Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band

Last Saturday we went to see TSMZMO&TB in Tivoli, Utrecht (Oudegracht). They mostly played songs from their new album ‘13 blues for thirteen moons’, but also played ‘Microphones in the trees’ (from the ‘Pretty Little Lightning Paw’ album), ‘Metal Bird’ (yet unreleased), and ‘Hang on to Each Other (from ‘Horses in the Sky’).

We arrived a little bit later than I expected, so most of the seats were already taken, which meant we had to sit in the back. I tried to make some pictures, but as usual, it was very dark and I had to zoom. I tried to improve it somewhat with photoshop, and a conversion to black&white.

Some pictures from
flickr :

The Cure

Almost two weeks ago, on March 18, we went to see The Cure in Rotterdam. I won’t complain about their performance, which was solid and long (more than 3 hours), but the sound quality in Ahoy was terrible. The newspapers didn’t complain about the sound quality, saying it was marvelous, but at least where we were seated the sound was boomy and not loud enough. The batteries of my camera were empty before I had shot a decent picture, so I’m putting up some downloaded pictures made by others. I’ll bring some extra batteries for the “Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la-band” -concert next week (April 5) :P.

Oh yes, the support act was 65 Days of static; we’ve seen them before, but now their set was very short (or we were much too late). I didn’t like their performance (for what I’ve seen of it); much less impressive than the previous time. But the acoustics were probably the culprit for this as well.

Reminder: Ahoy’s sound quality sucks.

Setlist:

plainsong
prayers for rain
a strange day
alt.end
the walk
the end of the world
lovesong
pictures of you
lullaby
from the edge of the deep green sea
kyoto song
hot hot hot!!!
please project
push
inbetween days
just like heaven
primary
a boy i never knew
maybe someday
never enough
wrong number
one hundred years
disintegration
- “six popsongs or four Faith songs? or both?” -

Encore 1:
the lovecats
let’s go to bed
friday i’m in love
freak show
close to me
why can’t i be you?

Encore 2:
three imaginary boys
fire in cairo
boys don’t cry
jumping someone else’s train
grinding halt
10:15 saturday night
killing an arab

Encore 3:
faith
a forest

Mono

Last friday (november 9) we went to see Mono in Haarlem (Patronaat). They were simply amazing, the great dynamic between the melodic intros and the deafening white noise were almost hypnotizing.

Of course, I made some pictures; I really start to see the limitations of my Powershot A95. High ISO with a low shutter speed aren’t the best ingredients for concert photography. Nevertheless, I’m quite satisfied with these pictures: (low jpeg quality and low resolution because of wordpress-limitations on space)

Lou Reed in Amsterdam

I wasn’t sure if I’d go, but after support from my loving parents, I decided to go to the Lou Reed concert here in Amsterdam on June 21. I took my little bro’ and little girlfriend with me, as I usually do. Never know if they like it, but they’re always by my side.

Anyway, the concert was great, albeit a little short. Approximately 90 minutes, and only 3 songs after the “Berlin” album was finished. There was a great synergy between Lou Reed and fellow guitarist Steve Hunter, which alone made it worth it. There was a movie and/or images projected on the background. The audience was pretty well behaved, but that was probably because the average age was 50 years or so ;).

Anyway, here are some pictures … I couldn’t fit everyone in the picture (e.g. the people from The London Metropolitan Orchestra), but in the background you can see The New London Childrens Choir. It was a really special time.

Thanks to my parents again.

  

65daysofstatic

Previous thursday, June 7th, we went to see 65daysofstatic. The concert was great, albeit a little short, but it was really hot and they were jumping around. I got tired watching them ;).

As usual, I tried to make some pictures; you can see 2 of them on the concert page. There was not much light (they said at the beginning of the concert: “If we look as bad as we smell, you should dim the light…”, then the light was dimmed ;).

The pictures aren’t great, almost bad, but I had to choose a high ISO and a high shutterspeed (did I mention they were moving fast?)… but at least it’s something. The noise doesn’t bother me, but they’re too dark.

Do Make Say Think

Previous saturday, May 5th, we went to a concert of Do Make Say Think in Paradiso. They performed really great on the small stage; it had barely enough room for the artists and instruments. Then again, there were 8 members on stage:

• 2 drummers
• 1 guitarist (electric/bass) / saxophone
• 1 saxophone
• 1 violinist
• 1 guitarist
• 1 guitarist / keyboard / strange thingy
• 1 trumpetist

The sound was earthshattering, and hope to find a bootleg of the concert soon.

I also made some pictures; actually, I made about 100 of them, but these were the best ones:

   

   

Some pictures are quite dark; but I already had to shoot with high ISO, so some noise reduction was necessary :’(

I’m already saving for a SLR camera to replace my Powershot A95.

Received LPs / CDs

A few days ago (saturday), just 5 days after it was shipped, I received the LPs/CDs I ordered a few days before that from constellation records. A few albums from Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Do Make Say Think, Exhaust, Fly Pan Am, and a compilation CD.

They’re amazing; especially the LPs look great, and the F#A#∞ album includes a penny crushed by a train, hand-glued picture on the front, de-bossed titles … Simply amazing.
Some cd’s look silkscreened; it has a very nice touch… I’m not sure if the word is correct, but suffice it to say it looks good.

These people really deserved my money; they’re really in it for the music, and you can hear it.