Best concerts of 2004

I'd like to make a list of the best or most interesting gigs I've seen last year. I've seen so many shows, it's better to make a list of concerts than of new cds that came out. I also noticed I'm not that much a cd listener, I prefer to go see an act playing live. OK, here it goes:

1. The Evens - EKKO, Utrecht. Undoubtedly the best show I've seen this year. The new project of frontman Ian Mckaye of Fugazi hasn't even got a cd out yet, but they're able to create quite a stir with their revolutionary approach to playing live. Refusing to play through the obvious PA system and monitors, they hurl themselves back to the 50-ies where bands unknowingly had complete control of their sound. But the Evens make the decision deliberately, hereby taking the D.I.Y. philosophy to the stage. With a highly original sound that mixes vintage 50-ies with hitech effects, The Evens got me by the throat for the whole show. "It's all downhill from here".
The Evens have promised to come back to EKKO once their record comes out in February, so don't say I didn't warn you.

2. The Beastie Boys - HMH, Amsterdam. All they needed were 3 MCs & 1 DJ to change the course of pop music for ever, and that's all it took to completely take the HMH venue by storm. They could have left it that and get away with it, but they topped it off with their other side of the Beastie medallion: wild 70-ies style chase music in Starsky & Hutch pimp clothing. 'Sabotage' drew the wildest roar from a crowd I've ever heard. "Mixmaster Mike, whaddaya gotta say?".

3. Ben Christophers - EKKO, Utrecht. With his angelic voice, he showed me some new directions you can take as a singer/songwriter. Don't be afraid to use a laptop, and keep it very quiet at times. He also wasn't scared of making silly jokes on stage.

Writing songs again

Whoaaa!! On the edge of 2004, I wrote a few songs. You can listen to them if you like. Tomorrow I'll be writing some more, together with Roely in Enschede.

Screaming tree

Brother Danielson is of the ever growing tribe of Christian singer/songwriters with a Rock&Roll attitude. Think of 16 hp, Sufjan Stevens, or the whole Dutch Volkoren label with acts like At The Close of Everyday and Anderson. What they all have in common, is a certain reverence for God. Or the Holy Maker, or the Man Above, or however you wish to call Him. And yes, it's a Him. Not some New Age kind of subtle force of love, but the one and only author of the Holy Books. Especially the Old Testament is a thankful subject, where fire and brimstone are never far off.
What sets Brother Danielson apart from the few other Bible Belters I've seen, is his wackiness. I mean, which fan of the Old Scriptures in his right mind is going to dress up like a talking tree that just walked away from a children's version of the Lord Of The Rings? And everything about him is just perfectly happy and gay, without it becoming fake. The way he asks the audience to clap and sing along every time, has an autistic, manic ring to it. But that's just what made him get away with it. And his superb songs of course.
All delivered with his squealing high pitched voice, his songs are something I've never heard before. It's a mix of naive sixties hippie anthems and punk-folk, and it works. The hippie words he makes us sing along are way beyond shame, but we don't mind. Because after all, who's dressed up like a tree here anyway?

These are the pics I made. They were for the review in 3voor12/utrecht.

Debut on Oor website

I got my first pic in the Oor website! Let us hope it's not the last... Thanks, Jasper and Rianne! It's a pic from Johan, playing live in EKKO, Utrecht.
I was actually working for 3voor12/utrecht that day. Yes, that's also new. I'm photographing for 3voor12/utrecht. All the pics of Johan I made on that day are here, and the pics of support band Sgt Petter should be here.
Naturally, I gave different pics to both parties. But there were so many good ones to choose from... Anyways, check for yourselves if I sent up the best pics to the 3voor12 article.

3 MCs & 1 DJ

Today was Beastie Boys Day. The day began at 8.30 AM in the Heineken Music Hall, where I started running errands for them. I took their cook with me and we went on vegetable hunt in he small Surinam shops that are plenty in the Bijlmer. The Beasties have a clear inclination towards health food. Apart from Mike D, they're not vegetarian, though. Very unlike other bands, they don't let their crew eat the same stuff as them. So their roadies had to eat with us, local crew. I don't know if I could settle for that. After a while you can get really sick from ordinary catering food.
After purchasing the cooking ingredients, there wasn't much else to do for me. Lucky for me, they had some more organic errands to run later that afternoon. Some bread without wheat, a bottle of Oregano ethereal oil that I couldn't find in any organic store... This was definitely not a rock & roll outfit, I was glad to find out.
The show was marvelous. Dressed like nerdy boys, they sounded the same as 20 years ago. Their DJ, Mixmaster Mike, was mixing the backing tracks live on vinyl. Apparently, Mixmaster Mike needed some extra vinyl to enhance the show and asked us if we could give a list of the best vinyl record stores in Amsterdam. I recommended Reaganesk, who's always on top of these things. He managed to give a whole list of good record stores. Reaganesk wasn't too far away, because he was also working for the Beastie Boys.
They had a special act for their 'songs'. You know the ones that they play instruments on. They were dressed up like 70-ies gangsters - like in their Sabotage videoclip - and were playing on a movable stage, that was concealed from view during the rap parts. It all sounded so cool and in control. This is truly a band of geniuses, that has indeed made its mark on pop and rap history. In what could have been both a rush of creativity or a well planned move, they decided to do one song (Intergalactic) from the balcony of the venue. Their enthusiasm and smiles when they made their way to the balcony gave me the idea it was improvized, but maybe they're just always enthusiastic about their show...
After the show I had to do loadout as well, because we came one person short. But that means extra money for me, so I don't complain.

Roy S living in his own world

But Roy S is silencing the entire Paradiso with his music. His style reminds me of Woven Hand (16 hp). As with all great artists, the people were divided on his quality. Some thought he should first learn how to play guitar instead of wrecking it, others - like me - were blown off their feet by his sincerity and depth. Of course he was no game to the jury of the national singer/songwriter contest. Way too controversial, and... well, real. But no other artist was able to get the Paradiso as silent as he did. To me that says a lot more than any verdict of any jury.
The other favorite of mine, Arthur, didn't win either. But I got pics of both Roy and Arthur to take away some of the mild pain that invariably haunts you when some no-brainer without proper English diction takes home the prize.
Arthur told me that the jury was undecided for a long time, and finally had to choose between Charlie Dee, himself and someone unknown. Apparently it was a tough decision for them.

Who the fuck is Ottoboy?!?

Well, he's trying to put a new face on Dutch rock&roll, one that is less rehearsed and more into the moment. I like acts that seem to invent the music on the spot, without getting lost into pointless improvizations. This approach normally draws mixed reactions. For some people it's all a bit too raw. I think people sometimes too easily put his music in a redneck corner. Anyways, the crowd in Amsterdam seemed to have been more pleased with the boring and pointless crap of zZz, than the raw and unrehearsed crap of Ottoboy.
It was a crammed bill that night in Overtoom301. That Dam! was having one of its famous festivals, and they never cut back on the amount of bands. Apart from Ottoboy and zZz, the Tigers! were coming all the way from the UK and there was the ever present Blues Brother Castro. Oh, and I forgot a few bands that I didn't quite like or didn't see. The Tigers! were a revelation, by the way. You'll see in the pics, but their music is essentially what makes them so special. Fast , furious, hysterical noisy punk that sounds like Chop Suey of SOAD. And that must have been rehearsed over and over to sound so convincing... This to signify that I'm not at all against rehearsing, as long as the result is as intense and fresh as Tigers! or Ottoboy.


A best of set of pics of the festival can be found here.

Susan's R&R birthday party

To celebrate her 27th birthday, Susan Pinkster organized a secret party at squatters place Kongsi, with some great bands. We vs Death were the most eagerly awaited for. Other acts included Green Concorde, Daan and the debut of The Debbies. We vs Death and Green Concorde were arriving late, due to another gig they had done in Groningen. They had to drive for a few hours to get to the party. Now that's what I call great spirit!

Ottoboy was at the party as well. He's living just around the corner of the squatters building, so at the end of the party it was just a short crawl towards his home. A few days later he told me he just started recording new material there at Kongsi. With nobody bothering him, he can just leave the studio setting intact the whole period, and press 'record' anytime he wants...

We vs Death played without the available soundsystem, so you got the sound straight from their amps. Even the trumpet played acoustically. I have to admit I never heard a better sound from them then at that party. Maybe the alcohol had something to do with it, but I also feel that the added value of soundsystems or PAs is overrated. The Evens are categorically against using any soundsystem except their own guitar amps. Also their vocals are amplified through a guitar amp. And the sound couldn't have been better then.
Green Concorde used the PA system for their vocals, and that sounded pretty adequate indeed. The vocals were a bit distorted because of the poor quality of the PA, and this added just the right edge to their paranoid music of the big city. When I heard them later on at dB's, the distortion wasn't there and I missed it. How come bands are taking great pains to sound raw on record, and then loose interest when it comes to vocals and drums while playing live?

More pics of the party are here. I'm ashamed to say I don't have many pics, because the battery had run low... :(

Hermano rocks!

For those of you who like to rock: Hermano salutes you! Fronted by the lead singer of stonerrock band Kyuss, John Garcia, you can see they have a mighty good time together. They love to play rock, and they love to play together.
No, this is not a boring band. They have a fire inside of them that burns through your senses, but they're able to top it off with some genuine wit and camaraderie. I haven't seen such a great lead guitarist in... maybe my entire measely life! He seems to hail from Kentucky, and I don't know much else about him.
And what an attitude, to sign posters and cds together after the show for like an hour! After which they started to pack their gear. Themselves.
The Patronaat is starting to become my venue of choice lately. It seems EKKO is loosing its edge a bit, but I'm sure it will come back. Don't forget December 15, where Johan will showcase new material in EKKO!

There's a whole set of pics from Hermano in Patronaat. I think these are the best, but if you think you know better I can supply you with more pix where they came from. Just email me.