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Tombola 2004 – Paradiso Amsterdam 11/14
An entertaining mini-festival, yesterday evening at the Paradiso
dem Buck saw:
Mum – a bunch of flower-children from Iceland, armed with (amongst others) melodica, trumpet, vibraphone and an Apple-notebook, after about twenty minutes of the first song (it also could have been six songs, always a little hard to tell with those Sigur Ros clones <img> ) den Buck left, not too impressed, to the main hall….
Azure Ray/The Good Life/Bright Eyes – advertised as ‘the Bright Eyes Package’, these three bands from Omaha, Nebraska followed each other nearly without a break. Azure Ray (two girls with guitars, a bassplayer and a rhythm computer) sounded not unlike a laid-back Throwing Muses, den Buck liked them a lot! The Good Life did sound like Sparklehorse meets Grandaddy with a great jazz/funk-drummer…Bright Eyes, the ‘country project’ of young genius Connor Oberst consisted of Azure Ray and The Good Life with some added musicians (so all in all there were about 12 people on stage, with one of the girls of Azure Ray on drums, the other on trumpet, the guitar player from The Good Life now playing the accordeon, their drummer doing some percussion and keyboards etc. etc.). Most of the songs they played were from their latest (highly recommended) album "Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground", it all sounded a little more rocking than on the album, great stuff, somewhere between the Beatles, Sparklehorse, Neil Young and the Cure, if they are playing somewhere near you, go and see them, they are great!!!!
Spoon – fine band that never really made it, they played a fine, rocking gig, no more, no less…..
Girls against Boys – another band that never really made it, they were in fine form as well, creating a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain-like noise with their unusual line up (two bassplayers/guitar/drums), a couple of cool covers as well: Joy Division’s ‘She’s lost control’ and the Stooges’ ‘I got a right’ <img>
35007 – Back to the small upstairs hall again: some hour-long very heavy and loud instrumental psychedelic drawn-out space-jams from this Dutch band from Eindhoven were enough to chase most of the people away, den Buck just ordered another beer, and went to the main hall again, where the disco was starting…..
last night i saw:
Neko Case. She played mostly stuff from the new album, which is fine, but it sucks cause i ordered the album some time ago and it, presumably, is in the mail somewhere. <img> Off ‘Furnace Room’, she played two of the three I wanted her to play: ‘set out running’ and ‘twist the knife’. that woman sure can sing. God, this show was at a venue that holds maybe 200 and it wasn’t very crowded. People in this town are so lame when it comes to music. This is good cause I can see people like Neko Case in small venues without being surrounded by assholes, but its bad because it means a lot of bands pass up on san diego and only go to LA or San Francisco.
Jim and Jenny and the Pinetops. This was a straight up bluegrass band and they were fucking good. This girl, Jenny, she can sing just as well as Neko and maybe better. Very impressive. They were so good that the crowd demanded an encore, and they were an opener.
Bartender’s Bible. Local ‘alt country’ band. Pretty good.
Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon (Phish)
Tie back your dreadlocks, put on your favorite cableknit sweater and get ready to do your favorite jam band dance-be it the bob, the wiggle, the wobble, or the hyperactive chiuahua!
But seriously though, I’m not a Jam band person ordinarily, but I DO love Leo Kottke. For those of you who don’t know, Leo Kottke is one of the best fingerstyle guitarists in the world, and this was one helluva show.
Leo and Mike Gordon were the only people on the ticket, and the only people on stage as well, no drummers, no keyboardists, no techs-pretty cool.
Mike sat stage left, with a Modulus Quantum five on a stand to his left, and an Eden Head/SWR 4X10 behind him. He only played the one bass the whole 2 1/2 set. Leo sat stage right, he switched off between a twelve string (presumably a Taylor signature model) and a six string, he plugged in through what looked like a Fender Bassman (weird, but the sound was great). He used a kyser style capo and a lot of open tunings, which resulted in some hilarious monologues as he had to retune between every song.
The club, as usual was overbooked, and I was crammed in a spot on the right side of the stage. I was practically close enough to see the woodgrain on the back of the guitars, but unfortunately the angle kept me from seeing Leo’s hands.
The show, however was tupping(?) great. Leo and Mike are both very talented men, and Phish fans(many who’d come only for Mike) aside, I had a great time. The guys played mostly songs off their new album, with a few Leo Kottke songs (Cripple Creek) a few Phish songs, and some covers (Eight Miles High, Doc Watson’s Clearwater Blues). A very enjoyable night all around, Especially for the musicians in the group.
Side note, Guitarist friend Steve was about to pass out after the show, he’d never heard of Kottke before, but he’s ordered me to jam with him next week. <img>
Great review Malcom,
Leo is coming to Amsterdam in January and I m going to find tickets for that show for sure, I like the music from leo a lot and with your review in the back of my mind, I look forewards to this gig!Jesse Malin / Ryan Adams – Muziekcentrum Vredenburg Utrecht 12/4
Jesse Malin played a short and fine solo set, consisting mostly of songs from his album "The fine art of self-destruction" (produced by Ryan Adams and highly recommended), inbetween he told some great stories about his life as young New York punk, and about playing with his band ‘D Generation’ as support act for Kiss
.The Ryan Adams gig was announced as "solo acoustic", ‘but most of the time he was accompanied by two ladies playing violin and cello, and on a couple of songs he played electric (solo, and he rocked…), The emphasis was on the quieter songs, good thing that the audience was very quiet as well during those songs. As an encore he did a couple of new songs, one of them was very sad and beautiful, it could have been from Lou Reed’s masterpiece ‘Berlin’. All in all an excellent night, only complaint about the Ryan Adams gig: it was way to short….
…..and it was good to be out in the province again where they serve beer for decent prices…..
Paradiso // 5 december 2002 /// Low
Just saw Low at Paradiso. I don;t have a cd of this band and I haven’t see them before so I’m fresh. It was a low-profile concert that lasted about one hour and three quart. It was a very intimate concert, sometimes a bit boring, sometimes exciting ( Canada). The sound was great, the audience too, quite and with patience. Imagine, tonight was the night of Sinterklaas!! Low anticipate greatly by making a nice poem about Zak, the bassplayer.. funny!!!
The bad news for me and Db was that the bar was closed during the concert;
Male and female voices were fabulous, they both did match greatly (not db/Hansione ofcourse), fantastic harmonies with a low volume. If you;d love great drumming, solos and breaks don’t go to Low, if you prefer great guitar breaks, dont go. But if you like intimate music, with great lyrics go!Low / Paradiso 12/5
Missed most of the (unannounced) support act Jacob Golden, but I liked what I heard (two songs, the last one was a fine quiet cover of Kermit the Frog’s "Rainbow Connection"
), JG did sound a bit like an acoustic Jeff Buckley….Low were in very fine form, starting off with "(That’s how you sing) Amazing Grace", one of the best songs of this year, like hansione said, the sound was great and the audience was very attentive. Other highlights: "Canada", their Pink Floyd cover "Fearless" and "In the drugs" (dedicated to Amsterdam
), great gig!Den Buck compensated for that closed bar by taking the last tram to a fine Irish pub, and finished the evening with some nice pints of Kilkenny…..
Jeff Malin / Alejandro Escovedo – small hall Paradiso 12/6
The small hall of the Paradiso was about half empty as Jesse Malin played about the same set and told nearly the same stories (and some new ones) as two days before in Utrecht, somehow he seemed more at ease with the small setting than in the big concert hall, and he promised that he would be back next year with a full band, something to look forward to!
The hall was a little bit more filled when Alejandro Escovedo and his 5-piece band took the stage. He started with some very quiet songs from his theatre piece ‘By the hand of the father’, which wasn’t the most sensible thing thing to do as the people at the bar just went on talking very loudly, this obviously irritated Alejandro and the band, and after some angry remarks Alejandro did the best thing in those circumstances, he took his black electric Gibson, threw away his intended setlist and ROCKED!!! Most of the times there were three electric guitars in action, with a hardhitting drummer (who looked a lot like Diego Maradona). In the end he had to play two encores, ending with a blistering ten-minute version of Neil Young’s ‘Powderfinger’, great gig!!!!
Ron Sexsmith – small hall Paradiso 12/10
A fine gig from this underrated Canadian singer/songwriter. Switching between acoustic and electric guitar, backed by a three piece band (with a drummer who also played the cello, although not a the same time
) RS played for about two hours for a quite full small hall. Nothing spectacular, just a fine intimate gig….After the Ron Sexsmith gig, much to the surprise of the about fifteen people that were still enjoying a beer another band took the stage, Econoline from London. Very inspired by the Smashing Pumpkins, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse they blasted through a short energetic set, in the end they had succeeded in reducing the crowd to about four people
, but den Buck liked them…..After that, there were two more bands that were supposed to play, but den Buck left, as there was a lot of work waiting for him in the morning (and it was about half past two in a dark and very cold Amsterdam night: about minus five degrees celsius, which is damned cold if you’re not from Illinois
)"dB stands for den Buck" wrote:Ron Sexsmith – small hall Paradiso 12/10After that, there were two more bands that were supposed to play, but den Buck left, as there was a lot of work waiting for him in the morning (and it was about half past two in a dark and very cold Amsterdam night: about minus five degrees celsius, which is damned cold if you’re not from Illinois
)Hmmmm, sounds like a bulletproof bodywarmer might have come in handy…for people not from Illinois
Gotta love Econoline clearing the room, they sound pleasing on a number of levels
Allison
I swear that db is the only one that sees shows on this board
.Interpol–Washington DC 9:30 Club 12/6/02
Opening bands didn’t really do it for me. Interpol was good, singers voice sounded really good, I like the whole 80’s vibe thing with the silly haircuts and black suits. They only played for an hour, which would have pissed me off if it wasn’t a $12 show. Ah well, would still recommend them as a live act, especially after they write more songs…
"Valentine Frankenstein" wrote:Hmmmm, sounds like a bulletproof bodywarmer might have come in handy…for people not from Illinois
Gotta love Econoline clearing the room, they sound pleasing on a number of levels
Allison
…den Buck was wearing a Pine Valley Cosmonauts t-shirt, a thick fleece sweater and a USAF-standard black nylon bomber-jacket, I think that’s a reaonable alternative for a bulletproof bodywarmer……
(people from Illinois would probably only wear a t-shirt at these temperatures….
)…and I’m gonna check the local record stores for some Econoline stuff, I really liked them….
Actually, Illinois just had it’s first snowfall of the year. . . ’tisn’t THAT cold.
Unlike Canada. . .
the other day here it was -30 with the windchill - You must be logged in to reply to this topic.