Вторник 30 Мар 2010, 16:01
Sun 28 Mar – Taxi Taxi!
Sun 28 Mar – Bettie Serveert, The Bohemes
Sun 28 Mar – Sukilove
Sun 28 Mar – Gram
This Sunday would be very different from any other given Sunday in Coach Bertels his miserable little live, starting quite early and ending very late for somebody who should get up for work at six on Mondays. Normally the weekend is for relaxing and recovering from the week, this time Bertels has to recover at work! It was all initiated by a tweet from Uncle )Toon). He visited an art route in Amsterdam on Saturday, in which lots of galleries opened up their doors and in many of them a special activity took place, such as live music. This was the part where Coach got interested; live music! It just so happened to be on Sundays as well, and Bertels had to go to the Capital for some concerts already, so why not combine things? The story starts at seven forty-five in the morning (new time) with the sound of talking on the clock radio, time to get up and see the Formula One race live from Melbourne! Ten minutes later Coach was ready for the race, that would last almost two hours, and in that time there was plenty of opportunity to fix a decent breakfast with nice coffee. Bertels (still in sleeping outfit) really spoiled himself on that. After half a race up front, Vettel suddenly ends in the gravel because of a technical failure! Bad luck strikes again for the next F1 World champion, Bertels understands that feeling very well…. Heads up, Sebastian! All shall be well ;-) After the race, Coach enjoys hot water streams in the shower and picked his best clothes for the day (jeans, wore down shirts and odd sneakers), time to get going! Biking to the station, Bertels found the storks, that he saw the day before checking out the a nest on a pole, to be gone. That’s bad for Coach, since he wanted to record stork sounds some day that next week. Now other poles in the area have to be checked for the stork couple. Arriving at Leiden Central Station, Bertels saw lots of police around, three walking in the station hall and several outside on motorbikes, horses and in cars. What was going on here? A Grande Starbucks Mochachino was the perfect accessory for entering the yellow worm, Coach chose to take along his bike in order to float free in the great city of Amsterdam. As the train stopped at Grand Central Station, some passenger were very darn eager to get out first and almost tripped over Bertels his beloved bike. Outside the station, Coach enjoyed biking in the wind, relaxed and happy. Within ten minutes the Oosterpark was reached and scrutinized by curious Bertels, lots of nice statues here, including the one in memoriam of Theo van Gogh. Then Coach continued to peddle a few blocks further to this specific little gallery where four live music acts were to take place: Delicatessen (also a great film!). Entering the gallery, Bertels felt like getting into a hippies den…. Very basic with that 70’s vibe in furniture and stacks of records piling up in every corner. The art on the walls was extremely dark and timeless, some looked like a network of veins in rotten leafs, others resembled flesh wounds caused by vampires. Coach asked all this to this Willem who seemed to know quite a lot about it, and as Bertels asked him about the artists reasons to go so dark, he claimed to be the artist himself! First hand information is always the best. Anastasija Zvirbule should have opened the live music performance part, but called in to cancel the mini gig. Due to a screening in Rotterdam. So all had to wait just a little longer and Artist Willem hesitated to do a violin piece himself, since he went to the conservatorium. After some small exercises in a corner, he decided to stick to being a host for the visitors who came and went regularly walking the art route. Coach got coffee and checked all the piles of old records for the one, but did not find it. After a while Joey Roukens entered the gallery and prepared for his part of the music experience by playing the old piano. As soon as he started touching the instrument, folks found the address and within minutes the place was crowded, all listening to Joeys great piano improvisations. The first part was very heavy and so intense that the old piano actually walked a bit off its place. The second part was Asian oriented and finally a western part finished the performance. Everybody cheered and applauded, real good performance! Lots of people stayed after this show and talked to one another about all sorts of stuff, when suddenly a boy walks in and walks straight to the old piano. Announced as Elvis, the boys real name, he started playing amazingly well for an eleven year old! Just like Vitus in the Austrian film. Everybody was stunned and in the end the kid received a big applause and lots of appreciation. Joey invited him for a part de deux, and indeed they did a great improvisation that once again stunned the art lovers who just fell into this treat. Then some folks came in with more instruments and in no time there was a complete band in the gallery: Gram. A drummer, bass player, piano man and the passionate lady singer with guitar. Nice show with subtle songs and catchy lyrics about love, pain and everything in-between. The music attracted more and more people, folks could hardly enter the building. A little infant girl, that looked just like Maggie Simpson, with huge curious eyes and pacifier, stumbled around and was interested in dad’s Iphone, the guitar playing lady singer and the dog of a visitor. After the show, everybody was enthusiastic and several folks bought the Gram CD “Four letter Word”, so did Bertels. Having a good time in this crowded place and enjoying a cold beer, Coach talked with several people including a French lady that lives in Amsterdam and Paris. Then more folks with instruments appeared, and set up their stuff for some fine Jazz Improvisation according a set list (?). Oscar Jan Hoogland and his Quintet were masters in Jazz Improv; silence, screeking, ruffling, plucking, and outbursts! Everybody loved it and so did Bertels who realized that he was in this gallery for four hours already! Now the shows were over, and time for Coach to move on. Thanking Willem for the great event, Bertels stepped on his bike and peddled towards Paradiso where a Shoarma menu was ordered across the street. After “diner”, the clock struck six and the Heavenly doors opened up. Coach Carefully walked over to the other side (of the street) and entered Paradiso. Inside, the small room had chairs in it! Probably to create a visually fuller house, since there were just a few people attending Taxi Taxi!. Two young, nervous and skinny Swedish girls came on stage backed up by a drummer dude and a bass guitar dude. The skinny girl who did the keyboard, had the voice, instrument and expression of a Midaircondo Diva. The other skinny girl, who sang the most and played a guitar, had huge Björk potential. The songs however were too fragile and for some reason these girls had to pitch a lot, which was bad. During some songs the additional drums and bass made it worth listening to. These girls have to be more convincing in their show and just need to get far more experience on stage. Keep on going Taxi girls! Halfway the show, lots of visitors for the next show came into the room to see what was going on, they cheered and applauded heavily after the gig, so that the girls came back on stage and did a few more songs. Finally it was done and Bertels checked out the big room where The Bohemes were already playing as support act for Bettie. What a noise! What a crap, after the tiny and fragile Taxi Girls, this was mayhem! Coach avoided that trash by going to the cellar for a beer. After a while, Bertels checks the small room and is happy to see Sukilove building up their set for a great gig later on the evening. But first the big act in the big room. Luckily the support quit and the stage was converted for the other band: Bettie Serveert. The huge crowd went nuts as they came on stage and soon enough this band produced the utmost terrible power rock ever made! Three guitars on full volume, drums trying to top that and the horrific screaming of Bettie herself made the whole experience sound like true crap! At one point they did a cover which was actually very good, that implies that Bettie cannot compose a decent piece of music herself, and that the band members just promote themselves in stead of each other. Bad bad bad. Luckily Coach knows that he can count on a good after party in the small room starring; Sukilove, a Belgian band from Antwerp that Bertels discovered here in this same small room, years ago after a Nits concert. Back then Sukilove did songs from their album “Good is in the bones” and “I Kill You”. Today they promoted their new album “Static Moves” which is a bit more harsh, as was the gig. Several old songs passed by and all attendees were happy with a good concert at last! Coach just loved it and was cheerful on the way out, after five hours at Paradiso! Quickly peddling through the Amsterdam streets to Grand Central and into the yellow worm to Leiden. From there a fifteen minute bike ride and Bertels Cube is reached for a good night’s rest (90% effective sleep, according to Owl). What a Sunday! Sweet dreams Coach!
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