Sir Gig-a-lot

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending 3 music gigs in the same week at the same venue!

Not that the venue really has much to brag about. Yes I admit the Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall is a pretty impressive place with a great sound system, but the huge capacity doesn't quite have the same level of charm as the smaller Amsterdam venues like Melkweg and Paradiso. Also the fact that you have to queue to buy beer tokens before queuing again to exchange those tokens for the beer really bugs me! But enough complaining, back to the gigs...

Bloc Party kicked things off, thanks to a friend who let me have their spare ticket. I'm not such a huge fan but they put on a well deserved performance aided by the worlds longest microphone lead. This enabled the lead singer to get all the way to the bar at the side of the venue and back in one song! More Bloc Party photos here

Next were Arcade Fire who without a doubt have been the best non-electronica live act I have seen. Their albums do not do their live performance justice as I find the albums a little flat. But just go and see them live, I was blown away. Their set is much more of a show or a spectacle than a gig. As well as the standard singing of songs and performing with a multitude of instruments there was a well thought out projection and light show. Two thumbs up :-) More Arcade Fire photos here

However, Arcade Fire left me worried about the next act who took to the stage on the following night. It was the Kaiser Chiefs and I was really looking forward to them as I'm quite the fan of their albums. I admit their set was not quite the show that Arcade Fire put on but it didn't need to be. The feel good factor and general sing-a-long nature of their songs was simply good fun. You didn't even need to know all the words as there are plenty of ooh's and ahhh's to join in with. More Kaiser Chief photos here

So as the music industry struggles to find a new business model, I believe it is bands who can perform live acts like this that will lead the way. You can't steal the feeling you get when you see and hear a fantastic live band. Amsterdam has a few more gigs in the pipeline for 2008 and I can't wait...