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...

Exploding Panthers

Yeah yeah, I know I have been slack at updating Whereismal in a while but I've been spending too much time in front of my new computer as it is without having to spend more time updating this! But that's not to say I haven't been busy...

Last Monday was also a Bank Holiday here in the Netherlands and I spent the day at the Pinkpop festival. A 3 day festival in the south east corner of the Netherlands. The line up on Sunday was also good but I only got a Monday ticket. However, a couple of my friends went for the whole weekend. To be honest tho. I'm glad I didn't go for the whole weekend cos there was a touch of rain.

I saw the following sign when I queued up to get through security and it made me laugh. My initial thoughts were "Wow this is going to be an awesome festival if people crowd surf the entrance gates!!!"

But alas, there was a lot less carnage than that image portrayed :-( For starters the main stage had a double barrier system to prevent crushing. But it was stupid - there was a huge queue to get in the front area and then when you were in there it was full of people complaining of being crowded. DON'T STAND THERE THEN!!!

Then cos there was not that many acts, once one band finished on the main stage, there was a mass exodus of people to the other 2 stages. Crowd control was daft - there should've been more overlap then everyone would not all be moving at the same time.

But enough winging, I did have a good time even in the rain. The bands I saw full sets of were The Fratellis, The Magic Numbers, Wolfmother, Artic Monkeys and The Kooks. Fratellis and Artic Monkeys were both the same really, took quite a while to get going but when they got there they were pretty good. The crowd enjoyed them too and everyone was humming the Chelsea Dagger theme waiting for the Fratellis to come on and were disappointed when the Artic Monkeys had to come off the stage for Linkin Park. The Magic Numbers again put on a great crowd pleasing show - they are good at interacting with the crowd.

Wolfmother was a surprise for me as I had never heard any of their work before - he's quite a character with a great unique voice. I will be finding some of his work at some point. The Kooks were probably the best tho. Again took a little while to get going but as they were the last band on that particular stage, they were able to keep going as the crowd kept cheering. No band following them so no need to get kicked off stage.

I also caught bits of The Dave Matthews Band, Scissor Sisters, Linkin Park and the closing ceremony of Smashing Pumpkins. I say bits of cos there was nothing there worth staying a long time for! I mean who chose the Smashing Pumpkins to close?!

Yeeeeaaaahhhh Booooiiiii!

Tuesday night I went to see Public Enemy at the Melkweg. After trying to follow a Dutch hip hop support act, I was loving the warm up DJ spinning the likes of KRS 1. Initially Public Enemy lost a lot of credibility in my eyes when they refused to appear because an empty plastic bottle was thrown on the stage. Then after rapping over the PA system that it was "not cool" to throw things on stage they finally appeared with two burly dancers. Not a good start...

I mean come on - it was the 20th anniversary tour and what kinda hip hop band needs a choreographed act?! But it became clear later on that these two gorillas were not dancers, they were bouncers to keep an eye on the crowd. Their pathetic dancing skills, evil crowd stares and ability to hold onto the band members whilst they hovered off the end of the stage high 5'ing hoards of screaming fans was easy proof they were not for show.

Things did pick up tho and it ended up being a monstrous set. By the end of the night I could no longer jump up and down because I was that desperate for the toilet! Flava Flav is clearly a nutter. As quoted by Chuck D on the night he is "the oldest teenager in the world". Plenty of classics, including some tributes to the likes of Run DMC amongst others. The band musicians also rocked out some quality Jimi Hendrix and AC DC - even Flava Flav had a surprisingly impressive bash on the drums.

DJ Lord was quality - his scratching was fast, very very fast in his solo set. It's the first time I think I have seen/heard Final Scratch in person and I was pretty impressed the computing power of 1 laptop was all that was needed to produce those sounds at that speed. But enough of the new school, I'm looking forward to seeing the vinyl master himself tonight at Paradiso - Grand Master Flash.

The Chemical Brothers are coming

I just bought two tickets for The Chemical Brothers in Amsterdam for Friday 29th June so if anyone fancies joining us you'd better get tickets fast from here before they sell out. Visitors from afar welcome as I'm sure I can find floor space somewhere for you. Looks like this is the start of a new tour so will hopefully be the launch of a new album? Go-on push the button...

I am in love with an ugly woman...

No I am not talking about our Emma but tonight I saw The Magic Numbers at Paradiso here in Amsterdam and they were fantastic. I've never been so blown away by the voice of a woman like I was tonight. The shorter lass was amazing, just standing there hands in pockets belting it out sounding truly beautiful. It wasn't just me that thought so - she got a huge cheer everytime she sung solo. And was so bashful about it all - zero ego. Amazingly beautiful sound. But don't get me wrong they are one hairy band!

Happy New Year!!!

So I'm back in Amsterdam after a great time back in the UK. I've got photos of the family and NYE with Emma in York to upload soon but thought I'd first add the BMX photos and DJ Yoda video that I promised in my pre-Christmas message.

I'll add my new photos once I get a spare moment cos it's been snowing all week in the Alps and I've got an itch to head that way this weekend. I've been couchsurfing tonight and emailed loadsa people to see if they'll put me up after the 8hr drive to get there. We'll see what happens there and I'll watch one more final weather report tomorrow night before making my final decision. "Should I stay or should I go now?" - name that tune and who sings it? It's stuck in my head!

So here's the DJ Yoda video. I saw him in Melkweg before xmas as part of the Flatground competition. He was not bad, a little slow to get the crowd going but got there in the end. I really liked it when he combined Scooby Doo images with the Thriller music video by Michael Jackson :-)



And here's all of the Flatground pics that I took. There's over 200 so if you like you can click any picture to be taken directly to my flickr account to browse through them quicker.

Flash Slideshow

Arab Strap

I went last night with the disco twins to Rotterdam to see a band called Arab Strap. No not that Arab Strap but this Arab Strap. Seems like Rotterdam will make a for a great return trip when it's not dark...