Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Gigs to get excited about
Admittedly, most of my time is taken up by Amsterdam these days, but looking around there are loads of concerts happening. Here are some highlights in a randomly distorted order.
Weirdo Danish bass groovers Who Made Who will perform in Nighttown (Rotterdam) on Oct 7, as part of the opening of Resfest. Other cool gigs following at Nighttown include Efterklang on Oct 29, Amusement Parks on Fire on Nov 3, the wonderful, the glorious Teenage Fanclub on Nov 7 and Ane Brun on Nov 22.
Along the road at Waterfront in Rotterdam, the Living Jarboe will be tormenting souls on Oct 6. If you haven't heard her, you have a big hole in your musical existence. Still, it's the appearance of Melt Banana (Nov 5) and The Gossip (Nov 16) that really got me excited. Particularly the Gossip. It's been more than 3 years since I last saw them live. They've never quite lived up to that on record, but I'm fully confident they will still be an incredible live band.
Rotown being Rotown, there's always something nice happening. October brings the 'Folk This' festival, featuring performances from Great Lake Swimmers and Okkervil River etc. Then there's the wonderfully dry humour from country-rock rapper Buck 65 on Oct 20.
In Utrecht, it's probably DBs keeping the music freshest. This coming Friday they have an indie-pop singer-songwriter thing going with performances from The Havelina's (Utrecht), The Barmitzvah Brothers (Canada) and Two Minute Miracles (Canada). On Oct 18 there is an anti-folk concert with Schwervon! and Jeffrey Lewis. Ekko ain't so bad either, though quite often reflecting Rotown and Vera. Stand outs are Damien Jurado on Oct 20 and Mono (Japanese) on Nov 5.
In Den Haag, I'm particularly excited about the Music in My Head festival, this year happening in Paard van Troje. Taking place on Nov 11 + 12, the full schedule hasn't been announced, but personally, I'm delighted to see Sons and Daughters finally playing live indoors in Holland, as well as The Posies.
The Patronaat in Haarlem is also freshly reopened and putting together a rather snazzy programme that stands out from the standard Amsterdam venues. Highlights include Elephant Micah (Oct 12), Andrew Bird (Oct 23 - you knew I couldn't avoid it), and apart from various big names, they're also running Subbacultcha concerts and various free performances in the new cafe. Bravo Patronaat.
Amsterdam normally speaks for itself, and if it doesn't, please read my music listings in the Amsterdam Weekly instead. They're there every Wednesday if you desire. But as I'm feeling kind, I also want to highlight the John Peel Day concert at OCCII featuring Zea, Persil, Bong-Ra and Uw Hond (Oct 13), as well as the indie-pop concert the next night, featuring The Heights, Furtips, Lushus and Eronika. Even after all these months, I just can't get 'Do You Love Yourself?' by The Heights out of my head.
And if anyone wants to donate a free trip to anywhere else in Europe so I can see Sleater-Kinney, please email.
Oh, and in my excitement, I forgot to mention that on Oct 23 UK rock band Cortez play DBs, then on Oct 25 they play Bitterzoet, with the very fine About Paris.
:: Posted at 5:12 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
Audiotransparent
A few days I mentioned the new Audiotransparent album Nevland. I still haven't heard it, so no real comment currently. But the band has changed a lot since their debut album, so I really had no inkling how they would sound now. My feeling now is that it's not so much.
Last night I found the MP3 of 'The Friday of Our Lives' on their site and it sounds lovely. Slow, atmospheric, pretty. It has me excited about hearing the rest of the album.
:: Posted at 9:08 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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Bad Ticket Agency
Now I hate Ticket Service/Ticketmaster like nothing else. I've previously avoided gigs just to swerve their ticketing policies and evil pricing. Buying from venues/record shops is generally a happier, cheaper experience. Most of the time I just want to start my own online ticketing agency, but I think there would be so many barriers in the way.
Anyway, I've experienced another ticketing agency this week - TopTicketLine. Admittedly they mainly deal in theatre performances, but in my case it's World Cup Baseball. The bonus is that there was no booking fee or postage cost. However, I ordered my tickets for tomorrow night's semi-final in Rotterdam (Nederland v Korea) last Friday, and still I have no tickets. How they can be so slow I do not know. Seeing as the first game is due to start around 13.00 and my post doesn't normally arrive until after 14:00, it's a big black mark for TopTicketLine.
At least the tickets for Saturday's final sit in my bag. Needless to say those didn't come via the ticket agency.
:: Posted at 9:03 pm by Steven McCarron ::
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005
New Releases
It may be that I've fallen out of touch with the local scene after a heated battle with work, but new albums from Audiotransparent and At the Close of Every Day sneaked out this week. I'm very much looking forward to hearing both, but I feel they're worth hearty recommendations even before listening.
:: Posted at 8:23 am by Steven McCarron ::
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