Enter
May 1997: I was visiting a concert on Dynamo Open Air,
by a very unknown band, named Within
Temptation. About 5000 long-haired and black-dressed metalheads were
there to see a very special and refreshing gig.
Now, almost ten years later, this band is very popular and their music has not changed much (genre-members Nightwish, Tristania and After Forever for example, deliver much better, more sophisticated albums). Visiting the Within Temptation concert at Parkpop was however again a nice experience. A crowd of 200.000, consisting of a very wide variety of people, complete families, house- and rapfans, old blues-lovers, ultra-hip designers, etc. etc.) were enjoying the still heavy sound of Within Temptation. Can the world change or what??
Totally unrelated: If someone has/needs a graph of the colour of bread through the ages, contact me; I assembling one.
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Ngingenwe Emoyeni
Yesterday I went to African Footprint, a south African dance/musical show, running
already from 2000. This month the show visits Amsterdam.
The show was nice, very good dancers, exciting choreography. It was a blend of modern and African dance in which gumbo, jive, eastern, tapping and even western dancing found its place. Besides the occasionally too heroic spoken moments (Africa is the most beautiful country etc., but no word on the problems between the different tribes, aids etc.). In theater I can handle the disney/hollywood setup of the show better than in movies, because I really appreciate the beautiful voices of professional singers and the proper balance of the sound, well-composed songs and good looking costumes.
The best part was in my opinion the jazz-piece. Why did the black people became so rap-obsessed, while they had the much better jazz/blues???
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Erbarme dich, mein Gott
Today I went to the Mattheus Passion, composed by a fellow named Johann
Sebastian. It was performed 100% acoustically by the Hague Residence orchestra
and the Residence Bach Choir under the pulse of Arnold Ostman. Since Rammstein
became popular in the Netherlands a few years ago, there is a real revival of
german music. So it was not surprising to find the concert hall almost full.
Public from all ages was present to listen to this great piece of music and
perhaps to meet old friends or flirt a little with their neighbours.
Originally the Mattheus Passion is a concept album, not much unlike Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. It is a sad story about a man, who is discriminated (and later even crucified!) because of his unusual religion. This theme is very old and loosely based on a true story.
Lots of covers were incorporated in this piece. Especially the theme from Hassler's 'Haupt of Blut und Wunden' was used in more than one choral. Besides this, Bach also stole some music from his other works. This is not negative, this passion is the best ever written: super harmonies, impaling contrapuncts very balanced orchestration, lovely flute- and other solo's, Bach's thoroughly thought out bass lines and some of the world's most famous aria's. And then I even don't try to bother you with all the mathematics and tricks that are involved in Bach's music (read Godel, Escher, Bach for a start). So this part was absolutely right. But what about the performance?
The orchestra, choir and director were absolutely professionals. Not much more to say about them (OK one thing ;-), the start was a bit unenthusiastic). The boy's choir made some mistakes here and there, but hey I wouldn't be castrated for this task either, so I guess we have to live with that.
The soprano Lenneke Ruiten was a real charming, but also a bit nervous, young lady. Her voice was amazing and lent perfectly for the aria's. If she learns to better interact with the audience (perhaps visit a rock concert to learn the trick) , she will become very famous. I really have no idea if the bass Robbert Murray is a good bass singer. He is very entertaining however and I found his parts a pleasure to listen too. The alt Cecile van Sant and the tenor (?) were just right. The star of the evening was the evangelist. He was able to built a nice tension and was really acting the story (and sung well too). A welcome surprise and unlike any recording I have ever heard.
A small note about the tempi: This piece is performed by different directors in between the 2 and a half and 4 hours! This performance was relatively fast. Sometimes too fast in my opinion ("Ich wil dir meine herze schenken"), sometimes just right (the recitatives were very nicely timed). Most of the time I found the tempo in this performance the right one for modern instruments (some of the flute solos are (in my opinion) impossible to play on a baroque traverso this fast). Personal taste can differ (but yes, Ton Koopman really needs to get some pepper....)
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Angels fall first
I went to the concert of After Forever and Nightwish in the Heineken Music Hall
yesterday. Both bands I saw for the third time, so time for some observations.
After Forever is considered an one in a dozen gothic-metal band by a lot of metalfans. I do not agree with this vision, especially their last album, Invisible Circles, has some very strong songwriting material and I do really like it. Floor is a talented singer with a lot of possibilities, the band decent at least.
Their gig was a very special one, they played with old gorefest drummer/Arjen Lucassen' companion Ed Warby. After one number Floor announced their own drummer has cancer and has to stay in the hospital. This was quite a shock for the audience. The rest of the performance was delivered in a special, strange atmosphere, with an "Andre"-shouting audience, a crying (not disturbingly) singer and a different really powerful drummer. The band was good though.
Compared to the (light, fireworks and water) show from Nightwish, the lightning for After Forever was in my opinion too shallow. I understand that they were the support act, but this was a bit embarrassing, some more nice light effects and darker hall would have added a lot, while they definitely would not outshine Nightwish in show. Sound was good though, especially compared to the other halls of this size (Brabanthallen, Ahoy, Jaarbeurshallen, Statenhallen).
The headliner Nightwish is professional. No really, they make less mistakes then Marco Borsato (I guess). Perhaps too professional. A bit more jamming would have been nice. Tuomas, the keyboard player is the composer and writes almost all music. In previous gigs, he was also (after Tarja), the most visible element on stage. Yesterday he was not. This is a shame, because the rest of rather weak. His (very small) improvisations sound weird and his timing is rather a-musical at times. On their albums, you do not hear this (his guitar parts, written by the keyboard player, are nice and original, thus sound fresh on CD). Playing a Pink Floyd cover (High Hopes) however, is not very smart if your guitar player does not play equal or better than David Gilmour. Since the Century Child album, there are some additional vocal parts for the bass-player. On CD these parts work really well, live they were always false. But not this night! Despite the vodka, Marco sang really well.
Perhaps I am nitpicking. Nightwish is a world-class band and they gave a very good show. However, they are doing this for a long time already, so it is time to raise the bar a bit :-). I had a very nice musical evening!
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Analog park
Yesterday evening the Gathering played in Nighttown, Rotterdam and I was there of course! It was perhaps the 20th Gathering concert I visited (since their first album) but it was still excellent! Their new album, Souvenirs is absolutely lovely. Although a lot of converted metal-bands are not so good in their new genre, the Gathering continues to be my favorite band of all times.
Playlist (by heart, not 100% sure):
These Good
People, Golden Grounds, Nighttime Birds, Even The Spirits Are Afraid, Broken
Glass, Analog Park, Travel, Bad Movie Scene, Eleanor, Saturnine, Monsters,
Amity, Souvenirs, You Learn About It, Black Light District (wow!), Great Ocean
Road.
See here for some pictures of the tour.
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