December 15th 2003,
Paradiso, Amsterdam NL
After
7 boring hours at school, I was totally ready to make the trip to the
Netherlands. After the AB gig in Brussels (27/11), it was the second time
I could see them this year. Big thanks to Johan, who offered me a ticket
and transport!!!
So,
we hit the road at 16h in Gent. Normally, it would take 2h15 to Amsterdam.
But, since it is a habit of Johan to take some wrong roads, it were 3h.
But it was big fun, talking about Spearhead and trading some videos and
cd’s.
When
we entered Amsterdam, it looked very beautiful. There were a lot of lights
(because of Christmas) and the venue was close to the water. After a quick
visit to the park (there was no toilet in the car) we met John (Hegs) and
went to a snack bar, Manas was there too. After some problems to get into
the venue, we finally were ready to party! I must say, Paradiso is the
most beautiful place I’ve ever seen a concert! Before the concert, Dave
came to us to shake hands and Manas was talking to some other guys, even
‘till 15 min. before the gig. Crazy man!
The
concert started pretty slow. The setlist was totally different then the
one from Brussels. But after 50 min. when they played “Family affair”
(a new favourite of me) the crowd was going wild and the band was giving a
little bit more. During a couple of songs, a Dutch girl joined the band to
sing with them. Michael told us that she mailed him and asked if she could
sing with them. So be it…
There
were some additional players too, like the saxophonist and the female
singer (“Cherie”). I recognised them from the Fabchannel broadcast. I
think they are from the Netherlands, because they only play shows here.
Radio
was ill and went home a couple of days ago. Michael filled in all his
words during the songs and even tried to do some beatbox things and sang
us “What a wonderful world” (“I’m sure Radio wanted to do this
song, now I’ll bring it for you”)
I
don’t have the setlist yet, so it’s difficult to say what the
highlights were. Of course “Sling ting -> Taxi radio” was great,
and “People in the middle” reggae style was very nice.
During the last song –Never too late– everyone held on to his
neighbour. Very nice! Michael told about the death of his father, earlier
this year. He was in Amsterdam when it happened. We could see the tears in
his eyes while he was talking about his father and the way he tried to
live with that. Very touching!
The
song ended the 3h20 concert which was really good. The vibes were there
again! Michael walked into the crowd, I asked (and got) an autograph and a
picture. Normally, I wouldn’t see them again ‘till the summer
festivals, because the Gent gig was sold out, but maybe Johan would
surprise me again ...
* During “Stay human”, Michael changed some words “Take a mental trip to the Bahamas, steam your body in a stereo sauna, sauna, Osama”. At least, I think it was during that part of the song. Very funny!
* When
Michael picked a girl from the crowd to dance with him on stage, Carl and
Dave were looking at each other like “hm, that’s a nice girl”.
Especially Carls eyes were rolling… Funny guy!
* My English isn’t perfect, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. I had a really great night, another big thanks to Johan.
(Thanks Pedro for this lovely review!)