Patrick Watson & Wooden Arms in Melkweg

© Nick Helderman

Sometimes I buy a concert ticket just because I like one song by the artist. This can either be risky (it might suck) or it can be your next favourite band. I only knew Great Escape at the time I bought a ticket to Patrick Watson’s concert on May 26th in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. I haven’t regretted it since the concert was quite amazing!

Luckily you can see for yourself as well, since 3voor12 has recorded the brilliant concert. Watch it here!

Kings of Leon at HMH – Amsterdam

Friends, colleagues and even my family I have bothered with Kings of Leon the past year. Forced to listen to them, some caved in and are just as much a fan as I am, others well…not so much. Though I am pretty sure that even the toughest cookies would have come around if they had joined me to their concert at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam little over a week ago.

There is a lot to do between fans from the start and fans that have discovered KOL since their first succesful single here, Sex on Fire.  Some fans that loved their first two albums are now turning away and calling them sellouts since their last two albums have been quite different. The latter group of fans is more into the last Cd’s. However, the setlist shows that both groups had no reason to complain as Kings of Leon played songs from all albums. My favourites were Milk, On Call, Use Somebody and of course Charmer. The beginning was still a bit quite, but after half an hour or so the fans and the band really started getting fired up. At the end of the encore, and 2 hours later(!) the whole venue (incl me) went crazy! Above you will see a great HQ video with one of their best songs, Milk.

Pinkpop 2008

Pinkpop is the biggest festival in the Netherlands for decades. I went there for the first time when I was 15 and I was just psyched about the huge crowd! Especially went it went totally wild while Korn was playing and when I was (naive as I was as a small girl) standing right in a mosh pit where people were coming out with broken and bruised body parts.

Yesterday I went back to Pinkpop for the third time and I loved it! The weather was great, people were cool, a special guest pass took me everywhere and most important of all, the music rocked! I was a bit late for Kate Nash, but could enjoy her last few songs. After that I saw the ADHD band the Hives, I have never seen a band that played the crowd that well. Then it was time for Saybia, a band that I have some special memories of due to the time I lived in Copenhagen and I saw them playing in Tivoli. I thought they played great and the crowd seem to agree since they received an ovation of 5 minutes or so. I kind of chilled during Queens of the Stone Age, just to get ready for the closing act, Rage against the Machine. I have seen some concerts, but this one tops the list when it comes to energy! The crowd, 60000 people, went to tally wild and turned into one huge mosh pit. It was even enough to register a force of 1 on the scale of Richter according to the news! If you want to see what it looks like, check this or the opening act (which was sick).

Songs to get you through the day

While writing my thesis and spending 10-12 hours a day working on it, there were many times that I needed some good music to keep going. Since I worked at my university library computer, I could not rely on my own iTunes music. Therefore I used YouTube a lot, and I found some great music and rare live versions that I wanted to share with you.

During my high school years I was a big fan of the singer-songwriter Jewel, which I hadn’t heard much of the past years. My favourite song by her was ‘Deep Water’, and Jewel’s live performance at the Woodstock festival of ‘99 is the best version I’ve ever heard.

While working in London this summer, I really liked Robyn’s UK no.1 hit ‘With Every Heartbeat’. Her follow-up single ‘Handle Me’ I loved even more though! I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to it already, and I still love it and I love the creative video (and no, I won’t discuss her remarkable looks like many YouTubers do).

Another person I discovered was a yet unknown singer from Denmark performing under the name TanjaLuise. You should check out her videos, I really like most of her songs but my favourite so far is ‘Don’t Make Me’.

Tina Dickow is another singer-songwriter from Denmark, who currently is gaining popularity outside Denmark more and more. I absolutely love the live version of her song ‘My Mirror’ in Joe’s Pub in New York. Check it out for yourself:

Wir sind Helden @ Paradiso, Amsterdam

On Friday, I went to a concert by one of my favourite bands called ‘Wir sind Helden‘. Although I had seen them live a few times already I was really exited to see them again, since they have a new album out. But most importantly, they would perform at Paradiso, one of Holland’s most (in)famous concert hall, a place I hadn’t been yet.

Both the band and the location were great! Back in the days, Paradiso used to be a church, which you can still tell by the architecture. Basically, the bands are performing on what used to be altar. This gives an incredible atmosphere, which is enhanced by the small capacity of the location (around 1000 people). The concert was sold out and I don’t wonder why. The surprising fact was that, unlike previous concerts in The Netherlands, the public was predominantly Dutch – a great achievement for a German-singing band! Wir sind Helden played for over two hours and it was obvious that they had just as much fun performing as the public had listening. They ended with one of their first songs I liked, Bist du nicht müde? I could definitely say no to that question and could listen to them all night :-) Luckily they were hinting at coming back in Utrecht and Rotterdam soon, so who knows… If you are curious and want to see the concert I watched, you can see it all here (legal and for free)

Kanye West vs 50 Cent

9/11 is the day the war on terrorism basically started. This years 9/11 might have started a war of another kind, namely in hip hop. On this date, 50 Cent released his new album ‘Curtis‘ and simultaniously Kanye West released his ‘Graduation‘. Since 50 Cent is known for his fights with fellow artists (such as Nas, Jay-Z and The Game) he felt it was about time to start a new one. He might regret picking his new enemy though…

It all started with 50 Cent finding out that Kanye West moved up his release date to the 9/11. 50 Cent reacted by saying that Kanye only wanted to use the rivalry with 50 Cent to promote his own album. He might be right about that, but since musically he felt superior to Kanye he stated that if Kanye would outsell him, he would quit his solo carreer. There was an interview with both artists in the Rolling Stones, with a great cover! It resulted in a big media fuss and a lot of attention for both artists. Now, after a few days the first score is Kanye selling 700,000 albums to 50 Cent selling only 550,000. Bye bye 50 Cent!

The ones truly winning this whole ‘war’ though are the people of Universal, record company of both, who have had a big role in this great mixed marketing campaign. Quintessential of a laughing third…

PS. My personal favourite is Kanye West, I love his second single of his new album which could have been a warning to 50 Cent: Stronger

Vintage Bruce Springsteen video

I was browsing through YouTube when I came across this video of Bruce Springsteen. The video was taken in 1988 on a street in one of my favourite cities, Copenhagen. According to the comments, Bruce was walking down the street shortly before at concert at a local stadium when he heard a street singer perform his own song. Bruce borrowed a guitar and performed three songs together with the street singer. How cool is that? I wanted to share it since he’s really good live, in this video he’s singing ‘The River’.

Love Parade ‘07

Everyone knows about the ups and downs of the Love Parade the past years. I was surprised to hear that this year they found a new location, namely Essen. For the ones who know Germany a bit better know that Essen is located in what is considered to be the ugliest part of Germany (Ruhrgebiet). Since it is close to The Netherlands, and one of my good friends from summer university in Copenhagen lives there I decided to go see it for myself.

Crazy is a good word to describe the day :-) First of all, the city was filled with 1.2 million people all ready to party so Essen was packed. Then there were the visitors: looking crazy, weird, trendy or just plain cheap but who cares. The music that I heard was good, although I really missed Moby (he missed his plane). The after-parties were the best, with a visit to the club ‘Hotel Shanghai‘ as a highlight!

Conclusion: while Essen normally may be quite boring, this weekend was great!

Peppers in the Park

A few months ago I was on the internet trying to get tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And not just any concert, they would be coming to Goffertpark in Nijmegen, the city where I live! Internet banking let me down, so I ended up not getting any tickets :-( From what I’ve heard so far of friends/internet/newspapers, the concert with 60.000 visitors was great! I so wish I could have been there…

Wir Sind Helden are coming…

I was listening/watching to MTV this morning, and to my surprise they were playing a song by Wir Sind Helden! They are huge in Germany (best selling band the past years) and happen to be one of my favourites. Last year they toured in several European countries, and I ended up seeing them three times; twice in the Melkweg (Amsterdam) and once in Tivoli (Utrecht).

I first heard of them when living in Copenhagen, where I had a German flatmate. He asked me if I could download some songs of them for him, and after I did, I wondered why people would voluntarily wanted to listen to such music. But again, after hearing it more often and hearing other songs I started to like them a great deal. In the beginning, it was maybe just weird to listen to German lyrics, since in The Netherlands it is not always considered to be the most ’sexy’ language :-) Every time I listen to music in German, my friends react in the same matter.

But things seem to be changing, since their new song is aired on MTV and they’re playing at a big Dutch festival called Pinkpop for the second time this weekend. Later on this year, they will be playing in the Effenaar and Paradiso as well. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go, but first I will have to get their new CD Soundso which they released yesterday. The first single I don’t like that much, but I can’t wait to get the CD and hear the other songs! If you wonder what they sound like: Nur ein Wort has a really cool video and Denkmal was the first song I liked in the beginning.