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13/03/08 -
DE KOEPELKERK, AMSTERDAM Review by Wouter: We went by train, met up at a station and arrived in Amsterdam at 4.45pm. We found our way to `de Koepelkerk` quite fast and easily. We got number 23 and 24 and decided to first get some food before the show. We came past an Irish Pub and we chilled out there till 6. When we got back a few people came up to me to say hello. Was funny as my mate joked I was the rockstar and not Bryan lol, not really. Getting in went smooth, they warned they would literally kick persons with professional cameras out which was quite funny to hear as later on I spotted a fan with a Canon EOS dSLR! I ended up in second row, with a few ladies in front of me and BA on a quite high stage I had a perfect view. Except for that music standard on the stage, I wonder why he had that one on! ;-) Looking at the venue you could not look over the huge church-organ next to the stage. I joked Gary would have loved that, which resulted in many good laughs. Small intimate venue, about 400 people were in there. At about 8.15 Bryan got announced and there he was, smiling entering the stage. Immediately started playing `Tonight We Have The Stars` which is a great track. Sounded great in this way, great new song. For the next song he took his harmonica and played `Back to You` which was slower than normal but Bryan nicely replaced the electric guitar with his harmonica. Then he came to the usual `bounce` part but nothing happened, of course I screamed out `come on bounce` which resulted in the first ten rows bouncing which was so awesome! Never thought I’d bounce on just BA and his acoustic but it happened. Bryan looked smiling in my direction like `what have you done?` and I could only grin back as he could not hear me at that moment. Next up was `I Thought I'd Seen Everything` which was good, but very chilled out in this version, still nice. During the concert Bryan talked about this tour, he was just playing some new songs and known songs. `I’m doing Eleven, errrr Elf shows in Elf cities` for which he got a big hands up. After his talk I kind of asked for `The Way You Make Me Feel` after which he thought for a second like `am I going to do that, or am I going to take the pis out of him.` He just joked, and asked: how are you feeling? Of course I was fine, and made the movement of playing a guitar.. but he didn’t, instead he joked `yeah he’s just my brother, he’s coming to my shows every now and then, so don’t pay attention to him.` So yeah, he just didn’t want to play, so I did not ask again. Instead he played `Oxygen` which sounded really great in this way. Bryan told about his first gig in Amsterdam, in the Paradiso Club and asked what this venue actually was? He was told it was called `de Koepelkerk` to which he replied `the koepel cock?` and after he was explained it used to be a church he looked very guilty. He said: `Please forgive me, I know not what I do..` funny man. `The Summer` ended up in one big singing along and was great as always. He really enjoyed himself and I’m sure he loved every minute of it. Next Bryan elaborated on how he wrote the new songs for the album, a few of them together with his big friend Jim Vallance. They basically constantly emailed each other because Bryan was on tour and that was the only way to write songs together. Very funny to hear that. He introduced the next song as one of his new ones with Vallance.. and started playing `Walk On By` which he stopped after thirty seconds. He wanted to start over, of course everyone cheered for the effort. Great song, really liked the performance. Not sure whether it was here, but during the gig he put his capo on his guitar and he told a story about what happened at the airport. He walked through the metal detection and all the alarms went off. He got a body-search and they found the capo. They wanted to know what it was. `It’s just for my guitar.` Eventually he could go and he joked to us `yeah it’s like a real weapon of mass destruction` which was very funny. He spotted someone on the first row eating some traditional Dutch candy with a very salty taste called drop (lycorice). Of course he wanted to taste it and after a few chews you should have seen the look on his face. That was priceless, polite as he was he didn’t say he didn’t like it.. but instead he started playing and singing, while still chewing! Brilliant and he bursted out laughing himself, was so funny. Great gig, great fun. He did out the drop and said he would save it for later, yeah right.. Anyway, he played `Heaven` just like on MTV Unplugged, great to hear him putting the effort in every single song. After that `Run to You` sounded great and even had the solo at the end. As a bonus track he wanted to do a special request he had been asked for backstage.. he said he was going to do so, but not entirely, as he said the song goes on and on.. (probably why he doesn’t want to play it normally) but he started with a strums and the moment he started singing `Life, thin as a thread..` everyone at the front cheered and it resulted in one big sing along. Great to finally hear that song, been requesting that myself in the past!! Then he asked for other requests for a bonus track for tonight, a guy at the front held up `Flower Grown Wild` but he joked he would play it tomorrow so that guy had to come to Brussels. The guy looked gutted, till Bryan admitted he was just messing around! He wanted to do one more and read a banner for `This Time` and he wanted to play it.. but hesitated a little while so I said `You need a Gretsch on that one!` to which he replied: `Yeah, AND I need lyrics on that one!` but in the end with a little help he did play it.. and it was a great closer of a great night. After the playing he signed for a little while and then waved goodbye to us as he had to go. He was doing a guest performance in a theatre show the same night (that might come on tv as well!) So he quickly went away. With my mate I catched a few drinks (I got some coins with my tickets, good stuff) before leaving the venue. Even got the new single (a promo disc) and we bought the new cd on the way out, to listen to in the car.. All in all a great and unique experience. On forehand I was not too fussed about an acoustic concert. Never thought I would be so excited afterwards. So in the end it turned out to be great! Setlist: | |||
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Thanks to Marloes for the setlist & pics!
Bryan putting on his harmonica |
