London Calling #2 2008 Paradiso, Amsterdam, November 14/15, 2008
On Friday, I first went to Purmerend to leave my huge bag at Anneke's place. I was quite glad she was home after all, because I wasn't sure if Paradiso would accept it because of its huge-ness :P Anyway, we had pasta and took the bus back to Amsterdam.
After meeting up with Marieke (who was hiding behind an electricity-thingie outside), we went to Paradiso and the first band we saw was Slow Club.
They were fun! I've known a couple of their songs for quite a while now and always liked them. 3VOOR12 said they were arrogant, but I didn't think that at all.
The Late Greats played in the main hall right after, but I cannot remember anything about them, did we even see them? Anyway, we went back to the small hall pretty quickly to get good places for The Pan I Am, supported by the guitarist's skinny legs:
Actually it weren't just the legs, even his nose was thin. Can't be seen here (obviously) but Anneke has another picture of him. Scary shit, but nothing compared to Edward's performance. He really should be in Slipknot, to legally pull off the freaky face and overalls. It didn't really interest me.
Ladyhawke was one of the last names to be added to this edition. She's very 'hot' right now, I do like a few of her songs but the show was just bland. No bassplayer, too much computersounds, blah.
At least FrYars brought some entertaining stage lights!
His/their show was good, cute bassplayer and even some cheese flying around. Neat.
FrYars - The Ides (my video):
We saw White Lies from the balcony.
Alright, I think they have a decent sound but they were so much more fun back in the days of Fear Of Flying (RIP).
We spent pretty much the entire show trying to figure out whether the bassist was a man or a woman. Finally, it appeared that it was a boy... We also thought they were very American and they turned out to be from Texas, so hooray for our magnificent view on all things English/American.
Courteeners, The Hot Melts on the screen, yeah, whatever. LATE OF THE PIER's where it's at! Much fun as usual. Riot, but not as much as I expected. Still not as good as their show at the last edition in the small hall, but already way better than 2 AM in the afternoon at Pukkelpop. I didn't take any pictures, but Anneke has an amazing one of their drummer so maybe I'll add it here later.
-insert picture here-
Went home and slept. Conversations on the way to the station about coat-less English sluts.
On Saturday Anneke and I woke up around eleven, spent some time eating and watching tv and getting ready... Back to Amsterdam and had some quality shopping time! I bought a new coat, hat, gloves, scarf, cardigan and jeans. Hallelujah. We met up with Ines and Marieke at the Leidseplein and had pizza at our very favourite pizzaplace <3
First band of the day: Baddies.
Again: fun! Man, we had so much fun this time. Fast and fuelling, but they still had an eye for melody, bearded bassplayer (I guess bassplayers are the main theme in this post), yeah niiiiice! After some loud shows on Friday, I decided to buy earplugs. They were quite good, they looked like black christmas trees and they came in a shiny red box. Unfornately, I forgot to take them out of my trousers, even though I checked my pockets! But they have some secret area or something (which is less pervy than it may sound), so now they're eaten by the washing machine.
Noah and the Whale played the main hall. We were in the front row which was TERRIBLE because the bass was WAYYYYY TOO LOUDDDD. Seriously, ear-drum raping, loud. After a while, Marieke and I moved to the left side of the stage and it was a lot better over there. Props for the zebra shoes of the bassplayer though!
Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time (my video):
We saw a bit of Esser on the screen, but I don't really recall it. I knew this one song, I Love You, before and they played it. Hurrah. His haircut was a bit too much Nazi-like though, and the tattoo in his neck doesn't make it any better.
Bombay Bicycle Club is a band I've been looking forward to see for quite a while, but now it was finally happening, I kind of lost interest. They put up quite a decent show, but they just didn't have a lot of charisma to make it 'happen'.
Bromheads Jacket were entertaining as ever. We saw the soundcheck, I saw the bassplayer, didn't remember what the drummer looked like and saw some other roadies. By the time they started playing, it turned out that their singer had grown his hair and he was one of the 'roadies'. What a brilliant misleading-the-audience-trick! They played a bunch of loud songs, some of them a bit less loud, and set a guitar on fire when they had finished.
Bromheads singer.
Bromheads bassplayer.
Bromheads drummer.
Bromheads burning guitar. Oh yeah!
The grand finale was supposed to be delivered by Glasvegas. Oh. My. Gawd. They were terrible, horrible and just plain stupid at the same time. Their (female) drummer only had two drums and she played like she had taken couple of drum lessons. And she played standing up, with bare feet. Really, an insult to female musicians all around the world. Let's not even mention the singer, who kept his Ray Bans on until midnight and came up with lyrics such as "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine". I cannot see how this is hyped up by the NME, but I guess I can't comprehend most of what NME says of does.
Anyway, the festival wasn't over yet and I Blame Coco repaired my faith in women/girls on stage by putting up a relaxed, yet professional and alright show. Blame the space cake for some lousy talk inbetween the songs! The girl practically standing next to me was probably celebrity-offspring as well, but who cares. Better than offstage Peaches Geldof last year. So it all ended well after all.
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