Maxïmo Park Desmet studios, Amsterdam, 29 March 2007
Sooo last Thursday it was finally the day we'd all been waiting for.. the Maxïmo Park showcase in Amsterdam. At 4 o'clock I arrived in Amsterdam and took the bus to Purmerend, walked to Anneke's house where we watched some tv and ate yummy pasta salad. At 7 we took the bus to Amsterdam and there we took a tram. Exciting!
The doors were already open but there was something else still going on, so we decided to walk around for a bit. After two rounds in a boring park we heard some knocking and found Angelique and Marieke in a café. We joined them for a minute but we didn't want to order anything so we left again. Then we finally started to queue behind two girls, but the concept of a queue didn't seem to make much sense to certain people. They just walked to the door, found out they couldn't get in yet and then remained standing at the same place.
Anyway, the doors opened after a while, my name was on the list, we hung up our coats and the party could begin!
After a little while we were allowed to go into the actual room where the concert would take place and we got some places way too much in front but yeah they were okay. What's the point in standing behind someone if you're the first one there anyway? I was by the way pretty nervous for some reason..
Anneke, Angelique, Marieke
After about 10-15 minutes a presenter held a little speech about the new album ("Our heavenly pleasures.. oh no, earthly!" Lol, not!) and then the band finally entered the stage!
We got a good glance at the setlist, Anneke and I actually placed a bet: she thought they would play Our Velocity first and I thought they would open with Girls Who Play Guitar, but as you can see we both got it wrong
VIDEO! (Girls Who Play Guitarzz)
I was standing right in front of Lukas, which was a bit scary actually. I never really noticed but his accent/pronunciation is really funny sometimes.
Overall the gig was amazing, the new songs sounds wonderful live (except for Our Velocity, I don't know but it didn't really 'get off'). Paul was so funny inbetween the songs, some of my favourite quotes:
- There's a frog in my throat, (scottish accent) funny little frog in my throa-it
- This is the weirdest microphone set up I've ever seen, it's like something from Blade Runner, but unfortunately the rest of us are not in the future
- (about an afterparty) "Always!" says the man in the Smiths t-shirt, which is not something that people would say if you would look at the stereotype of a Smiths-fan, but we all know that that is a LIE!
- (about Russian Literature) Not that you would pick somebody up in a library, that would be weird, "Hello there!"
- Teamwork makes the dream work
- (about the screaming) International language - nice one (actually that was Lukas)
- (about A Fortnight's Time) The first one is about looking in the window of a train and realizing you are the most disgusting looking creature on earth, and then realizing: too late now..
- What waste of money, what a waste of euros
- (about the upcoming gigs) Hopefully you'll get a ticket and come see us... including those of you listening at home, if we're still recording, if they haven't pulled the plug on us yet
And of course his shoes were shiny and great and he was wearing red socks and a Roxy Music t-shirt (for your information). They even played The Unshockable during the encore, which wasn't on the setlist and it made me so happy :D
When the gig was finally over, Anneke, Marieke and I all got a setlist (yay!) and I also got the Our Velocity single (three pack, including the 7"s, which I have no idea what to with since I have no recordplayer but they do look nice).
Then we went home and that's about it!
You can watch the entire show tonight at 8 PM and listen to it any time you want here.
