GIG REVIEW: Tash Sultana at AFAS Live
It’s not the first time Tash has toured The Netherlands. She already toured last year at a smaller venue but I missed out. This year though, I got lucky, because my friend Liloe Rix bought me a ticket for my birthday!
A friend from Melbourne told me about Tash Sultana a couple years ago, and she showed me the live bedroom recording of Jungle on YouTube. I still remember that we were paying for our brunch at a café (one of the Beany Greens) in London and I was impressed immediately!
It’s not the first time Tash has toured The Netherlands. She already toured last year at a smaller venue but I missed out. This year though, I got lucky, because my friend Liloe Rix bought me a ticket for my birthday!
Pierce Brothers were the support act. They were like the extraverted younger cousins of Xavier Rudd and John Butler with didgeridoo, stomp box, open tuning and a hint of Walk Off The Earth with the two hands/one fretboard coordination. SO much energy! And audience participation.. it’s hard to be a support act, but they definitely proved themselves a solid musical duo capable of warming up the crowd for Tash Sultana.
But we were there for Tash. A one-woman show with acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, trumpet, pan flute (which she said was the best 50 cents she had every spent in Thailand), synths, drum pads, loops, effects pedals and more equipment I wish I could get a closer glimpse of! My favourite was her octaver though, I really want to know which one she used, because it sounded so subby on her voice and guitar.
The audience was really chill. She remarked that it was great that her audience was made up of all types, not just one gender, race or age. I noticed a lot of young people. generally more girls than boys, many girl couples, and a very international crowd which was why I saw many girls who were on the shorter side. Usually at a concert full of Dutch people I’m trying to see through armpits. Tash herself has a bit of a hippy vibe, with an Indian pattern blanket covering her synths, playing barefoot, salt-rock light holders and incense that for a while was strong, until all I could smell was weed. I have no idea where that was coming from!
She set out her ‘rules’ very quickly after her opening song. They were: 1. If you’re homophobic, get the fuck out of here. 2. If you’re racist, get the fuck out of here. 3. If you’re transphobic, get the fuck out of here.
There was a lot of live looping and improvising, and a lot of smiles from her! Tash was having so much fun on stage! The crowd was incredibly quiet and respectful (at least where I was standing), which is very rare for Dutch crowds, who are usually hands full of beer, loud and aggressive. Having said that, Tash said that the Dutch audience was so ‘polite’, and she said she hadn’t had a bra thrown at her yet, or in South America there were people trying to get into her hotel room at 4am.. wtf.
She played for a total of 2 hours without much of a break. She performed tracks from her latest Flow State album, which has more synths than her previous stuff which is guitar-based.
It was easy to get in a trance while listening to the songs. At some point I got lost in which song I was listening to, and some of them blurred into one another, indeed like a flow state. When she performed Jungle, the song on YouTube that has now 21M views, I saw a lot of phones starting to record, which I hadn’t seen too many phones previously. This crowd was really chill, like I said. And at a certain point, when there was the break of the song, I looked around, and I saw a lot of people smiling, some closing their eyes, but simultaneously smiling and enjoying the same moment altogether. It was such a magical moment.
Tash said she would be playing at Ziggo Dome next year, which is an even bigger stadium. That’s so great for her! Just a girl, once busking on Bourke street in Melbourne, to filling up stadiums around the world.. what an inspiration.
More about Tash Sultana:
Official Website: http://www.tashsultana.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tashsultanamusic/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6zVFRTB0Y1whWyH7ZNmywf
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GIG REVIEW: Pete Philly at Ekko, Utrecht
The first (and last) time I saw Pete Philly perform was 8 (!) years ago! After that, he stopped his collaboration with Perquisite and kind of disappeared. I spotted him recently on the Red Bull Music Netherlands Instagram channel where he announced new material and his comeback tour.. woah! I was really curious what he was up to and how his sound had evolved! He was playing quite small venues and they sold out really quickly, but since I follow him on Instagram, I saw that he was promoting a secret 'trial' gig at Ekko in Utrecht on his Instagram stories. The ticket was something like 8 euros so it was a no brainer! I bought tickets straight away.
Something that had evolved about Pete Philly was his overall swag. His clothes and moves were full of cool and charisma. He had his producer set up on a laptop behind and his 4 b(l)ack up singers, 2 girls and 2 guys who each had their own dance style which was funny to see.
He sang his latest singles Favorite Song and Come Together and for a small venue, really got the crowd going! Everyone was really dancing along. It was really great to see such a great reaction to an artist who needs to present himself again after so long.
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Check out more about Pete Philly:
Official website: https://www.petephilly.com/ and below his Red Bull Music Live Session.
GIG REVIEW: Camille at Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
I first saw Camille in 2009 in Melbourne when she toured with the album Music Hole, and without exaggeration it was one of the top 2 concerts I have ever seen in my life. Knowing this, and also listening to the latest album OUI, I was a bit skeptical that seeing her ever again would be ever as great as the first time (in my experience this is the case and now I don't tend to re-see artists). But I decided to hunt down a show anyway and see for myself. She was not touring anywhere in The Netherlands so I started looking at shows in France and Belgium. Finally I decided on a long weekend away with Bianca to Brussels including a concert to see Camille!
Firstly, the venue, Ancienne Belgique was really clean and caters for everyone. There were around 20 rows of theatre seats at the back (mostly filled with people with white hair!), then 2 or 3 balcony levels which were for the smaller members of the audience (like us and children!) and also place for disabled. I was actually very surprised to see how age-diverse the crowd was. Although if you asked me, I couldn't pin-point what kind of crowd Camille appeals to.
What I really liked about the concert was that it was a full show, with details on the lights, colours, clothes, and performance of all singers and musicians, not just the musicality. And this was really impressive. The percussionist had a drum with a light shining on it which looked like the moon. The percussionist had a whole kit with electronic drums with different samples. At one point, the whole band turned into a marching band and walked through the whole crowd. Then Camille asked the audience to come up and sing with her. Everything about the whole show was engaging and Camille herself was so crazy, but perfectly controlled. She is really a genius and true performer.
What added even more to the buzz was that the crowd was so amazing. They were respectful (not talking like the Dutch) and cheered SO loudly that the reverberation of the hall echoed everywhere and gave so much energy to the band and Camille herself.
I have to say, although I already kind of had an expectation about the concert, I was definitely NOT disappointed. In fact, very happily surprised, and next time I know not to ever ever doubt Camille..
With a strike of luck, I even picked up the set list :-)
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More about Camille:
Official website: http://www.camilleofficiel.fr/
If you are on a phone, watch the below (the song is called Je ne mâche pas) with headphones. It's shot so you can see 360 degrees and it is absolutely brilliant.
GIG REVIEW: Henrik Schwarz and Metropole Orkest | TivoliVredenburg
I heard about Henrik Schwarz performing with Metropole Orkest a couple of years ago because they were the opening act for ADE 2016 (Amsterdam Dance Event) but back then I didn't manage to see them. Finally, together with a small gang of girls, I went on a little road trip to Utrecht. First stop: frites inside the very nice and new Hoog Catharijne mall!
I was very curious to see how the orchestra would combine with Henrik Schwarz's techno music. There were some very interesting parts of the show: the cello solos! They were lovely, and played by Annie Tangberg who was unfortunately sitting at the back so she was nowhere to be seen from where I was sitting. Another interesting element was the use of a Dutch city bike as an extra percussion. The percussionist turned the wheel and his brushes rattled against the spokes.
In terms of combining orchestral and techno, it was not the case, until closer to the end of the show, where you could hear some beats that got the crowd moving in their seats. The first half of the concert was mostly orchestral, and it was a wonder what Henrik was actually doing on the stage. Even if he was the composer of the whole set, it was not clear what his role was in a lot of the songs. Was he a live mixer for the orchestra or playing something? It was a pity that there were not more electronic elements, even though I don't think it was the point. I had listened to Henrik's 2015 album "instruments" and it was exactly what we were watching live i.e. his compositions without his traditional electronic elements. However, he somehow lost himself by not being the star of the show..
Anyway, still a very inspiring and fitting concert in my journey to combine the cello and electronic music myself!
