GIG REVIEW: Tegan and Sara at Paradiso, Amsterdam
It has been 7 years since I last saw Tegan and Sara in concert. It's amazing to see the identical twins from Canada are still going strong internationally after so many albums. It was not a sold out concert, but the crowd was full of girls and a few tall guys at the front who were big fans.
Tegan was the main one of the two, the main talker, the one who played guitar, the main songwriter but all of my friends who came along all agreed that Sara was the cuter one and because she's more introverted. Both seem incredibly down to earth and entertained the crowd with stories and engaged with members of the audience who recently had heartbreaks.
They played their new songs (my favourite one is called 'Boyfriend') and my old faves such as Walking With A Ghost, Back In Your Head, Alligator and Closer.
All in all it was a cute concert. Wouldn't die to see them again during this tour, but maybe in 7 years again! Thank you to my special Bianca for taking me along! <3
GIG REVIEW: 2CELLOS at Palais Theatre, Melbourne
After missing 2CELLOS concert in Amsterdam Cello Biënnale in 2014 due to a vacation, and then missing them for the second time this year due to travel plans (!) I just let go the idea that I would ever see them live. Until I received a letter in the mail from someone dear to my heart with a ticket to their sold-out Melbourne show! WOW!
I arrived at the gorgeous Palais Theatre, one of my favorite concert hangouts in Melbourne, and took my seat. The support act, The Twoks, consisted of an ex couple, the lead singer/violinist and drummer who sang quirky love songs about their break up and other trivial topics.
When 2CELLOS came on stage they just did their thing like clockwork. Both Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser, who have been classically trained by the best (Luka finished his Masters at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Stjepan at RNCM in Manchester along with winning many international competitions and studied with the top cellists of this age) were so technically sound but then like supermen on top of it. They were like super cellists. Luka is the introverted, gentle and "quiet achiever"-type who plays the bass (he tunes the C string down to a low G) and the rhythm, while Stjepan plays the joker, flirter and "wild guy" and during the rock half of the concert he wore his electric cello with a custom rig and rocked the stage. They also brought out a drummer in the rock half of the concert. During Michael Jackson's Human Nature, one guy from the audience shouts out "WHAY WHAY" in the most Australian accent and continued to do so until the end of the song and in the end became the hero of the night.
2CELLOS were absolutely mindblowingly amazing.
GIG REVIEW: Alessia Cara at Melkweg, Amsterdam
The night I went to Alessia Cara's concert it was my birthday. My very good and dear friend Jen took me out on the occasion. I don't consider myself old, but it was a bit of a coincidence that on the day of my birthday, it was the first concert where I felt super old (ok, at Justin Bieber's concert as well, but I expected children to be there..).
The first support act was a handsome singer songwriter, Craig Stickland (who turned out to be the guitarist of her band) and all the young girls were screaming at him. Usually Dutch crowds are not so enthusiastic for support acts but that's when I realised there was something unusual about this crowd. They were super young. I saw a lot of parents in the crowd. When the support act left and the dj was playing some tunes to fill in the gap, he played Justin Bieber's 'Sorry', and at once, the whole crowd cheered and started singing along. I actually had to laugh about it, because we were there to see live music, but they were excited to just hear any familiar song.
Alessia herself is just a mere 19, but she has a very big voice. I liked a lot that she had a lot of positive energy and motivational words for her equally young fans. They all tried to touch her hand and give her letters, just as teen fans do. She was sweet, and so were they. They all put their phones up and I could see that a lot of them were recording videos on snapchat. This was when I really felt like I'm in a different generation.
Alessia's band was really good, and the production of her songs are excellent. A great little pop act, she was a delight to see.
REIVEW: NS Design CR series 5-string electric cello
One year ago, I saw Clean Bandit perform live for the first time. Grace Chatto, their cellist had the most amazing electric cello, which was on a stand and she could play and dance to the beat of the music. I loved that! Immediately I had to find out which brand it was, and found out it was the CR series Poplar Burl model by Ned Steinberger, or otherwise known as NS Design.
Buy NS CR5 (in 2015 I bought it for €3190,-) https://thmn.to/thocf/bhyy893m7x
Click here to see more electric cellos: https://thmn.to/thocf/bhyy893m7x
It took me one whole year to save up to buy the cello, but finally, I did it! I decided to get the 5-string edition (F-C-G-D-A), so I could have an extra bass string handy. I also bought the Frame Strap System, which is a wooden belt/harness so you can play the cello attached to your body instead of on the stand. More on this later.
Here is my humble take on it:
PROS
The sound is amazing! For an electric cello, the sound is rich, natural and is the best sounding electric cello on the market in my opinion (better than Yamaha.. yes, I said it).
The two tone controls (treble & bass) come in handy when you don't have an equaliser around and your speaker isn't the most flattering.
The tuning pegs are like ones found on a guitar. They are smooth and work very nice.
There are 3 modes for the pick-up: one for pizzicato, one neutral and one for arco. In pizzicato mode, the cello sounds very much like an electric bass and the notes pop out much more than any classical cello can with a piezo pick up or microphone.
The build is very sturdy. It feels strong and well made.
It is not too heavy.
CONS
The need for 2 x 9V batteries! I'm not a fan of batteries in general for sustainability reasons, but in this case I think it's not safe to do a performance when there's the risk that the batteries go dead. There is also no battery monitor so you don't know that the batteries are going dead until you hear it going fuzzy.
The dot on the back of the neck to show you where the 5th note is, is so tiny you can barely feel it as a reference. It may have been better to have a line not a dot. You can also buy a specific 'thumb stop' in case you really need it, but I think there's a beauty in having such a long and free neck.
The strings are NS Electric Cello brand and once I replaced the A and D string with my preferred Larson and Spirocore tungsten strings and immediately the sound was better.
The Frame Strap System is terrible! It is not built for different sized people and it is not adjustable in the right way so that the cello is able to sit comfortably away from the body.
The bag on the Thomann website is incorrect. That is the bag for the bass version, which has a separate bag for the stand. The cello version doesn't have a bag for the stand.
OVERALL: an amazing investment, which has changed the possibilities to perform live in an amplified situation and to be free to move while playing instead of sitting down. I have a love-hate relationship with some of the peripherals, but because of the natural and beautiful sound of the electric cello, I stand firmly behind the NS Design CR series electric cello!
Buy NS CR Series electric cello: https://thmn.to/thocf/bhyy893m7x
Click here to see more electric cellos: https://thmn.to/thocf/bhyy893m7x
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