story-picture-video tour diary, random thoughts. None of it matters. None of it is important. Just my contribution to the crap that is on the internet. enjoy.
Started packing for Saturday. Really stoked about this.
3 Alkaline Trio concerts on their UK leg of the tour: Slamdunk Festival, Hatfield on May 29 Slamdunk Festival, Leeds on May 30 ALK3 at the Roundhouse, London on June 1
Slamdunk has a great line up with also New Found Glory, Against Me!, Set Your Goals, The Audition, Hit The Lights... just to name a few.
I hope I'll be able to get online there to update because I'll be travelling without the internet gizmo's.
Evelyn Evelyn are conjoint twins. They play music. Great music. They perform live and they're good at it. They tour the world. They're fictional.
Evelyn Evelyn are in fact Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls) and Jason Webley. An Amanda Palmer concert is always more than just a music concert. It's cabaret, circus, comedy, interaction with the audience. It's everything. Not to be missed.
The concert at Arenbergschouwburg in Antwerp was the last of the tour and we were in for a crazy night full of surprises.
The show started with the Evelyn Evelyn concert and story, hosted and narrated by Sxip Shirey. Amanda and Jason as Evelyn Evelyn performed the songs. Weird. And fun. Standout moments were Chicken Man, where the twins start to panic because the complexity of playing to many instruments together is getting too much. Also the amazingly dark cover (on ukelele!) of Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. In between the songs, the Evelyn Evelyn story was presented by Sxip Shirley with a very simple puppet/projection screen, assisted by 2 fans from the audience. Sounds heavy, it is, but time flew by. Pause.
After the pause, solo perfomances of Sxip Shirey, Jason Webley and last but not least Amanda fucking Palmer! Great moment with Jason Webley where the audience was supposed to be the symphony with parts violins and parts trombones. Everybody went along with it. Amanda started with some solo songs (Astronaut is a great song). Time flew by, more strrange things happened onstage as it was the last night. An INCREDIBLE Jackson cover Billie Jean! Sxip, Jason and Amanda trying a new up song 'Electric Blanket' and ending up playing it Sex Pistols way. Didn't work and so they started improvising what else they could do. Jason started playing Dresden Dolls song 'Sing'. Another high. Last song was Coin-Operated Boy. Thè Dresden Dolls classic. Encore was a drinking song. Amanda, Jason and Sxip invited everyone to come onstage and sing. Seemed like a step too far for the audience because only 20 people or so got up. So I ended up singing along onstage.
Show started at 8:15pm, a 30 minutes intermission, and ended at 11:30pm. Not one dull second! Amanda, already miss you!
All my video's at www.youtube.com/frantiek.
Evelyn Evelyn: "My Space"
Jason Webley: "Ways To Love" and an incredible participation of the audience as 'the orchestra'
The first out of 5 Alkaline Trio concerts I'll be attending was also the kickoff of the band's European tour.
The 2,5 hour drive to Luxembourg went smooth, apart from some unwanted excitement right before the border with Luxembourg where I ended up in the middle of a high speed car chase. And by the look of it, the police lost the race haha.
Rockhal is just outside Esch-Sur-Alzette, situated in an old industrial site which is being renewed for business buildings, apartments and shopping centres. It still looks weird, but it is a good venue and has all the things you need. Public transportation is very good with late busses and trains, carparks are cheap and close (UNDER the venue, for only 2 euro all night).
About 80 people showed up for the concert. Local band Versus You was the support band of the day and they were really good; a perfect warm up.
Alkaline played lots of my favorites and were in better shape than on the last tour. Lots of classics and 4 new ones of This Addiction. And no Crimson songs.
Setlist (in order):
This Addiction Armageddon Emma Dine Dine My Darling This Could Be Love We've Had Enough Mr. Chainsaw Dead On The Floor Snake Oil Tanker Crawl Off The Map Private Eye My Friend Peter In Vein Maybe I'll Catch Fire Nose Over Tail '97 Radio
Quote of the day, by Matt Skiba, after he made a joke and nobody laughed: "you know the thing when Americans don't get the British humor and the British don't get the American humor? We'll it's kinda like my humor EVERYWHERE"
Vids are up (or will be up later, just check out updates: www.youtube.com/frantiek
"Belgium" : when Matt Skiba was having difficulties rememberring the countries that are surrounding Luxembourg, I felt I should help out. Song: 'Radio'
Myspace's dead, Facebook sucks for blogging. Time to get some thoughts, memories (and the footage that comes with that) organized. Will this thing go on for a long time? I don't know. Does that matter? I don't think so.
I like concerts. A lot. I like running. A lot. I like travelling. The combination of those 3 things = Wow³
The next month, I've got some heavy "touring" planned for the bands The Gaslight Anthem (with concerts in Werchter, Amsterdam and London) and Alkaline Trio, starting tomorrow the first of 5 shows (Luxembourg, Hatfield, Leeds, London and Antwerp). In between, I'll be seeing more shows, in between I'll try to keep the running practices going (fingers crossed).
Summer's here already. It starts when the bands start.
(pic by Sophie Jane: with Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, February '09, London)
