Did I Say That?

Quote of the Day: L’espirit d’escalier

Evil Nickname — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:05:28 +0000

There’s this thing they have in French: l’esprit d’escalier. The spirit of the stairway. I don’t think we have a word for it in English.

It means, well, the clever things to say that you only think to yourself when you’re on your way out. All the cool stuff you wish you’d said at the time.

Neil Gaiman, Death: The High Cost of Living

Seen Live: Meat Loaf’s Farewell Tour

Evil Nickname — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:35:17 +0000

Last night, before starting “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” Meat Loaf said, We’re gonna try to make it sound as much like 1976 as possible, for you people. It ain’t gonna happen … but we’re gonna try.

And he was right. It didn’t sound anything like 1976. That’s 37 years ago. That was four years before I was born. In 1977, Bat Out of Hell came out, and three years later, I was born. Thirteen years later, mr. Loaf made a glorious comeback with Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and the massive hit single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” Even then, he sounded nothing like 1976. And now, it’s 20 years later still.

No one in their right mind would expect a 65 year old man to sound like he did 37 years ago.

Meat Loaf’s show in the Ĳsselhallen in Zwolle was the only Dutch concert on his Last at Bat: Farewell Tour (or whatever it’s called). And even though it didn’t sound anything like 1976 and despite that mr. Loaf wasn’t always spot on, it was a great show. Wickedly awesomely so.

To be honest, the first half of the show didn’t impress me much, mostly due to the selection of songs. But then he sang “Objects in the Rear View Mirror …” and he had me. Again, mr. Loaf wasn’t perfect, but the band was awesome as ever and let’s face it: when Jim Steinman’s music is being played and it’s is being played well, I turn into a puddle of goo. You can mop me up, so to speak.

The second half of the show—you know, the part where he plays all of Bat in the right order—was epic. The arrangements stayed for the most part close to the album versions, which meant that there was no extended sing-along in “Took the Words” and that song was over and done with in less then 11 minutes, but where they deviated, it worked. “Heaven Can Wait” got an acoustic guitar solo, and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” got a lengthy instrumental interlude. Usually, I’m not the biggest fan of “Two Out of Three”, but this arrangement, and especially mr. Loaf’s performance, wow. Just wow.

And then, the moment that you knew that would come. When you play Bat Out of Hell all the way through, when you’ve managed to get past that song to the last song on side B, well, that’s my very favourite Meat Loaf song. It might just as well be my all-time top 5 number one song ever. It’s the one song I wanted to hear most. Even if the rest of the show would have been as disastrous as the 2008 Amsterdam fiasco, mr. Loaf could have saved the show with just an acceptable performance of “For Crying Out Loud.” Luckily, he exceeded my expectations. I can’t quite say that he nailed it, but fuck it. It was awesome.

With Meat Loaf retiring from touring, it’s likely that I won’t see him perform live again. Well, it is what it is. And this was an excellent goodbye.

Seen live: Meat Loaf, the “Last at Bat: Farewell Tour” at Ĳsselhallen, Zwolle on May 11th, 20013
Set List: Running for the Red Light (I Gotta Life) » Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back / Dead Ringer for Love / If It Ain’t Broke (Break It) / Los Angeloser / The Giving Tree / Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are / Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire) // Bat Out of Hell / You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) / Heaven Can Wait / All Revved Up With No Place To Go / Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad / Paradise by the Dashboard Light / For Crying Out Loud // I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) / Boneyard » Freebird Jam » Band Introductions » All Revved Up (reprise)

First Lines: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Evil Nickname — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:40:58 +0000

Steven Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower was another one of those books that somehow didn’t make the cut for my list of 40 books to read before my 40th birthday.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was, if I recall correctly, one of only two movies I saw in a theater last year. Hailed by some as the “The Breakfast Club of a new generation,” it managed to push a lot of my buttons in precisely the right order.

So, lists be damned, I read the book as well.

Like the movie, the book is funny, and smart, and all those those things I usually rattle of in lists about these kinds of books and films. I can’t help it—and frankly, I don’t give a damn—but those stories where the socially awkward kid, the misfit or the underdog eventually crawls out of his shell, wakes up and smells the coffee, they appeal to me on a level I probably don’t even want to analyse too much. Because, well, you know.

There’s this scene where Charlie, the book’s narrator, drives with his friends through this tunnel. In the book, it goes like this:

Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called “Landslide.” When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing.

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

In the movie, it’s like this:

I get that. A lot.

Book: Steven Chbosky — The Perks of Being a Wallflower
First Lines: August 25, 1991. Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you would listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have.

Seen Live: Yori Swart

Evil Nickname — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:18 +0000

At the end of March, Yori Swart released an 12? EP called Weigh In Weigh Out. And she did a few shows to promote it.

One of those shows was in Tivoli’s Spiegelbar, which is, as the name suggests, a bar with loads of mirror(ball)s. And it was a relaxed little show. The opening act was nice, being able to sit down was nice (although the seats might have been a bit more comfortable), having Jupiler straight from the bottle was nice, and Yori was very nice.

Yori Swart — Come On Over

Seen live: Yori Swart + My Blue Van at Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht on April 26th, 2013

System Update Pending

Evil Nickname — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:18:46 +0000

Last week, with a loud bang and the smell of fried electronics, my computer died on me. I’m not quite sure exactly what blew up, and I don’t really care, as it was completely written off anyway. I’ve had this PC for seven or eight years, and it was my brother’s before that. In fact, I’m kinda glad it died, as it now gives me a pretty good reason to actually get a new one. I’ve been putting that off for the past two, three years.

Luckily I still have my laptop. Which is perfectly fine for some surfing the web, mailing and posting stuff on websites. But if I want to, say, work on this website’s redesign or needle drop a record, well, let’s just say it’s possible. If you really want to. Which I don’t.

So y’all just gotta wait a little bit longer on stuff.

De W is van wakker, stamppot eten

Evil Nickname — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:23:13 +0000

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Seen Live: BLØF

Evil Nickname — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:00:17 +0000

Most of the time, I go and see bands all by myself. But for BLØF’s theater-tour, I took my mother. You see, when I booked the tickets, my mother was scheduled for some major vascular surgery. That made me quite nervous, so I felt a need to have something in my agenda, something fun, with her, way beyond that. Call it superstition, call it what you like, but I’m a mamma’s boy like that.

Last monday, it was that time, and we went to see BLØF’s 2013 theater-tour, titled after a song they didn’t play. For me, it was the 18th time seeing them live, and the fifth time in a theater. For my mother, it was the first. Throughout the set, they played just enough hits not to lose the more casual fans, and just enough deep cuts to keep the seasoned fan entertained. I mean, there’s a few songs I could have done without, but I guess my mother didn’t mind “Alles is liefde” at all. Bands I keep seeing over and over again must be doing something right, and BLØF’s no exception. I though that the encores were a bit too much of a gimmick, but otherwise, it was an excellent show.

BLØF — Open je ogen (Voor mij) (live in Carré)

Seen live: BLØF, “Later als ze groter zijn: Theatertour 2013” at Beatrix Theater Utrecht on April 22th, 2013
Setlist: Dichterbij dan ooit / Maan en sterren / Radio Berlijn / Hart tegen hart / Harder dan ik hebben kan / Als dit alles over is / Spiegelbol (Elbow-cover) / Zo stil (Jupiter Jones-cover) / Beter / Hemingway // Ogenblik / Iedereen / Open je ogen (Voor mij) / Wijd open / Donkerrood / Doe alsof je gek bent (Phantom Limb-cover) / Punt / Omarm / Alles is liefde // Meer kan het niet zijn / Dansen aan zee // Kauwgom, thee & wierook / Hier

First Lines: Invasion

Evil Nickname — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:07:53 +0000

Written by Mercedes Lackey, Steve Libbey, Cody Martin and Dennis Lee, Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicle is the novelization of a series of podcasts. And “being included in the Humble eBook Bundle” is about the only justification I can give for reading it.

For starters, I’m apparently not much for superheroes. In the book, Metahumans—anyone possessed of extraordinary powers which violate the known laws of physics—form some sort of übermensch-superhero crimefighting squad. I think it’s just silly.

Secondly, the beginning was too much. A boatload of characters were introduced one by one. The next few chapters follow these characters as they get caught up in the titular alien space nazi invasion. And then, one by one, all lines tie together, and we get entire chapters that expose the grand Secret World Order Plot Points. Or something. I couldn’t be too bothered.

But mostly: superheroes and alien space nazis. I still think it’s silly.

The best part was when a not-quite-Meta got sucked in the pulp fiction clichés of Dr. Dusk, who diagnoses evil and writes prescriptions for justice. That was clever. The rest, not so much.

Mercedes Lackey with Steve Libbey, Cody Martin and Dennis Lee — Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicle: The blue-skinned, blue-haired woman known by the callsign “Belladonna Blue” stuck her head around the corner of the oval hatch into the captain’s cubby.

Seen Live: Delain

Evil Nickname — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:47:14 +0000

The last time I saw Delain, I went home thinking that I didn’t necessarily had to see then live again. It’s not like they suck as a live act. Because they don’t. It’s like, you have this band, that plays pop songs in a heavy arrangement, they’ve got a hot singer that can hit all the right notes at the right time, and the show’s completely rehearsed and it’s professional and entertaining and you’ve had a great time and all but, you know, when you walk home you get the feeling that, well, you wouldn’t have missed anything special. It’s just one of those shows.

Last week, on something like a whim, I went to see them again. I had nothing to do on a saturday night, they were playing in Hilversum and I’ve never seen a huge crowd in De Vorstin so I figured it wouldn’t be sold out, and it wasn’t.

I had a great time. Everything I said earlier still applied: they play their songs and they play them well, Charlotte‘s still a hot singer, and the show’s still very much rehearsed. I mean, everytime the bassist and guitarist didn’t have much to do during the verses, they moved to the back of the stage, only to move to the front again when they could rock out during the choruses.

Delain — Sleepwalker’s Dream (live at De Vorstin)

Probably the biggest indicator of the feeling I have about seeing Delain live, is this: for this particular show, their guitarist was otherwise engaged. So they had Merel Bechtold—a tiny guitar-player with massive dreadlocks from the deathmetal band Purest of Pain—stand in. If you told me this was her regular gig, I’d believe you.

Still: I had a fun night out. While I still wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, I’m sure I wouldn’t mind it if I did.

Seen live: Delain and Kingfisher Sky at De Vorstin, Hilversum on April 13th, 2013.
Setlist: Mother Machine / Stay Forever / Invidia / Milk and Honey / Electricity / Go Away / See Me in Shadow / Pristine / Control the Storm / Sever / Get the Devil Out of Me / April Rain / Sleepwalkers Dream / Not Enough // Hit Me With Your Best Shot / The Gathering / We Are the Others

Seen Live: Daniël Lohues

Evil Nickname — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:01:36 +0000

After five years, you probably could call it a tradition: Daniël Lohues records an album and tours in support of it, and I go and see him when he plays in Amsterdam’s Kleine Komedie. (In fact, the last four years I somehow managed to end up in the middle of the first row.)

The recipe is the same: Lohues plays, along with Bernard Gepken (guitars, vocals) and Guus Strijbosch (upright bass), songs from his latest album Ericana and a selection from his earlier work. In between the songs, he tells stories. That’s it, and that’s probably all it needs to be. The back to back double shot of Skik’s “Naor huus” and “Dankjewel voor de zon” was particulary nice.

Given the title of the album and tour, I kinda expected him to play “Erica” from Allennig. Which he didn’t do. So here it is, for your pleasure:

Daniël Lohues — Erica

Seen live: Daniël Lohues on April 8th, 2013 at Kleine Komedie, Amsterdam
Set list: Tik tak / Van leege naor hooge / A’j joe verkleden as schaop / Naor huus / Dankjewel voor de zon / Blauwe moandag / Liefzeer / Holt veur op ‘t vuur / Elk mens hef zich ‘n kruus te dragen // Ik haal mij ‘n hond op / Blauwe lucht / Beste Koningin, / Arcadië / Weiteveen / Mariël / Pries de dag nie veur ‘t aobend is / Prachtig mooie dag / Hier kom ik weg / Wat niet kan is nog nooit gebeurd // Angst is mar veur eben, spiet is veur altied / Iederiene moet ‘t ooit leern (The Korgis cover) / Ik zou wel eens willen weten (Jules de Corte cover) / Op fietse