♫ Arsenal in Lotto Arena Antwerp

Arsenal performing Melvin in Lotto Arena in Antwerp, Belgium.

Lots of laughs
Lots of cries
Lots of tears
and goodbyes
Till we meet again
Up in the sky…

Arsenal – Melvin

And my favorite Danish singer Lydmor (Jenny Rossander) was a guest performer on the show! This song on Arsenal’s new album I like best:

Arsenal feat. Lydmor – Evaporate



♫ Intertwine – So What

Maybe I should swap the living room concerts for bed room concerts. Today I’ve discovered this dreamy music of Norwegian Tarjei Ekelund. Hopefully more of this will follow. 

Since I am so bad at describing music styles etc. I just took this text of their website: ‘Intertwine is a Norwegian electronic / ambient act. Layers of dreamy vocal and trumpets, recorded in various bedrooms around the world, blend with crisp drum machines and funky basslines, weaving a nordic, melancholic and catchy pop.’

The band consists of Tarjei Ekelund (voc / keys), Aleksander Berg (bass) , Ruben Nesse (drums)


Intertwine – So What

♫ Lydmor – Trust Tour 2013

Probably it was with Bottled in England in Melkweg 2012 and later at Nordic Delight Festival in Utrecht in 2013 that I saw Jenny (Rossander) perform live and fell in love with her fragile voice. That’s when I started following her on Facebook. Then suddenly this movie showed up in my timeline.. I just hád to respond. I sent her an e-mail straight away.

This is how it all started..


While I was biking through Vondelpark towards a concert in Melkweg I got a reply from her within an hour. Confirming she was coming over to Amsterdam to play in my living room. Surreal! That got me a bit hyper. More e-mails followed with all the logistics etc. 

I started to invite the friends of whom I thought they might appreciate this the most (since none of them knew who Lydmor was..). Luckily they were open to the initiave and trusted my taste in music. That was also a great opportunity to put my very diverse group of friends together. They normally don’t get to meet that often.

Jenny’s arrival on Saturday was a bit chaotic as her keyboard got lost on the flight so we immediately had to improvise. Luckily we first went to Leiden for her first living room concert and there we met a guy who was nice enough to borough her his keyboard for the show in my house. 

The concert had a very nice intimite feeling as we were only 20 people or so. I only knew the two friends I had brought with me. And for some reason I also had the feeling knowing Jenny already, although we had just met half a day ago. Someone arranged a piano so we had a beautiful acoustic set. A dark December night turned into a very magical one. People drinking glühwein and having this christmassy atmosphere. 

She covered this song from her boyfriends’ band Helmet Compass. 

Drugs In My Pocket


This is more or less what she wrote about it in Danish (blame Google Translate if it’s complete nonsense)

“I flew to Amsterdam on Saturday and was picked up by Alexandra, who had booked me for Sunday. She drove me to Leiden, where I played an acoustic show for a group of 20-30 people. Most of them were physicists. We were hanging out for a long time and drank beer and talked. I like people who are engaged in “geeky” things. I drove back to Amsterdam with Alexandra, she put on dreamy music, and for a time we drove, without speaking, while urban lights flew by in the night. Intimate moment with a stranger. 

The day after – show at Alexandra’s apartment in Amsterdam. First electronic show on the tour with a few tiny computer speakers. Another fantastic evening. Even a longer after party. Even more beer.

 I wish I could describe how it feels, Trust Tour. People are incredibly sentimental and happy when I play in their homes for them. It is so loving it all, and every evening when people go home, I get long hugs. It is very nice to feel that people get so much out of something that is so easy to do for me. I have little desire to use words like Karma and Good Energy. Lately I have felt very self-centered. Made my record, thinking about visual style for my band, planned my career. I have lacked the sense of giving. I am glad that the next month is in generosities theme. Whatever it may bring.”

I love the sentence about the intimate moment with a stranger. That’s exactly what it was. Such a gift to be able to describe a feeling so lively. 

When we got back home we stayed up all night and had good talks about life, love and so on. Pure bliss.

♫ Chromatics – Paradiso

As in love as I was with Chromatics before this concert in Paradiso, as in unlove I was after this totally uninspiring gig. They just didn’t seem to be enjoying the audience at all. Over even worse, they didn’t seem to notice so many people had come out to see them. Big desillusion because I had really been looking forward to it. Paradiso deserved quite a bit more than that! See for yourself at the playlist I made.

Lady



I Want Your Love

Into The Black

♫ Float Fall – Someday

Hopeloos verliefd op de liedjes van Float Fall, een Belgisch duo bestaande uit Rozanne Descheemaekers en Ruben Lefever. De combinatie van hun stemmen is killing. Dromerig, poppy met een vleugje fijne electro. Betoverend. ‘Snow‘ is m’n grote favoriet maar helaas kan ik er geen goed filmpje van vinden en wil Spotify me ook geen liedje laten embedden. Die zul je dus zelf moeten opzoeken.. Maar deze is ook fantastisch. 

Float Fall – Someday

Goose in de Melkweg

Sinds British Mode en vooral Bring It On in 2006 ben ik al fan van deze Belgische band uit Kortrijk. Vooral live vind ik ze erg sterk. Perfecte combi van electro en rock, goed voor een paar uurtjes losgaan. In Nederland, net als zo vele Belgische bands, staan ze nog steeds niet echt op de kaart. Deze filmpjes heb ik van hun optreden in de Melkweg gemaakt. SPEAKERS ON!


Control


Synrise



Moby in de Rabozaal

Tijdens mijn eerste keer in de Rabozaal van de Melkweg zie ik Moby die in Europa is om zijn nieuwe album ‘Wait For Me’ te promoten. Het is nu de vierde keer dat ik hem live zie en hij is in topvorm. De fantastische Joy Malcolm begeleidt hem.

Setlist

Sitboth
Wait For Me
Great Escape
Mistake
Go
Extreme Ways
In This World
Pale Horses
Porcelain
Walk With Me
Natural Blues
J.L.T.F.
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
We Are All Made Of Stars
Raining Again

Honey
Lift Me Up