stephen malkmus and the jicks - la tulipe (montreal) - 170708

the perfect concert venue, a bar with tables in front, and then a big floor sloping towards the theater-like stage ... not the perfect concert, but entertaining (musically) thanks to his guitar play ... i wondered why his/their songs need lyrics, because the best parts were the long in/out and in-between -tros, ok the backings of the drumster added something sometimes, but his singing is often not understandable (at least i didn't) ... i guess old fashioned song-writing asks for lyrics and a melody ... still, he would fit great in a prog-rock band ... for the first encore, he used his credit card as plectrum, which, he confirmed someone, helped him seducing lot's of women ...

fleet foxes - le divan orange (montreal) - 150708

the hype of the moment (at least in the belgian music press), so this little bar is sold out, packed and terrible hot ... the advantage of being in a band, you get lots of towels, plenty, more than you can use, they tell us when entering the stage ... indeed lots of sarcasm and nice music, no real comparison (which is already a good point) often multiple voices interwoven, only the guitar player keeps from singing, also the only one without beard ... often an electric mandolin adding an extra touch and the drummer keeping the songs on track, but it's the singer who brings the songs alive, often shouting without it sounding like shouts at all (and two times solo) ... lots off applause, something he found awesome (a lot), smiling and nodding, which (t)he(y) deserve(s) ... lots of talking with the audience (there are quite some surf shops here in this street, i think i saw 5, what, there's only one, yeah ok i thought there were 2 actually ... weird, there's never an audience which goes yeah, but without enthusiasm ... they start a song but one is not ready so they stop, and someone in the audience goes, without enthusiasm, yeah ... on which the drummer replies, great timing canada) ... the singer proved his songwriter-blood once in such a conservation, where he replied to someone shouting, fleet foxes, we love your album, ooh that's loaded ... is it disappointing you now? ... great

the watson twins & tim fite - club lambi (montreal) - 140708

for once the opening band (in this case actually two guys) was better than the main act ... so i can be short about the watson twins, not bad, but not great either ... i found the myspace version of how am i to be better than the live one, so that already says something, and the combination of two voices is no particular improvement above one (i still regret that i have not seen those other twin sisters (and canadians) yet, tegan and sarah, i think they make more exiting music) ... so tim fite then ... quite something else, one guy controlling samples and tape machines, and tim singing and playing sporadic guitar ... he starts with on a slow pace "this song is called come a little bit closer", where his buddy encourages the audience to approach the stage, which works ... most of his songs are supported by himself playing guitar (including solo) and backing vocals on tape and video, the latter creating a nice effect ... his songs are a mixture of absurd rap and folky tunes ... he gets the audience to do head shoulder knee and toes, and shakes hands with them at the end ... fun

rock werchter - 03.060708

coolest man on stage, an ex-aequo between (1) mauro, for the way he greets the audience when coming on and off stage (an at your service gesture where an officer could be jealous off), for the way he shouts and sings (an opera-star would at some point have been jealous) and for the way he handles his guitar (even jack white should be jealous) (2) nick cave, for silencing the marquee when going too enthusiastic (3) one of the justice duo, for standing straight, one hand in the air at the edge of the stage, no music playing, with the marquee going wild for over a minute and (4) the singer of sigur ros, for the way he strikes his violin bow until it has no snares left and for the kindest question to the main stage audience, in an icelandic english : "euhm, it would be nice if you help us and clap with next song"

coolest woman on stage, no doubt, eva, lady in red and singer of zita swoon, with a never-mind-the-bollocks haircut, raising the marquee temperature a bit more, and beck's guitarist, who wasn't introduced unfortunately

bands playing as expected: the national (opening with start a war and already hands together ... during the gig matt going more crazy then otherwise, which is a good sign), justice (how packed can the marquee be, hooray for pukkelpop's big dance hall), editors (although the rain tried to divert the attention), grinderman (nick outside his cave, with some words of wisdom and a cute pussy blues), kings of leon (or was it lyon, the only funny thing adriaan and his buddy could came up with) and rem (a hit-show nonethemore or less)

bands exceeding expectations: vampire weekend (although i only saw the last part due to queuing over an hour to enter ... who said werchter was the best organized festival ??), sigur ros (a massive memory came back, different kind of music but a familiar feeling, the new quatre mains song was great and we even got confetti, i thought only the flaming lips could do that with style), ben harper (because i believe in a better way, the italian fans, the dutch girl screaming and the look in his eyes), mark ronson (for the great party, with the devil strings going from elaenor rigby to justice's d.a.n.c.e) , beck (starting with a quick and dirty loser to the super fun epro), jay-z (found myself wondering why i was waving my arm up and down, think it was his retestrakke band and the 19 song medley), band of horses (with lots of great woow songs, not sure whether these were genuine or stoned woows), zita swoon (again different and amazing) and neil young (from hey hey, my my, already the second song, it went upwards until the damage was done)

bands not reaching the expectations: mgmt (only the last song with both guys singing along the tape was the fun in mind) and deus (until the end of suds and soda, they were in the first category, but when the children choir came back on stage, i was like, what how why, these kids were in their crib when this song was released ... we should be there, going wild)

and one band playing in a different league ... radiohead ... perfect concert, fitting perfectly together with their pukkelpop gig two years ago (where they did play more known songs), and as this was the in rainbows tour, no surprises lots of songs form that album ... they lift off superb with the two guitarists face to face starting arpeggi, to land about two hours and 22 songs later with paranoid android, the perfect time for some rain to fall down (but it would fell later on, see editors) ... and in between videotape, the best song heard these four days, with thom looking closely into the camera ... so a crazy effect on videotape, on videotape ...

raconteurs - melkweg - 010708

jack white's (great haircut !) non striped band in amsterdam's starred venue ... again no one opening, except some well-dressed roadies (including hats) running of and on stage, until the lights faded and a tape started, followed by the band gripping their instruments, jamming for a moment and then, 1 2 3 kicking into consoler of the lonely ... best concert-start of the week (so far) ... then a mix of their two albums, where the new songs appeared well known by the rest of the audience (i haven't listened to it yet), and the old ones sounded more intense an sharper than before (which already is 2 years ago), so superb versions of level (screaming guitars after the alternating shouts), blue veins (jack's solos need little comments), steady she goes and, in the bis-round, hands mixed with broken boy soldier, suddenly the broken boy riff, followed by change in rhythm and jack singing "i'm pulling down questions from the shelf-i'm asking forgiveness" ... how rock can roll be ... last song a story (carolina drama), with the crowd answering "if you must know the truth about the tale" with "go and ask the milkman" ... i really should check out the new record ...