I'm back in France from Jam in the Dam in Amsterdam.

 

Friday was the last night of the festival and Mike Gordon opened in the Max Hall. Great show as usual with a little help from the audience.

After this, I went to the small room to see Keller Williams jamming with one half of Dark Star Orchestra !

I then stayed to see the full Dark Star Orchestra recreating the Grateful Dead show from 5/10/1972 in Amsterdam.

I hop off mid-second set to dance my ass off to the end of Lotus set. Those men are really awesome !

 

Here are some quick pictures before full reports and all my photos in the next days.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that a signing session was planned at the opening of the Melkweg. I arrived very early and was first in line, soon joined by Stephen, the Vita guy that I met the previous night. He also is the one who bought the poster number 1!

When the doors open the members of Dark Star Orchestra, moe. and Keller Williams were here. They were nice and happy to be at Jam in the Dam. Lotus arrived also but no sign of Mike Gordon. We were very disappointed, especially Stephen who brought his bass to get it signed!

Anyway, the rest of the evening was great with a Phish cover from Keller, a sit in by the same man during the amazing moe.'s set and a great Mike show closer.

 

Just a quick review from Amsterdam where the first night of Jam in the Dam took place yesterday at the Melkweg.

I arrived early and had to wait until 7 to finally get my Pass and enter the Melkweg. I rush to the store to grab the limited edition poster that will be sign by the bands tomorrow. I got number 2 of 300! As we can freely come in and out with our pass, I rush back to my hotel just behind to get free of the poster, jacket and hat before the show.
I sat in front of the stage beside a guy playing with a PlayStation Vita. We ended up talking during all the evening, he's an american guy living in Amsterdam since 2009. During the wait I managed to lost half of my photo camera's batteries bellow the stage! I finally got another one from Brad, one of the taper.

The show started at 8 with Lotus . The band was simply amazing! They jammed furiously and they even played what I knew them for at the beginning : 2 themes for the video game Zelda .
Then, came the man because of whom I'm here : Mike Gordon. I finally got to be at a Phish member show and it was awesome. This band knows how to jam! We got great covers and long solos. I even witness my first Phish song live and it's one of my favorite : Meat. At the end of the show, I managed to grab the setlist and take a little break before going to the smaller room.
Dark Star Orchestra was ending their first set when I arrived and they came back a few minutes later. I don't know every Grateful Dead song so most of the show was new for me. They stretched most of the songs with lengthy jams and solos. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward for Friday show where they will recreate the Dead show in Amsterdam from 1972.

Of course, I'll write more about those nights when I'm back in France and post the pictures I took with my real photo camera. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter as have a free WiFi access inside the Melkweg for live tweeting!

I am in Amsterdam since yesterday and I love the city.
The Jam in the Dam festival starts tonight and I'll try to tweet live from the Melkweg during the shows.
So follow me on https://twitter.com/#!/YomeNetSan

 

Mike Gordon is currently setting up at Melkweg where Jam in the Dam will take place in two days.

via https://twitter.com/#!/mike_gordon/status/179162960541921281/photo/1

 

Meanwhile, our hotel in Amsterdam called me to told that our Groupon voucher was valid until the 29th february ! And of course, the voucher is not refundable...

We found another hotel closer to the Melkweg but we just lost the 350€ of the voucher ! Ouch !

 

Here is my final (?) schelude for Jam in the Dam next week. I'm pretty sure it won't stand still. but the goal is to see all Mike Gordon shows and at least one show of the 4 other bands.

I'm a little bit disapointed that Mike doesn't have more that 1,5 hour each night while moe. have 2, Lotus have 2 on the last night and Dark Star Orchestra 3 or 4 hours !

Jam in the Dam is just around the corner and I can't wait ! I'll try to write during the festival but I can't garantee. Of course, you'll have a full review afterwards.

Anyway, it's time to announce what's behind those fancy cards. It will be a way to promote the blog while I'm in Amsterdam but not only. As you noticed, there's a QR Code on one side. This code is a link to this site using Goo.gl. My initial plan was to detect those who come here from this link but, unfortunatly, it's not possible with this kind of redirection... And as I can't re-print the cards with another QR Code, I had to find another way.

 

 

So that's why there's a button on the right column that leads to a form to enter the contest.

Because, yes, there's a contest.

All you have to do is enter the end of the link encoded on the QR Code to participate. If you can upload a picture of the actual card you found in Amsterdam (or elsewhere) you have a second chance to win !

Here are the prices :

• Bouncing Around The Room (Promo Single CD)
• Fast Enough For You (Promo Single CD)
• Shine (Japanese version with bonus tracks)
• A code for a free mp3 show on livephish.com

 

Good luck and see you in the Dam !