Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - Mike Gordon

by Yome NetSan 30. March 2012

Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 24:00

I have waited 15 years to see Mike Gordon and now I'm about to witness my second show in two days !

Playing the last concert of this second day at Jam in the Dam, Mike had the headlining spot tonight with a late night set starting at midnight. I hoped that, without any band after them, they would stretch their set a little but it lasted exactly 90 minutes.

Starting with Sugar Shack and Can't Stand Still, I felt confident to live-tweet the setlist, thanks to the free Wifi access inside the Melkweg. But I found myself lost as soon as they went through the first cover. No, I don't know every Beatles song... So I did my best and wouldn't even care if I didn't spell the titles right.

But my first goal was to enjoy the music anyway. Since the beginning of the festival, I felt rather lucky with the songs selection (Zelda by Lotus, Meat by Mike and Birds by Keller) and Mike made me another present with Funky Bitch ! I love that tune and Scott Murawsky's guitar was ripping and jamming !

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Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - moe.

by Yome NetSan 30. March 2012

Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 22:00

moe. was the only band at Jam in the Dam that I knew only the name. I've never heard anything from them before this show, so I wasn't expecting anything.

They played a kind of south rock with pleinty of jams all over the place. In the middle of the stage, there was Rob Derhak, the great bassist who played with ease, like if it was his every day job... well.

I really liked the different styles of the two guitarists Al Schnier (on the right) and Chuck Garvey (on the left). Chuck was more on long, sliding and ringing notes whereas Al played a lot of fast notes. They really completed each other and they both took great solos.

On the back of the stage, there were a solid rythm duo with Vinnie Amico on drums and Jim Loughlin on percussion.

During their set, Keller Williams came on stage to sing and play the guitar. I'm rather fond of those sit in, even if I don't know the song at all !

I was very impressed by the whole show and once back in France I listened to the other Jam in the Dam concert they did (see below) and they are both great too !

Make it fly !

 

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Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - Keller Williams

by Yome NetSan 29. March 2012

Tursday 15th march 2012 @ 20:00

Keller Williams opend the second night at Jam in the Dam in the Max Hall. I didn't really know him as I've only heard some songs and the cover of Phish's Birds of a Feather video with moe.'s guitarist Al Schnier. So I knew that he was a one-man band but I haven't realized he was that good !

He mostly played an acoustic guitar and sing funny half-improvised lyrics. But he had a bass and an electric guitars on stands and he recorded loops on a sampler to play along. He also added drums with an electronic drum machine. With all those layers of sounds, he was able to jam with himself ! It was very impressive to see and to listen because that's not just a gimmick. He can actually play very well all these instruments !

And to my surprise, he did cover Birds at the end of his set ! Nice start !

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Amsterdam : Third day and signing session

by Yome NetSan 29. March 2012

Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 8:00

My son had no will to let me sleep. He woke me up at 8 and we went straight to breakfast.

As it would be the most sunny day of our stay, our today's goal was to walk to the Dam and then to take the bus tour to see the city. But arriving at Amsterdam Centraal Station, I realized that the tickets had been forgotten at the hotel !

11:00

So we took the tram back to Leidseplein and staid in a park between the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. As we finally had less money than expected, we wanted to eat cheap. After looking for different snack, we ended up eating at Burger King quite often !

There were lots of cinemas with french movies, even some we didn't actually know !

 

18:00

As tonight was the night of the signing session at Jam in the Dam, I arrived first at the Melkweg. Stephen arrived soon after me with his bass and a friend. His goal was to get Mike Gordon to sign his bass. But he had to deal with another worry because, the previous day, he got a pass which had two holes. That means he got a one-day-only pass although he had bought a full-festival ticket months ago ! After asking several peoples who couldn't help him, he finally got a guest wristband so he could enter freely for the 2 remaining evenings.

19:00

The doors opened and we went inside the building to find a lot of tables and chairs with Keller Williams and the members of Dark Star Orchestra and moe. waiting for us. They were very nice and welcoming (maybe because I was one of the first in line).

Lotus was still soundchecking in the Oude Zaal hall so they arrived a little later, one by one, except for keyboardist Luke Miller.

But wait, where is Mike ? So sign of him nor his bandmates. Stephen and I were waiting in the middle of the line, looking in every direction. 

We eventually met Junipa Contento, the artist who drew the poster and she nicely signed it too. I actually met her the day before as I was waiting in the hall. Strangely, she had gone right to me to talk about her broken nails !

But Mike still wasn't there... We talked to one of the Jam in the Dam man (can't remember his name, maybe Tim) who told us Mike was invited to come but he didn't know why he wasn't there. Stephen gave him his bass to get it sign by Mike backstage.

We were very disappointed not to meet Mike's band but anyway, we were here for the music. I hope next time will be the good one !

I went out to my hotel to store the poster and get some food and went back for second night of jamming !

Listen to Everyone Orchestra first studio album (not yet)

by Yome NetSan 28. March 2012

I'm taking a temporary break from Amsterdam to New York as I'm rather slow in writing and selecting pictures...

Brooklyn Sessions, the first studio album from Everyone Orchestra has been partialy fan-funded on KickStarter last december.

The ones who helped the project to be released have received their download links for the album and the bonus tracks yesterday. Matt Bulter, the band's leader, invited us to "share this album to listeners".

I hope you'll enjoy this great music as much as I do and that it will leads you to actually buy the CD when it comes out in may !

everyoneorchestra.com

 

[EDIT] Matt Bulter asked me not to share the album to listeners while it can't be actually bought online. The album will be release later in may on services like iTunes or Bandcamp.

Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Dark Star Orchestra

by Yome NetSan 23. March 2012

Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 23:45

After the first show with Mike Gordon in Europe since 1998, I decided to skip moe. to see Dark Star Orchestra playing the Grateful Dead in the other room. The last show of this first night in Jam in the Dam was a two sets affair and I arrived during the last song of the first one.

During set break I went front row and bumped into Stephen again. We stayed until the end of the second set and it was an amazing show once again. I don't know a lot of Grateful Dead songs but I can appreciate the good jams they played, even if I got a little distracted by the camera-stealing chick !

After these tiring day and evening, I was very pleased to be back at my hotel in less than 3 minutes. Everyone was asleep of course and I managed to slip in my bed without a sound.

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Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Mike Gordon

by Yome NetSan 23. March 2012

Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 22:00

If you follow this blog, you should know that I've never been to a Phish concert although I've maybe listened to all of them. Of course, I've never been to a side-project show neither. That's why I decided a year ago to come at Jam in the Dam to see Mike Gordon. And at last, after so many years, the time had come !

While the crew was setting up the stage, we got plenty of time to look at Mike's bass and pedals. It was so strange to be less than 2 meters from his instrument after watching so much video for 15 years. And then, the man came.

In pure Phish/Mike tradition, he didn't say a word and started playing Horizon Line. I was right in front of the stage but wasn't realizing I had a Phish member in front of me, again less than 2 meters away. The stage was high (like up to my shoulders) and there wasn't any space between it and the crowd. So we could actually put our stuff, like my photo camera, on the stage !

The drawback was that even if the band was very close, it was so high that it seemed distant. It was a strange feeling, almost like watching yet another DVD. Actually, we were so close that we could hear the music coming right from each amp, but the vocals were unclear.

Anyway, we could greatly appreciate the show which was mind blowing. There were covers that I knew from past Mike recording and some I didn't. It later came to my knowledge that one of the songs, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, was a first time for Mike's band. I also got to hear my first Phish song played live : Meat. Guitarist Scott Murawski was on fire all night and the two drumer/percussionist Todd Isler and Craig Myers completed each other perfectly. Don't Do It , sung by keybordist Tom Cleary, was also a great song and Dig Furthur Down is one of my favorite. But the jam that occurred during the Idea closer really set the bar high.

 

 

But it was too short. The show seemed to end as soon as it started. It took me several minutes to gather my mind again and this day will stick in my head for years.

 

Setlist :
Horizon Line >
Voices,
Sailin’ Shoes,
Emotional Railroad,
Meat,
You Don’t Mess Around With Jim*,
Dig Further Down,
Don’t Do It,
River Niger >
Idea

* First Time Played (Jim Croce cover)

 

 

Right on time, 2 recording of this show are available here :

 

 

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Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Lotus

by Yome NetSan 22. March 2012

Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 20:00

I've known Lotus for about three years and I listened mostly to 2008 and 2009 shows, so I knew what to expect. I can't remember how I discovered them but I know what makes me listen to them the first time : a cover of The Legend of Zelda video game themes. As I am a video game fan and avid Zelda lover, I couldn't avoid this.

The band has a bass/sampler player in the middle (Jesse Miller), a guitarist on the right (Mike Rempel), a keyboard/guitar player on the left (Luke Miller), a drummer on the back left (Mike Greenfield) and a percutionist on the back right (Chuck Morris).

 

 

They had the difficult task to be the first act of this year Jam in the Dam and to wake up the crowd. And Waow! they rocked right from the start ! Their music isn't your typical jam rock stuff. Almost everything is played live but it sounds really electronic with some sampler sounds here and there. Mostly instrumental, the only vocals are from samples played my Luke or Mike. The guitar licks and solos were very well merged in the vibrating music.

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Amsterdam : Arriving at the Melkweg

by Yome NetSan 21. March 2012

Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 15:30

I went to the Melkweg early in the afternoon to ask when the door will open and if it was allowed to take pictures.

When I arrived, a table was set up so than people could already get their Jam in the Dam necklace pass. I asked for mine but I was obviously the first european to show up and I've been told than I'd get mine when entering the venue at 7 (the guy I met was nice enough to "translate" 7 to 19 as we are used in Europe). So I got my answers and decided to come with my big photo camera.

I also heard that a limited edition poster will be sold tonight for 20€ and that a signing session was planned the next day at 7. I'll be there !

 

 

18:30

I came back later and still was in the 5 first people waiting. Doors opened shortly after 7 and I went straight to the merchandizing table. I picked my poster and got number 2/300 !

Then I took the time to visit the venue. There are two rooms, The Max (capacity of 1,500) and the Oude Zaal (capacity of 700), with a lobby in the middle. A back door leads to Joe's restaurant which front door is in the same street as my hotel. After a little tour in the two rooms, I decided to go back to my hotel to leave my jacket, my hat and my poster. I also took something to eat and went back in the front of the stage.

There was only one guy here, playing a Playstation Vita. I left mine in France but we started talking about video games and the shows we were about to attend.

 

 

 

19:30

During the conversation, I grab my camera to take pictures of the room and the stage. But while putting it out of my bag, the battery storage opened and 2 of them rolled bellow the stage ! I managed to catch one but the other was lost. Of course, I didn't have a replacement and didn't want to go back again to the hotel than close to the show. So I went to the tapers to ask if they could lend me a battery until the next day. Brad, the older taper, nicely helped me. He told me was more installing than setting up as he would be there with his chair, table, mic stands all three nights taping moe. and Mike Gordon.

 

Glade to be able to take pictures again, I went back to the stage, waiting for the show to start...

 

Amsterdam : Travel and discoveries

by Yome NetSan 20. March 2012

Tuesday 13th march 2012 @ 03:00

We woke up and jumped in the car for an early morning drive to Geneva with Moss Remixes and Inside In as perfect soundtracks for the pitch-black night. The flight to Amsterdam was on time and except for the fact that my wife forgot her iPhone on the seat of the car everything went fine. We decided not to go back and went straight to the airplane.

Hopefully, my 2 years old son was very calm or asleep during the flight and security. He is a fanatic of transport vehicles like planes, buses and, most of all, trains. "Train" and "Wagon" are usually his first words in the morning and last in the evening. So when we arrived in the Netherlands and made our way inside Schiphol airport to the station and took the first train to Amsterdam Centraal, he was happy. And when we took the tramway to Leidseplein, he was more than happy ! We immediately found people very nice and a man inside the tram spontaneously asked if we needed help and gave his seat to my wife.

The day before our departure, I was able to download a 16km square of Amsterdam in the Google Maps application of my Android phone. This way I could use GPS signal without downloading the maps on the expensive 3G network. This made me see that we were going in the wrong direction as soon as we stepped out of the tram.

 

10:00

So we walked pass the tourist information and found ourselves in front of the Melkweg, where Jam in the Dam would take place the day after !

 

About two minutes later, we found our hotel... just behind the Melkweg ! Great suprise ! We hardly could find a nearer place to stay. So after our big letdown from the day before, it was a good find. Freeland Hotel was a nice little hotel with very welcoming people, some of them even speaking french. The room was nice and quiet, but only if you could reach it... the stairs to the fourth floor were very narrow and very steep. It was difficult to bring our heavy luggage up there in climbing. Fortunately we were allowed to leave the stroller at the reception each time we went to our room.

 

11:00

We have decided that today we would just wander in the street to discover the city by our own. My wife had seen on the Internet that there was a big park near the Hotel, so we headed to the Vondelpark. We stayed there while our son played in the children areas. The park was very big with a lot of grass land and a lot of jogger, much like Central Park in New York.

Then it was time to eat and we returned to the "civilization", searching for a restaurant. We found out that it was nearly impossible to find something else to eat than "snacking" (hamburgers, hot dogs, Croque Monsieur, salad...). We finally stopped at Dante and ate one of the best hamburgers we have tasted.

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