Airborne Toxic Event is camping out in Amsterdam

Singing more than 350 times about your ex-girlfriend should make any guy miserable. But writing ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ and performing it every one of those shows has brought Mikel Jollett and his colleagues in the Airborne Toxic Event all over the world touring for their eponymous debut album.
April will see the release of the second Airborne Toxic Event album but while looking in their schedule the band noticed a large white space in February. So they booked some rooms, took their gear and are now, as they themselves put it, camping out in Europe. This means that apart from some single shows they will have residencies in a few European major cities. Every Monday night they will play in Paradiso’s upstairs room.
It’s always great to see band that enjoys playing, numerous times Jollett mentioned it was great to be somewhere far from home (which would be Los Angeles) but be with a lot of people. The room was almost at full capacity, and I guess it will be the same the next three shows. Playing smaller venues seem to be more enjoyable for bands as well than one big impersonal hall.
If the concert is anything to go by the new album will have some songs however that won’t be as great as on the debut. It will also be a little heavier in content, as a beautiful song about soldiers in war showed. That the band really enjoyed themselves was obvious from the very long encore which even included a great medley of Bruce Springsteen’s “On Fire”, Bobby Fueller’s “I Fought The Law” and Johnny Cash’ “Folsom Prison”.
So if you want to see an indie band that loves playing for under ten euros, get a ticket for any of the three remaining Airborn Toxic Event shows.

Some more songs:
Gasoline
Happiness is Overrated

Antlers in Paradiso, 25th of May, 2010

Last year’s “Hospice” ended high on our album of the year lists and even higher on our debut album of the year list. A remarkable collection of songs about a couple in a cancer ward set in layers of deep gut wrenching layers of sound. Instrumentation that first the theme of the album so well that even without lyrics you would not be surprised to hear afterwards that it was about a grave subject like this.

At last night’s show The Antlers managed to make the songs sound different from the album yet still retaining the overall mood. It was at times fascinating to hear just the band play while the audience was completely silent, as if they were stunned. Even for those in the sold out room unfamiliar with the album it might have left some bewildered about what had just happened. With only three members with the use of keyboards and a bunch of pedals they sounded great.

Apart from most of “Hospice” they played one very good new songs and if their new work will be anything like this there’s a lot more great music on the horizon.

Thank you likeahurricane69 for this great quality vid

Frightened Rabbit - Winter of Mixed Drinks / Live Paradiso April 11th, 2009

What can you do after playing a show at 5:30: you can watch a film or call your mom. Plenty of jokes by Scott Hutchison concerning the early time of the concert in Paradiso’s upstairs room. At least, as he said, the curtains where shut so it was still dark. It’s not a very rock and roll time of day, but that’s what you get with a full Paradiso, at least they didn’t play in Bitterzoet. If the early time was also the reason why it was not completely full… it could be.

Though already having released 2 albums prior to their breakthrough “Winter of Mixed Drinks” this was the first time for the Scottish band in Amsterdam. “WoMD” is getting great reviews and rightly so. Frightened Rabbit have a similar sound to fellow Scotsmen We Were Promised Jetpack and the Twilight Sad. Atmospheric guitar music that is typified by almost minimalist use of chords. One chord would be played for quite a few bars before changing to a different chord. To these chords are then added layers of sound using guitars, keyboards and a score of pedals. Out of this wall of sound then comes the Scottish drawl of Hutchinson. The guitars all sound great and they did as well live. “Winter of Mixed Drinks” has a few highlights, some of which are the excellent singles ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ and ‘Nothing Like You’ or ‘Living in Colour’ as part of the encore. Impressive was the first song of the encore where Hutchinson sung a song with just acoustic guitar, without the aid of amps and microphones. It was also the only song where the vocals were clear, in the other songs his voice got muddled and his at times great lyrics were unfortunately not heard.

While not yet having reached the elaborate soundscaping genius of the Twilight Sad or the great songwriting of We Were Promised Jetpacks their album will turn up in some end-of-the-year lists and their next show in Amsterdam definitely won’t be at 5:30 on a Sunday in a small room in Amsterdam but a bigger venue with people standing outside trying to get a ticket from someone because it’s sold out.

The Avett Brothers in Paradiso: March 22, 2010

It took the Avett Brothers a decade to finally make it to the Netherlands for their first ever show. Why it took them so long? It beats me because the two brothers have proven to be some of the most talented songwriters of the last few years. In their native US they have been on shows like Letterman and Conan and their albums chart high. Here their latest record “I and Love and You” won’t be released until April.

The Avett Brothers fit into the Americana category but are not afraid to stray outside of the genre. It is true that folk, country and bluegrass are the main ingredients of their music but they also show that they listen to contemporary music since it has influences from seventies rock and 80’s punk (one reviewer used the word grungegrass). Their career has developed steadily the last decade and only with the last album ended up on Rick Rubin's label, who also produced their album.

Most of the songs are performed with acoustic guitar, banjo, bass (both electric and standup) and cello. The brothers also use kick- and bassdrums with their feet to add power when the song calls for it. They do change instruments all throughout the show with both playing acoustic and electric guitar, drums and keyboards. Both are accomplished singers but it’s Scott whose powerful voice is the strongest and contrasts nicely with Seth’s softer and higher voice. Songs are performed with power and enthusiasm and the band seemed to enjoy, easily playing for 90 minutes. They add energy to the songs that is sometimes lacking on the albums and broke quite a few strings in the process. I counted at least 8 but would not be surprised if it was more.

Their biggest strength is their songwriting. There are some pop gems like “Kick Drum Heart” and “Slight Figure of Speech”, ballads like “January Wedding” and even a power ballad, the beautiful “Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise”. They played songs from all their records since 2004 but the most (and best) were from ‘Introducing Emotinalism’ and ‘I and Love and You’. At an Avett Brothers you will jump along, laugh (“Yardsale”), listen to the harmonies and sing along for 5 minutes (“Go To Sleep”).

The Paradiso small room was sold out, let’s hope they will win many more fans and play in the big room next time. After a decade of writing beautiful songs they deserve it and energetic live shows like this can only help their stature.