Milow – Het Depot, Leuven; December 21st, 2012

„Milow? I’m not a fan, I would not travel for him!“ – or so I said. And then the concerts in Leuven were announced and some of my friends were going and one of them suggested that Leuven might have a nice Christmas market. Suddenly I found myself thinking „I’ve never been to Belgium and Leuven is not *that* far from home,“ so I bought a ticket. Closer to the date I realized most of my friends were going on Saturday and I had a ticket for Friday, but I like Milow so I kept it anyway. It turned out to be a great decision.

Arrived in the afternoon, checked in, spent some time walking the streets of Leuven. Met D. and H. and sat with them in a cafe until it was time to get in line. While we were sitting there we saw Jonathan walking to the venue. Once in line a few familiar people arrive: S. and K., M. and more. They let us in on time and we easily made it to front row. The venue was a nice one. Small enough to feel cozy, but big enough to hold a crowd.

The support act was Jonas Winterland. A few of my friends has told me about him being the support act at other gigs and that they didn’t like his melancholic music. The description of some lyrics sounded interesting to me though and I was curious to hear him. I liked it and understand surprisingly much, even though he was singing in Dutch. The poor guy was really nervous in the beginning, but got better over time. He played a handful of songs, then left. For me it was a good start.

Just a short break, then Jonathan and Tom were on stage already. They started with some acoustic numbers and I immediately loved it. The atmosphere at the Het Depot was great and the audience was into it from the start – listening carefully during the quiet songs, clapping and singing along for the livelier ones.

They played quite a few songs I had not heard before as well as some familiar ones. The rest of the band came to join them after the first 5 or so and left again later. It looked like they were all in a good mood, smiling and enjoying the gig. Once again I was amazed at the abundance of talent in this band. They are all really good at their jobs.

I enjoyed all of the songs – the hits and the newer ones. It was a great song selection throughout and quite different from the other Milow concerts I had seen. The background choir in the audience was amazing. I felt like I was the only one who didn’t know all the lyrics. We especially had fun when Tom and Arne each conducted half of the audience in a singing duel.

Before the concert started, M. had given all of us glow light stick bracelets so we raised our arms and waved them around during ‘Ayo Technology’. For ‘I was a famous singer’ Jonathan asked us to sing “You used to be so cool”  – that was fun. H. noted that once we should all sing “You’re still pretty cool” instead. 🙂 There were many other opportunities to sing, even for me.

For the encores, Jonathan went into the audience and played in front of the seated area. He was alone for the first song, then Tom joined him and later the rest of the band. It made me especially happy to hear them play ‘Coming of Age’ – it was so beautiful it made me cry. 🙂 The very last song was a cover of Springsteen’s ‘No surrender’ to which D. and I sang along loudly. A great way to end the concert!

When we were outside I bought Jonas’ CD and told him I had liked his songs, then stood in line for Jonathan. He was very relaxed and in a great mood. I thanked him for the concert and ‘Coming of Age’. He said the didn’t play that one often and was a bit shocked when I said it made me cry until I added “that’s a good sign”. He also mentioned how much fund they’d had during the concert. 🙂

Soon it was time for me to say goodbye and return to my hotel. I badly needed sleep but was very happy I had decided to go to Leuven. It was worth it.

Setlist (out of order and probably incomplete)

Car Wreck in the Lake
Loneliest Girl in the World
Little in the Middle
You don’t know
Never gonna stop
I was a famous Singer
She might, she might
Stop being dead
You & me
Where my head used to be
Building Bridges
California Rain
Ayo Techology
Cowboys, Pirates, Musketeers

Coming of Age
Launching Ships
No Surrender