My heart will choose its bliss, staring down the abyss

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Anneke van Giersbergen – Boerderij, Zoetermeer; March 22nd, 2025

Anneke van Giersbergen’s show in Zoetermeer was my 31st (i think) and sadly the first one I left slightly disappointed. Anneke was awesome and he band was fantastic, but the sound was pretty awful and that took away some of my enjoyment. I sill had fun though.

I stayed in the Hague and took a tram to Zoetermeer where I was the first to arrive just after 18:00. soon I was joined by a gang of people who were touring with Anneke and excitedly chattering about the concerts they had already seen. Time passed quickly, they let us in at 19:30 and I got my front row center spot as I had hoped. Yay, this was going to be great.

Support Ebony Buckle was really nice. A due with a good variety of songs. My favorite among those was ‘Wild Woman’, inspired by the book “Women who run with the wolves”. They also had a really cool one about a not so nice alien invasion. ‘I think I just saved my own life’ was about stopping to drink and I also loved ‘Jupiter Rising’. All in all a great warm up.

There was a 15 minute break before the band stepped on stage and started playing, then Anneke joined them to great cheers. She started with ‘You will never change’ and was really into it, I could see she was singing her heart out, but I could not hear her at all, the voice being completely drowned out by the band. Now I have have been front row for most of the shows I have seen her play and that has never been a problem before. Either way, I gave it another chance with ‘She’, but again, I could hardly hear her and not for ‘Too Late’ either. I loved being so close and the band was fantastic, but I had come to hear Anneke sing and this wasn’t happening. It really surprised me how everyone around me still sing along, but then again, with bands I know well, he same happens for me.

So I grabbed my things and went back, about 7 rows. The sound was so much better there and finally I could understand the words and start enjoying the concert. The Gathering’s ‘The May Song’ was next and it rocked. Two songs from The Dark Skies are the brightest followed. I especially loved the percussion and the violin in ‘My Promise’. Then ‘I saw a car’ brought a nice clap along. The song just has great rhythm.

With ‘More than a thousand Words’ we got the first song from her new EP ‘La Vie’. I hadn’t listened to it yet, so it made me happy to get to hear the songs live. This one had a great beat. ‘Survive’ was fantastic and I could not help but move in tune with the music. After an introduction of the band,  The Gathering’s ‘Saturnine’ followed – always a favorite. It ended in a great singalong.

‘You Want to Be Free’ was awesome. I just loved the guitar. Then, we got the highlight of the evening with ‘when I die’. what a fantastic song that is. <3 Anneke stuck with the EP and played ‘Heal me’ for us too. It was fantastic too. 🙂 Of course, we could not hav ehe concert without Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that Hill’. She talked about how that song was rediscovered through Stranger Things and back in the charts some 30years after its release. Her over was glorious.

A rocking ‘Stay’ followed, before we got the last song of the EP with ‘One more nanosecond’. Then, with The Gathering’s ‘Strange Machines’ and everyone got to rock out even more. 🙂

The encores started with Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ – what a nice surprise. It sounded great too. ‘Hurricane’ had us all clapping again. This is definitely one of my favorites. Such a slow build-up and so much power. The house rocked again with ‘Mental Jungle’ and those who needed a last chance to head-bang got it with the great ‘Witnesses’ in the end. It was a fun show for sure and I was happy I had gotten to see it.

Setlist

You Will Never Change
She
Too Late
The May Song (The Gathering song)
My Promise
I Saw a Car
More Than a Thousand Words
Survive
Saturnine (The Gathering song)
You Want to Be Free
When I Die
Heal Me
Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover)
Stay
One More Nanosecond
Strange Machines (The Gathering song)

Encore:
Ray of Light (Madonna cover)
Hurricane
Mental Jungle
Witnesses

But if I was fearless… could I be your reckless friend

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Cyndi Lauper – Uber Arena,  Berlin; February 25th, 2025 and PSD Bank Dome, Düsseldorf; February 26th, 2025

Last year I read that Cyndi Lauper was doing a farewell tour and I though “it’s now or never!” so I bought tickets for both of her German shows. I was going to sell one ticket, but endet up seeing both concerts instead and I have no regrets.  It was wonderful.

On day one, in Berlin, I had a general admission ticket and got there about an hour before the doors opened. To my surprise that was enough to get to front row at the B stage. wow, what a perfect spot that was. I had nice people around me and a great view of the stage. Passed the waiting time chatting and was curious about the support act, Tracy Young. Sadly, she was rather disappointing,  a dj, playing electronic music way too loud. I was happy I had earplugs and a book to read. After 45 minutes it was finally over and the stage was set for Cyndi.

About 10 past 9, we heard Blondie’s ‘One Way or another’ from tape and the band walked on stage in front of a colorful screen. Cyndi followed them and started the show with ‘She Bop’, while a huge cloud of confetti rained down on us. People were singing along immediately and I felt a smile spread across my face. This was great already. She greeted us and continued with Prince’s ‘when you were mine’. I loved everything about it from the music to the outfits to the background on the screens. The band was fantastic and Cyndi made very song her own.

At the end, she had disappeared backstage and came back with a wide white outfit that was used as a projection screen during the next song, ‘I drove all night’. This was my favorite so far. She told us the song had been written for Roy Orbison, but he didn’t like it and she felt it was very empowering, because she had never before heard a song about women driving, so she kept it. We learned that after that her relationship fell apart and thus her management was gone, and the new record company people did not like her outfits. Then she spoke about not knowing what to do with herself anymore and that often we feel how our life is just one big sorry, but it has chapters and that we have o write our own. Hell yes! The beautiful ‘Who let in the rain’ followed. 🙂

She left stage again, while e got to hear some amazing percussion, then came back in a red outfit, yellow wig and proceeded to put on a something like a washboard. Before she played it, she introduced the band though. 🙂 Then we got a brilliant version of ‘Iko Iko’ with a fun sing along. She took off washboard and the yellow fringes on her sleeves for s quick costume change, while telling us about first coming to Germany in 1980 as support for Joe Jackson. We learned about her love for rockabilly and she covered Wanda Jackson’s ‘Funnel of Love – it was so much fun!

Cyndi told us how she loves performance art and always wanted to play a big show like this, talking about the designers of her outfits and her conversation with Cristiano Serrano, about needing an outfit to move in to which he replied “the gays want glamour”. An assistant brought another outfit and she changed on stage, even taking off the wig, asking if that was glamorous enough for us. She spoke about the street she grew up in and the people living around her, like Sally, who had pigeons on the roof. She then played ‘Sally’s pigeons’ followed by a beautiful a cappella version of ‘Fearless’.

It was time for another costume change and meanwhile we got a video interlude, showing Cyndi being helped into new cloths and getting her make-up freshened up, all the while talking and telling us she wanted to do something special on the tour. She also spoke about her cousin and how they stole a fish from a bowl at a hotel and it died on them. 😀

Somewhere around this time, the crew was preparing the B stage and getting rid of confetti on the floor. ‘Sisters of Avalon’ rocked the house and afterwards she told us to put our pone lights on, she wanted to show us something. When they were all on, she asked us to look around and it was beautiful. The next song was ‘Time after time’ – it was perfect. :’)  The main set ended with the fantastic ‘Money changes everything’, rocking the house again, before Cyndi said goodbye and they all walked off.

They came back in black and white outfits, playing ‘Shine’ and Cyndi walked towards us, gave some high fives and ended the song on te B-stage, right in front of me. There was a wooden box on this stage from where she go a huge piece of rainbow fabric. Now I understood all the fans on e floor. She held it up high, letting it flow in the wind and sang a gorgeous version of ‘True colors’. She left the B stage, high-fiving ,more people on the was.

Back on the main stage, Cyndi spoke about the artist Peaches and how, for years, others had stolen her ideas and made money until she finally became successful and how it was to work with her. The show ended with ‘Girls just wanna have fun’ and it could not have been any better.

I went back to the train station smiling and took the night train home. Luckily the second show in Düsseldorf was much closer to home and I had a seat. Thus, I even had some time to relax after work, before I left, having already decided that I didn’t need to see Tracy Young again.

For night two I arrived after Tracy young had started and did’t go to my seat until she was done. I had a great side view this time and while the setlist was the same, the energy was different and Cyndi elaborated on some other stories a bit. I love dit very much, she came across totally badass. Before the show there was advertisement for the “girls just wanna have fundamental rights” – Fund, a charity she founded to “Advance fundamental rights and health for all women and girls.” Yes, queen!

I had a brilliant time and felt it went by way to quickly. It made me very happy to get to enjoy the show a second time. what a treat that was.

Setlist

Tape: One Way or Another (Blondie song)
She Bop
When You Were Mine (Prince cover)
I Drove All Night
Who Let in the Rain
Iko Iko (Sugar Boy and His Cane Cutters cover)
Funnel of Love (Wanda Jackson cover)
Sally’s Pigeons
Fearless (A cappella)
Video interlude
Sisters of Avalon
Time After Time
Money Changes Everything (The Brains cover)

Shine
True Colors
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (with Peaches)