Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned

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Anneke van Giersbergen – Flint, Amersfoort; October 15th, 2016

A few months ago, as I was browsing Instagram, I saw Anneke announce her show  “De nieuwe Madonna” wher she would only play songs from the 80ies. Granted it was a theater tour only in the Netherlands, but I was immediately hooked on the idea. I am a true child of the 80ies after all and Anneke is my age so chances were she’d play the music we’d both grown up on. There was one weekend show I could make so I bought a ticket for that and found myself on a train to Amersfoort in mid-October. Still with only a vague idea what to expect I went to the theater, ready to be surprised. Knowing how versatile Anneke is, I was sure it was going to be good. Got there, chatted with Robbin a bit, scored a spot in front row and admired the stage decoration made to be a teenage bedroom with records, posters on the wall an a Monchichi by the bed. 🙂

The show started with Anneke in said bed, throwing the alarm clock across the room as she got up. Walking over to the desk, she turned on the record player and a familiar beat started. I could not quite place it though until she walked over to the microphone and started singing “Hey, little girl I your daddy home…” BRUUUUCE! That certainly came unexpected and I was instantly sold, singing along. 🙂 Next she walked over to the bed, sitting there, telling us a story of how she got he Monchichi and it lost its head when she handled it, but her mother fixed it. Again I was surprised of how much I understood. Not every word, but I am sure I got the gist of it. Yet when someone speaks Dutch to me on the street I seem to get nothing at all. Second song was Cindy Lauper’s ‘Time after time’ which brought unexpected tears to my eyes.

Anneke talked about only having male role models until Madonna appeared on the scene and how influential she was to her. with ‘Material Girl’ she tried to get the audience to do he spoken parts of the song, but at least in the first verse we all failed horribly. It got better eventually though. 😀 A memory of spending time at her aunt’s house and always hearing Mr.Mister’s ‘Broken Wings’ on the radio was next. She learned the song for he show and when her aunt was attending, shouted out “Remember this” and her aunt was like “No.” 🙂 It was a beautiful rendition though. INXS was a band I never related to and I have to admit I cannot remember the video she played until the tape was worn out and Michael Hutchence had a much deeper voice. This was one of very few songs I could not remember.

There were so many stories that night, about her metal head brother, about bands she loved and about going to her first Prince concert with a teacher (?) who then surprised her and her friend by yelling out “Prince, I’m over here” at the stadium. 😀 Even Samantha Fox was covered 😉 and the fact that all her songs were about sex, but sung along to anyway. It was a beautiful trip down memory lane that had me smiling and singing along all night. Somewhere between a-ha, U2 and Queen Anneke even had a quiz for us where she let us finish song lines and movie titles, asked questions and hummed TV themes. It started with a Rubik’s cube she showed us and covered E.T., Back to the Future, Dallas, Dynasty and other stuff. The audience did good mostly, but failed on a few. It was harder for me, because I often only knew the German titles, but I recognized a lot. It had everyone laughing by the end of it, especially thanks to Anneke’s reactions and comments. Queens ‘Who wants to live forever’ ended the main set and brought tears to my eyes for the second time that night. It was beautiful. <3

For the encores, she rolled out on roller skates and asked how many of us had had those. Why of course. 😀 We got to hear some Kate Bush, John Farnham and more Madonna with an amazing version of ‘Live to tell’. Judging by the cheers I’d say everyone in the audience enjoyed this as much as I did. It was fun! In the very end , she invited us to stage to dance. I didn’t, but a few people got up there and had some fun expressing themselves. It was the perfect ending to the night and our time travel. I was glad I had made it there. 🙂

I walked out with a big smile on my face and music playing in my head. This could have gone on for hours, it brought so many nice memories. 🙂 went out and chatted with Robbin for a while before finally leaving. Goodbye, see you on the road somewhere.

Setlist (no guarantee this is correct)

I’m on Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper cover)
Material Girl (Madonna cover)
Broken Wings (Mr. Mister cover)
Never Tear Us Apart (INXS cover)
Little Red Corvette (Prince cover)
Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd cover)
Wasted Years (Iron Maiden cover)
Faith (George Michael cover)
Hunting High and Low (a-ha cover)
Drowning Man (U2 cover)
Who Wants to Live Forever (Queen cover)

Encore:
Cloudbusting (Kate Bush cover)
You’re the Voice (John Farnham cover)
Live to Tell (Madonna cover)
The Power of Love (Frankie goes to Hollywood cover) ?
Express Yourself (tape)

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A cozy venue, scary stories and a realization

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The Anatomy of Frank – Nebbiensches Gartenhaus, Frankfurt; October 14th, 2016

I’ve seen a few venues in Frankfurt by now, but none quite as small as the Nebbiensches Gartenhaus, a cozy gallery / venue at a park that was completely packed the night it housed The Anatomy of Frank. It was a fun concert in front of a happy audience, too short as usual, but once again worth the trip. I always love seeing the guys and have not quite seen enough shows yet. 🙂

As usual I arrived too early and waited for P. before walking in. It took some time until more people arrived, but then the hosts had to get more and more chairs and in the end there were even some people standing in the back. The place looked nice with all sorts of paintings on the wall and windows looking out towards the park. 🙂 The “stage” was situated in a half-circlular part of the building and in front row we almost sat on it, right in the middle of everything.

After the host had announced them, Kyle started alone, playing ‘Blurry’ before Max and Jimmy joined him for ‘Diagonal North America’. Without a break they went straight into ‘Minnesota Part 1’ from there. People got slightly confused as to when to clap when they finally ended the first three songs. I had been smiling and sining along from the get go, their music instantly making me happy.

This time I cannot remember much of what the guys said to introduce songs or which stories they told, but I know that I was laughing quite a few times. I recall something about the strange country they come from and the drunk guy in Cologne who told Kyle that “Germans hate Americans” and about cabins in the cold north. For ‘Minnesota Part 2’ Kyle said how he wrote it for a 65 year old guy who was marrying his girlfriend after 16 years. Finally it clicked. Until that momentI had never realized that the song this story belonged to was ‘Minnesota Part 2’. I had heard it a few times when Kyle toured with Árstíðir but somehow filed it under “That love song with the cute story”. Later, I had always wondered why ‘Minnesota Part 2’ seemed so familiar, because I had not recalled that I heard it before Kyle’s second tour with Árstíðir. It almost made me giggle at how strange my memory is at times. 😀

The new song they had already performed in Stockholm was introduced as ‘Katja’s Song’ and sounded even better than it did the last time around. Their small amp may not provide the best sound in the world, but it’s fine and they make up for lack in equipment with great passion and enthusiasm in performance. I cannot imagine anyone refusing to sing along or not having a smile on their face when an Anatomy of Frank concert is over. 🙂

Next we got the two South America Songs ‘Ecuador’ and ‘La Llorona’ with Kyle telling us that he believed it was a scary story until people told him about the German book ‘Struwwelpeter’ – yep, we know how to scare our kids alright! 😀 The sing-along worked beautifully and was just a test for ‘Vancouver’ the encore. They only left the stage shortly, explaining they did not want to make people wait with the example of Radiohead who made their fans wait 25 minutes in the rain. So we should remember these guys as a band that does not make their fans wait. OK then. 😉

I did not want it to end, but after a last round of singing it did. Everyone stuck around, threw some money in the collection hat, had a drink and chatted with the guys. Eventually P. and I said goodbye, hugged everyone and left, telling them we’d see them soon. It was a good night.

Setlist

Blurry
Diagonal North America
Minnesota I
Photographs of Inuvik in January
A Bridge over Lake Champlain
Minnesota II
Katja’s Song
Ecuador
La Llorona

Vancouver

pictures of this concert