Forum forum forum

[Biscuit]

Hope it’s alright to post two reviews of Handsome Furs in one topic. As they played two nights in a row over in the Netherlands. Apologies if it's a bit of a messy post.

----

I got to see Handsome Furs again at the Tivoli de Helling and the Paradiso. At first I intended to go to just the Paradiso since the Tivoli is a bit complicated to get to but I was so excited that I decided to get another ticket for the first night.

This was my second time seeing them but this time it was a longer set because the last time I saw them was at a festival so naturally it’s a shorter slot for them. Again, they put on a brilliant show! There was a lot of funny stage banter since the Dutch audience was a bit quiet, so for instance at some points Dan talked about what the songs were about and talked about the passing of Michael Jordan. Really neat that they learnt some Dutch too like saying to go fuck the ‘politie’ and also much ‘dank u’s were said. They seemed very comfortable on stage too and danced their asses off till one microphone fell to the floor.

Here’s the setlist (not in the right order and I think there are 2 songs missing):

Legal Tender
(White City)
I’m Confused
Evangeline
Nyet Spasiba
Handsome Furs hate this city
All we want, Baby, Is Everything
Talking Hotel Arbat Blues
Radio Kaliningrad
---
Dead + Rural

On the first night, I was invited backstage for drinks, got to hear about their stories of Romania, and was kindly offered a ride to the train station. They seemed very enthousiastic about one of their support acts in Romania called "The Amsterdams", and it sounded like Dan was hoping that they could support them for future Wolf Parade tour.

Also, they put me down on the guest list for the Paradiso (even though I had tickets already, they told me to just sell it), and they have arranged for me to get on guest lists for any future Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs. Both Alexei and Dan told me to promise to never buy a ticket for their shows again. And even though it was such a hassle to get back home with the night train delays, fog, and weird bus stops, it was worth seeing them again.


There was also good lighting for photos so here’s several,





----


As for the second show that took place at the Paradiso (small hall), it was yet again an awesome gig. The only downsides were that the audience was even quieter this time and it felt like a tad shorter gig because Handsome Furs were the first on the list of bands performing that night. But they were happy that so much people came to attend the show early in the evening. Also, as much as I like seeing concert photos it was annoying that there were photographers up front the entire gig just shooting away and moving around.

I also got the set list this time and it didn’t differ that much to the previous gig. It was really sweet that they played Sing! Captain! for that night too. Something also really struck me last night was when they played Handsome Furs Hate this City again. This time the song was also dedicated again to Rotterdam but they mentioned there being a hate towards Ottawa. I remember Alexei asking one guy if he liked Rotterdam (as he came from Amsterdam), it turns out he does like Rotterdam so it seemed he was up against the rest of the audience.

Generally was a fun gig yet again with some fun banter. I can't reiterate enough how sweet the pair are.


Here's the setlist from the Paradiso gig


Rest of my photos are on flickr,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22344766@N02/