Sigur Ros in Paradiso
Even though I work now since 1,5 year in Amsterdam, I do not have the feeling I know the city at all. I try not to go more than needed and group all my meetings as much as possible so that 3 days is truly the max. I arrive a bit late in the office on my arriving day, work a long day to make up for that, go check in in the hotel around the corner and then eat dinner in one of the many little restaurants in the quarter with or without some expat colleagues. Basically I know the tramway to the office, the office, the hotel and a few blocks full of restaurants.
This week an Austrian colleague wondered if I wanted to join him to a concert in Paradiso. Hell yeah. We often haven lengthy music discussions together and now he had an extra ticket for the sold-out concert of Sigur Rós. Much to my amasement the well-known concert hall Paradiso was even less than a km from the office/ hotel in a building I had already wondered once what that big nice building was :D.
To be honest...I didn't know Sigur Rós either and funny enough he didn't either. I knew the band came from Iceland and guessed it was a non-pop version of Björk. The only song that seems familiar is Inni Mer....
We found a nice spot and let the music flow over us. That's what Sigur Rós does...songs and music effects sometimes intimite and silent, then suddenly erupting roll by in big waves as if you're in some of the most amazing Icelandic landscapes at sunrise, during thunderstorms, on a sunny afternoon, when the nights settles, when a geiser erupts, ....I found it utterly entertaining to watch the band members switch back and forth between instruments: a little organ, piano's, drum, different guitars (which you can play as if they were a violin), clarinet, ... But honestly after an hour or so in the concert I did lose my concentration and it all merged in more of the same. Sigur Rós is known not to be interacting with its audience but pieces just follow one after the other. After 2 hours the set ended with a physically overwhelming outburst of sounds and lights at Popplagio and that was it.
Ha, sure beats a night in the hotel room! I might keep a closer eye on the concert planning of Paradiso in the future.
The video's I find on youtube really don't do justice on the level of energy that does burst out now and then (and then bubbles completely away again)
I Gear ( opening of the set-list)
Popplagio
This week an Austrian colleague wondered if I wanted to join him to a concert in Paradiso. Hell yeah. We often haven lengthy music discussions together and now he had an extra ticket for the sold-out concert of Sigur Rós. Much to my amasement the well-known concert hall Paradiso was even less than a km from the office/ hotel in a building I had already wondered once what that big nice building was :D.
To be honest...I didn't know Sigur Rós either and funny enough he didn't either. I knew the band came from Iceland and guessed it was a non-pop version of Björk. The only song that seems familiar is Inni Mer....
We found a nice spot and let the music flow over us. That's what Sigur Rós does...songs and music effects sometimes intimite and silent, then suddenly erupting roll by in big waves as if you're in some of the most amazing Icelandic landscapes at sunrise, during thunderstorms, on a sunny afternoon, when the nights settles, when a geiser erupts, ....I found it utterly entertaining to watch the band members switch back and forth between instruments: a little organ, piano's, drum, different guitars (which you can play as if they were a violin), clarinet, ... But honestly after an hour or so in the concert I did lose my concentration and it all merged in more of the same. Sigur Rós is known not to be interacting with its audience but pieces just follow one after the other. After 2 hours the set ended with a physically overwhelming outburst of sounds and lights at Popplagio and that was it.
Ha, sure beats a night in the hotel room! I might keep a closer eye on the concert planning of Paradiso in the future.
The video's I find on youtube really don't do justice on the level of energy that does burst out now and then (and then bubbles completely away again)
I Gear ( opening of the set-list)
Popplagio
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