Dateline: 12 February 2017
Venue: Luxor Live, Arnhem
To be honest, I don’t know what visitors might find
interesting about Amersfoort, other than that it’s the birthplace of the modern
artist Piet Mondrian, and so home to the Mondriaanhuis museum. But for whatever reason the sizeable dining
room of this business-type hotel on the outskirts of town is heaving for Sunday breakfast.
Suitably fed and watered, it’s off to Arnhem for Sunday’s
gig, which involved a replacement bus service part of the way because of
engineering works. It’s all very
efficiently done
though, and we get dropped off at Arnhem railway station, just
across the road from our hotel, the Best Western Haarhuis. It’s pretty basic, but on the upside it’s
handily placed for the town centre, and barely a hundred metres from tonight’s
venue.
Let's hope that t-shirt was washed from the night before! |
The snow has stopped, but it’s still brass monkey weather as
we set off for a wander round the town centre, and in particular Airborne
Plein, the small pedestrian space close to the John Frost Bridge which
commemorates the Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War. If you’ve ever seen the movie A Bridge Too Far, this is the bridge of
the title. Sadly the Airborne Museum is
outside town – perhaps another time.
After catching the France v Scotland rugby in an Irish pub –
Scotland lost, unfortunately, but the Chouffe beer compensated – there’s just
time for a cracking steak in Vlees & Co before heading along the
road for the gig.
The show is in the smaller of the two rooms in Luxor Live, a
compact ballroom with high ceilings and a good stage, and even though it’s sold
out the sight lines are excellent.
Sean Webster and pals open the bill with another impressive set, getting under way
with ‘Give Me The Truth’, featuring a strong solo from Webster, and as on
previous nights including a convincing reading of ‘Thrill Is Gone’. ‘Give Me Time’ is well constructed and
soulful, and they close with a slinky take on ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’,
with guest PennyLeen Krebbers duetting with Webster as she
does on the forthcoming album version, helping to turn it into a steamy torch
song. Look out for a review of the album
Leave Your Heart At The Door very
shortly.
Gonna get funky! |
King King come onstage, and
there’s an immediate reaction to ‘Lose Control’, signaling that once again this
is no casual audience – they’re ready to rumble. The band are on it from start to finish
tonight, but ‘Rush Hour’ in particular catches the ear, right from it’s
delicate guitar intro, and as it rolls forward Wayne Proctor and Lindsay
Coulson dig out incredibly deep foundations.
By now it just needs the
intro to ‘Long History Of Love’ to kill me, and remarkably Alan Nimmo manages
to back it up with an even more incendiary guitar solo than the previous
night. It’s the same with ‘You Stopped
The Rain’, which provokes dancing, singing, and
immersion in its emotion – and
again Nimmo nails the last of these with his guitar solo.
Sean Webster and PennyLeen Krebbers get slinky |
As a matter of personal
preference I might replace ‘Take A Look’ with ‘What Am I Supposed To Do’ or
‘Taken What's Mine' but apparently it’s Mick the merchandise man’s favourite,
and it has to be said that the rising scales at the end are gripping.
Are tonight’s crowd the
best behaved ever during the quiet passage in ‘Stranger To Love’? They must be contenders. But by now it’s the way Alan Nimmo and Bob
Fridzema climb back out of that segment that grabs me, as a preface to the
storming solo that brings the song to a close.
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