Carré is a beautiful old theatre, just fully renovated, and offers a great ambiance for concerts like these. It was sold out, as is the 2nd show I believe. Ethel got a warm reception. They clearly enjoyed playing here. The last time they were in Amsterdam was in the Paradiso, with Dayna Kurz. I think they were superb. Especially the Jon King compositions were fantastic. Delta blues for string quartet!
Joe’s set was impeccable. I’m not good in remembering song titles. But from what I’ve read here he played the familiar setlist, no surprises, but a solid performance.
I think there were slightly more Joe fans than Todd fans here. But what set this night aside was that the audience was appreciative of both. I think the merger worked very good tonight, in that the fans of the one artist were very open towards the other one.
Todd was in good form tonight. Apparently sweeped up by the warm reception he got in the UK he was in an excellent mood. He clearly loved being in Amsterdam. Everything went well. He broke no strings, didn’t mess up any tunes. Instead he gave a stunning sample of his impressive body of work. I went with my wife, who is reasonably familiar with Joe’s work, but never listened to Todd’s. After tonight she holds a very high opinion of Todd’s art! She especially loved “It wouldn’t have made any difference” on the piano. I loved “Afterlife”. Then the final part. “Pretending to care” was definitely a highlight for the both of us. “Soul brother” got everyone in a festived mood. “While my guitar gently weeps” was mesmerizing, and the crowd went bananas. They kept yelling and applauding until the group returned for a final, unrehearsed encore. Another Todd song, forgot the title, but wonderful. Then it was all over. What a night. This was much more than I dared to hope for! What a pity I didn’t have enough money saved to buy a ticket for Sunday night as well. Bought the Ethel CD on the way out, which is playing right now. Highly recommended listening.
Mow let’s hope this will encourage Todd to came back soon!
