dEUS Concert Reviews


04-11-95 Netherlands, Rotterdam, Nighttown, 2 Meter Nighttown In

19-01-1996 Netherlands, Rotterdam, Nighttown, Bazar Curieux

14-04-96 Netherlands, Tilburg, Noorderligt, Untitled Music #1


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04-11-95 Netherlands, Rotterdam, Nighttown, 2 Meter Nighttown In

Cd presentation concert. Line-up included: Bettie Serveert, Ezio, Duke, Metal Molly, Sjako! dEUS played acoustic, without Stef & Jules but with new guitarist Craig Ward.

1st a setlist:

- Wake Me Up Before You Sleep

- ? (beautiful!)

- Little Arythmics

- Overflow

- Divebomb Djingle

- Seven Threads

- ? (Alex Chilton cover)

- Hotellounge

For this concert the big Nighttown hall and a really small intimate hall in Popular, the cafe next door, were used. I was really happy to see that Barman & Ward were scheduled to play in the small hall 'cos that's just the perfect enviroment to see such a concert. This also meant i had to leave Sjako! early to get a good spot. But that was okay because Sjako! wasn't very good and the reward was a very good spot in the front.

To my suprise Barman & Ward were already on stage about 15 minutes early and they even practised one complete song they would play later too. But there was an even greater suprise: there were three people on the stage, the third being dEUS violin player Klaas Janszoons!!! On the stage there was also a very small electronic toy-like piano hanging from Tom's microphone stand.

The hall was really small: less than half the size of the basement ore about 1/3 of the smallest tent at Lowlands (sorry but i can't compare with any Belgian clubs 'cos i haven't seen too many ;-)). This was a little fuck-up by Nighttown because there were far more people than there was room. So some people had to stand in the hallway. But if you want to see the complete Sjako! concert well, yes that's the price you pay ;-)

Before they started Tom warned the audience the songs were going to be very soft. And he kept his word because the first song was Wake Me Up Before You Sleep. Tom performed this alone but Craig and Klaas listened to it on stage. The next song was one i hadn't heard before, but it was very beautiful. It was played by Tom with Craig playing a few chords every now and then. Tom introduced Craig as dEUS' new guitarist. The next song was a new one called Little Arythmics. This had Tom & Craig playing guitar and Klaas playing the mini piano.

Tom introduced the next song as an ode to the Palace Brothers. But he told it was one of their songs and not actually by the Palace brothers. This was a really beautiful song. One thing was quite remarkable: Craig's voice sounded exactly like Stef's. During the songs i also know with Stef singing along i could just close my eyes and swear it was Stef who was singing along. After this very touching and warm song Tom said "and now something more light (it was "lichtvoetigers" in Dutch but i can't really translate that). And they played a very good version of Divebomb Djingle.

Now it was time to really introduce Craig 'cos they played one of his songs called Seven Threads. During this Tom played the small piano which now made a pan flute sound. He liked this so much he even added a small improvisation which got everyone to laugh. It was a good bluesy song but it lacked that little extra touch most dEUS songs have. Now they played a cover by Alex Chilton. This was the song they had already practised earlier. The last song was Hotellounge. When they came to the first verse they suddenly stopped and Tom said they were playing to slow. So they started over again. The intro was very nice with Klaas playing the violin loop from his My Sister song How To Row A Cat. At the end they didn't play the few seconds of guitar bashing noise like they often do.

This was definetly a great concert, and one of the best ones i've ever seen (and certainly the best not-dEUS one). It was just very special to hear all this really soft warm songs with the musicians sitting about 50cm away. I haven't heard the radio broadcast but i hope they broadcasted all of this stunning show. The rest of the evening was good too: Ezio (not original, but very nice), Metal Molly (not acoustic, but they were absolutly fantastic!!! Look out for these guys, they make great music & have a nice sense of humour, please do youself a favour and check them out!) Duke (nice, good vocals), Sjako! (not very good) & Bettie Serveert (Good, nothing new but very nice anyway).

Wow, this review is getting a bit too long. Sorry people, i'm just totally blown away by Barman, Ward & Janszoons and Metal Molly. Btw i saw Klaas near Nighttown Basement afterwards but i left him (&girlfriend) alone 'cos he played great and didn't deserve to be bothered.

Jorg Schellekens (jorgs@knoware.nl)

04-11-95 Netherlands, Rotterdam, Nighttown, Bazar Curieux

Indoor Festival. Line-up included: Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung, Think Of One, Lionel Horowitz & His Combo, Pierre Bastien, and much more...

Cooperating artists:

Think of One
dEUS
Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung
Lionell Horowitz & his Combo
PPZ30
Bleep
Rudy Trouve
Alfred Trouve
Dirk Belmans
Jam
Katherine Cleave
Erik Nerinckx
Tom Barman
Superstar Dave
Pierre Bastien
Louis Katorz
Neven
Everything is slow
De Suzie Boys
Members of Moondog Jr.
Evil Superstars

These are all the names mentioned on the special promotional flyer from Musickness and Nighttown, who organized this great festival of different arts. I'm sure I haven't seen all of the above, because this was difficult in the sometimes tight schedule.

After having waited in the icy weather outside for about half an hour and after a quick survey of the premises, Pierre Bastien was the first pleasant surprise. In a small hall behind Popular (a bar next to Nighttown), he created a mix of repetative minimal music, assisted by some other guy and a rack full of meccano controlled music instruments. For this night, this hall was named Heaven Hotel, which is also the title of the 'movie' wich I saw later on. Except for the bands performing in the Nighttown main hall, all other artists performed several times to enable everyone to see as much as possible of this festival.

We had to search for the location where Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung would perform, but quickly we were in a room above Popular, which was nicely decorated with washing machine drums. Jam were responsible for this peculiar furniture. From everything I've seen this evening, the performance by Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was my personal highlight. They did only a short gig (appr. 40 minutes) starting off by Dreislagstelsel. They encouraged the audience to losen up and walk around, just as they did themselves. This was followed by a slapstick-like homevideo by the Suzie Boys (I think), which had some very funny scenes in it (like the earthquake and the bear-tragedy).

After this it was time to look around a bit and so we spent some time in the Basement, which was planned to be the dance room for this evening. Video art was shown on several monitors and it was even possible to surf the internet by computer.

Luckily we were back in Nighttown just in time to see a surprise performance by eight people, from who it was not difficult to recognize the members of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung and Moondog Jr. (except for Aarich). Unfortunately, Moondog Jr. didn't have their own performance (as I expected), but this small intermezzo partly made up for this. Stef, wearing some sort of police cap and squeaking through a megaphone, and the others did an improvised rendition of 'Spike Smith's for all lost goods'. This ensemble could be seen later on again during Die Anarchisten's third performance, but unfortunately I missed this.

Reason for this was my attendance at 'Heaven Hotel', a strange movie about a very boring day in the life of two peculiar guys (Craig Ward & Dave Robertson). At least, that is what I think the movie is about. The movie (lasting for about 50 long minutes) didn't make a great impression on me, but the soundtrack was great. The music was not prerecorded but played run-time by Lionell Horowitz's Combo, which was enforced by Rudy Trouve. I had seen him earlier in the evening but I had some difficulty recognizing him. He looked different (read: healthier) from the last few times I've seen him, when he seemed to be in a spiritual place far from here. If I forget about the movie and concentrate on the Mr. Bungle-like music, this was the second main highlight.

If I remember correctly (which is difficult after such a long night) Heaven Hotel was followed by more than an hour of no live performances, but with lots of great music in Nighttown. This was partly provided by dj-for-the-occasion Tom Barman.

At 2.30u Nighttown was packed for the first dEUS performance with the complete new line up. For many people this would clearly be the climax of the evening, but I've certainly seen better dEUS shows. It wasn't the worst either, but it lacked some sort of spontanity I think. I expected lots of new and never played songs, but I counted only three. The setlist (quoted titles are guesses):

'Counterclockwise'
The supermarket song
'What do I find?'
Serpentine
Overflow
Little arithmetics
? (with Rock me baby as an intro)
Gimme the heat
Horror party jokes
Ferocious
---------
Wake me up before you sleep
Twenty something
My wife Jan

Benjamin from Moondog participated in the first song, which seemed like a big experiment, being a cacaphonia of sounds. In fact, before the start, the announcer summoned him to appear backstage quickly, because dEUS needed his services.

The best part was when Tom c.s. did a small acoustic set, starting with the beautiful 'Serpentine' and ending with 'Little arithmetics'.

I'm not sure which songs will be included on dEUS' next album, but I sure hope 'Gimme the heat' will be one of them, although it's a cover (Violent Femmes).

'Horror party jokes' was rather tame and very unlike earlier live versions (for example at Werchter or in Nighttown in June '95).

Tom anounced Ferocious as a new song, which is not very true. It already seems a long time since I heard it for the first time in Apeldoorn (or even before that).

Tom warned the audience not to ask for 'Suds & soda', because everyone doing this would be kicked out. What a big surprise it was when several people challenged Tom by doing just that (NOT!).

Apart from this, I don't remember any other special events.

At about 3.40 am, the end of the dEUS gig meant the end of the night for most of the audience, because only a few die hards remained and waited to see the final live performance by Neven, who brought a blend of triphop and mellow house. Instruments like trumpet and tuba were an interesting addition to the computer based music (created by a very fanatic guy, at least for that time of night) and conga drumming.

Although a few people kept awake through dancing, it was clear that a long night of great art had taken its toll. It certainly did for me, so I was glad to be able to slide into my bed at around 6.30 am.

Paul van Gorp(paulvg@win.tue.nl)

Another review of this concert:

At 20:15 Nighttown opened its doors for the people waiting outside. The first thing to do was of course to take a look at all the different rooms and to see what was going to be happening there. The main Nighttown stage was reserved for the acts that would only perform once that night. That included dEUS & Think Of One among others. On both sides of the stage there were film screens on which paintings by Rudy Trouve & co were projected. The basement area was used as a special dance area. On the very small Popular stage all things would be shown several times. In the attic of the Popular bar area Die Anarchistische Abenunterhaltung had their own room.

It started of pretty good. Me and a friend went looking for DAA because they were not in the schedules for the main halls. After asking about this somebody from Nighttown showed us to the attic of Popular even though they weren't gonna play for some time. There we asked someone at what time DAA was gonna play. He said he wasn't sure 'cos not all band members had arrived yet. So i asked if he knew the band. He turned out to be the accordeon (is it called that in English too?) player. Since he didn't have much to we talked for a while. He told some thing about their supporting Moondog Jr. They are not only going to play before them but there will also be some songs they'll play together. When the conversation got to dEUS he told about a dEUS single that has dEUS songs and their version of Suds & Soda. I had never heard about this but it seems to exist. Their music own music is really great, but it was also really cool when they played together with Moondog Jr. Four members of Moondog Jr. (Aarich was not there) and the four DAA members walked through Nighttown in a row while playing the Moondog song Spike Smith's For All Lost Goods. This was really fun and nice to see & hear. Moondog Jr. did not play alone.

One of the first things in the main hall was Think Of One. They had Tom Pintes, Thomas De Smet and Benjamin Botreur (all Moondog Jr.) in the band. They made really cool jazz like music with some world music influences. At times they sounded like Moondog Jr. (suprise ;-)), Morphine and Frank Zappa. Cool!

One of the things i like best were the Lionel Horowitz & His Combo shows. They performed three times in Popular. This is the bands including ex-dEUS member Rudy Trouve, who had created a special movie for this night. The movie was projected on a big screen behind the band and at some moments they played their songs while the movie was playing. The music was really great and really suited the movie which was also amazing. It was a day in the life of Dave Robertson & Craig Ward who spent their days as out of work tramps (but with a house). It had some really moody lyrics (check my new sig!) but there was also some good humor to equalise it for a bit. Everything was pretty experimental and to really understand seeing it completely and concentrating is really required. I can tell you this from seeing it half the first time while standing in a not very good spot and seeing it complete the 2nd time sitting in a good place. However i figure the music of LH & HC will also be really nice without this special film.

Pierre Bastin played a fun show with instruments built from Meccano. This is a toy building system that was popular years ago. It's a bit like the Lego brick system but with iron bars with holes in them and screws. It was really amazing but after hearing it once the music really became less interesting. Too bad, 'cos it's a good show.

At 3:30am it was time for dEUS to play. First a setlist, altough it is not in the right order.

The Horror Partyjokes, Ferocious, Little Arithmatics, Gimme The Heat, Overflow, Supermarket Song, Twenty Something, Sexmachines, Serpentine ... and two ?'s

hmmm, i've got a feeling something's missing, but here goes: As you can see no WCS songs. This eliminated all stage diving, moshing and crowdsurfing. That was pretty okay 'cos it allowed me to stand in 1st row againt the stage for all of the show. The little casio electronic organ that Klaas played during their last acoustic session was hanging from his mic stand. Craig, Stef and Tom were all wearing the same purple suits. They started with a new song which only had some very long notes from the organ but no bass or guitars. After this the real set started. This was a bit dissapointing 'cos of the lack of new songs. One was really new, but the rest have already been played (& recorded mostly) live. Craig was clearly having some trouble. He had a lot of guitar trouble sometimes even switching guitars during songs in which he had to play. The Serpentine ... song was truely beautiful. They had already played this at the '2 Meter Nighttown In' show and it's the song that partly starts the radio broadcast of that show. The Horror Partyjokes was also good, but there was some misunderstanding between Tom & Stef. After a little short but nice set they came back for a three song encore.

The show was good but it didn't quite compare to shows like the Apeldoorn and 2nd Nighttown ones. Unfortunatly some of the new material lacks that special dEUS feel. I'm not saying the have to keep copying WCS but they should keep their own and very original style. I got the feeling that with Craig having guitar trouble Rudy was badly missed.

Okay, you heard it right: a little criticism on dEUS. But they're still very much ahead of other bands, and of course a lot of things were still really great and original. High hopes for the new album stay justified.

hhhmmm, I'm falling asleep again. There was much more but as i said before it's impossible to cover all of such a night in one review. Well, if you can go see them in Tongeren. Awaiting more reviews while sleeping,

Jorg Schellekens (jorgs@knoware.nl)

14-04-96 Netherlands, Tilburg, Noorderligt, Untitled Music #1

Indoor festival. Line-up shown below:

Cooperating artists:
Han Buhrs
Attaca
Charles Gayle Trio
Paul Hermsen & Ingrid Kapelle
David Thomas & The 2 Pale Boys
Crossroads workshop
Simpletones
Stichting X
dEUS

Before a review on the dEUS part of this festival, let me spend some words on the other acts of the day. In fact, only one or two of them are worth mentioning, because the festival more or less disappointed me. Charles Gayle and his two companions freaked out for almost one hour. It seemed that each of the members of the trio were doing their own thing, indepent from the others. This resulted in a freshening demonstration of free jazz.

David Thomas (frontman of Pere Ubu) & The 2 Pale Boys was the other positive exception. Although the show was a bit monotone, the resemblance to the Tom Waits style made me like it. I noticed that not many people really did enjoy it; I must admit I was chatting for most of the time.

Han Buhrs was the presenter of the day. Each act was introduced with a mini voice performance, which sometimes reminded me of Beefheart's voice. His 'poetic' lyrics were accompanied by music from some sort of recycled upright bass and a set of minispeakers.

Except for dEUS, the other acts couldn't interest me at all. The Simpletones were the highligt in negative sense. This 18 piece bigband (which actually consisted of 17 people) was headed by some dodo, whom I suspect of being the younger nephew of Eddie Wally. After two boring 'songs', I couldn't stand it anymore and had to wait for almost one hour for the next performance.

Stichting X turned out to be an integration of sound and vision: some arty movies were shown, while Han Buhrs and some other guy were producing a live soundtrack. The movies had some funny moments like a survey of the mating habits of two lady-birds and a singing penis.

At 11.00pm dEUS started their show. They were scheduled to fill 70 minutes, but they actually finished at about 0.45am. Surely, they were having lots of fun, but this was no guarantee for a brilliant show. Especially the first half was rather bad IMHO. Part of this was caused by the terrible sound. I don't know if this improved during the show or if I got used to it, but only during the last half of the show it stopped to annoy me. Another reason why I didn't really like the start was the lack of new songs during the first part; knowing that dEUS had recorded for about two months for the new album, I was counting on many completely new songs. This changed later on, as can be seen from the setlist:

'Disappointed'
Jigsaw you
Via
Gimme the heat
Twenty something
Worst case scenario
Supermarket song
Little arithmetics
Let's get lost
Suds and soda
... riding on a wet night (= 'Counterclockwise')
Serpentine (= Certain time?)
----------- (Thank you for) the roses
?
? (possibly part of the previous song)
Hotellounge
Hotellounge
My wife Jan
----------- Shake your hip
Morticiachair
Great american nude
'Misery'

Some notes on some of the songs (quoted titles in the setlist again are guesses):

I don't think 'Disappointed' really is a song; it could be a typical dEUS concert intro song like in the 'old' dEUS shows. 'Gimme the heat' and 'Twenty something' had the same arrangements like before, so these songs haven't changed during the last recording sessions. This can not be said of 'Little arythmetics', which was now accompanied by an irritating drumcomputerish rhytm. This annoying sound made the song a bit childish. Peter Vermeesch played the clarinet during 'WCS', but due to the awful PA settings, his music could hardly be heard.

Although being a pretty good song, 'Supermarket song' was no success this time. This was caused by the fact that it was interrupted twice by Craig, who seemed not being used to playing this song. During the first interrupt he said he couldn't play it, but nevertheless the song continued.

I was surprised by the fact that 'Suds and soda' was done, because Tom has stated many times that he was bored playing this hit again and again. The audience didn't seem to mind: in the front much jumping and dancing was going on. The end of 'Suds and soda' for me was the turning point of the 'til then rather disappointing show; from then it became much more amusing and quite interesting.

It started off with a not entirely new song from which I couldn't understand the first word of the title; in a former review (Bazar Curieux) I have called it 'Counterclockwise'. The song is build up nicely and expresses a strained atmosphere which reminds of U2's 'Exit'. Someone came on stage to provide additional percussions. He was helped by Klaas during the end of the song. 'Serpentine' followed and was done more or less acoustically.

After a short break, 'Thank you for the roses' was announced. While I always thought this was called 'Ferocious', I now could clearly understand the correct title. Maybe the lyrics have changed over time. It nevertheless undoubtedly will be one of the highlights of the new album. It was followed by one or two completely new songs; it may be one song, with two clearly distinguishable parts. The first was rather weak; it effectively was a speech by Tom put on music. The second was kind of freaky, and had some similarities with the Kiss My Jazz-style.

As can be seen from the setlist, Hotellounge was done twice. During the start of the first rendition, a small girl climbed on the stage for some unknown reason. When she was looking to reenter the audience, Tom pulled her towards the microphone. He invited her to sing the lyrics, and so she did in a horrid and terrible way. She didn't really know the words, which also didn't help. Luckily (for my ears) this duet didn't see the end of the song, and the song started over again; it abruptly stopped somewhere after one of the last verses. Normally this would be the end of it, but not on this night.

I didn't expect to hear 'Mortichair' again after Rudy's departure in August, since this typically is 'his' song. Nevertheless Craig took over without problems and it sounded quite natural. 'Great american nude' meant a return to the old dEUS-days. Wearing a grey suit, as if he just returned from a funeral, Stef kept rather motionless this time.

A new song, in which Craig and Stef several times exclaimed the line 'Misery' with high pitched voiced, concluded the performance.

As can be concluded from this review, I have mixed feelings about this festival. It started at 4.00pm, and afterwards I think being outside in the nice sunny springweather would have been a better occupation of my afternoon, although both trios (Charles Gayle and David Thomas) were quite nice. dEUS didn't really impress me at first, but this fortunately changed for the better later on. However, if I compare this festival to the Bazar Curieux happening from three months earlier, I must say that a lot can be learned by the organisation. Let's hope they do so for Untitled Music #2.

Paul van Gorp (paulvg@win.tue.nl)


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