Venice @ New Luxor Rotterdam november 6th 2007

Damn, I didn’t plan my Venice tour too well. I should’ve planned another show inbetween Drachten en Rotterdam, ‘cause a hiatus of three weeks felt kinda weird. But this gave me some more time to finish part two of the review though. Although I hadn’t been able to complete it yet.

When I had just arrived in Rotterdam I received a text message from Anja. She was a bit concerned thinking I was heading for the ‘old’ Luxor instead of the ‘new’ Luxor. A couple of minutes earlier I’d let her know that I had arrived in the ‘stad’ – Dutch for ‘city’ – while concerning Rotterdam Anja interprets the word ‘stad’ as ‘center of town’ instead of a word for the whole city. And as the ‘old’ Luxor is in the center of Rotterdam and the ‘new’ Luxor isn’t… Anyhow, don’t worry worry, I was heading for the right Luxor :) For that evening I’d made plans with Xenia and Eric to have something to eat at a restaurant before going to the show. I met up with Xenia at Rotterdam central station in the late afternoon. Okay, what do do now? Take a tram or a metro? We both don’t know Rotterdam too well, but together – what I didn’t know she knew and vice versa – we were able to find it. There Eric was already waiting for us to arrive and we had a very nice dinner.

My good friend Silvana got a photopass and before the show she had an interview with Pat and Michael. She for a long time wanted to come along with me to a Venice show – eversince I ‘brainwashed’ her with my enthusiasm she got very curious – but caused by circumstances she had never been able to. And now, a couple of years later, she could combine seeing Venice live with the job she has as a photographer. Meanwhile I found out that another shirt – with tourdates – had been added to the merchandize. Just had to have that one too :)

And again a different playlist, which keeps it even more interesting than it already is. Especially when so many albums have seen the light of day, which contain numerous songs which all deserve to be played in a live setting. Okay, it hurts a little when a song gets dropped and replaced by another, but that sad feeling turns very quickly into happiness when hearing the replacement :) Now Language Of The Heart, Very Real and The Lost Weekend made place for the ‘newcomers’ Bad Timing Song, We’re OK – goosebumps! – and Always. And still people dare to claim: ‘Why go to more than one show? They’re all the same’. Yeah, right :) Even when the playlists would be exactly the same, the shows would always differ. The crowd was so enthusiastic – no seats needed – that everyone was still standing when it was time for a ballad. Funny thing is that Kipp was letting us know it was okay to sit down for a while by saying ‘you won’t hurt our feelings’.

Well, it was obvious, Silvana had a great time too! Another converted soul :) This time I got an original copy of the playlist – Xenia had saved one for me. It’s nice to have one original playlist per tour. Further it’s the quickest way to get access to the songs which were played so I won’t have to search online before writing down my review. There was a long line for the meet & greet. For me no problem, but Silvana wanted to go home. And as I was staying at here place I had to skip it this time. But luckily I got the chance to quickly give Pat’s birthday card to Michael, who gave it to Pat. ‘Cause it wouldn’t be the same if I’d given him the card a week too late.

There were three more shows ahead of me: the non-reserved seated ones. A bit more stressful because you’ll never know on which row you’ll end up. With reserved seats I don’t mind ending up on row 7, ‘cause that happens when a show is selling out pretty fast. But with non-reserved seats it’s different. In a way you’ll even get the chance for a better seat than with reserved seating, ‘cause it’s in your own hands now. Just arriving early helps a lot. But it just wouldn’t be fun when due to circumstances… then even row 2 feels unfair. Anyhow, till now it had always turned out okay, so it’s best not to worry too much.

Review: Paula Waringa
Photos: Silvana Breur