Post Description

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TH@NKS 2 IANMACD @ DIME !
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Seasick Steve 
Amsterdam Paradiso, The Netherlands 
20th November 2011 (2011-11-20) 


RECORDING: 

Type: Audience (master), recorded front of house, 2 metres back from the left PA stack. 
Source: 2 x matched DPA 4060 mics -> DPA MMA6000 amplifier (100 Hz low-cut filter) -> Edirol R-09HR recorder (44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV) 
Lineage: Audacity 1.3.13-beta (tracks split, fades added) -> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917] 


SET LIST: 

01. Amazing Grace 
02. Diddley Bo 
03. [introducing John Paul Jones] 
04. Thunderbird 
05. [banter] 
06. That's All 
07. Walkin' Man 
08. Burnin' Up 
09. [banter] 
10. What A Way To Go 
11. [banter] 
12. Back In The Doghouse 
13. [banter] 
14. Don't Know Why She Love Me But She Do 
15. [banter] 
16. Treasures 
17. [banter] 
18. You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks 
19. Never Go West 
20. [encore break] 
21. It's A Long Long Way 
22. [banter] 
23. Dog House Boogie 

Running time: 94m 49s 


MD5 CHECKSUMS: 

51b72e7c65c57df3015338fa5403d80c flac/01_amazing_grace.flac 
89aa573b89d2d3b404291e8ef283edd3 flac/02_diddley_bo.flac 
6ff3ebf51232497121b53a22a5b8830f flac/03_introducing_john_paul_jones.flac 
68a324b8db3a1f589190e714beb9b515 flac/04_thunderbird.flac 
f2e0253c94e54b01bd35a5c842516090 flac/05_banter.flac 
db7b60321fde4fd5da0a3e0130ea8f54 flac/06_thats_all.flac 
f713524d5fe8970adab521a667e30cc5 flac/07_walkin_man.flac 
5917b7568b28babb2b8cfdfe8d877546 flac/08_burnin_up.flac 
3cd46bfe301d97409a7c64df1e24d287 flac/09_banter.flac 
aa861e9f7c72d8a0aaa8e3822bc67c5a flac/10_what_a_way_to_go.flac 
8785f8ce0dcb6b32b3cc2d996131a3ab flac/11_banter.flac 
29b9b5049f016407e771ad2b34d079d3 flac/12_back_in_the_doghouse.flac 
2a3117e4384184c202b6ad1bb8373878 flac/13_banter.flac 
2f083d8141680596e6ea4f26ca4e0836 flac/14_dont_know_why_she_love_me_but_she_do.flac 
c7cf6883286d13cd8bb2e27fe65edaef flac/15_banter.flac 
65363a39586f510d8ace31b475b89841 flac/16_treasures.flac 
a985e249c1c810530fb1aeba4f7b8593 flac/17_banter.flac 
638648084da31d15dccf60fb25f2f919 flac/18_you_cant_teach_an_old_dog_new_tricks.flac 
f693ba54d5e7d3a7a4ea9e1d608c554f flac/19_never_go_west.flac 
d60782d83dfb207ded7dfc4b2643b4be flac/20_encore_break.flac 
100c2212f2afedd455920b4981106b27 flac/21_its_a_long_long_way.flac 
4db025ba9c3afc48d8ef564a1b4e2035 flac/22_banter.flac 
8e23d5cb2d380e6908749e2954bd767a flac/23_dog_house_boogie.flac 
ff205f3f76ab4dcf8735fdfd9c7495d6 flac/checksums.ffp 


NOTES: 

I've had a couple of opportunities to see Seasick Steve in the past, but let 
them slide. I liked the records, but didn't feel the need to see the songs 
performed in a live setting. 

That seems like madness now. There's no doubt about it, this ranks as one of 
the bests gigs of the year, right up their with John Grant, Josh T. Pearson 
and Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat. 

At 21:15, Steve pops out from behind the curtain to tumultuous cheering, takes 
a seat at the front of the stage and performs a beautiful solo rendition of 
'Amazing Grace'. It's a deceptively gentle start to a wild evening. 

Enter Dan Magnusson, Steve's drummer. Steve picks up his one-stringed guitar 
and, together with Dan, performs the stomping 'Diddley Bo'. The pace is set 
and it's clear that we're in for a hell of an evening. 

At this point, Steve announces that he'd like to "bring out a friend" of his, 
a "soul brother" from the "greatest rock band that ever rocked the Earth". The 
curtains part and none other than ex-Led Zeppelin bass player, John Paul 
Jones, walks out and joins Steve on stage. 

Jones plays bass on three tracks on Steve's most recent album, 'You Can't 
Teach An Old Dog New Tricks', but his appearance here this evening is 
nonetheless a huge surprise. True, he played a couple of festivals with Steve 
in the summer, but no-one was expecting him to be in attendance here this 
evening. 

It's hard to accurately portray the impact that Jones' arrival has on the 
assembled crowd. I wonder whether he's here for just a couple of numbers, but 
he stays for the rest of the evening, throughout which a number of punters 
make a slow pilgrimage to the front of the hall to shake the legend's holy 
hand. 

Whilst most famous for his virtuoso bass playing, Jones is a 
multi-instrumentalist, playing several instruments with the mastery of 
a musician who has spent a lifetime focused on a single instrument. 

Tonight, Jones variously plays bass, mandolin and lap steel guitar. His 
contribution on each can't be overstated. A great gig is elevated to legendary 
status by his mandolin fills and bass duels with Steve. 

There were a lot of talkers at this gig, most of whom, fortunately, were 
located towards the back of the hall. Nevertheless, they were still a major 
irritation to Steve. 

This first rears its head in 'Walkin' Man'. "Shut the fuck up!" he tells them, 
but to little avail. 

It's the quieter numbers that suffer. Before playing 'Treasures', Steve tells 
us that this song is "not so noisy" and suggests that we might actually want 
to listen to it. 

When the rhubarb fails to die down, he expresses his amazement that there are 
evidently people who will pay good money to go into a bar with music and then 
proceed to talk, when they could go into any number of free bars to talk 
unimpeded. "As dumb as a box of rocks", he calls them, and that's putting it 
mildly. 

After finishing the song, during which the rudeness continued, Steve cautions, 
"If I catch one of you in the back there who's talking, me and you are gonna 
have a little rumble." His frustration is understandable and he has my full 
sympathy. Clucking chickens are becoming more and more of a problem at gigs, 
as the ADD generation struggle to obtain instant gratification for their every 
urge, bereft of any hint of self-restraint. 

I'm almost willing Steve to fulfil his promise and crack some skulls at the 
back, but it's better for the atmosphere if he doesn't. Steve returns to the 
business at hand. 

It's an absolutely mind-blowing set. The sold-out Paradiso is electrified. 
From the ground floor to the second balcony, people are going wild. It feels 
as if the roof could come off at any moment. 

The final song of the evening is 'Dog House Boogie', towards the end of which 
Steve invites daftly named support singer, Qeaux Qeaux Joans, back on stage. 

For me, it's an unwelcome intrusion. I didn't enjoy her cheesy, diluted Dutch 
blues, nor her affected lapses into performer's English, so I certainly don't 
need to hear her crooning over the top of one of Steve's classics. 

Steve himself, however, seems very taken with her, telling us that she has a 
hell of a voice. The girl can sing, it's true, but then again, so can some of 
the tired old dross on those ghastly television talent shows. Being able to 
hold a tune and trot out every performance cliché on demand just isn't enough. 

During 'Dog House Boogie', Steve recounts a tale from his troubled youth. When 
this very personal and difficult story is also met with disrespect from a 
certain section of the audience, Steve's blood boils over and he shouts at 
them to, "Shut the fuck up!" again. 

The song runs its course and finally fades into a chant, to which the band 
leave the stage, only for Steve to rush back on and inform us that they'll be 
coming out to the foyer to sign things for us. 

It's a big crush on the way out and I come close to a ruck with some twat 
pushing me from behind. 

Smokers, beer-throwers, talkers... idiots with no spatial awareness... 
intrusive photographers... selfish pricks one and all. If it's not one type at 
a gig, it's the other; or, on a bad night, all of them. I wonder how much 
longer a reclusive misanthrope like me can stomach gatherings like this. 

As I mentioned before, most of the chatting was to the back of the hall, so my 
recording isn't directly affected. Clearly, this is a recurring problem for 
Steve, as evidenced by this (Dutch language) review of his gig a few days 
earlier at Eindhoven Effenaar: 

http://www.lustforlifemagazine.nl/artikelen/concertrecensies/7168-seasick-steve-in-effenaar-concertrecensie 

Sadly, we all know from reading gig reviews and the descriptions that 
accompany recordings on DIME, that this isn't just a Dutch phenomenon, 
although I can imagine that it's worse in countries where English isn't the 
native language (which, let's face it, is most of them). 

But let's not let all this talk of talk distract us from what was truly a 
legendary gig. The trio of Steve, John Paul Jones and living embodiment of 
Animal from The Muppets, drummer Dan Magnusson, laid down a performance that, 
even with my addled memory, I'll be able to recall for years to come.