Ralphy's Concert Reviews

Bløf - Concert in Margraten (The Netherlands) 06-07-2002

This review will involve a lot of translations, because Bløf is a Dutch band and their lyrics are also in Dutch. They are not just any Dutch band, the best proof for that is the fact that shortly before this performance it was made public, that Bløf had taken over first place as the band most played on Dutch radio in the last year from Marco Borsato, who had held this position for the past 2 years. Not that this in itself is that big an achievement, because obviously there is also a lot of crap music on radio nowadays and some great bands hardly can get any airtime. But in this case this dubious honour came to the right people, because in my humble opinion Bløf is the best Dutch language band of the last couple of years. The band out of the Dutch province, Zeeland (literally: sealand ; opposed to New Zealand, this is the old one) was founded in 1992, but didn't have its major breakthrough in Holland until 1998, when their single "Liefs uit Londen" (Love from London) stormed the Dutch charts. The original band line-up was Paskal Jakobsen (guitar, vocals), Peter Slager (bass), Bas Kennis (keyboards) and Henk Tjoonk on drums, but he was replaced by Chris Götte in 1997 before they became Dutch celebrities. Peter is also the man, who writes most of the highly acclaimed lyrics and frontman Paskal is the biggest music composer of the band. Since their first chart success Bløf have been almost ever present in the Dutch charts, both the commercial ones as those chosen by fans and even the ones made up by critics (like me and professional ones). All 4 albums made by the band had successful single releases and the Bløf-fan community was ever growing until 17 March 2001. On that fatal day Bløf was struck by disaster as drummer Chris Götte died as a consequence of the injuries he sustained from an accident with his motorbike. This tragedy had its effect on the Dutch music scene in general and on the band Bløf and the family and friends of Chris in particular. Ofcourse the band suspended its activities for an unconfirmed amount of time, but after a period of grief, it was clear to the remaining band members that they didn't want to stop making music and that Chris would not want them to. In fact in writing the new album they found another way to deal with the loss of Chris. The latest and fifth studio-album "Blauwe ruis" (blue murmur), made with the help of the new drummer Norman Bonink (ex-Frank Boeijen Groep), is therefore in large parts sort of a mix of a dedication and an eulogy to their much missed member.

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Initially this concert was scheduled to be held in the auction hall in Margraten, but for some reason the organisation, Harmonie Concordia (which celebrated its 150-year anniversary), moved it to the horse's training ground. This was a huge mistake. We arrived at around 20.15 hours and at that time there was no problem. The opening band, the local cover group Network, was scheduled for 20.30 hours, but as usual didn't start untill after 9PM. At that time it was already getting pretty crowded, but the situation was still managable. We (my girlfriend Monja and me, Astrid & Maurice and some other acquaintances) had a couple of drinks and when Network was finished we moved towards the center of the hall. At that time it became obvious that the place was too small for this amount of people. It was a constant pushing and shoving around us and Monja wanted to go back to where we stood before. The others didn't, so we stayed and thankfully so, because when I later went back there to get some drinks and after Bløf had finished we noticed that it was even more crowded there than the places we were occupying during the concert. This was a serious organisational flaw, if you sell this many tickets take care that the place has capacity enough for so many people. Monja even got sick during the concert and I could see that she could not enjoy one minute of the show due to the confinement and this ofcourse was also responsible that I couldn't enjoy the event in full. After Bløf had finished we almost immediately left the hall although Network started playing another set, but it was just too crowded.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest, but now to the music. Bløf started under big applause with "Dichterbij dan ooit" (Closer than ever), the first single of the latest album and one of the songs that refer to Chris Götte. They followed up with 4 other former singles "Blauwe ruis", the titlesong of that album, "Dansen op zee" (Dancing at sea), Eén dag op de grens (One day on the border/edge) and Niets dan dit (Nothing but this). Bløf is most famous for its poetic lyrics and I cannot comprehend how they can keep coming up with them. The first thing that springs to mind while listening to them performing is that the whole show is a feast of recognition. In the last 4 years these guys had so many (radio-)hits in Holland that they can fill a show with only playing these tracks. Among the songs they played next where hits like "Zaterdag" (Saturday), "Boven" (Upstairs) from their 3rd album with the same title, their latest single "Mooie dag" (Beautiful day; no not a translation of the U2-song), to me their best song "Harder dan ik hebben kan" (More than I can take) and the song that has become almost like a new provincial anthem for Zealand, "Aan de Kust" (On the coast), which is so famous it was sung by the audience entirely for the first part. "Aan de Kust" was the only song from their debut-album "Naakt onder de hemel" (Naked under the sky/stars). In between and around these hits they played a couple of tracks that haven't been released as singles, I identified a beautiful version of "Oog in oog" (Eye to eye) from their 4th album 'Watermakers', "Meer van jou" (More of you), which had a great intro, "Vrij" (Free) and "Waar de oceaan begint" (where the ocean starts), which would be the last song of the non-encore setlist.

They came back on stage for 2 encores of 2 songs. The first song was another non-single track "Anders" (Different), a song from the only album I haven't mentioned by name yet, it was their third studio release 'Helder' (Clear). Next up was "Hier" (Here), one of their biggest hits so far and definitely one of the highlights of the evening. The second encore started of with their breakthrough song, the gentle "Liefs uit Londen". A bit strange that this song was the one that opened the doors to the big time (if you can talk about a big time for Dutch language music) for them as it is not at all representative for their music. Ofcourse its lyrics are poetic, but it is a smooth ballad, whereas the majority of their work is rock-oriented. The last song they played was another single, although it wasn't a big hit, "Engel voor één nacht" (Angel for one night). There at least 2 singles they didn't perform as far as I know: "Wat zou je doen?" (What would you do?) and "Ze is er niet" (She's not there ; again not a translation).

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All in all I did enjoy the musical part of the evening, Bløf is not just a studio band, they also give a convincing live performance and the fact that they left out a couple of singles, does not undermine their show, it leaves room for some great tracks that otherwise would not get enough attention. I forgot to bring my little notebook, so I'm not completely sure if the setlist below is in the right order. I do know that these were the songs they played, because I posted a previous list on the forum at their website, www.blof.nl, and Peter, the bassplayer made one correction on the list. He stated that they had played "Vrij" instead of "Weggaan" (Leaving). I rate the performance of Bløf with a 7.8, but the organisation gets a big fat 1.0.

The complete set list (again maybe not in the right order ; the green songs where my favourites of this evening):

  Song Originally from Album
1 Dichterbij dan ooit Blauwe ruis
2 Blauwe ruis Blauwe ruis
3 Dansen op zee Watermakers
4 Eén dag op de grens Boven
5 Niets dan dit Boven
6 Oog in oog Watermakers
7 Zaterdag Boven
8 Meer van jou Blauwe ruis
9 Boven Boven
10 Mooie dag Blauwe ruis
11 Aan de kust Naakt onder de hemel
12 Vrij Blauwe ruis
13 Harder dan ik hebben kan Boven
14 Waar de oceaan begint Watermakers
  First exit of stage  
Encore 1 Anders Helder
Encore 2 Hier Watermakers
  Second exit of stage  
Encore 3 Liefs uit Londen Helder
Encore 4 Engel voor één nacht Watermakers

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