This is a little compilation video I put together from my semester in Europe:
Featuring:
Places:
Netherlands (Amsterdam, Giethoorn)
Sweden (Stockholm)
Switzerland (Lugano)
England (London)
France (Normandie)
Bands:
MGMT
Vampire Weekend
Modest Mouse
Stars
People:
…from all over the world!
The Heineken Music Hall is located right next to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA, the metro stop I get off at to go to my school. On the ride over I noticed there were a lot of men on the metro wearing red scarves that said “Ajax” or “Amsterdam,” things of that sort. Turns out there was a big football (soccer) game at the Ajax stadium the same time as our concert. The Ajax stadium is also located right next to this Bijlmer ArenA metro stop. These details are important for understanding the events that followed after the concert…
Vampire Weekend was absolutely amazing live. They will always be one of my favorite bands and I am exceptionally grateful that I got to see them, and in Amsterdam of all places! They always sell out in the States, and this show at the Heineken Music Hall was actually their last show in Europe for a while. Looks like we will be seeing a new Vampire Weekend album in our future!
Jenny and Johnny opened for Vampire Weekend. This band was really great too. The hall itself was absolutely massive. It is nights like these that I wish I were Dutch. Dutch men are just so darn tall that I couldn’t see a thing while Jenny and Johnny were on. We decided it would be best to go up in back to where the seats are. Even though we were far away and Vampire Weekend looked like ants, it was much more pleasant to sit back there and see the whole show than to be craning my neck and struggling to see.
It was a great show. I forgot how much I love Vampire Weekend and live music in general. This is one thing I will miss greatly when I retreat back to the woods and stop experiencing the fast-paced, Amsterdam city life.
What are the chances that our concert got out at the same time as the football game at Ajax? Flocks of people all rushed for the metro station at Bijlmer. I’ve never seen so many people at that metro stop, most of which were men. Nobody seemed to have a happy face on, it was obvious that Madrid won the game.
Packed in like sardines, we finally get on the metro. It was freezing outside and I couldn’t wait to get back and get some warm food! A couple stops after getting on, the metro stops dead. I felt like I was in the “Subway” episode of Seinfeld. We wait for ages before someone tells us that the door got kicked in at the next stop over and the metro wasn’t able to move. I thought we were never going to get back and there were tons of unhappy footballers thinking the same. After a long wait, the metro finally started back up again and we managed to get home, but what an awful time for it to stop running. There were hundreds of people crammed into those trains. Quite the eventful night!
MGMT is one of those bands you hear are terrible live, but their recordings become insanely popular. I actually thought they were pretty fun live, especially since they played in Amsterdam. If I were to see MGMT in the States, there would be no way I could have gotten that close to the stage. The crowd was surprisingly small.
I only managed to get a ticket a few hours before the show, but I’m glad I was able to snag one. This was a band I always wanted to see live, and now I have one more thing I can check off my list.
Tonight, I saw Modest Mouse (my favorite band) play at Melkweg. This is the second time I’ve seen them play live. The first time was in Chicago (at the Pitchfork Music Festival) about two months ago. This time around, I thought they played a MUCH better set list. I was quite impressed. The support was a band called ‘Yuck‘ and I actually really enjoyed their sound as well.
At one point, Modest Mouse played ‘Paper Thin Walls.’ Then, they played it again. And again. The audience started to wonder what was going on. Isaac Brock (the lead singer) then says, “WHO WANTS TO HEAR PAPER THIN WALLS AGAIN?!” The audience laughs as they play the beginning of the song a few more times. Isaac then says, “Okay, well we’re going to take a break, and while we’re back stage you guys can vote on how many more times you want to hear ‘Paper Thin Walls’ and whatever you come up with, we’ll multiply it by 3.” Modest Mouse then proceeded to leave the stage and came back for an encore to perform another 4 songs or so.
I saw a band called ‘Stars‘ play at Melkweg last night. The venue is awesome! It has a smaller stage on the right side of the building and a bigger stage on the left one. Stars played on the smaller stage, which I was very happy about because it just felt very intimate. The audience was the most diverse I’ve ever seen at a concert. I saw old men singing and dancing along, couples of all ages getting cuddly, and groups of people around my age. Though the support band was just a boy band in disguise, I thought Stars was pretty fun live. They decorated the stage with white roses before the band went on and throughout the performance the singers would throw roses and petals out into the crowd. My friend Kazzy and I both managed to catch a rose, which will be a nice little memento of the night. I can’t wait to see Modest Mouse there on Tuesday!
I’m REALLY excited because I just found the good music venue in Amsterdam. Melkweg seems to have a lot of alternative bands coming through, many of which I’m very interested in seeing. Tonight I purchased tickets to see a band called Stars on Sunday, September 5th and a band called Modest Mouse (saw them this summer at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago) on Tuesday, September 7th. This music venue is located right in one of the squares we tend to spend quite a lot of time in. This also happens to be very close to my apartment building. I really hope I can get out and see many more shows here before I leave Amsterdam.
