Jaga Jazzist - Amsterdam Melkweg 27th Feb 2010

It was a wonderful gig, absolutely wonderful. 

The venue wasn't the best I've ever been. The "old hall" in which they played didn't had seats or lots of space, but on the other hand it was nice and "cosy". The hall was full of people. I don't exactly know how many people there were, but the amount of people was much bigger than I expected. The gig started at 21:00, but when a friend of mine and I arrived slightly late, the band hadn't even started and there were lots of people waiting outside to get in. 

Anyway, when we got in and the band finally started tom play, the waiting outside really was worth it. The band opened by playing several pieces from the new album (One-Armed Bandit) in a slightly unusual order. If I remember correctly, they played "Book Of Glass" first, then continued with "One-Armed Bandit", which was much more powerful than the studio version and really made me shiver during the epic reprise of the main theme. They played "Bananfluer Overalt" next, followed by "Toccata" and "220 V/Spektral". After this series of pieces from the One-Armed Bandit album, the band played several pieces from their previous releases and the remaining songs from the new album. As I'm not very familiar with their older material (yet), I didn't recognize most of that music, but I did recognize "Day", "All I Know Is Tonight" and "Oslo Skyline", which was announced as "Amsterdam Skyline". The band played all the music with an incredible lot of power.

The band was very passionate on stage and it wasn't hard to see that they really were enjoying playing. The audience was very excited too, or at least most of the audience. I was incredibly annoyed by several people that were standing behind me and were constantly talking. As the sound wasn't very loud (which I was happy about, as I didn't need earbuds to prevent hearing damage) the talking of the people could be clearly heard during softer parts in the music. I still don't get why you'd want to visit a gig if you're constantly talking anyway. Even though this annoyed me a bit, I still really have enjoyed the amazing performance by the band.

In the end this really was an amazing performance. The band really proved what a great group of musicians they are. 

yes, me too ! 

Hopefully the french audience will be quieter...Well, it was during Ulver, and given that ulver fans are metalheads, we can expect a dead silence during jaga jazzist ...