When I initially set up this blog around two years ago, I had no real concept as to how many articles I may derive from all the gigs I have attended. Thus, to my mild surprise I have managed to reach my centenary 100th article and throughout that period so many people have been supportive and encouraging of my endeavours.
To celebrate this landmark, I have carefully considered the constitution of this week’s blog. It was a natural step to include Mogwai who I have now seen live 33 times and I thought it would then be appropriate to link that up with the one time I have seen them in a European setting.
The gang of four, John and Tony Dewhurst, Uncle George and I had for a sustained period yearned to undertake a trip abroad to see the Glasgow post-rock masters. In 2003, we discovered they were on an extensive tour, so I drew up a virtual Venn diagram of the dates matching that against the cost and availability of corresponding flights which pointed to Amsterdam being the most viable option.
This all resulted in us travelling over to Liverpool John Lennon Airport (above us only sky!) on the morning of Thursday 29/05/2003 for the short hop over to Schipol Airport. On arrival at Amsterdam train station we traversed over the road to our nearby hotel.
In the reception, there were a group of lads there with suitcases who had clearly pushed the envelope whilst visiting and were a shadow of their former selves! Let’s just say also the digs we had were not Ritz Hotel quality, with no working light in our bathroom as one of many minus points but at the end of the day it was a bed for the two nights!
Amsterdam is such a vibrant city and covers all criterion with the history, the canals and other more nightly pursuits if that is your predilection! Our frailty was solely in the alcohol beverage domain and there were plenty of options at which to slake our thirst in that regard.
The concert was at the famous venue Amsterdam Melkweg. I scrutinised the map and adopted my traditional sherpa role to find some backstreet bars en route, so much so I was asked for directions even though I had only spent an hour in the city myself!
The Melkweg (Dutch translation is ‘Milky Way’) is located on Lijnbaansgracht, which is a vibrant area at night. It is quantified as a music and cultural centre and was previously a sugar refinery and a milk company before opening in its current format in 1970 as a commendable non-profit organisation. There is a cinema, restaurant, exhibition space alongside the main concert venue we were in named the Max, with a capacity of 1500. It was a terrific atmospheric venue.
Basing our venue entry time of 9pm on British set times, we discovered quickly that even the support act Part Chimp had not yet landed on stage. They are a five-piece formed in Camberwell, London in 2000 and are on Mogwai’s Rock Action label. They had a chunky sound and were crunchingly loud in parts and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance observing from the upstairs gantry.
We moved down to the pit prior to Mogwai appearing about 11pm and they ran through a stellar set with many of my fave tracks including ‘Hunted by a Freak’, ‘Ex-Cowboy’, ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 2’, ‘Ithica 27-9’ and an epic ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. They curtailed their pre-encore set with a colossal ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’, where I closed my eyes for a blissed out 9 minutes 32 seconds. It was an outstanding sound quality throughout and remains one of my favourite ever live Mogwai performances.
We headed back to the hotel but were woken later by a group of lads arriving back who sounded like a herd of Wildebeests!
On the Friday we jumped on a train to a local town which name currently escapes me and landed back in the city in the evening. I recall a novel form of transport in one bar where a couple after paying the bill literally stepped into their boat and headed home. After a few jars the canal bridges began to merge, and we eventually bumbled back to the hotel about 4am.
We thought we might be the last residents to arrive back but no, the Slipknot roadies came thundering in an hour later! The following morning, we gathered in reception resembling the lads who were stood in that very spot 48 hours later. It brought instantly to mind the plot of the Terry Gilliam movie 12 Monkeys where everything is permanently on a time loop!
We trudged our way off to the train station and safe to say I had a very early night that evening but what a glorious weekend we had!