I attended yesterdays Utrecht (1-3-2000) concert:

- sold out house
- superb acoustics
- extraordinary concert
- quadrophonic equipment????
at least it sounded so in the quiet parts in Awaken.
Khoroshevs keyboards came from everywhere.

No surprises in the setlist. Compliments especially for Billy Sherwood, who played Hearts and Cinema so very good. Especially the performance of Hearts took me to another world....

Never seen such as marvelous concert before. 2 weeks ago I saw the London concert, which was not so good as far as sound quality is concerned. The Vredenburg hall with its natural "in the round" like stage sounds so superb that I'm sure the soundtechnicians did their utmost best to get the mix very very right. And it was I can tell you.

After the concert we went to a pub nearby. After an hour or so we went to the trains. On the way to the train we passed the Vredenburg hall, just when the yesmen came out. So I shook hands with Chris Squire and got my ticket signed by Howe White and Squire. Very very nice of our heroes to be so kind to interact with their fans.

Tonight I will attend the 2nd Utrecht concert.

I've been to two shows lately. The first one on the 19th of februari in London's Royal Albert Hall and the second one the 1st of March in Vredenburg Utrecht.

Although the Royal Albert Hall is very impressive in it's surroundings, the sound of the band wasn't. I think it's not a good place for a rock-band to perform.I won't ellaborate on this one, you can read it if you want to in the revieuws of the Royal Albert Hall. I must say that the public in London was more enthousiastic than in Utrecht though.

But now for the show in Utrecht. Tickets were available outside the theatre and this was good luck for a friend of mine and his son who couldn't get the tickets on the normal way in the first place. The sound and the band were fantastic. The setlist was the same as in London, so no surprises here.

Because Vredenburg is a very small theatre you have practicly good sight on the stage from every place you sit or stand.

The 5 songs from the Ladder, which they play, are doing it very good live and especially Homeworld, Face to Face and the Messenger were very good. From the "old" songs Awaken, and You and I and Perpetual Change were very impressive. The difference between London and Utrecht was the dancebillity of the public with the song: I've seen all good people. London got on his feet and rocked like hell but Utrecht stayed seated and just clapped and singed along.

If he did it on purpose i don't know but whem Anderson greeted the audience he made a mistake and talked German and had to ask someone in the audience how to say "terrific" on dutch.

Also in Utrecht we didn't have the confetti-bomb above the audience, for wich reason the do or don't i don't know. If you intend to buy T-shirts you can wait untill after the show. They sell, outside the theatre, a different kind of T-shirts but for half the price as they ask inside the theatre.

All in all we had a very satisfying evening and i'm glad i've seen the show in London also. Untill next time.