"Geweldig, belachelijk, gezellig"
"Getting paid to sing songs full of teenage angst. Which is great if you're 16. But when you're 46..."
I went to see Luka Bloom, in the Carré Theatre, here in Amsterdam, last Monday.
Luka Bloom hasn't changed a bit since I first saw him in 1990. Since then I've seen him many, many more times. You can rely on him to be funny, uplifting and heart warming. He's familiar, a memory of Ireland, a piece of turf on the fire. Safe, if safe ever is a good word to describe a musician.
Bloom loves Holland, and Holland loves him. Selling out venues all over the country since 1990, he's lived here and loved here and this time he brought part of his family over to witness the giant lovefest that is a Bloom concert in Amsterdam. He speaks a little of our lingo, and amused us all saying 'an Irishman singing in Amsterdam was 'belachelijk' (ridiculous) and that he made an effort to learn a new Dutch word each year. Last year's had been 'gezellig', the year before 'geweldig' (fantastic). 'Te gek,' ('amazing') he concluded.
Part sing-a-long, part stand-up, his gigs here are a lovely evening out... a little lacking in confrontation for the rebel in me, but still appealing to my softer side. I especially appreciated the part of the set he played on his spanish guitar: covers of Nina Simone's 'Keeper of the Flame', Dylan's 'To make you feel my love' and the traditional 'Black is the Colour' which he worked around his own primarily intrumental 'Te Adoro' (off an LP he did shortly before his first official 'Luka Bloom' album 'Rivertide' was released on WB).
He's a self confessed mush, a romantic a bit of a hippie and a bogman if ever a bogman there was. I like him when he's at his most love lorn romantic, like in Monsoon:
In the wind, the kiss of wisdom
In the mountain, silent touch
In the river, juices flow
To the rhythm that I need so much
Outside the roar of thunder
Streets drip wet in the rain
Inside honeywater lingers
Please God we'll meet again
Love is a monsoon
or the beautiful still life that's 'You':
Simple living room scene
Photographs of you
The floor is a mess with my things
My jeans, my shoes
[ ... ]
Outside Autumn leaves
Lightly kiss the ground
What once was luscious green
Now is gorgeous brown
But last Monday I liked him best at the very end, when, to a standing ovation, he returned to play the one tune of the night that I had never heard him play before. It was an Irish traditional, and one of my favourites: Raglan Road:
For I have wooed, not as I should
A creature made of clay.
When the angel woos the clay, he'll lose
His wings at the dawn of the day.