Ben Christophers, Paradiso, Amsterdam
God damn The Frames's audience who didn't have the decency to shut. the. fuck. up. during Ben Christophers' support slot in the Paradiso an hour or so ago.
His songs are so brittle and how beautiful they sounded in that quiet 14th century church in Dingle late last year.
I don't think Ben enjoyed fighting the Paradiso din. He rushed through his encore.
Made a bad decision and ended up on the wrong side of his guitar, which makes for shite photos (Flickr set) and I didn't feel like moving to the other side. George (because it was George and not that guy I knew in high school he looks a lot like which always confuses me) gave me his Sigma 70-200 to shoot with and I didn't feel too good and didn't feel like talking, especially with Ben playing.
I think I've a cold coming on.
And fuck the Frames anyway, I left before they came on. Thinking about that Sigma, of course. Fuck.
seven comments:
I quite like The Frames – they’re the only other people I know who’ve raved about Ben as much as you.
But a sizeable portion of their crowd should be shuttled out to the dark side of the moon, yes.
Rogue - 10 February 2005 - 00:33
When I saw Martha Wainwright support Rufus Wainwright a few months ago, the crowd talked very loudly through her quiet and mostly acoustic set. It was so rude, I was embarrassed that they couldn’t even have the courtesy to shut up for his sister for half an hour or so. She tried to ignore it, but one inter-song comment about it being “more like a bar than a venue” betrayed her feelings.
The same eejits cheered her loudly when she came back on to provide backing vocals for Rufus’ set.
I think there ought to be an entrance exam for gigs. Or a personality test. Or compulsory evictions. Or electrified cattle prods. Or something.
Hg (link) - 10 February 2005 - 01:23
Ayah, poor Frames.
Think you get that sort of audience problem with almost any band big enough to have an audience though. Reprehensible, especially since it’s the ones talking loudest who’ll be coming up in three years time bragging about having seen so and so before they got big.
El - 10 February 2005 - 07:51
Ben is something special, for me his first album is right up there with that first David Gray album. Moody, vonerable. Bought it right after watching a documentary on his musical vision on Dutch TV.
Too bad you didn’t get a chance to enjoy it that much…
IZ (link) - 10 February 2005 - 08:27
The Frames were good at the beginning and then they went on playing stupid love songs and even more stupid covers. So I ended up going home, well before the rest of the crowd did.
George (link) - 10 February 2005 - 10:26
It was stupid they played covers. Damn, their own songs are much better.
Storm (link) - 10 February 2005 - 10:45
It’s not really a Frames problem I think, it’s a Paradiso problem. Too many liggers. I much prefer the Tivoli in Utrecht. Good venue, great audience.
Caroline (link) - 10 February 2005 - 11:10