my review of the tilburg thang, at long last... more about the experience as a whole, rather than a gig review.
The gods love Tilburg.
The flight from Leeds/Bradford to Amsterdam/Schipol airport took precisely 43 minutes. Our baggage was first off the plane and thanks to another “very nice man� on the information desk we were on the largest, cleanest, smoothest double-decker train I’ve ever been on within 15 minutes of touching down. The gods were smiling…
A seamless change at Den Haag and we were soon in Tilburg. Kind of how trains should run really.
A short taxi ride later and we’re checked into the Ibis were we bumped into a fellow Sisters fan in the hotel reception, identifiable by the black clothes and the St Pauli tee… Marvellous.
Time for a drink in the bar prior to heading into Tilburg centre for a pre-concert bite to eat. The taxi to the restaurant took us past the appointed meeting place and we could already see a few people milling about in Sisters tees. Starting to get
really excited now.
The venue was at the end of a bar-lined street. Everywhere you look were Sisters fans – it really did feel like the gig had taken over Tilburg for the evening. Recognised quite a few faces on the walk down that street, looking for Johnny and co. faces from the Leeds gig a few days before, faces from other Sisters gigs, faces from the internet. It’s amazing how small the world seems when you have the internet!
Chatting and drinking with people outside one of the bars beforehand was great. Putting faces to names, etc. Then word filters through that the band are due on at 9.30pm. That’s in 20 minutes!!!
Time to drink up and head into the venue…
…where we mill around at the bar for another 45 minutes before there’s anything even vaguely resembling a band on stage. No matter – more time to swap those funny little plastic tokens for beer.
The venue itself was a pleasant surprise. I had absolutely no idea what to expect in terms of size, layout etc, other than that I had read it was purpose built event hall and that it might be quite big. All of which turned out to be true. High stage, decent “pit�, standing area that resembled a rather steep football terrace (without safety barriers I might add!) and a nicely placed balcony ensured that everyone got a rather smashing view…
…of smoke. And lights.
Lots of.
A decent set list with one or two older songs coming back in (
Dr Jeep and
Come Together), both the sound and performance were superb – deafening in fact – and the band seemed to be having a great time.
The whole atmosphere was fantastic and they stormed through a
very rough, rocking set with Eldritch yelping, hollering and prowling the stage as only he can, flanked on either side by Adam and Chris, who appeared to be having a great time while dropping notes left, right and center!!
There’s not much more I can say about the gig. I was quite lost in it all for a good portion, and besides there are plenty of reviews out there written by far more eloquent people than myself. Go read their write ups for the ins and outs of the set itself.
Suffice to say that it was a fantastic experience – travelling to a country I’ve never been to before, meeting old friends and making new ones, and seeing my favourite band play one of their best gigs in years.
It was my first time travelling abroad to see any band and I couldn’t have chosen a better gig or a better bunch of people to hook up with. A top nite out.
The gods love Tilburg, and I don’t blame them.
Everything gets discussed in the ladies 
: asking: well why should they? they just came up on stage 
