concert guide

2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - pre 1995

Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands 18/11/95 by JORG SCHELLEKENS

Last night i saw Moondog Jr. in Rotown. They were really great, but i left this gig with very mixed feelings. Because i live in some village in the middle of nowhere (although it's pretty close to Rotterdam) i was able to stay at the show until about 12:05. Than i'd have to catch a subway to a place where my bike was, to bike home. This really didn't seem like a problem because the show would start at 22:00 and there was no support act. But for some reason they didn't start until after 23:00 so i ended up missing more than 1/2 hour of the show. I'm sorry to bother all of you with this but i'm just very sad about this. I know Paul was there and that he'll probably write a review about the whole show, but because i haven't received it yet i'll tell you a few things about the part i saw: * They started of with an instrumental song which progressed into Spike Smiths' For All Lost Goods, from the A Beatband ep. They also performed the very beautiful & intense Ragdoll Blues from that ep. * At the start of the gig i met some girl i knew from the dEUS gig in Nighttown very near to the stage. I had been there for quite some time but didn't see her so i asked if she had been there all the time. Like i guessed she hadn't: she had just interviewed Stef & Co backstage!!! When it's finished i'll of course try to get a copy to mail it here. * During Shall I Let This Good Man In there suddenly was very loud laughter, and Stef stopped playing. After staring at the !#%$ who had been laughing for a few seconds he played on. * Today one of my friend who was also there called. He told that Stef had thrown a t-shirt into the audience... and he caught it! He didn't do it with his fez like at some other show, but he did have a cool hat. But it was not nearly as cool as Tom Pintens' which was real nice black/green/red with two things hanging down the sides. * Jintro & The Great Luna was played really fast. Not as good as the album version. * Ice Guitars had an arrangement which was kind of a cross-over between the album and (acoustic) single versions. It was really great.

Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands 18/11/95 by PAUL VAN GORP

The show was announced to start at 22.00h, but it actually began at 23.00h. By that time, Rotown was fully packed. Rotown is just an ordinary cafe with a small stage. I estimate that it can hold about 300 people. Because the room is relatively long and narrow, the stage is only fully visible for the very front part of the audience. The view is even more delimited by 3 pillars in the middle. So, IMHO Rotown is not very suitable for 'large' concerts like this one, because it was completely sold out this evening. When the equipment was installed and checked, the show again started with an instrumental intro. It was the same tune that opened their shows in Rotterdam (october 27 as Morphine's support act) and in Breda (october 27). This intro smoothly traversed into the song, which title I formerly thought was 'Take it as a combination'. It is actually called 'Spike's Smiths' for all lost goods' and is on Moondog's debut EP 'Jintro travels the world in a skirt'. The entire setlist is as follows (the quoted song titles are guesses): ? (instrumental) Spike's Smihs' for all lost goods Moondog Love is a heavy brick Shall I let this good man in Everyday I wear a greasy black feather on my hat Moondance Ice guitars TV song Bombo The ricochet ? Ragdoll Blues Jintro & the great luna Cachita 'Hello' 'Guilty' 'Queen girl' ------------ Jo's wine song Jacky During 'Love is a heave brick' Stef was disturbed by some woman's loud laughter. He stopped the beautiful ballad at once, and threw a devastating glance at her during a short while. I'm sure this person didn't feel very great during these embarrassing moments :) Fortunately this was only an incident, and Stef didn't get pissed off again further on. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy himself, as did the other members of the band. 'Moondance' was just perfect and almost funny, with lots of monkeylike screams by Stef and Tom, who was wearing a colourfull Peruvian hat with sideflaps. I was not very satisfatied with the rather tame rendition of 'Ice guitars'. I like the album's rocking version much more than this more acoustic oriented one. During 'TV song', Stef was backed up not only by Benjamin on the piano/organ, but also by Tom's Fender Rhodes. I've listened to this ballad many many times now, but I'm still not fed up with it; it is even getting better every time. This was the first time I heard 'Ragdoll Blues', which is also included on the 'Jintro travels the world in a skirt' album. Until now, I've not been able to track down this record, but after hearing 'Spike's Smiths's for all lost goods' and 'Ragdoll blues', I'm even more eager on laying my hands on this EP. Prior to 'Ragdoll blues' the familiar sounding song, which I still think is a cover, was done. 'Jintro & the great luna' was characterized by a peculiar start: I saw Stef strolling to the back of the stage. Being assisted by a piano or a tape recorder, I could hear him practise the first verse of the song. Hereafter, he got back to the front and the band performed a great rendition, which again was very different (much busier) from the album version. Before 'Cachita' commenced, all the lights near the stage were totally dimmed. This created the perfect ambiance for this minimal song. As more instruments and sounds were added, the lights were turned back on again, just before the song's climax. 'Queen girl', which I also had never heard before, was the last song of the normal set. But after a few minutes, Aarich, Tomas, Benjamin, Tom and Stef reentered the stage, and finished off another terrific Moondog show. Unfortunately 'Jo's wine song' was again missing the first Neil Young-ish lines; it was announced by Stef as being an (old?) Scottish song. Stef got really carried away in his 'rubberish' dancemoves during Jacky, a happy and lively cover from Tom Jones (I think). At the end of this and thus at the end of the show (at about 0.30h), the crowd was cheering enthousiastically and yelling for more. A pity that this didn't happen. Beforehand, I was a bit afraid that the audience would be too big and too loud for Moondog's fragile sounds. In fact, this was demonstrated by the small incident during 'Shall I let this good man in'. But happily this large audience was no burden, because after that, everything turned out to be just fine: audience and band were having a great time. And so did I.

This page contains a comprehensive list of concerts by Zita Swoon and related events. Where the entry is 'clickable' there is more information or reviews to be read on a separate page. If you have any additions (dates, reviews, setlists, corrections etc) to this list, please mail me at zitareviews@mandarinmedia.com and it will included.

2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - pre 1995