Pictures by Karin

Zita Swoon @ Kampenhout : was it real, or just a surrealistic dream ???

Last night, we had one of the most bizar experiences of our lives!

As soon as we found out about the gig Zita Swoon would do in Kampenhout, we decided we'd go! Especially because we hadn't been able to get tix for the Brussels and Ghent-shows...

I had to work in Hilversum yesterday, so we left for Kampenhout in the afternoon, with a just-in-time schedule to get there. As my carstereo broke down, and we didn’t want to drive without any music, we had taken my computerspeakers with us, and a discman, so we somehow struggled through all the trafficjams (*all* the trafficjams you always hear on the radio   .*all of them* ) while playing old dEUS-albums and Zita Swoon liverecordings, the speakers balancing on the dashboard, and the discman on the knee of my friend (and in the meantime even taking a stop at the M-word-place and eating in the car)… With the route according to Sony’s routeplanner on a sheet of paper, we thought we were well prepared. Hours went by…. Finally, exit nr. 11, just before Brussels. So now it was only a matter of minutes, right? Right! Ehm.. well, not exactly… As soon as we left the highway, it seemed as if we had entered a complete different country. Like being on a holiday somewhere in France ;-) But Kampenhout: nowhere to be found . Each time we asked for the right direction, all these extremely friendly belgians were very much willing to help us, but mainly they were saying: sorry, but you are in the wrong direction, and giving us instructions of how we had to take the 3rd to the left, drive 3 km’s, 2st to the right, 2nd to left etc etc…! In the meantime, the sun had started changing shifts with the moon… darkness was closing up on us.. Definitely the weirdest feeling came over us while the cows were going to sleep: my God, what are we doing??? Driving somewhere in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of kilometers… and why???

or : What’s the meaning of life ???

We passed villages with the weirdest names, and still no Kampenhout! Finally, when we at least expected it, we found a sign!!

The first looks indicated that it was just one street with a church, a few houses and a bar. So the venue shouldn’t be that hard to find…. Wrong! A complete village revealed itself when we kept (by this time already desperate) looking for this youthcenter “Tonzent”  As now we had set emergency-rules in action, I decided it was time to use my cellphone and call the venue, and these friendly people guided us towards the venue.. I hope it will take some time for the bill to arrive lol!!

So finally, after what seemed like a travel around the world, we got there just in time. Hihi, the first venue with no parkingproblems. And NO PARKING FEES!!! Our friends from Deventer, who had left an hour before we did, hadn’t even arrived yet! (as we found out later, they had driven to Brussels first and then made their way back up to Kampenhout) But they too managed to get there just before the show began…

The first impression of the youthcenter was one of a barn. So tiny! But cute!! The kind of parties we had in highschool… And Zita Swoon as actors in a religious Christmas-play. Somehow I expected Stef arriving on a mule ;-)

The toilets were next to the stage, falsely suggesting the backstage-area to be located there…

In the meantime, the venue was completely packed with people. No familiar faces this time… We were all waiting patiently. Stef approached the stage.. but went to the loo…In turns, the ZS-members went all to the loo…finally Aarich also took his turn to read the glossies (but I had already torn out the dEUS-article )  ;-)    OK, so now we had been waiting long enough… Let the show begin!

One by one, they came up on stage… except for Bjorn… and at the point that we started making jokes about him having a day off, he made his appearance present. Well, they should have warned us in advance!! My friend’s mouth opened up wide enough as to let in a whole apple in one go, I bursted out in laughing, and we all seemed to be struck by lightning by his appearance.. Apparently Stef noticed our reactions, so he started laughing as well.. BE PREPARED!!!! You’ll see!! All I can say is that all his bones must have broken when he fell of those stairs ;-)

But let’s concentrate on the music now… The whole band seemed to be in a very cheerful and relaxed mood. Stef was constantly smiling and laughing (according to my friend he was drunk, or at least tipsy, but I think she exaggerated… ) But who cares, we were in for one of the best, if not THE best Zita Swoon-gig we had ever heard and seen!!!

I’ve never heard him TALK so much inbetween songs! So many impro’s too!!

Or is this always the case with Belgian shows? If so, then I am seriously thinking of moving to Belgium then… this is soooooooo much more intimate and cool !! I guess this must be the Leeuwarden-experience ;-)

Let’s review with some help from the setlist… Moondance: I had a rendez vous with Robert de Niro, but he didn’t show up so I went to a bar and got drunk and had a really good time… How can I resist : as cool as always The ode to Buckley… what can I say? … 6th Night : instrumental… great intermezzo She is like meeting jesus: ,,gaat over iemand die op een maandagochtend een mariabeeldje vond, en Lourdes enzo…’’ Maria : With the blue toy-thingy Stef used at Crossing Border. (I think I prefer the red one …) Our Daily reminders: ,,I remember we were driving across a seashore line … we were waving at the seagulls, having such a good time… we were in this car, playing Dinosaur Jr. Tapes … we were smoking…’’

Stef is counting the days until the new Tom Waits record is going to be released.. not that he has any shares in his recordcompany, but he just wanted to share the info with us lol!

We need new animals… sounded different.. qu’ est-ce que tu attends ? Monkey in a boat!!

Manwolf .. Stamina… absolutely GREAT intro…,, and where the hell is maceo parker?’’ The “funky people” outro with Tomas and Stef both singing.. i love this song … funky funky… funky funky… singalong…… DISCO!!!!!!!!!

French Trombone…

Couldn’t she get drowned: ,,in a little dark cafe, in a south texas border town…’’

… ,, we trokken rond door europa… gelukkig heeft er niemand stinkvoeten…’’ (iemand uit de zaal: ,,en de gitaren?’’ ) Stef: ,,Ja, en de gitaren ook….’’

Guilty, from Randy Newman (I tried to persuade Stef to play another Randy Newman cover, by shouting Simon Smith and the amazing dancing bear, but he looked funny and said: ,,Alias Smith and Jones?? ‘’) Stef sitting ON the piano, with his legs crossed, while Tom was playing. Dimlights on. Including the nuclear rabbit…

At some point Stef asked if we were all from the neighbourhood? (nee he ?) And the audience started shouting where they were from.. Someone said something like Kasselbeek (??) but Stef understood Casablanca… number 3 for Casablanca..

Finally:

Ragdoll Blues: Stef said they had done a lot of touring, and had been to a lot of towns.. and in every town they played this game: Tom would be playing these basic chords, that a lot of artists during many many years have been using for their songs, and the game was: guess the name of the song. Tom would play quietly, so “feel free to sing”… Some started shouting : Bob Marley, so Stef laughed, and let Tomas do his imitation of Stir it up. GREAT!! Although I didn’t like the fact that he cut it off after a few lines, as Tomas wanted to sing more of the song… Then, Stef sung 99 luftballons, and afterwards saying that we had gotten the hang of it.. Tom was still playing the chords, but the complete audience seemed to be quiet.. and waiting for what was to come. Stef started encouraging us by saying: Come on, in Amsterdam, by this time we were already at song number 8: I am sure Kampenhout can do better than that! One extremely hilarious moment was when some people from the back started singing Video killed the radiostar. GREAT! Stef bursted out in laughs! Also, someone else sung a song that surprised the band.. I can’t remember which one. At some point, Annemarie shouted: Lou reed, walk on the wild side, to which Stef replied: that’s not fair: you’ve seen the show, you are not allowed to play ( Je kent de show al, dat telt niet, dan mag je niet meedoen ) !

Wannes came up with a song.. unfortunately it was unable for us to hear which one..

A girl sang  ,,Just a little bit stronger (???)’’

Then, some girl in front started singing a song in dutch.. this was soooo cool! Stef got excited about this, so he bend over to her, so that she could sing in the mic, and he tried to sing along but he didn’t know the lyrics. What a courage… I’m sure she must have had the time of her life ;-) (it went like this: ,,een pilsje hier, 2 whiskey’s daar.." is this something from Urbanus or am i completely wrong here?)

Tomas also sung some other song. With a completely different voice then when he does the reggae and rapimitations. This was beautiful too!

We also did a little quantanamera (how on earth must we spell that word???)

Stef said Doe Maar, Virus, but there was no reaction from the audience, except for one girl who thought he said Waits instead of Virus…

But somehow, the song went on and on with some impro’s of Stef.. ,,I remember well baby, boy corridor, white light shining at the end, big iron gate slamming, you walked out.. I got back to the living room, switched on the TV-set, zapped zapped zapped all night long, trying to forget.. trying to forget your eyes.. your eyes has (s)miles (?) .. So the next day, I walked out my door in the morning, 7 o’clock, walking to the library store, get myself a ….. trying to forget your eyes, your smile has mine… your eyes has miles.. … and my knees get shaky, my ears turn mute.. my nose can’t smell.. except my old dog, although he’s kinda cute.. I wish I could understand your plan.. you’re floating away like a boat on the ocean of tears…you brought me so many cheers, you brought me good times, you brought me wild times.. sexy times, you’re so sexy..

and while Bjorn was patiently sitting behind this keyboard-style-thingy to do his bit, they never came to start playing Ragdoll Blues, which was a shame

….JJ Cale could sing the blues… I have you running around my brain… like cocaine… and Stef started clapping and tapping the Richochet while the band was still playing and it took them a while to understand what Stef wanted…

The audience was so impressed, and opposite to the talking and chatting that usually goes on during a concert, at this concert, the crowd was so concentrated that you’d have been able to hear where your piercing would have hit the ground, if it would have fallen out of your tongue/nose/eyebrow/  Sometimes we were even hesitating about starting to applaud or not, afraid to kill another impro-outtro...

And the final song: Worst Case Scenario: Stef behind the piano…

And the show ended with Stef walking off stage, while the band played on, and Stef playing on that toy-piano-flute as the rat-catcher of Hamelen (hehe, I really don’t think the “rattenvanger van Hamelen” is known outside dutchspeaking countries, but who knows ;-)) , playing on while finding his way through the audience and exiting through the backdoor….

A completely surrealistic night is all I can say… it was definitely worth the long trip.. definitely worth the only 3,5 hours of sleep we had last night.. definitely worth the frozen and wet buts from sitting outside overthinking the gig …

Every time I hear this band again, the music grows and grows and grows and grows and grows on me….

I love Zita Swoon !!