First the setlist (the titles in quotes are just guesses, based on pieces of the lyrics):

Where's my love?
Waiting 'til you're gone
Ice guitars (with some instrumental piece of music added to it)
'Exit Longdale' (with Stef on piano)
'Perfect day' (with the phrase 'People, please!' from Middle Wave (My Sister = My Clock) added to the end)
Some piece of spoken word or poem
'Planet Disco' (rather quick new song with the word 'Mexico' appearing somewhere in the lyrics)
'Feels like introduced' (contains some 'sick' keyboard sounds)
'Josie' (is this the same Josie as in Love is a heavy brick?)
'Never coming back again'
Jintro & the great luna
Habibi Ouldi
Couldn't she get drowned?
Moondog (mwah, a try at least)
Jo's wine song
'50 years are sinking'
'Motherfucker' (a quick and happy new song with the phrase 'call it sunshine'
in the lyrics)
------------------
Cachita
Candyman
'Nothing but your boots and t-shirt on'
The ricochet
------------------
Giving up the hero

So, that's it: about 21 songs, amongst which about nine new ones and three Sunrise songs.

This was my first Zita Swoon gig after nearly ten months (the Sunrise performance during Lowlands in 1997), not counting the rehearsals I visited last february in Eindhoven. For me, it was also the first 'official' one with Bjorn and without Benjamin. No wonder I was curious about the developments of the band since then. And I must say, I was again overwhelmed (as always) by the sounds I heard.

We were lucky before the show. During our diner in a Tibetan/Nepalese restaurant, one of my friends made a dull remark that he forgot his ticket. When I saw Stef in front of the Westergasfabriek, I spoke to him and asked if he could put my friend on the guest list. He told me that that might be a problem. However, this was not necessary, since Stef assured me that he had already put me on the guest list. He claimed to have e-mailed me about it from New Orleans, but I never received anything like this. But in fact he was right: I was on the guest list, and we entered the building just after Stef, Sammy and Ivo van Hove (the boss of the Holland Festival). Stef and Ivo had to convince the Bouncer about who they were, because at first he was not planning to let them enter the building, so it seemed, after he saw Sammy slipping in ('Who does that dog belong to!').

The Westergasfabriek turned out to be a nice environment, with its old brick walls with pipes attached to it. The stage was enriched with about 15 cardboard pictures from movie stars, cartoon figures and band members. There was also one with Rudy Trouve doing a James Bond impersonation.

The 'old' songs were great as always, and the new ones are also very pleasant to listen to. Certainly if you take into account that this was probably the first time that they were performed in front of an audience. The band had just returned from New Orleans, where they recorded the new album (Helden).

The new songs cover a great variety of styles, from quick and happy tunes to very jazzy 'rainy' Randy Newman-ish songs. In this set, I only missed one song. It was a masterpiece, that I heard during the rehearsals in Eindhoven, and was probably called Circumstances. The song which I named 'Nothing but your boots and your t-shirt on' reminded me of something they played during the tv-broadcast of the Lowlands Festival in 1995.

One of the funny moments was when the band fucked up Moondog (at least, that's what I thought they did). Stef forgot part of the lyrics and started the chorus too early. The band adapted to this quite smoothly, but the second time that this happened was too much. In shame, Tom threw his arms in front of his face and in one way or the other the song progressed into Jo's wine song.

The ricochet was quite different from the original version, mainly because of the altered (extended?) lyrics. After this, the first set of enchores was ended by Stef proclaiming the very appropriate words 'Boom, boom, the lights go out', but the show was really ended by the magnificent Giving up the hero.

This was at about 0.25am, two hours after the start of the show. Clearly, the band had had much fun playing this night.

Now to the real exciting part: Zita Swoon in Westergasfabriek/Club de Ville, Amsterdam, tuesday june 23rd. In the following story, any resemblance between the characters and reality is absoultely.. true.

There was quite a high ML turnout. Present were: Marieke, Leon, Wilfred, Dana, Natascha, Marc, Mark, Martijn and me. Other characters appearing in this story: Vera and Stoffel, the latter being from Flowers for Breakfast.

The concert was great. Zita Swoon played for more than 2 hours (as far as I remember; I did not have a watch). They played a lot of new stuff. The new songs varied from intense bluesy numbers via some poppy songs to beautiful ballads. I very much look forward to hearing the new album. Stef was in a good mood, smiling a lot, and so was the rest of the band. It was clear that some of the new songs weren't quite well-rehearsed yet, but that didn't matter. I think Marieke got a setlist, but unfortunately she's not on the list at the moment.. They did 2 encores, the audience loved them (and they should!).

I noticed some references to other artists/songs that Stef made, so I will bore you with them now. At the end of one song, he shouted "People Please!". I was hoping they'd start "Middlewave" after that, but they didn't. At another moment, Stef started singing "Three Blind Mice" (which as we all know is also used in "Secret Hell"). In the middle of another song, Stef sung "If you want to ride, then ride thw white horse. If you want to be rich, you got to be a bitch". Which is also the lyric to a hit by Danish 80s band "Laid Back".. And lastly, Stef quoted some lyrics by Prince, from "Gotta Broken Heart Again", a song from Prince's 1980 Album "Dirty Mind". Stef mentioned this part during "Ricochet", it was something like: "Prince.. Gotta broken heart again, 'cause my only supposed-to-be friend, he stole my own lady away from me, now I'm just as lonely as I can be.. that's a good song too".

Thanks Stef! I may be the grandaddy of the mailing list because I'm the only one who recognizes Prince quotes, but at least I now know that there's a grandaddy on stage too ;-)