Paradiso – Amsterdam – 30 Aug

Rockin’ out of the gate to be sure, Mike. Exile, too bad you didn’t get “You Can’t Always Get…”, given your handle here, but Bowie in the Low Country must have been mighty fine. I’ve been to Paradiso and regret I couldn’t this leg.

From Tom:
After the Cologne show we drove to Amsterdam and the flew to Helsinki, played Helsinki and then flew back to Amsterdam for the show there. We had been looking at the tour schedule for the last few weeks thinking how great it was to have a night off in Amsterdam. In theory yes. In -reality, after all the traveling, not really. We made it as far as the the hotel restaurant bar -and then not even in time for the full menu. But whose complaining, it is still Amsterdam and it is the legendary Paradiso Club, and it was very close to sold out again so everything could’ve been much worse. Actually it was a very difficult start to the show regarding some sound issues. Lucinda wears in-ear monitors that allow her to hear not only the band but also the audience thru what are called ambient mikes. Right off the top the left side ambient mike blew out and it was causing some painful noise in her left ear. She call is “the pencil in the ear” noise. It took about 5 songs before our her in-ear monitor person figured out what it was and got it corrected but up until that point it was a struggle-and was the reason she didn’t say much for the first half of the show. Lu felt very bad after the show -she thought the problems had ruined part of the show -(she was still worrieded about it the next day). Some night are magic and everything lines up but other nights things happen that are out of your control -but Lu always fights thru and the typically great Paradiso audience stayed right with her, she said later she really felt a lift after Steal Your Love and for the rest of the show. On a night like this that makes all the difference in the world.