Ralphy's Concert Reviews Ralphy's Concert Reviews
Bospop 1999 Rockfestival at Boshoven in Weert
Saturday 10-07-1999
featuring
The Rockin' Highliners, Skik, Rich Wyman, The Seatsniffers, Flaco Jiminez, Aynsley Lister, Slobberbone, Golden Earring and Bryan Adams.
Old Rockers Never Die.
It was my third visit to the small festival called Bospop. The first 2 times were in 1994 (main performers: John Hiatt and Marillion) and 1995 (main performers: Dream Theater and The Black Crowes) and I enjoyed myself a lot then. Especially the 2nd time when I got terribly high. In fact I don't know who was more high that day, me or The Black Crowes, who played an incredible set that day as did Marillion the year before. The advantage of Bospop compared to other (before reviewed) festivals like Pinkpop or Werchter is that it's not that crowded. Bospop is meant for the a bit older music lovers and has a maximum capacity of about 12,000 visitors, but it wasn't ever sold out (as far as I know at least). Usually there are a few crowd attracters in the line up and the rest of the bands are fairly unknown (at least in our part of the world). Nowadays it is a 2 day festival with a campground unlike in the years I visited Bospop before, but I only went the 2nd day, Saturday the 10th. Not that there was a bad line-up on Friday with great Dutch performers like Anouk, the promising newcomers of Billy The Kid, De Heideroosjes and the main act from the States, the Fun Lovin' Criminals, but I was otherwise engaged on that day.
We arrived at 12.30 PM while The Rockin' Highliners, a Canadian bluesband I had never heard of before, were halfway through their act. First thing I noticed was that the singer was a bit overdressed in a full size suit while the temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius. I don't know how much that exactly is in degrees Fahrenheit (for the overseas readers), but it's pretty hot. Later I found out that it was an image thing, when he said they were a pretty shallow band and they were only in music for 3 things: "Suits, chicks and cadillacs" (a song tittle). They finished their set while we (my girlfriend and I and a befriended coupple) were settling in. You know buying some drinktickets and subsequently some drinks. lookin' around and finding a place to dwell. What I heard of The Rockin' Highliners wasn't bad, but wouldn't persuade me to buy one of their records (assuming they made at least one). Rate: 6.0.
The next band to perform, Skik, has a certain fame in Holland. They sing their songs in a Dutch dialect and had some minor hits with songs like "op fietse" (on bikes), "Hoe kan dat nou?" (how is that possible?) and " 't giet zoas 't giet" (things go as they go). They played all their familiar songs and entertained the audience adequatly for an hour with their refreshingly diverse music and funny comments in between. They had to perform early on the day 'cause they had another performance planned for the evening in their hometown, Erica, but they played full out on Bospop and especially the punksong "Klotenweer" (Shit weather) extracted a good response from the public. I rate their performance with a 7.0.
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The next performer on stage was Rich Wyman & band. I had heard them play two songs on the Dutch radio a few days before Bospop and was pleasantly surprised by another unknown artist. In the programm I read that this singer and songwriter has already wun several awards in the States and he was described as "John Hiatt on drugs", which in reverse was a very good description (not that John Hiatt ever needed to be on drugs to make great music). To me Rich Wyman and his 7 men band were thé discovery of this festival with a lively performance of songs, that make your heart beat faster. I didn't know any of his songs (except a beauty called "Little things") and although I wasn't always paying it my full attention (we were browsing through some of the festivalshops, I picked up 2 older CD's from Big Country and Tracy Bonham) I could only admire the music I heard coming from the main stage. Rich Wyman is definitely someone to watch out for in the future and in the CD racks. Rate: 8.0.
After we eat we had some time to spare before the next act on the main stage, so we went to the second stage in a small tent. The bands performing there were even more unknown to me. What I got from the programm was that the bands in there all played blues and good blues is always nice to hear. When we entered a Belgian quartet called The Seatsniffers were doing their thing. As you could gather form the old-fashioned big bass they played a very old-style kind of blues and that's an acquired taste, that I don't have. We listened a while to their set, but my companions were even less impressed by this type of music and we left the tent to go back to the main stage. I rate the music of The Seatsniffers with a 5.0, not that they play it bad, but it's just not my thing. When I later walked by the tent I heard another blues performer, Englishman Aynsley Lister, who played more modern blues with lots of guitars, much more to my liking and a sound that I could really dig, but I didn't hear enough to rate this young man.
When we came out of the tent old-timer Flaco Jiminez and his band had already begun (earlier than programmed) playing on the big stage. The familiar tunes of "Lonesome me" greeted us while walking towards him. Accordeon player Flaco Jiminez and his texmex/country-style music have some popularity in our part of Holland, because local stars Rowwen Hèze consider him one of their musical rollmodels and they even did a duet with him (and reached the Dutch hitlists) a few years ago. Yet the musical style of Flaco and his on stage companions couldn't really charm me and they also didn't really fit into the line-up of a modern day rockfestival, even one like Bospop. What also bothered me was that everytime they ended a song the singer added "Threetime Grammy award winner Flaco Jiminez". All in all I rate the performance of Flaco and band with a 6.0.
After Flaco Jiminez it was time for Slobberbone. Another Texas-band who got this gig because the left a good impression when they played another major Dutch rockfestival called Lowlands last year. Their music is pretty much straight rock and they play it pretty well. They didn't get a real big response from the gathering audience, who started to come to the stage in anticipation of the headlining performers. I should add that Slobberbone didn't have any kind of show attached to their act. They played their songs strong and solidly, but without any comments, stunts or whatever, so that didn't lead to much enthusiasm in a crowd that was primarily their for the next acts and most probably had never heard of Slobberbone. Their music was pretty much OK, although not remarkable. I rate their performance with an 6.5.
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The next band on stage needs no introduction to Dutch readers. The Golden Earring are the Dutch version of The Rolling Stones. Founded in the early 60's (as the Golden EarringS) the quartet started making hit after hit since the end of that decade until present day, primarily in Holland, but also with Top 20-hits in the USA in the 70's and 80's. In these decades they did 8 American tours performing with the likes of Aerosmith and Kiss. In fact they were opening band for Kiss, but Kiss boycotted them because they outplayed them. It was the third time I saw them perform live. The first time was in 1982 and it was the first time I ever went to a concert and I immediately became an immortal Earring-fan. This time bassplayer Rinus Gerritsen had to be substituted by Ocki Klootwijk, because Rinus managed to drive his bike into a bus, thus breaking his pelvis, but that didn't hinder the band in any way. They showed us that they still rock as they already did with their latest album "Paradise in distress" and the single with the same name. They did about 3 songs of that album, along with classics like "Long blond animal", "Going to the run", "When the lady smiles", "Radar love" (with an incredible drumsolo by Cesar Zuiderwijk, maybe the best drummer alive) and a 20-minute version of one of my favorite songs of all times "Twilight zone". Guitarist George Kooymans also proved his great musical skills again in long wailing solo's as well as coordinated group play and frontman Barry Hay may not be as energetic as in earlier days, but he still has aussem stage presence and knows how to play on a crowd with his made-for-rock voice. They ended with two encore-songs: "I can't sleep without you" and "Legalize telepathy". I'm telling you people, they're still as good as they were in 1982, maybe even better. Rate: 8.5.
And than it was time for this
day's headliner Bryan Adams. Although I've been a long-time admirer
of his work this was Bryan's concert premiere for me. His latest
CD wasn't my favourite work by him (as you can read if you click
on his name above), a tad too soft for my taste, but on this
night Bryan rocked as in his best days. They performed as a trio
dressed entirely in white, Bryan himself played the bass(!?) and
did the lead vocals ofcourse, Keith Scott played the guitar and
Mickey Curry backed them up on drums. The concert started with
Bryan singing "Is there anybody out there?" from
backstage.
It's the
first line of the first song on his latest album, "How do
you feel tonight".In total he played 8 songs from that album
"On a day like today". The other featured CD in tonight's
concert was his breakthrough album "Reckless" of which
he played 6 songs. The trio played a total of 24 songs in
precisely 2 hours with almost every major hit Bryan's has had
through the years (I only missed "Please forgive me"
and "I'm ready"), so it was sort of a 'best-of-concert'
mixed with his latest songs. Bryan was in a pretty good mood.
First he invited a girl with a banner saying "Keith Scott
fanclub" on stage and later two other girls (one for Mickey
and one for him) and they sat at the bottom of Mickey's drum kit
throughout the concert. The musical threesome showed that you don't
always need a lot of people on stage to put on a great music show.
Simplicity is still a strong point in rock music. The complete
setlist for this evening was "How do ya feel tonight", "Back to you", "Rock steady",
"Can't stop this thing
we started", "Summer
of '69", "It's only love", "18 till I die", "On a day like today",
"Getaway", "Have you ever really loved a woman", "Don't wanna live forever",
"Cuts like a knife", "When you're gone",
"C'mon c'mon c'mon", "Heaven", "Before
the night is over", "If ya wanna be bad, you gotta be good", "Let's make a night to
remember", "The only thing that looks good on me is you",
"Somebody", "(Everything I do) I do it for you"(short
version), "Cloud #9", "Run to you" and (a bit disappointing) as only encore "Kids wanna rock". The green-colored songs were
their better performances, only "Cloud #9" I didn't
like that much on this evening. The overall performance of Bryan,
Keith and Mickey at Bospop 1999 I also rate with an 8.5.
Conclusions regarding the main day of Bospop 1999:
What makes Bospop so much fun compared to other Rockfestivals is its smallness. which leads to an even more relaxed and intimate atmosphere. You've got plenty room to roam around or just enjoy the sunshine. Add to that two big names like Golden Earring and Bryan Adams who entirely live up to their reputation and as a bonus a discovery like Rich Wyman and I believe you can talk about a thoroughly enjoyable and succesfull event. Rate: 7.5.
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