Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands05-03-2007
Autumn CD presentation - Autumn, Audacious
For this band from the north of The Netherlands, Amsterdam wasn’t the most logical place to officially present their third full length album ‘My new Time’. That’s why the next day they would repeat the party at the Iduna in Drachten. But tonight was the official presentation of the new album. Autumn has been around for 12 years already and is known for their progressive sounds whilst singing about old myths. One of the founding members, Meindert has written almost the entire first album, and it took him 5 tracks to tell the story of the Lady of Shallot. “My New Time’ is a new birth for Autumn. With new songwriters, new guitars and a new sound. After listening to the album I was curious to see this live.
Audacious
A rock band from Amsterdam was the opening act for tonight. At first, Sengir, from Belgium would have been there to warm up the audience. That didn’t go through, and there was Audacious. Myspace tells me, the bands features members from The Netherlands, Chile and Spain. Audacious was found in 2004. They have released a few demos in their time, and are busy now recording their new 6 track EP. Within their, what appears to be, busy schedule they found some time to support Autumn.
A rock band from Amsterdam was the opening act for tonight. At first, Sengir, from Belgium would have been there to warm up the audience. That didn’t go through, and there was Audacious. Myspace tells me, the bands features members from The Netherlands, Chile and Spain. Audacious was found in 2004. They have released a few demos in their time, and are busy now recording their new 6 track EP. Within their, what appears to be, busy schedule they found some time to support Autumn.
Music
Their melodic rock sounds a bit boring at first. When walking on stage the members first started to tune their instruments. I don’t know whether the band had the time to tune before the gig, but maybe this is just Rock ‘n Roll. When their lead singer Elmer walked on stage and started to sing his clean voice makes the atmosphere in the music. Most of the tracks are in English. The music reminds the same most of the time and the tunes aren’t able to keep me interested. In some of the songs there is a new-metal influence audible. It most seems like a 3 Doors Down meets Linkin’ Park sound. Even though this half hour my thoughts kept drifting, The guitar player was doing a hell of a job. His riffs and solos were well thought out, and the more difficult his solo’s became, the more fun he seemed to have. Al together the music is quite smooth and fixed up with some nice lyrics and guitars.
Their melodic rock sounds a bit boring at first. When walking on stage the members first started to tune their instruments. I don’t know whether the band had the time to tune before the gig, but maybe this is just Rock ‘n Roll. When their lead singer Elmer walked on stage and started to sing his clean voice makes the atmosphere in the music. Most of the tracks are in English. The music reminds the same most of the time and the tunes aren’t able to keep me interested. In some of the songs there is a new-metal influence audible. It most seems like a 3 Doors Down meets Linkin’ Park sound. Even though this half hour my thoughts kept drifting, The guitar player was doing a hell of a job. His riffs and solos were well thought out, and the more difficult his solo’s became, the more fun he seemed to have. Al together the music is quite smooth and fixed up with some nice lyrics and guitars.
Performance
The members at the front of the stage needed some time to relax and have more fun on the stage. The drummer went pretty much nuts from the beginning. After a while there seemed to be some more movement on stage. The singer almost seemed afraid to lose his glasses of something. He didn’t talk much into the microphone, except when he was asking if there was somebody in the audience that came to see them instead of Autumn. Quite some people in the crowd cheered back and those were also moving to the music. Its clear that this band has build itself quite a fan base in their hometown, or just has a lot of friends in Amsterdam.
The lights of the Melkweg were horrible tonight. If the band brought their own engineer, it would be time to search for another one. The lights didn’t match with the music at all. Harsh colours and flickering when totally not being an option ruined the atmosphere the band tried to set.
The members at the front of the stage needed some time to relax and have more fun on the stage. The drummer went pretty much nuts from the beginning. After a while there seemed to be some more movement on stage. The singer almost seemed afraid to lose his glasses of something. He didn’t talk much into the microphone, except when he was asking if there was somebody in the audience that came to see them instead of Autumn. Quite some people in the crowd cheered back and those were also moving to the music. Its clear that this band has build itself quite a fan base in their hometown, or just has a lot of friends in Amsterdam.
The lights of the Melkweg were horrible tonight. If the band brought their own engineer, it would be time to search for another one. The lights didn’t match with the music at all. Harsh colours and flickering when totally not being an option ruined the atmosphere the band tried to set.
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Performance: 6
Lights: 4
Total: 6 (6.4)
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Performance: 6
Lights: 4
Total: 6 (6.4)
Autumn
Autumn has released their second album ‘Summers End’ in September of 2004. After this release a lot has happened. About half of the band quit the one quite soon after another. The biggest loss, Meindert Sterk, made the future of Autumn pretty uncertain for a while. They have found a great replacement in Jerome for bass, and Mats van der Valk, for grunts. Mats already was a back-up guitar player for a long time. When Jasper Koenders left the band for personal reasons Mats took over the job. Together in the band with his brother Jens, this duo unleashed their talent over the new album, writing almost all of the music on ‘My new Time’ the recording of the new album sounded more introvert and shy. Not a new face of stage but new on the album: Jan Munnik on keys. He replaced Menno quite some time ago already. The new sound of ‘My New Time’, how would this sooth the band live?
Music
Nienke described it on stage already. Most of the reviewers, including me, described the new album as rock. Even though the band doesn’t really care what the music is called, were still here to give their music a label anyway. With the different influences of the brothers Van der Valk it’s no easy to describe the music. This is the same issue I had whilst listening to ‘A moment to reconsider’ of Cantara. Both brothers feature this band as well. The band started with the first track on the new album, ‘Satellites’. This really has a sky high hit potential and it quite easy to sing a long, too. After this Nienke took the time to thank everybody for coming, and soon enough their old single ‘Gallery of Reality’ was played. Before every new track Nienke took a moment to tell the audience something about the coming song. This really happened in a short notice. ‘Closest friends Conspire’ is about old friends and backstabbing. State of mind is the only metal track left on the album, according to all reviewers (now why does this sound so familiar?). More space was left to make the music sound its best. The introvert album is still recognisable, but the sound is much fuller and with such a happy and enthusiastic band, this is soon forgotten. After playing the entire new album there is some time for the band to play some ‘Summers end’ tracks. At this moment the older fans are separated from the newer ones. A few just stood there, watching with there ears flapping while other went crazy dancing, head banging and clapping. The show was closed off with ‘The Green Angel’ After this the band walked of stage and it was time to go and catch my train.
Nienke described it on stage already. Most of the reviewers, including me, described the new album as rock. Even though the band doesn’t really care what the music is called, were still here to give their music a label anyway. With the different influences of the brothers Van der Valk it’s no easy to describe the music. This is the same issue I had whilst listening to ‘A moment to reconsider’ of Cantara. Both brothers feature this band as well. The band started with the first track on the new album, ‘Satellites’. This really has a sky high hit potential and it quite easy to sing a long, too. After this Nienke took the time to thank everybody for coming, and soon enough their old single ‘Gallery of Reality’ was played. Before every new track Nienke took a moment to tell the audience something about the coming song. This really happened in a short notice. ‘Closest friends Conspire’ is about old friends and backstabbing. State of mind is the only metal track left on the album, according to all reviewers (now why does this sound so familiar?). More space was left to make the music sound its best. The introvert album is still recognisable, but the sound is much fuller and with such a happy and enthusiastic band, this is soon forgotten. After playing the entire new album there is some time for the band to play some ‘Summers end’ tracks. At this moment the older fans are separated from the newer ones. A few just stood there, watching with there ears flapping while other went crazy dancing, head banging and clapping. The show was closed off with ‘The Green Angel’ After this the band walked of stage and it was time to go and catch my train.
Performance
All the male band members were wearing a black blouse, and most of them were also wearing a black tie with it. The band looked quite sophisticated. Nienke was wearing a short black dress, or a long shirt, depending on you point of view. Beneath she wore re tights and red boots. To finish off she was wearing red sleeves as well. At first she had her hair tied back in a ponytail. During ‘Gallery of reality’ she let the hair down. The lights were better then with the first band, but some of the pictures of my friend were still burned with the bright red and blue. Especially the red lights were used much.
The performance was very energetic; the members were all having a lot of fun n stage. Together with each other and the audience they really showed us Autumn isn’t in the past. Jan has this moving keyboard standard which ables him to move from left to right, which he did quite a lot. There was also a new back drop hanging. It still features the old autumn logo, the tree, besides this the band name is written on it tighter with the name of the new album. During ‘Epilogue (whats done is done)’ Jerome had a silly moment. The music subsides into a very slow intermezzo with only Nienke clearly audible, he all of a sudden flaps his hair back and walks to the back of the stage. This looked really silly because it totally didn’t match the music and neither was the track finished.
It is clearly the band had renewed and practised loads on their new tracks. Some mistakes were made whilst playing the older songs. Mats once forgot he actually had to sing, and some little musical errors. Besides there slight flaws the entire show looked so natural and spontaneous, I was wondering is the band really was as nervous as Nienke told us. After the greater part of the show was finished, Nienke yelled out to Peter Schaap she wanted some champagne, and of course this wasn’t used for drinking! Whilst the front part of the crowd was sprayed with champagne, everybody was cheering and clapping and shouting for more. This evening really was a success, and I reckon these kind of performances will the ones that will be their break through, and set their name in the list of the ‘Big Dutch Bands’. With capitols.
All the male band members were wearing a black blouse, and most of them were also wearing a black tie with it. The band looked quite sophisticated. Nienke was wearing a short black dress, or a long shirt, depending on you point of view. Beneath she wore re tights and red boots. To finish off she was wearing red sleeves as well. At first she had her hair tied back in a ponytail. During ‘Gallery of reality’ she let the hair down. The lights were better then with the first band, but some of the pictures of my friend were still burned with the bright red and blue. Especially the red lights were used much.
The performance was very energetic; the members were all having a lot of fun n stage. Together with each other and the audience they really showed us Autumn isn’t in the past. Jan has this moving keyboard standard which ables him to move from left to right, which he did quite a lot. There was also a new back drop hanging. It still features the old autumn logo, the tree, besides this the band name is written on it tighter with the name of the new album. During ‘Epilogue (whats done is done)’ Jerome had a silly moment. The music subsides into a very slow intermezzo with only Nienke clearly audible, he all of a sudden flaps his hair back and walks to the back of the stage. This looked really silly because it totally didn’t match the music and neither was the track finished.
It is clearly the band had renewed and practised loads on their new tracks. Some mistakes were made whilst playing the older songs. Mats once forgot he actually had to sing, and some little musical errors. Besides there slight flaws the entire show looked so natural and spontaneous, I was wondering is the band really was as nervous as Nienke told us. After the greater part of the show was finished, Nienke yelled out to Peter Schaap she wanted some champagne, and of course this wasn’t used for drinking! Whilst the front part of the crowd was sprayed with champagne, everybody was cheering and clapping and shouting for more. This evening really was a success, and I reckon these kind of performances will the ones that will be their break through, and set their name in the list of the ‘Big Dutch Bands’. With capitols.
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 6
Total: 8
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 6
Total: 8
{jos_sb_discuss:17}
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