a great show it was. i had terrible stress getting there, because i had to work late out of town and had delays getting back to amsterdam — so i missed the meetup, i missed goose and i even missed downpipe... i hurried in during alaf.
i did not manage to sell my two spare tickets, somehow, so i gave them away to a young couple passing by the heineken music hall which i thought might deserve them. they didn't know underworld, but after i explained a bit they went in. maybe this sparked two new fans we might see here on borndirty later
to be honest, i had to get in the mood, probably had to shake off the traveling stress, but from halfway on i was blown away. almost burst into tears during dirty epic — hadn't heard this live since my first two underworld concerts in utrecht and amsterdam, 1994 (which both still aren't in the gigography, somehow). the reworking is stunning. and of course, the second encore was an absolute surprise.
yesterday's travel stress was infantile compaired to today's. the context is: i didn't buy tickets for the eindhoven concert, mainly because of the 'similar setlist' thing... but yesterday morning i learnt i could be on the guest list (due to connections between work i do and the strp festival). so i kept that open. and after the hmh i really wanted to see underworld again, but i also knew i had to go to a funeral today somewhere else in the netherlands (the mother of a very good friend, not so heavy for me but important to him) so it would be difficult to get there on time. but the train system here in the netherlands came to a halt because of a fire next to the main control centre in utrecht. i had just passed utrecht when this happened, so i got stuck in an overloaded train in the middle of nowhere for over five hours. after that, it took me another six hours to get home to amsterdam. i missed the whole funeral, and there was no way even considering reaching eindhoven in time. i just got home, at 01.30, after twelve hours of travel without ever reaching any of my destinations. fuck public transport in the netherlands. i am going to buy a car again. (which gets me into other troubles concerning the seven year waiting list obtaining a parking permit here in the centre of amsterdam, where i live, but that's another story).
swift