Live reviews

Leiden 2003-07-09

LVC, Leiden, The Netherlands
Review by Hans Werksman

John Cale started his string of Dutch dates at the LVC in Leiden, an intimate venue with good acoustics. Only a stubborn character like Cale will pick two songs that have not been released in any legitimate format to kick off the performance. To no avail: anyone who was in the front row was familiar with Over Her Head and Lament, the latter getting a rap treatment. Waiting For Blonde was next, but the crowd was delighted when the band tore into more familiar stuff: an uptempo version of Do Not Go Gentle.

The crowd included two fathers who brought along their teenage daughters, a Lou Reed lookalike and quite a few subscribers to the Sabotage mailing list. For some reason most of the women sang along with Venus In Furs. Never knew that Leiden was such a big S&M city. Pity that the song was screwed up by an outburst of unwanted feedback (there is such thing as unwanted feedback, yes).

The band was a pretty tight outfit, although the bass player missed some cues. Gitarist James Mastro was a revelation: tapping an impressive array of effect pedals he brought new life to Paris 1919, Model Beirut Recital, Gun and Pablo Picasso.

Personal highlights were Things and the solo encores Thoughtless Kind and Hallelujah.

The printed setlist showed two different songs (Heartbreak Hotel & Wilderness Approaching for the encore:

1. OVER HER HEAD
2. LAMENT
3. BLONDE
4. DO NOT GO GENTLE
5. VERSES
6. ENDLESS
7. VENUS
8. SET ME FREE
9. THINGS
10. FEAR
11. PARIS
12. E IS MISSING
13. BEIRUT
14. GUN
15. PABLO
16. HEARTBREAK
17. THOUGHTLESS KIND
18. HALLELUJAH
19. WILDERNESS

© 1999- Hans Werksman