The Gathering

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2003-05-22 NL – Nijmegen - Doornroosje

After the high-acclaimed new record Souvenirs of Dutch rock stars THE GATHERING runs the charts up and down, the band is touring their asses off. After an extensive first European tour leg in this year’s spring, they had a few dates home in May and rock now Poland and UK, finishing this second part again in Holland. Because I could not see THE GATHERING live in Germany (too much work) I took the chance to catch Anneke and Co. live on stage in their hometown Nijmegen. The club Doornroosje is a small but nice place and was much crowded this evening...

KASHBA • Kill me, if it’s not the correct name of that duo, but none knew... Anyway, Kasba (or Keshba... or whatever) had to do the warm up part and – interpreting the reactions from the audience – they seem to be located in Nijmegen too and known in a certain way. They played kind of Indie Rock with much of soul and good approaches in matter of songwriting. But the live performance was in short supply. Many of utilized sounds came from tape, while the male part of that duo had to handle guitar and bass duties and the female part was singing and playing acoustic guitars. But that girl had a great voice, working with it a lot. I don’t know if there are already any records available, but I guess, with a good production, this music could be quite interesting. Well, this evening this band could not leave much of an impression.

After a short break, changing the backline, :: THE GATHERING :: started to rock… and that girls and guys I mean literally! The set got opened with Golden Ground from their current album Souvenirs. Surprisingly Anneke was playing the second guitar and rockin‘ the devil out of hell. Cool stuff. To fuel the crowd Nightime Birds followed, a song I wouldn’t have expected that soon in this set. Afterwards almost all songs from Souvenirs got played, mixed up with songs from How To Measure A Planet (Great Ocean Road); If_Then_Else and even Mandylion (Eleanor). Yeah, THE GATHERING knew how to please the audience. Many installed gadgetry on stage made guitarist René Rutten showing his outstanding skills. Much impressing! Anneke van Giersbergen knew how to convince with her voice – as usual – and was almost untamable on stage. But while permanently grinning she acted kind of... engrossed. I don’t know what one has dropped in her tea.
Anyway, in front of a homelike audience THE GATHERING performed a first class show and got much energy and enthusiasm back, of course more than well deserved! After 2 hours of playing time and 3 encores!!! fans were been more than satisfied and happy and the band got finally released from stage. What a great event for only 11 €!!! That’s the way it has to be!