I have returned form my short Chemical Holiday which started thursday 24th february directly after work and ended sunday 27th when I returned home from Cologne. Here's my review of 2 shows.



After a quick meal me and two mates arrived at the HMH in Amsterdam at 19.30. The venue holds 5500 people and was sold out although at that moment it was almost empty. Support DJ James Holroyd was already spinning his records. The HMH has a wide stage with the DJ on the side. All the equipment was already on the stage but covered with a large cloth. The DJ was playing really mellow tunes, I regonized 2 tracks from the Confront your demons set. At about 20.30 a roadie removed the cloth and talked to the DJ. It can't take much longer. Now James was playing some heavier tunes untill he suddenly ended his set and we could hear the Tomorrow never knows intro. It's 21.00 and it takes 5 minutes for the brothers to enter the stage, ending TNK with alot of bleeping noises and starting Hey boy hey girl. Everybody started singing along with the sample and started jumping when the beat kicked in. Then came Get yourself high which had an awesome lasershow! Only the vocal sample "get yourself high" was used which sounded great. I'm not sure about the rest of the set but I think GYH was followed buy Music: response which lead with a new break to Block rockin' beats. Then it was a "medley" of Leave home, Song to the siren and Voodoo people (dust brothers remix). Then the tempo was brought down and the fist in the face appeared on the big screen. Galvanize started featuring airplanes on the big projection screen. This track also got a huge response from the crowd. Then came The big jump which sound great live and that was followed by that other live favourite Come inside. Now there was a woman mouth on the screen sing the words: "would you like to come in now, would you like to come inside". At this time Ed come to the front of the stage putting his arms out while Tom was busy building up the track. It happened a couple of times that Ed came to the front of the stage while Tom was buzzing up the crowd screaming come on from behind the mixing desk. It's a shame the Amsterdam crowd didn't respond that much on those encouragements. After CI it was Under the influence and It doesn't matter which featured toy robots as a visual blue with UTI and red with IDM. Then came Out of control which had a huge crowd response, and that lead into Star guitar/Temptation. It was pretty cool that this medley started with the bells from SG. The song ended with the vocals and then a short intermission and then on with the show with Surface to air. Awesome to hear this track live. The build up in that record is unbelievable. Then came Hoops/EBW6 which had the beats form New orders "Blue monday" in the beginning. And the there it was. It started with a little mistake, they started the beat to early and cut them away. Believe!!! Super with a stroboscopic church on the screen, this track blowed me off the dancefloor. Heavy beats and directly those high pitched bleeps where used. Also you could hear Kele's lyrics in the beginning. Then came Acid children/EBW7 which works better live then on record. On the screen was a clown faced man saying "you are all my children now". Then it was The golden path. This track works surprisingly well live. It ended with the vocals and flowed into the outro breaks of Elektrobank. The brothers thanked the crowd and left the stage leaving was a looping bassline. The got a good aplauss but not many hard cheering. Wasn't the crowd up for an encore?? After more then 5 minutes they returned for the encore and started playing The boxer?? I didn't expect to hear this track live but I worked very well. It had all the vocals in it. And then the show ended with The private psychedelic reel. This track is absolutely great live. The visuals we're a Jesus figure, the clown face and the eyes ending with Love is all. It was 5 minutes to 11 when the show ended. Great show but a pretty tame audience. After the show I talked with my friends about the Chems bring on a vocalist the next time. One friend suggested Rudeboy (former Urban dance squad, former Junkie XL). When we left the venue there he was: Rudeboy!!! We had a little chat with him which was a great ending of a great night. Next stop Cologne.



I arrived saturday with another friend at Palladium at 20.30 or something. It holds 4000 people and was sold out. The difference with HMH is that that is a wide venue while Paladium is a long venue. It was completely packed when we entered. Also we thought. When we walked around the crowd we could all the way up to the front off the stage where we met up with The Boy With The Golden Eyes. The stage was all ready for the Chems and DJ James was playing at the DJ booth above in a VIP ring. Boy told me about the last time he was there Tom and Ed joined the DJ there. And he wasn't even ready with his story, there they were. Tom and Ed joining the DJ. Great moment. Not many people seem to notice them. Again at nine o'clock it started. Just before that a nice sweet girl noticed me talking Dutch to my friend and we started talking in Dutch about the Chems. She was half German, half Dutch. Always nice to meet international people at a gig. (If you read this send me a PM ;-) ). This night I brought pen and paper to get the actual setlist. After the Tomorrow never knows intro it's of with Hey boy hey girl and the crowd is going wild!!!! Everybody's jumping and screaming. This crowd is much more into it then in Amsterdam. This was followed by Get yourself high. Then came The big jump. I know I didn't remember the Amsterdam set that well but I'm sure TBJ came later. Nice surprise. Then came Galvanize and the crowd went bonckers again!! Great!! Then it was Music: response, the new break, Block rockin' beats, Leave home/song to the siren/Voodoo people (dust brothers remix) medley, Come inside, Under the influence, It doesn't matter and Out of control. All this time the crowd kept on jumping and screaming and dancing. There was even a mosh pit at a certain moment. You could see the brothers buzzing more on the crowd and back. Because the stage is much smaller then in Amsterdam the interaction with the crowd was much better which gave a better show. Again the Star guitar bells led to Temptation/Star guitar which gave us are well diserved resting point. Surface to air started of the second part of the show. They gave the track a more bass build up then in Amsterdam. This is such a beautifull track to hear live. It made me realize that the Chems not only makes good dance music for a live show but also just beautifull music to listen to at a live show. Now the turned up the tempo to Hoops/EBW6 with the Blue monday beats. Several New order fans who stood nearby already went nuts when Temptation came on but those blue monday beats made them go completely beserk!! And then, without the mistake they made in Amsterdam, Believe. This track kicks in with the climax. On the album the best part, the climax, comes after a couple of minutes after the resting point. Live it's that climax moment all the way. Tom and Ed really pushing the record to it's fullests. This is followed by Acid children/EBW7, The golden path and the Elektrobank outro. All through the show Ed came from behind the equipment to the front of the stage and aplauding to the crowd and waving to the Boy with the Golden Eyes and his girlfriend. COOL!! (why did you do that Ed??). The brothers leave the stage after bowing to the crowd, giving each other a good hug. The bass loop is on again. The crowd keeps cheering and screaming "Zugabe!!" Now we deserve an encore and after a couple of minutes the brothers return. The started playing a beat and I regonize it as Hold tight London. Wow a different encore then Amsterdam. There is a bit of the vocal but it sounds very different from the album version. I love the album version but live it didn't seem to work that well in my opinion. Then again The private psychedelic reel. So loud, so heavy, just the way I like it. That track after so many years seem to keep on working live, it's unbelievable. After almost 2 hours the brothers leave the stage, lights go on and the stage is immediatly being dismanteld. We want to get a drink after the show but we are driven out of the venue like we were caddle. We drunk our drinks and left to get the subway back to the city. This was an awesome show.



I had a great LONG weekend. The show in Cologne was much better. Thanks to the Cologne crowd but also the stage and therefor the Chems were much closer to the crowd. My favourites have to be Surface to air and Believe. The visuals were the same on both shows. I'm a 100% sure about the Cologne set list, I don't know about the Amsterdam set list but I think there were a few changes in the order in which they played the tunes. I think or I hope in the future we will see a different Chemical Brothers show. I think they should bring Beth Orton and Tim Burgess along to sing some live tracks aswell. Because tonight I realized no matter how heavy or hard or good dance tracks they make, they specialize in making just beautifull music.

Now I have to save money because I'm going back to Germany in April to see the Prodigy play live in Berlin and after that I'm off to Pinkpop were the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy will be playing live again.

Thanks for the review and setlists! All reviews should be as complete as yours :D

I'm glad they played Hold Tight London, and The Boxer too! The sets are similar to last year's but longer--- they dropped Setting Sun and Got Glint but added Believe, Big Jump, Galvanize and a random Push the button track on the encore.

8)



Very nice, Joslyn!!

brilliant reviews, a great effort. I hope i here all the tracks you herd. So call there playing the boxer and hold tight london!

Respect, joslyn - a great review. exactly, that was it. probably the best thing we've ever seen live (at least cologne). really loved reading that review and will print it out to keep next to all my chemical brothers stuff - that is really worth it.



by the way, my girlfriend and me are thinking of seeing tom and ed at pinkpop. as may 15th is my birthday (and i am pretty sure they're gonna play from about 0.30 to 2.30 in the morning) that might be a good idea. we'll have to check out prices.



it was very good meating you. you're a real "brother" :D



take care and thank you again!

I'm so tempted to read it and find out the tracklist, but I'm a surprises kind of guy when it comes to emotional impact.

That's why I said I put in the setlist with the topic name. If you want to be surprised don't read my review. Read it when you have been to a show :D

great review, jo!

im happy that they had a good show in cologne, my hometown..and i hope they feel as good about it as you do and will come back sometime.



boy with the golden eyes, im jealous! why did he wave at you?! :D

so, im assuming you were like first row? when did you get there? did you here the soundcheck?



did ed or tom say something to the crowd? (i wouldnt think so, but...whatever)...



cheers

Cool reviews :)

The show in Paris was similar to the Cologne gig, everything you described happened in Paris too. But I thought the French audience wasn't responding much.. :? I was standing at the back of the pit and people were not jumping that much.. And the people around even seemed ANNOYED by my neverending jumps.. Damn.. People should stay at home when they can't appreciate a good show 8)

nice reviews. i am really looking forward to brixton!! i am really hoping they play the boxer at the academy

jcm Escribi�:

boy with the golden eyes, im jealous! why did he wave at you?! :D

so, im assuming you were like first row? when did you get there? did you here the soundcheck?



did ed or tom say something to the crowd? (i wouldnt think so, but...whatever)...



cheers

well, tom was shouting at the crowd for several times but impossible to understand him ;-)

i don't know why they were waving at me. at first it happened at star guitar, i gave applause when the voice sample came in and tom seemed to recognize and waved at my direction for a sec. at the end of star guitar ed came in front and waved to us, there was a lot of fog and i just thought "omg, he's saying hello to us, how cool is this?" (i suppose, it is the best thing that can happen to a real hardcore fan :D ). he did again another 4 times, almost every time he came near to the audience. that was quite surprising. probably he might have recognized me again from earlier gigs as i am usually 1st row and there ain't too many people being more than 2 meters tall. might have been because of my old DYOH shirt (with PTB badge on) or as i've been dancin' like a fury, as well. dunno. was just great.

my girlfriend and me we arrived by 10 to 5 or so, quite early but a little late for soundcheck (back in 2002 the soundcheck was by 4), we've only heard some last bass tests (incl. EBW7) - from opposite, where cradle of filth ( :x ) performed the same evening, hundreds of gothic people were screaming and a real terrible soundcheck was coming over. weather was shite, cold and snow. but it's all been worth it. unbelievable...

hope to see you next time in cologne, jcm - do you have the chance of seeing them in the US?

ah - ed might as well have waved in our direction as he reads this forum and probably knew that there were forum members in cologne. he probably just recognized me from my discription as joslyn did as well ;-)

Hey Joslyn , thnx for the great revieuw and the setlist !! My brother said "They ended with that one beautifull new song !!!"so i thought they closed with Surface to air , but they ended with TPPR!! Shit , still wish i was there.....:( anyway , MAYBE IN MAY !!! I'll be on the front row ;)

sneakerbeater Escribi�:

nice reviews. i am really looking forward to brixton!! i am really hoping they play the boxer at the academy

will you be taking a camera sneaker and putting them on here. I really liked the wolves photos that i think you did. I took some but they didnt come out very well!

my camera goes everywhere!! i know that cameras are banned at brixton, but as long as you dont have a proffessional camera i think they dont mind too much. now can i get through 1Gb of pictures that weekend?? i'll give it a go

Golden Boy

i wont see them in the US - im stuck in ohio...but 100 percent next time in cologne or area...hope we will see us there!!!

jcm Escribi�:

Golden Boy

i wont see them in the US - im stuck in ohio...but 100 percent next time in cologne or area...hope we will see us there!!!

in case i am in germany at that time i will be there! definitely

super!

i will contact you ;)