Flanders Expo
Gent, Belgium, June 18, 2001
|
<prev<
>next>
Show Reviews |
Europe 2001 |
Updated: . Bookmark: http://HyperRust.org/Tour2001/?R21 |
|---|
Bregt The Belgian Bad Boy of Rock Depreeuw's review.
(more reviews coming)
The show details.
Just crawled out of bed after getting in pretty late last night. But although it has been a short night, I slept like a rose.
Saw Neil and The Horse last night in Gent... What can I say? And when it was over it felt like a dream? It was just fuckin' unbelievable...
Neil and the band were in an extremely good mood... Poncho, Frank and Billy kept on exchanging smiles and acting like little children on a playground... The sound was excellent, the set was great, Neil in a great mood... What more can you wish for? Nothing!
This was perfect, just absolutely fuckin' perfect... I know now that I'll never see a better show in my life... I'm so happy that I finally saw Neil from a short distance and with lots of Rusties around me...
I still remember that in my very first post to Rust I asked when Neil was coming to Belgium. At the time I really wanted to see him again after 'seeing' (I was way too far from the stage to actually 'see' him) the man in '96 at Torhout... And now finally, after 5 long years it happened... I saw Neil from the third row and I really felt part of the 'vibe'...
Just after the concert I thought: well now I can die a happy man, even if I never go to a concert again. I wouldn't mind -- after all, I saw 'the concert'... From now on no more nagging "when is Neil coming to Europe." I would like him to come back in a year or two, but I wouldn't mind if he didn't. I've actually 'seen' him now. I'm happy...
I won't be going to any other concerts on this tour, because of the exams and the cost of buying tickets and travellin. But that's okay, because I want to keep this perfect memory. After the great gig of yesterday I feel kinda saturated...
Let just tell me some details about the show and the RustFest...
When I arrived at the hall around 3.30 pm, I immediately found a small gang of Belgian Rusties there. We went to the back of the hall to see if they were unloading the trucks already. They were, but we didn't see Neil. We did see Larry Cragg coming out of the building... When I saw him I suddenly realized it: this was going to be real...
Some time later we went to the lobby of the Holiday Inn next to the hall... Some other Rusties were there already... The RustFest took off. I guess there were about 30 rusties: Dirk, Bob, Erik, Steven, Herman, Piet, Rudy, Wim and a whole buch of other Belgian Rusties... There was Richard from the UK - but residing in Belgium... Joost, Luus and others from The Netherlands... And there were a few Americans: Pauline and husband, Julia, Mike 'Lost Dog' (BTW Mrs Lost Dog, Mike asked me to tell you that he's still alive and well). And I'm forgetting a whole lot of others. We talked, shared memories, Luus had some free Neil pics for everyone... We even had a guitar which was played a lot in the middle of the fancy Holiday Inn lobby... I kept wondering when the manager was going to throw us dirty hippies out... Oh and BTW, something you might like to know - Mike told me that I don't look like a bad boy at all... Maybe that is because I'm a Bad Boy from the Belgian species...
Around 6.30 pm we went to the hall... Got in rather easy, found a great spot on the 4th row right in front of the middle of the stage. The stage looked very interesting: Big set of drums with Belgian flag and pirate flag, the big Indian (that lit up once during the gig), a very crummy looking piano, the famous organ, some typical candles, and a bird-shaped piano holder hanging in the air (Spinal Tap!).
Then after a very long and tiring wait the warm-up came on stage. The warm-up in Gent was Novastar, a great Belgian band... The guys were very honoured to be in Neil's pre-show... Their small hit song The Best Is Yet To Come seemed very suitable now, according to the singer...
After another long wait (ouch my legs and back), Larry came up with Old Black... When I saw that guitar I felt a strange buzz... This is the guitar Neil played all the great songs on... And then Neil finally came up... I just couldn't believe it... After about 9 years of being a fan, I finally saw the man right in front of me, a few steps away... For the ladies of Rust: he was wearing a white cowboy-hat (gotta hide that bald spot ;-), a paired of jeans that was ripped where the right knee is, a black t-shirt, a blue lumberjack shirt and sneakers...
From here on it was just magical... Right from the first song (Don't Cry No Tears) up to the last one (Cortez) it was just unbelievable... The guys were playing like I've never seen them... My personal highlights were:
As usual Neil didn't say much between songs... And I'm glad he didn't, because that would have broken the stream of songs. We got the Bush reference, and a very nice "How Ya Doin' There?" I don't know if I remember correctly, but he said something about the audience looking great.
When the last notes of Cortez were coming out of the speakers, I thought - this is were it has to end. If he doesn't stop now the whole gig will be ruined. And he did stop... I think he played for 2 and a half hours, so we got our money's worth...
Conclusion: Great show, probably the best gig I'll ever see... And now I'm going to bed for another hour, and then: 'Let the studying begin (again ;-)...
And don't forget to: Keep on Rockin'
Bregt Depreeuw aka The Belgian Bad Boy of Rock