Night of the Unexpected

The Paradiso, in Amsterdam, has got to be the best music venue I've ever been in. It's an old church, a big one, converted by an arts group, apparently, into a giant arts and music hall, largely known nowadays for rock shows. Last time here I struck out getting in to see Kings of Leon, but this time I was luckier.

Thursday was the Night of the Unexpected, whose headliner was Four Tet, the electronic artist responsible for some of the best remixes around and a body of his own work that I've recently been turned onto, which is fantastic as well. So, partly just to see the place, and partly because I was curious about how a guy with some laptops would convert to the live setting, I recruited John McPoland, an Irish resident of Amsterdam who I met in Austin and have seen here since, and Chicago Tom, of Madison, WI, and Pierre, Londoner who lives in Amsterdam, to escort me to the hall. They were all more than game, and a brief bike ride brought us to the venue.

It was amazing. There was something going on in every room from the basement to the upper floors, rooms and halls and staircases everywhere, people milling about all over, just an incredible scene. A lone laptopper making gorgeous squalls of noise in the basement cafeteria, in the main room, the first time through, drums standing upright and twelve feet across being pounded on by black clothed players in time with the drums across the chasm of space between the church walls, a four-piece instrumental act doing hard drummed ambient sounds up on the third floor, a horn section holding down a landing on a staircase, in the main room, the second time through, a 40 or so member vocal choir, singing what sounded more like sounds than words, very low and spooky, really beautiul. And there was more than that, but we headed for the main room to make sure we caught Four Tet'sstart.

We arrived to four guys with laptops facing the audience from the main stage. They were sending sheets of sound and feedback into the crowd in what seemed like a prolonged show-ending crescendo, but Pierre said it was Four Tet. After the noise ended, though, it appeared through the dark and the smoke that they were packing up. But the noise continued, and soon it became beat-driven, and suddenly in the middle of the main floor a stage lit up red and it was manned--and a lone skinny guy with a big bush of curly black hair started rocking over a console, churning out the familiar opening to the new album,"an intense track called "Joy."

The crowd exploded. The beat kicked in, and the dude just had everyone rapt. I haven't seen too many electronica shows, but this was far more engaging than I'd have expected. Maybe it was the venue or the mood or the whole deal of being here in Amsterdam seeing a show like this surrounded by these people, but the whole set was just mind-blowing. He played lots off his new record, and I have to say I'm very glad I've been listening to his stuff a lot lately because being familiar with it changed everything. I could hear when he'd introduce a sound element minutes before he got to that actual song, and it all fit together so beautifully that I could just imagine some old free-jazzer seeing this and being just blown away.

So, my first foray into The Paradiso was a complete success. It'll be Wilco on Monday, which I'm very, very, very excited for.