So yes, I love music! I have two Mp3 players who are both full, which is about 12 gigs of music and I always have them with me. At least one of them; so I am always listening to music one way or another. But I absolutely love festivals and concerts. A while ago at a forum we where discussing music and who we had seen live. And writing down the list I was amazed, I knew I had seen a lot but I had no idea it was this much;I just love concerts and festivals and at a festival I see about 20 bands of the 30 something that are playing. Here are some of them;

Linkin Park
Muse (2x)
Korn
Skin ( Skunk Anansie ) (2 x)
Nickelback
Evanescence
Within Temptation (2x)
30 Seconds to Mars
Faithless (2x)
Golden Earring
Lenny Kravitz
Kane ( Dutch band, not Keane )
Kaiser Chiefs
Hooverphonic
The Zutons
Keane
Franz Ferdinand
The Nightwatchman
Snowpatrol
Razorlight
Macy Gray
The Fratellis
Smashing Pumpkins
Krezip
Jewel
Nelly Furtado
Marrilion
Status Quo
Scissor Sisters
Maria Mena (3x)
Heather Nova (2x)
The Corrs (2x)
Blöf

And that is still not everything that I have seen … yes the list goes on and on. And that is probably only half of what I have seen.

And the absolute topper in my list, of course Alpine.com, which is a website about hearing protection and from this company you can buy earplugs especially designed for ‘concerts/loud music/parties’, this type of earplug is called a ‘PartyPlug’. And they sell them for a reasonable price. I bought them for 15 euros which is a low price if it protects your ears from permanent damage.

So I went to my first concert with the earplugs in and to be honest I was really surprised. I could hear the music better actually, but it drowns out the sound of people yelling around you and clapping. That was kind of strange because at the same time if you have them in your ears and someone says something to you, you can hear them. And when I stepped outside and removed them I had no annoying beep or a ‘deaf’ sound in my ears which I usually always have for hours. From what I have heard each time you hear that sound it means that your ear has sustained permanent damage and that there is a point where the beep doesn’t fade away anymore.

These ‘PartyPlugs’ are comfortable to wear, they stay in place and easy to clean. When you threat them properly you can use them for 4 years.

And this is also a product which is used by the professionals, for instance some Dj’s are known for using them and the crew of Idols are also using them. You can read reviews on the Dutch Idols on this page as well. Chantal writes them every week, check them out.

Anyway it was a really positive experience, and I can recommend it to anyone.

Source:
Alpine.com
Beth Hart – Concert review
Idols 2008 – The reviews

Beth Hart, every time I see that woman she knows how to amaze me. And believe me when I say that I have seen her in many different circumstances; fourteen or fifteen concerts from small venues to a festival. Yes, I am one of those people who is proud to say that I am a ‘Die Hart Fan’. This time I did not bring my camera; I just wanted to be there enjoy her music and see the show. And what a show it was!

She is gifted with a huge voice, an amazing talent for putting words on a paper and she is funny; she always says that she talks too much during the shows, but that is one of the things I love about her and I hope she never stops doing that. She is a funny lady, and I love the way that she talks about her songs and her husband Scott, who is at some part of the show, always the center of attention. She can’t stop telling us how sweet and romantic he is, and then always ending that story with telling us how she likes it rough. Thank you for the mental images.

I have to say that Beth looked awesome; she looked really healthy. Even though she was still having some voice problems. But it is Beth we are talking about, the woman who will always give more then 100% at a show. Unfortunately the voice problems are worse then she probably thought and wanted us to hear; she canceled three shows: one last week and two other shows.

Beth Hart pulled a ‘Dixie Chick’, for all of you music lovers out there I am pretty sure that you know what I mean by that. Let’s put it like this, I won’t say what she said exactly but she told us what her opinion was on a certain subject. It surely got a good response from the crowd.

The songs

The show was a good mix between old and new songs, which also showed who where the new fans and who where the fans from the first hour. The only songs I didn’t know where ‘Sauce’ and ‘Catalina’, which have never been recorded before.

Set list:
Face Forward Son
Easy
Lifts You Up
Bottle Of Jesus
Learning To Live
G.O.P.
Say My Name
L.A. Song
Jealousy
Monkey Back
Sick
Sauce
One Eyed Chicken
Leave The Light On
Good As It Gets

Encore:
Stinky Feet
By Her
Soulshine
Broken & Ugly
Catalina

Well of course she did my favorite songs, okay I know that I love most of her songs. But my absolute favorites where on that set list. She did ‘Easy’ as the second song that evening, I love that song.

She told the story behind ‘Jealousy’; saying that she wrote it because she is jealous when Scott looks at other women. She told a story about a park, where she and Scott were and where she got so frantic when she saw him look in a different direction and asked him who he was looking at. Later that day she went back and drove around the park for hours to see who he could have been checking out. She wrote that song a couple of years ago when she was just married. It is about her own insecurities and how they make her jealous.

‘Stinky feet’ that is the song that she always uses to tell people that she loves her husband but that he should really wash his feet. She kind of asked him if it was okay for her to tell the story, he stepped up to the mic and asked the audio people kindly to kill her mic. Which they didn’t and Beth told the story and played the song. At the end of the song Scott came back onto the stage minus one of his shoes and held his sock up to her face. Which was pretty funny of course, right back at ya Beth.

She broke a guitar string during ‘By her’, she finished the song with one less guitar string and then they ran off with the guitar to fix it for her. They brought it back onto the stage fixed and all.

She added ‘Soulshine’ in the encore, which made me really happy; that is also one of my favorites from the ‘37 days’ album.

And of course she did an old favorite of the crowd, ‘Broken and Ugly’, everyone always loves that song. The crowd goes crazy every time she plays it.

Although I would have loved to hear every song of the ‘37 days’ album, I personally was glad to see a mix between new and old songs and even some songs that have never been recorded. Beth was awesome, what more can a fan ask for.

Support act

Normally I don’t tell much about the support acts, truth be told usually I don’t even know who the hell was on the stage before Beth. But this girl has to be mentioned.

Her name is Wies, she is a Dutch girl, and check out her website if you would like to know more about her you can also listen to some of her songs on her MySpace. Her first CD comes out in January 2008 and I definitely interested to hear more of her songs.

There has never been a support act that I loved as much as this woman; she is talented, cute and well beautiful. And yes I am aware that you probably expected that comment from me seeing how she looks kind of like a mix between Maria Mena, Katie Melua and Norah Jones and has an awesome voice.

Source:
BethHart.com
BethHartMusic.com
Beth Hart’s MySpace
Wies