Tag: concert

A week of Wows

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Despite the job hunting going like wading through ever in thickness increasing mud, I had a week of wows. I witnessed beautiful things that really made me stop and say “Wow”.

Dan and Hugh


The first WOW was Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, Thursday a week ago exactly. I already wrote about that here, so I will spare you any further remarks. Clearly they have the wow factor. For obvious reasons.

Tim Burton Exhibition – Moma, New York


On Monday I visited the Tim Burton exhibitions in the museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York. It was great. I am a big fan of Tim Burton’s film work and have seen most of his films. He has a very distinctive style and the exhibition showed a lot of film props from his films, models, drawings and paintings by Tim Burton. It was great to see some of the models used in stop motion productions (The Nightmare of Christmas, The Corpse Bride). Sketches of what the hands of Edward Scissorhands should look like and more. It is amazing what a creative and weird brain this man has. Very enjoyable and wow if you are a fan.

My favourite Tim Burton films: Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands. I also quite liked Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and can’t wait for his take on Alice in Wonderland (the trailer with Johnny Depp looks amazing).

You can read more about the Tim Burton exhibition here, and also have a look at some videos. The photo above is the only photo we were allowed to take, a Tim Burton designed inflatable in the entrance area of the museum.

Do you like Tim Burton’s work and what are your favourite Burton films?

Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall

And yesterday there was Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall. I admit that I was quite late in discovering Snow Patrol but better late than never. The Royal Albert Hall is a fantastic place for concerts and Snow Patrol made good use of the hall’s possibilities. They even used the amazingly huge Albert Hall organ in one of their songs. They had a lot of musicians with them on stage (I counted 15 people at some point!), strikers, a horns sections, a harpist, and lots more and also had an amazing light show.

They played most of the songs from their latest Up to Now – The Best Of album. The first half was dedicated to the more quiet numbers (Run played with the violinists made me cry, as did the thousands of people singing along to it, fantastic atmosphere). And the second half was more rock ‘n roll and people got out of their comfy seats. It was an amazing experience.

The concerts are filmed for a later to be published Live DVD.

Some of my favourite Snow Patrol songs:

And some others:
Chasing Cars
Run
Take Back the City

Do you know Snow Patrol and what are your favourites?

Oh and a final Wow !! for all those people who have signed up for the non-xmas-card thingy. You can still signup if you haven’t done so and I better start drawing soon!

Sondre Lerche in London

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Sondre Lerche in The Slaughtered Lamb

I admit that I had my doubts about a concert in a place called The Slaughtered Lamb. Even more when I entered the pub and saw that the concert was in the cellar. In the cellar – come on!

But my doubt completely disappeared when I entered the space, it was cosy and better it was filled with comfortable sofas in all shapes and sizes. I found the perfect place on a comfy leather sofa close to the performing spot, read my newspaper as I was a bit early and suddenly there was Sondre.

It was definitely the definition of less is more, it was just him and his guitar but he played for ten. If there is one comment to make about this concert it must be that he dis not play “To be surprised”. Surprisingly enough. On the other hand – he gave such a kick ass performance of Two Way Monologue that I quickly forgave him.

He plays the Royal Albert Hall tonight, a place that could not be more apart from the Slaughtered Lamb cellar, but I am sure he will be entertaining there as well. If you ever get the chance to see him, please do, he is adorable. And a great guitar player with a lot of boyish charm.

To be Surprised is here.
More Sondre Lerche on his website.

Two days in Paris

thegirlinthecafe 19 Comments

TV-2 in Paris

How to be impulsive and try something new in six easy steps:

  1. Read on facebook (and yes I want to be your friend too – I am known as Ingrid M van Vliet, the M standing for mad) that TV-2 (danish band extraordinaire) is playing a concert in Paris.
  2. Admit that taking the Eurostar train from London to Paris has long been on your todo list and that this might be a perfect reason to book it, like, now.
  3. Book a ticket for the TV-2 concert in ELYSEE-MONTMARTRE, Paris.
  4. Book your Eurostar ticket and realise that it is only 2 hours and 20 minutes from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord by train! Make sure to reserve a window seat.
  5. Visit tripadvisor.com, search for “cheap hotel Gare du Nord, Paris”, read reviews from other travellers, pick a hotel and book it. Realise after you booked it that the hotel is located on Rue de saint Quentin which put a smile on your face.
  6. Start looking forward to the trip and promise yourself to do things like this more often.

Voici, c’est simple!

Bring on the night

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

The Police and full supporting Bill

In September 2007 I saw the Police in Twickenham, with a delay of about 25 years. It was a fantastic concert.

My good friend made me aware of the fact that The Police is playing their final ever gig in Hyde Park on the 29th of June. The very last the Police concert? I did manage to both convince her to come along, and to buy tickets for it so on the 29th of June it will be “Every little thing he does is magic” for the very last time live.

Another reason why we wanted to go is because KT Tunstall plays that day too. As does Starsailor, The Bangles and The Stranglers – seems like we get transferred back to the 80’s all day!

But most of all we want to go because there will be a full supporting Bill. We love Bill, we really do!

(More on Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park, London)

Masoko Tanga

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

Looking back, with my eyes closed, I have had 3 major inspirational influences in my life, which means that inside my head you can find 3 fairly large chunks of information from all three of them.

Steffen Brandt‘s lyrics guided me through life in Denmark and they became the basis of my Danish vocabulary. His philosophy about life – seize the day – live your life before it’s over – live your dreams – has definitely had its effect on my life as well. I think it is safe to say that however sad it was to leave him and his music behind in Denmark he more or less pushed me to London as I could see I had to live my dreams. I still listen to their music often but there now is a distance to the language which no longer feels that natural anymore.

Not surprisingly Bill Nighy is the second one, still very much present. If Steffen Brandt pushed me too London, he was metaphorically standing at the other side of the water pulling me over. If my Danish consists of quotes from TV-2 songs, my English is filled with all possible quotes from films he has been in. He made me realize how cool Brits really were, how I loved the English language, he gave acting a whole new meaning and became the force to get me to give screen writing a go in the first place. Not bad.

The third one however goes quite a bit longer back.
Read More

Tina Dickow – Dingwalls, Camden

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

Drawing with Light
Drawing with lights in Dingwalls : Love Actually in Lights

It was about half a year ago I last saw her, in Dingwalls in Camden. At that time I had just arrived in London. Now 6 months later, Camden is a place I know relatively well, and I am no longer that intimidated by the “Do you want skunk” question. I rushed there right after work, needed something to eat and decided to give the happy hour ?2 Chinese shop a go. I hoped my stomach would be happy for more than an hour with this, and I didn’t want to know how long this food had been simmering, probably all day. A large coke in Dingwalls takes care of most of the possible stomach disturbers. Tina Dickow is magical, her songs still seem to hit something as I found myself crying more than once during the concert.
It was a good night.

Here is a bit for you to hear

(limited availability – you’re too late …)
She is touring the UK at the moment, highly recommended.

One
One touch can fill a life of longing
Not much is so much more than nothing
Yeah – All you need is
One
An open smile to win you over
One single step will bring you closer
Yeah – All it takes is one

And when you?re running for cover
And you feel the sky falling down upon you
And when it feels like forever
Since you?ve seen the face of someone who loves you

Then one is all that you need
All that you need to keep you warm
Is all that you need
All that you need to move you on
It?s all that you need
All you need is

One